August 25, 2024 • 33 mins
Mohit Mishra, Co-founder & CEO of talks about how Automicle brings the the world’s mobility together into one open network. He takes us back to his inspiration, his life as a CEO, his support system and what to expect from Automicle.
With over 4 billion people - half of the world’s population - living in metropolitan areas, urban mobility is becoming a major challenge. Navigating cities leave alone unfamiliar ones can be a daunting task, made even more complex by the multitude of transportation options available. From language barriers and payment headaches to the inconvenience of downloading multiple apps, travelers often face significant challenges in their urban journeys.
Automicle tackles these pain points by providing a unified platform that simplifies local mobility. With Automicle, developers and enterprises can build apps that allow travelers to easily book train tickets, rent cars, and unlock scooters, all within a single app. By eliminating the need for multiple downloads and streamlining the booking process, Automicle offers a seamless and efficient travel experience.
With over 4 billion people - half of the world’s population - living in metropolitan areas, urban mobility is becoming a major challenge. Navigating cities leave alone unfamiliar ones can be a daunting task, made even more complex by the multitude of transportation options available. From language barriers and payment headaches to the inconvenience of downloading multiple apps, travelers often face significant challenges in their urban journeys.
Automicle tackles these pain points by providing a unified platform that simplifies local mobility. With Automicle, developers and enterprises can build apps that allow travelers to easily book train tickets, rent cars, and unlock scooters, all within a single app. By eliminating the need for multiple downloads and streamlining the booking process, Automicle offers a seamless and efficient travel experience.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
All right, welcome everyone to a brand new episode or startups,
they'll say, and we have here Moheit Mishra, So welcome
to the show. Why don't you kick it off by
telling us a bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yes, thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
My background has been particularly in mobility and transportation, but
that did not start off as I planned to. I
graduated with a major in computer science and engineering from
my DBHU back in twenty fifteen, and then I was
hired by a US company, but that h one we
never worked out, and I ended up. Life would take
me to Europe in a very weird fashion. That would
(00:53):
be that a friend of mine and I we were
on a Europe trip. We helped another friend who asked
for some help, and when we came back and he said, hey,
I got some corporate funding.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Would you like to join back? And we said, hey,
let's join you.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So that's how I ended up in the Netherlands, which
was a completely unplanned way to start off in the
mobility space. And since then I've been working entirely in
the mobility space, which the career started off as a
tech lead at this particular Dutch startup building connected connected
cars applications and then connected fleet maintenance products, then mass.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Products, which is mobility of service.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
How do you integrate all modes of mobility into one interface.
And then moving on to being an entrepreneurial residence at
the inaugural Antler Cohorte.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
In the Netherlands. That was back in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
It didn't work out as I had planned, but I
was just a twenty six year old guide, nothing to
lose at all, and that kick started another set of journey.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Moved on to another Dutch.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Startup as a CTO, which was about organizational behavior change.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
How do you change the behavior of employees to travel.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
To their work by other modes of transportation not by
the personal car.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
So that was a.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Great learning combining human behavior, science, human and then together
with technology and then having multi stakeholder management involved.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So that was quite an insightful journey in the process.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
By late twenty twenty, I gave up my car to
completely depend on public mobility, and that meant that I
had to install a number of applications. The good side
was my carbon emissions dropped from one to fifty grams
per kilometer to less than five grams per kilometer, but
that was not so easy because it came with installing
(02:40):
multiple apps, juggling between multiple systems, going around different countries
with different languages.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
So that was a bit of a chaos in my life.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
But that also meant an opportunity in the sense that
I started to toyron. Okay, why is that these disconnected
mobilit ecosystems so different? I mean, you could be in Gmail,
I could be on Yahoo, but we don't have an
aggregator in between that connects.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
To both of us. We just talk.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So can this be done to mobility? And that was
the genesis how we started Atomical. It started off as
a research problem and then I asked my co founders, hey,
this is what I've been towing around, and they joined
joined the venture, and that's how we started off. So
that's been a bit about me, my background and my journey.
(03:28):
And if you don't see me working, then you'll find
me either reading books on philosophy or playing my piano,
guitar and flute.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
That's that's me.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Sure you're good at that too, for sure? Right, thank
you for that intro, Anthony. Do you want to kick
off the next Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
So for those who don't know you and I'm what
three months ago, four months ago in Bangalore, and obviously
your journey started in India, and you know, your Europe
trip is probably one of the more unique Europe trips
where you started a company at the end of the
(04:05):
day rather than just going and you know, clicking pictures
and doing other things.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I guess.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
But you also mentioned the whole h one B and
I mean all this happened by chance or you know,
life took you in a certain direction, right, So can
you tell us a little bit about when the whole
entrepreneurial bug hit you versus because I mean, you had
other plans, like you said yourself, right, I mean, and
(04:34):
what's it like to be a CEO? And would you
do anything different right right now now that you've been
in a startup, been on this journey, talk to us
a little bit about just being a CEO of a startup.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yes, that's a big question.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, I think the entrepreneur bug literally kicked in when
this antler co Hoed was just pickening up. There was
I learned about it or I said, well, there's nothing.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
To lose here.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I was pretty young, I'm still young, but and the
thought came in, hey, there's nothing to lose here. I'm
just here to gain everything simply because I did not
do any startup as such before. I was more of
a developer. I was coming from a technical background. It
would be great to be amongst a group of you know,
(05:23):
you know, in a group of really smart folks, more
way more experienced than.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I was, and to learn from them.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So that's how I applied to Antler, and then we
had went through some rounds of interviews and it got selected.
So that was a that was the bug that bit
me back then. Uh, it meant that it did not
it did not translate into a startup right away, but
it did kick me off into a direction that.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Meant more more focused.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
As I was doing mobility, then it got more focused
into mobility than as part of that Antler group I
was already I met a number of people to bounce
back ideas. So it helped me to grow from a
developer into more combining technology and business together. So that
was a quite a good let me put it this way,
(06:14):
MBA in a crash course. So that and then now
when I started with this atomical I'm still learning a lot,
especially from my mentors, from my investors, from my advisors,
there's much to learn. So the way I look at
this as a journey, as a CEO, in my journey,
it looks to me that I am flying a plane
(06:36):
and there are advices around me who are at flight
control places who are helping me find that direction go
so that I don't crash the plane. That's that is
how I would like to put this journey.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Right now, that's a great analogy. I was going to
say it's more like NASA's launch center in Houston, but
I mean, you know, the flight works as well. So
so I think for those of people who don't know
about atomical mohit, let's go back a little bit, right,
(07:13):
I think it's important to talk about I think the
problem is clear. I think both Ridy and I would
agree that instead of opening five different apps, let's say,
for example, I mean I live in the Bay Area. Yeah,
if I want to go to say Peer thirty nine
in downtown San Francisco from where I live, I probably
(07:34):
have to and have to use public transportation. I have
to probably change five different times to get to my
final destination, and five different apps to get to my
final destination. Right, So you're trying to overcome that by
making it seamless simply put right, I mean saying one app,
why can't it all talk to each other. Let's say,
(07:54):
for example, WhatsApp is my favorite messaging app. You know,
I could go in, I could quest for something. I mean,
everything is seamless. I'm probably condensing the whole thing. I mean,
you're probably going to touch on that. So who is
Atomical aimed at. Is it the developer ecosystem? Is it businesses?
Maybe touch on that a little bit so that people
(08:16):
know what to look for through Atomical, and then we'll
probably double click on that go it.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So, as such, Atomical offers a platform as a service
for cities, businesses, and developers so that they can integrate
with different mobility services and they can offer mobility as
a feature or mobility as a service, or add ons
to their own end users well as While that is
a solution that we provide, the problem is a little
(08:46):
bit more nuanced if you look at it. It's not
just different applications that you will have to merge together
in order to get from point A to point B.
But think about this way. In the next ten to
fifty fifteen years, we're going to have two and three
people living in cities. That means it translates to the
(09:07):
mobility demand tripling, which effectively means with situation as it is,
it means more cars on the road. But cities don't
grow as quick as we are growing in the cities,
and they're struggling to bring these mobidity services together so
that they can cater to the needs of their own
residents as well as tourists coming in and going out.
(09:30):
Cities naturally struggle with how do we solve this problem
so that it's easier for people living in the cities
of people coming in and out of the cities to
move around. While businesses there are multiple business cases wherein
businesses would like to offer mobility as a service or feature,
(09:50):
not necessarily as a mobility application.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
They could be non transport application as well.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
But they do have business cases, but they simply cannot
do it because there's no easy way to interact with
different mobility operators. And that's exactly where where Atomical comes in.
Despite today's despite the consumer spending on mobility today on
ground transportation today exceeding one trillion dollars, there's literally no
(10:19):
easy way to integrate mobility services into let's say your WhatsApp,
or let's say into Airbnb, or let's say into your
car rental application, or let's say into your.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Booking dot com.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
They always have to struggle with finding the right solutions
of you know, there's no off the shelf solution. There's
no Stripe for mobility available today, and that's exactly what
what a tonical does. So with that explanion, it is
really just as Stripe created. There's digital payments infrastructure for
(10:52):
the Internet. We're creating that digital mobility infrastructure for the Internet.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
That that is good. So hopefully by the time I
get it, hopefully it's a better path, right, I hope, Yeah,
And was it like, you know, thanks for giving that
visual kind of outline of how the solution works for
somebody coming in. I'm assuming it is right now set
up for places where there is a wat of infrastructure.
I'm released out of Los Angeles, our public infrastructure for
(11:20):
especially public transport doesn't offer as many options. But I'm
assuming with Europe, right, it's a good round to get
this going first.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yes, for our developer.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
As a business, you can think about typically when you
go out to integrate with any mobility operator in general,
you would end up having to spend more than about
one forty hours simply in getting from the starting point
of interaction after contract acquisition to actually deploying the solution
(11:53):
with that integration. And this entire process would include getting
the contract, and before even contract you need to know
to knock in the door and say, hey, I'm this
particular company. Can I talk to you? And who is
the right person to talk to? And then you acquire
the contract with all bunch of negotiation calls that you do,
and then you would be ending up with some additional
(12:16):
nuances in that contract. The settlement and reconciliation process would
be involved. Both parties would have to settle on that.
That's not easy. Every party has some different settlement and
reconciliation process. Then you would end up most parties would
ask you operators would ask you for a deposit and
a credit check. Imagine if there is a small little
startup starting to build something very innovative that can really
(12:39):
change the behavior behaviors of people or can improve the
top line of different applications, they simply cannot integrate with them.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They don't have the money. And once this is done,
let's assume that you.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Actually get your business, legal and finance team together.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Then comes to technical integrate, which.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Means you would be provided with some proprietary information and
data to integrate with, often with inadequate API documentation, and
sometimes those documentation don't even exist. And in one I remember,
in one of such integrations we did, we had to
relearn ourselves. We are computer science engeneers, but we had
(13:22):
to relearn ourselves because of technology that was used. We've
never taught in our bachelor program that was as old
as that. And then you have an operator testing you
would have to do, the operator has to sign off,
and then finally.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
You would deploy your solution. So by the.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Time you end up selling the first one dollar ticket,
I think you would end up spending like one hundred
k to just get one dollar ticket. And so that's
the problem here in the entire ecosystem. And imagine and
there are companies already doing that, the big companies, but
all of them are going through that same So there's
an integration's pagery. There's multiple bunch of companies and then
(13:59):
multiple bunch of trans properators they integrate with each other.
So you can imagine there's an integrations Pagattie in between.
How do you standardize these interactions? Just like what is
open banking for the fintech sector, can there be an
open mobility standards for the mobility.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So we have we have such standards coming up, but.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
We have a long way towards, you know, the ideal
state where you could say, hey, now you can integrate
with any mode of transportation and just let's say in
thirty minutes.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Actually I want to ask this then, right, so you
go to your you come back and you tell your
friends and family, actually, I'm going to try and fix
some of the problems I saw with the public transport,
which right now is supposed to be the best out there.
What was the reaction, what was there lines like and
how how did you find that support?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Well, I thought that there would be some people saying no, no,
don't do that, you can be in a stable job.
But my parents will saying go for it. They did
not at all had any question. They said, go for it.
This is your thing. So it was a bit of
a surprise for me that my parents were like the
first champions before any other champion came in to support us.
(15:15):
I think that was I'm humble to have such parents
and lucky to have such parents, I would say. And
then friends came in and said, yeah, this is your thing,
go for it. They knew in a way, they already
knew that I've been toying with some mobility.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I had been in mobid.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
They saw my enthusiasm over the past few years, how
I talk about mobility and all, and how I see
simple little changes, but also building up on those changes,
visualizing how the end world could look like that kind
that also inspired them, And in a way I did
not have to fight them to say, hey, can I
(15:49):
do this?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
They said, well, do this, don't ask.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Us some of it them in terms of atomical I mean,
obviously both Ruthy and I agree it's much much needed
sort of a solution or the next step forward in
our goals for say a cleaner world, you know, like
(16:14):
you said, with carbon emissions and whatnot. I mean, obviously,
the urban mobility in general is becoming a big problem,
you know, like we were talking about Bangalore earlier. Bangalore
is encouraging everyone to take the metro, you know, to
help avoid some of the bigger transportation traffic issues and whatnot.
And then I think, just thinking about what you're saying,
(16:38):
I mean this just doesn't apply to public sector. It
applies to the private sector as well. I mean something
maybe you and I were speaking about, you know, the
number of buses you see in the Bay Area transporting
you know, employees from all nooks and corners of the
Bay Area into the offices in the tech sector. But
still people choose to take their cars into work. You know,
(16:59):
that could be another one. And then just beyond you know,
urban transportation. I mean, nowadays there are electric mobikes and
this and that and everything. I mean, there's so much
more to connect. And then besides that, I think there's
parking solutions as well, which people could use potentially. Right, so,
I think you're barely scratching the surface, right, And speaking
(17:21):
of barely scratching the surface, where are you with the
company right now? Right? I mean, you know, in your journey,
what do you see coming up in the next twelve
to eighteen months, What help would you like from the community.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yes, so at the moment, what we have been doing
is that our solution currently covers the whole of Netherlands,
so that it was a way to prove the hypothesis
that it works. They're having some pilots that we have
done and then recently we won a tender for the
Utherrek province and that is about two to four year
(17:59):
project to work with the province itself, with the municipalities
itself to create a better solution, better open mobility ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And then we are.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Also heading into India for what we have learned in
the Netherlands specifically the Dutch playbook shows us some opportunities
elsewhere in the emerging economies as well as well as
parts of developed world as well.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Specifically with parking.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
If you think about parking, parking is the bridge between
the car economy and other modes of transportation.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
If you're crack.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Parking effectively, you can create that behavior change and that's
exactly what we have been working on in India.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
We it's quite public now.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
We have an MU signed with our cardi Ists that's
a Dutch company, but a global consultancy firm. We are
working together with them with the Making India initiative to
create the mobility infrastructure in India. At the same time,
you well, I wasn't the States and you know part
of it what's happening there.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
We we were at the United Nations Conference last week
and Debbie and I we were at there and you
know Debbie, so we made a bold statement. And next
year we will be there again to present the project
where there's an interoperable mobile ecosystem between Netherlands, Bangalore and
the Bay Area, to show that this is quite possible
(19:27):
to actually connect different ecosystems together and it's not.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So difficult as it looks like to put that all
stack up.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
It is quite possible to do so, and that's what
we have been able to showcase back.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
In the Netherlands.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
As far as our own traction goes, we have some
already customers PIPE customers in the pipeline. We are now
moving towards raising raising a fund round and at the
same time we are doing a number of pilots that
are about to close in some time and that would
open up a whole b of news sales pipeline and
(20:01):
unlock a new pretty long sales pipeline.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I would say more details.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
So speaking of funding, just to be clear for anyone listening, Moheit,
I mean, are you looking to raise funds from individuals
or vcs or who can approach you with any any
investment ideas that they might have for atomical.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I think at the moment we are very much focused
on angels and syndicates and operators to get to a
point where we would be VC packable. The reason that
we do that is simply because, of course, with various
other milestones that we want to achieve and have a
very disciplined way of growing. We don't want to bled
(20:48):
scale right away, but rather have a very disciplined approach
to raising as well as getting revenue getting customers on board.
So at the moment we are really focused on angels,
angel syndicates, operators running. And it could be pre seed
or see v ses, but I think that we might
have some chances, but Europe doesn't work that way, so
(21:10):
we have we have talked about it, so we are
really focused on first revenue and angels.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Great. Who do you read?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I know, So with all of this in the long past,
how do you find the inspiration to keep going? I'm
sure there are ups and downs every day, right and
the like you said, right to sign the first ticket,
it's still you know, it's a little ahead. How do
you keep it going?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I think it's the motivation being in this industry. I
definitely see how how the world has to move on
to and for a better world to have a better livable,
smart city. What needs to be, what needs to change,
and somebody.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Has to solve this problem for sure.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Besides that, as I mentioned that, I do have my
own hobbies as well as some friends and family that
keep me on track. Sometimes when there are tough difficult times,
I think my founders.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
They have been my best friends, my best support all day,
all time.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So I'm really really lucky to also have them as founders.
And as founders, we have grown very fond of each other,
very very much deeply attached to each other. We would
say Jeff has that how do you say? Jeff has
that coolness effect? He is very calm, one of the
most I would say, the most humble people that I've
(22:35):
met in my life, as well as the most inspiring
person that I would have seen, you know, in terms
when it comes to mobility. And Ahmed and I go
back about like thirteen forteen years. He was my senior
at my university, so we do have that relationship, but
we also have that senior.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Junior relationship working as well.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
So it's a very good dynamics that way, and it
just comes together to make that work. There's a lot
of respect for each other and friends and family and
other things. I do have a little bit of a
spiritual background as well, so that that also is a
big time help and pushing me forward towards this journey.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, I know, Ani, one of the questions can we do?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I mean so, I think the whole senior junior thing
brings about a question in me because I as a senior.
I mean, how is it from it to work with
a junior as a CEO? And does he reject a
lot of your ideas?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
You know?
Speaker 4 (23:40):
I want to know how that dynamics goes. I mean, again,
you already mentioned that you've become best friends, but I
think kidding aside. I mean, it's more about decision making, right.
I mean a lot of founders that I speak to.
There's obviously your heart telling you certain things. You know,
(24:00):
trust your gut. Go with what your heart tells you,
versus your numbers might say something different, you know. I
mean early on, your numbers might be saying, oh, we're
not doing very well, you know, don't invest more time
and money there that sort of thing. So how do
you make decisions? Mohit? I mean do you have you
come up with some sort of mechanism that you go
(24:23):
through to make key decisions for the company, anything you
can share.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, So as a decision making within our own team,
we have come to the degreement that the final decision
comes through me, which means, of course naturally it would
mean okay, there are some big boys in the play
in the in the team, so do they agree to it.
I think as professionals, we don't look at each other
(24:52):
being younger or elder to each other, but rather really
respecting each other's opinions.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
So when there is when there are.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Somechallenging opinions, we really respect because it's coming from a partner.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
It's not just someone else, it's really coming from an
equal partner.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
At the same time, when there are when they're really
heavy conversations, when we have we do have a psychological
safety net within the team because of our own bonding.
So there have been a couple of challenges where we
I would not say argue, but rather debate very strongly,
(25:29):
but at the same time completely being respectful of each other,
making sure that we play that a good cop bad
cop quite often, and that helps to create that sort
of a team bonding within our So it's as a
profession it has never as professionals, it has never come
across whether you are young or elder. To me, it's
(25:49):
just that we respect each other and move forward with it.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Outside the work, there are tons of.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Things you don't know, so I mean what you said
it reminds me of a conversation and a couple of
my co founders in the startup I used to work
in used to say they would be unhappy if everybody
agreed with them. You know, they want opposition or opposing
thoughts to anything that they propose, because that always, you know,
(26:18):
nurtures a very healthy environment. Because I mean, you know
you would have thought of three things. I mean somebody
else might say, oh there's two more things to consider
and oppose a decision that you made, which makes for
a healthy relationship. But at the same time, you know,
it's also important to take in all those inputs and
makeing a final decision what you think is best for
(26:41):
the company. Right, So it's a very neat the way
you guys do it.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
I think one point that we have all decide from
day one. It's not about the personal decision that we
have to make it's really thinking from an atomical perspective,
whether you're a CEO or not. Whether you're CEO or
not doesn't really matter. Does this help atomical If yes, okay,
we go for it, it doesn't, no change course. So
that kind of mentality has really kept us going. So
(27:11):
it's really and within the team, there's no senior junior relationship.
It does help to bring more personal bonding, but as
professionals that that thing is not there.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Great.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I'm actually glad you said that because a lot of times,
especially right not in the startup, but people find an
excuse for collaboration, not to challenge ideas, and then you
just go with it, right, and that that's what stands
it apart, right, those decisions, making those solutions. So I
think I that's brilliant.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
The other thing I wanted to ask you, mo Hit
is I mean you you started your startup journey pretty
early on. I mean, you know, in a certain way,
like you said, by chance. You know, you you had
your good support from your parents and all of that.
Your friends were supported. But you know, compared to let's say,
I mean I would consider me the oldest here. I
(28:03):
mean I'm pretty old compared to you, I guess, but
being the older Statesmaniam back in the day, I mean,
you know, at least where we come from in India,
I mean, you know, going and doing your own thing
was kind of frowned upon. You know, things have changed
quite a bit in India. I mean, I would say
around the world as well. I mean, you know, kids
in general are much more open to trying out their
(28:27):
own thing right out of college.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
I know a few kids whom I work with, they
actually don't even want to complete school. They want to
be doing their startup second year of school because they're
itching to get out there and prove themselves. So, which
is a lot of fun to see. Is obviously there's
risk and reward to it. But I think you will
have a unique perspective on any advice you want to
give want to be entrepreneurs so to speak, you know, Sony,
(28:54):
any words of wisdom from you, having been through what
you've been through, to say when to do a startup,
you know, what to consider, what to watch out for,
any of those inputs.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Well, I'm still learning along my way, but based on
my own learnings and the mistakes that I've made, the
biggest the key point I would say, is to stay
away from the wanna be thingy, but rather focus on
the problem itself, falling in love with the problem and
(29:29):
not with the solution, because we often our human mind
often gets into that solution. Well, not the solution would work,
This solution must work, and things like that, And it's quite
natural to also pivot and change strategy along the course
because the problem we are trying to solve is that problem,
that root problem that we want to solve. Maybe that
solution doesn't work, but maybe some other solution works. So
(29:51):
falling in love with the problem would go a long way,
and then really being open to being challenged in a
big way, because well, yeah, arrogance can take over very quickly.
So my biggest In many ways, I do have a
different way of looking things, but in many ways I
(30:13):
would say humility goes a big a long way in
terms of looking at the problem as it is and
respecting other people's opinion at the same time knowing when
to say no.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I think as Indians.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Specifically, I would say, we have a hard time to
say no. And thank goodness, I came to Netherlands because
they are so direct and I love them. They will
write on your face say no, and there's nothing rude
about them.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
So I kind of learned from them to say no.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
And that's totally fine because we got only what twenty
four hours in a day. I hope we had thirty
six hours, but that's not going to happen in a
million years. So I think that focus in many parts,
my mistake has been the lack of focus in some
in some ways in the past, and then really drilling
down to okay, this is where I want to focus
(31:05):
a lot more. I would so falling in love with
the problem, focus, humility. I think that that alone will
be the biggest criteria taking taking the person forward.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
That is incredible, mohit. I mean that's the court for
the day for me, fall in love with the problem,
because I mean I've been there a few times where
you know, you develop something or you put together a solution,
and the solution or the product is always looking for
a problem to solve, which is the other way around,
(31:43):
you know, which is exactly what you said right now,
which is so you got to look at it the
other way based on what you said saying, I mean,
what's the pain point?
Speaker 1 (31:53):
You know?
Speaker 4 (31:53):
How can I look at that pain point deep and
say why is it happening? What are the different ways
to attack it? And then go about it, versus saying, oh,
here's something that's going to work amazing. So you're missing
the whole problems, so just love it mode. So thanks
for that than anything else we missed.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Ready, No, I was going to say at this point,
this is parenting advice. I'm like, God, we always keep
telling our kids, right, like, go find a solution, but
we forget can you amplify the problem you're having? What
can you even articulate the problem you're having?
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Right?
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Because it's like so much don't don't tell us what
the problem is. So that was a beautiful closure. No,
I think we got a lot. I think we can
wrap up with this.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
Yeah, so thanks so much for taking the time on
a Sunday for those who probably don't know when we're
recording this, right, so on a Sunday afternoon in the Netherlands.
I mean, I'm a big fan of Atomical and I
wish you the very best, and I wish you and
the team the very best, and I'm sure we'll have
you here once again once you solve for some of
(33:02):
these problems. Either an attract or somewhere else. We'll have
you on the show again. Moheat, thanks, thanks so much
for being with us.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Thank you both of you. Thanks for having me on
the show.
All right, welcome everyone to a brand new episode or startups,
they'll say, and we have here Moheit Mishra, So welcome
to the show. Why don't you kick it off by
telling us a bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yes, thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
My background has been particularly in mobility and transportation, but
that did not start off as I planned to. I
graduated with a major in computer science and engineering from
my DBHU back in twenty fifteen, and then I was
hired by a US company, but that h one we
never worked out, and I ended up. Life would take
me to Europe in a very weird fashion. That would
(00:53):
be that a friend of mine and I we were
on a Europe trip. We helped another friend who asked
for some help, and when we came back and he said, hey,
I got some corporate funding.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Would you like to join back? And we said, hey,
let's join you.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So that's how I ended up in the Netherlands, which
was a completely unplanned way to start off in the
mobility space. And since then I've been working entirely in
the mobility space, which the career started off as a
tech lead at this particular Dutch startup building connected connected
cars applications and then connected fleet maintenance products, then mass.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Products, which is mobility of service.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
How do you integrate all modes of mobility into one interface.
And then moving on to being an entrepreneurial residence at
the inaugural Antler Cohorte.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
In the Netherlands. That was back in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
It didn't work out as I had planned, but I
was just a twenty six year old guide, nothing to
lose at all, and that kick started another set of journey.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Moved on to another Dutch.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Startup as a CTO, which was about organizational behavior change.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
How do you change the behavior of employees to travel.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
To their work by other modes of transportation not by
the personal car.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
So that was a.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Great learning combining human behavior, science, human and then together
with technology and then having multi stakeholder management involved.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So that was quite an insightful journey in the process.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
By late twenty twenty, I gave up my car to
completely depend on public mobility, and that meant that I
had to install a number of applications. The good side
was my carbon emissions dropped from one to fifty grams
per kilometer to less than five grams per kilometer, but
that was not so easy because it came with installing
(02:40):
multiple apps, juggling between multiple systems, going around different countries
with different languages.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
So that was a bit of a chaos in my life.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
But that also meant an opportunity in the sense that
I started to toyron. Okay, why is that these disconnected
mobilit ecosystems so different? I mean, you could be in Gmail,
I could be on Yahoo, but we don't have an
aggregator in between that connects.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
To both of us. We just talk.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So can this be done to mobility? And that was
the genesis how we started Atomical. It started off as
a research problem and then I asked my co founders, hey,
this is what I've been towing around, and they joined
joined the venture, and that's how we started off. So
that's been a bit about me, my background and my journey.
(03:28):
And if you don't see me working, then you'll find
me either reading books on philosophy or playing my piano,
guitar and flute.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
That's that's me.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Sure you're good at that too, for sure? Right, thank
you for that intro, Anthony. Do you want to kick
off the next Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
So for those who don't know you and I'm what
three months ago, four months ago in Bangalore, and obviously
your journey started in India, and you know, your Europe
trip is probably one of the more unique Europe trips
where you started a company at the end of the
(04:05):
day rather than just going and you know, clicking pictures
and doing other things.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I guess.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
But you also mentioned the whole h one B and
I mean all this happened by chance or you know,
life took you in a certain direction, right, So can
you tell us a little bit about when the whole
entrepreneurial bug hit you versus because I mean, you had
other plans, like you said yourself, right, I mean, and
(04:34):
what's it like to be a CEO? And would you
do anything different right right now now that you've been
in a startup, been on this journey, talk to us
a little bit about just being a CEO of a startup.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yes, that's a big question.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, I think the entrepreneur bug literally kicked in when
this antler co Hoed was just pickening up. There was
I learned about it or I said, well, there's nothing.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
To lose here.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I was pretty young, I'm still young, but and the
thought came in, hey, there's nothing to lose here. I'm
just here to gain everything simply because I did not
do any startup as such before. I was more of
a developer. I was coming from a technical background. It
would be great to be amongst a group of you know,
(05:23):
you know, in a group of really smart folks, more
way more experienced than.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I was, and to learn from them.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So that's how I applied to Antler, and then we
had went through some rounds of interviews and it got selected.
So that was a that was the bug that bit
me back then. Uh, it meant that it did not
it did not translate into a startup right away, but
it did kick me off into a direction that.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Meant more more focused.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
As I was doing mobility, then it got more focused
into mobility than as part of that Antler group I
was already I met a number of people to bounce
back ideas. So it helped me to grow from a
developer into more combining technology and business together. So that
was a quite a good let me put it this way,
(06:14):
MBA in a crash course. So that and then now
when I started with this atomical I'm still learning a lot,
especially from my mentors, from my investors, from my advisors,
there's much to learn. So the way I look at
this as a journey, as a CEO, in my journey,
it looks to me that I am flying a plane
(06:36):
and there are advices around me who are at flight
control places who are helping me find that direction go
so that I don't crash the plane. That's that is
how I would like to put this journey.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Right now, that's a great analogy. I was going to
say it's more like NASA's launch center in Houston, but
I mean, you know, the flight works as well. So
so I think for those of people who don't know
about atomical mohit, let's go back a little bit, right,
(07:13):
I think it's important to talk about I think the
problem is clear. I think both Ridy and I would
agree that instead of opening five different apps, let's say,
for example, I mean I live in the Bay Area. Yeah,
if I want to go to say Peer thirty nine
in downtown San Francisco from where I live, I probably
(07:34):
have to and have to use public transportation. I have
to probably change five different times to get to my
final destination, and five different apps to get to my
final destination. Right, So you're trying to overcome that by
making it seamless simply put right, I mean saying one app,
why can't it all talk to each other. Let's say,
(07:54):
for example, WhatsApp is my favorite messaging app. You know,
I could go in, I could quest for something. I mean,
everything is seamless. I'm probably condensing the whole thing. I mean,
you're probably going to touch on that. So who is
Atomical aimed at. Is it the developer ecosystem? Is it businesses?
Maybe touch on that a little bit so that people
(08:16):
know what to look for through Atomical, and then we'll
probably double click on that go it.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So, as such, Atomical offers a platform as a service
for cities, businesses, and developers so that they can integrate
with different mobility services and they can offer mobility as
a feature or mobility as a service, or add ons
to their own end users well as While that is
a solution that we provide, the problem is a little
(08:46):
bit more nuanced if you look at it. It's not
just different applications that you will have to merge together
in order to get from point A to point B.
But think about this way. In the next ten to
fifty fifteen years, we're going to have two and three
people living in cities. That means it translates to the
(09:07):
mobility demand tripling, which effectively means with situation as it is,
it means more cars on the road. But cities don't
grow as quick as we are growing in the cities,
and they're struggling to bring these mobidity services together so
that they can cater to the needs of their own
residents as well as tourists coming in and going out.
(09:30):
Cities naturally struggle with how do we solve this problem
so that it's easier for people living in the cities
of people coming in and out of the cities to
move around. While businesses there are multiple business cases wherein
businesses would like to offer mobility as a service or feature,
(09:50):
not necessarily as a mobility application.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
They could be non transport application as well.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
But they do have business cases, but they simply cannot
do it because there's no easy way to interact with
different mobility operators. And that's exactly where where Atomical comes in.
Despite today's despite the consumer spending on mobility today on
ground transportation today exceeding one trillion dollars, there's literally no
(10:19):
easy way to integrate mobility services into let's say your WhatsApp,
or let's say into Airbnb, or let's say into your
car rental application, or let's say into your.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Booking dot com.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
They always have to struggle with finding the right solutions
of you know, there's no off the shelf solution. There's
no Stripe for mobility available today, and that's exactly what
what a tonical does. So with that explanion, it is
really just as Stripe created. There's digital payments infrastructure for
(10:52):
the Internet. We're creating that digital mobility infrastructure for the Internet.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
That that is good. So hopefully by the time I
get it, hopefully it's a better path, right, I hope, Yeah,
And was it like, you know, thanks for giving that
visual kind of outline of how the solution works for
somebody coming in. I'm assuming it is right now set
up for places where there is a wat of infrastructure.
I'm released out of Los Angeles, our public infrastructure for
(11:20):
especially public transport doesn't offer as many options. But I'm
assuming with Europe, right, it's a good round to get
this going first.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yes, for our developer.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
As a business, you can think about typically when you
go out to integrate with any mobility operator in general,
you would end up having to spend more than about
one forty hours simply in getting from the starting point
of interaction after contract acquisition to actually deploying the solution
(11:53):
with that integration. And this entire process would include getting
the contract, and before even contract you need to know
to knock in the door and say, hey, I'm this
particular company. Can I talk to you? And who is
the right person to talk to? And then you acquire
the contract with all bunch of negotiation calls that you do,
and then you would be ending up with some additional
(12:16):
nuances in that contract. The settlement and reconciliation process would
be involved. Both parties would have to settle on that.
That's not easy. Every party has some different settlement and
reconciliation process. Then you would end up most parties would
ask you operators would ask you for a deposit and
a credit check. Imagine if there is a small little
startup starting to build something very innovative that can really
(12:39):
change the behavior behaviors of people or can improve the
top line of different applications, they simply cannot integrate with them.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They don't have the money. And once this is done,
let's assume that you.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Actually get your business, legal and finance team together.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Then comes to technical integrate, which.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Means you would be provided with some proprietary information and
data to integrate with, often with inadequate API documentation, and
sometimes those documentation don't even exist. And in one I remember,
in one of such integrations we did, we had to
relearn ourselves. We are computer science engeneers, but we had
(13:22):
to relearn ourselves because of technology that was used. We've
never taught in our bachelor program that was as old
as that. And then you have an operator testing you
would have to do, the operator has to sign off,
and then finally.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
You would deploy your solution. So by the.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Time you end up selling the first one dollar ticket,
I think you would end up spending like one hundred
k to just get one dollar ticket. And so that's
the problem here in the entire ecosystem. And imagine and
there are companies already doing that, the big companies, but
all of them are going through that same So there's
an integration's pagery. There's multiple bunch of companies and then
(13:59):
multiple bunch of trans properators they integrate with each other.
So you can imagine there's an integrations Pagattie in between.
How do you standardize these interactions? Just like what is
open banking for the fintech sector, can there be an
open mobility standards for the mobility.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So we have we have such standards coming up, but.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
We have a long way towards, you know, the ideal
state where you could say, hey, now you can integrate
with any mode of transportation and just let's say in
thirty minutes.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Actually I want to ask this then, right, so you
go to your you come back and you tell your
friends and family, actually, I'm going to try and fix
some of the problems I saw with the public transport,
which right now is supposed to be the best out there.
What was the reaction, what was there lines like and
how how did you find that support?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Well, I thought that there would be some people saying no, no,
don't do that, you can be in a stable job.
But my parents will saying go for it. They did
not at all had any question. They said, go for it.
This is your thing. So it was a bit of
a surprise for me that my parents were like the
first champions before any other champion came in to support us.
(15:15):
I think that was I'm humble to have such parents
and lucky to have such parents, I would say. And
then friends came in and said, yeah, this is your thing,
go for it. They knew in a way, they already
knew that I've been toying with some mobility.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I had been in mobid.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
They saw my enthusiasm over the past few years, how
I talk about mobility and all, and how I see
simple little changes, but also building up on those changes,
visualizing how the end world could look like that kind
that also inspired them, And in a way I did
not have to fight them to say, hey, can I
(15:49):
do this?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
They said, well, do this, don't ask.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Us some of it them in terms of atomical I mean,
obviously both Ruthy and I agree it's much much needed
sort of a solution or the next step forward in
our goals for say a cleaner world, you know, like
(16:14):
you said, with carbon emissions and whatnot. I mean, obviously,
the urban mobility in general is becoming a big problem,
you know, like we were talking about Bangalore earlier. Bangalore
is encouraging everyone to take the metro, you know, to
help avoid some of the bigger transportation traffic issues and whatnot.
And then I think, just thinking about what you're saying,
(16:38):
I mean this just doesn't apply to public sector. It
applies to the private sector as well. I mean something
maybe you and I were speaking about, you know, the
number of buses you see in the Bay Area transporting
you know, employees from all nooks and corners of the
Bay Area into the offices in the tech sector. But
still people choose to take their cars into work. You know,
(16:59):
that could be another one. And then just beyond you know,
urban transportation. I mean, nowadays there are electric mobikes and
this and that and everything. I mean, there's so much
more to connect. And then besides that, I think there's
parking solutions as well, which people could use potentially. Right, so,
I think you're barely scratching the surface, right, And speaking
(17:21):
of barely scratching the surface, where are you with the
company right now? Right? I mean, you know, in your journey,
what do you see coming up in the next twelve
to eighteen months, What help would you like from the community.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yes, so at the moment, what we have been doing
is that our solution currently covers the whole of Netherlands,
so that it was a way to prove the hypothesis
that it works. They're having some pilots that we have
done and then recently we won a tender for the
Utherrek province and that is about two to four year
(17:59):
project to work with the province itself, with the municipalities
itself to create a better solution, better open mobility ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And then we are.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Also heading into India for what we have learned in
the Netherlands specifically the Dutch playbook shows us some opportunities
elsewhere in the emerging economies as well as well as
parts of developed world as well.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Specifically with parking.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
If you think about parking, parking is the bridge between
the car economy and other modes of transportation.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
If you're crack.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Parking effectively, you can create that behavior change and that's
exactly what we have been working on in India.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
We it's quite public now.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
We have an MU signed with our cardi Ists that's
a Dutch company, but a global consultancy firm. We are
working together with them with the Making India initiative to
create the mobility infrastructure in India. At the same time,
you well, I wasn't the States and you know part
of it what's happening there.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
We we were at the United Nations Conference last week
and Debbie and I we were at there and you
know Debbie, so we made a bold statement. And next
year we will be there again to present the project
where there's an interoperable mobile ecosystem between Netherlands, Bangalore and
the Bay Area, to show that this is quite possible
(19:27):
to actually connect different ecosystems together and it's not.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So difficult as it looks like to put that all
stack up.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
It is quite possible to do so, and that's what
we have been able to showcase back.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
In the Netherlands.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
As far as our own traction goes, we have some
already customers PIPE customers in the pipeline. We are now
moving towards raising raising a fund round and at the
same time we are doing a number of pilots that
are about to close in some time and that would
open up a whole b of news sales pipeline and
(20:01):
unlock a new pretty long sales pipeline.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I would say more details.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
So speaking of funding, just to be clear for anyone listening, Moheit,
I mean, are you looking to raise funds from individuals
or vcs or who can approach you with any any
investment ideas that they might have for atomical.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I think at the moment we are very much focused
on angels and syndicates and operators to get to a
point where we would be VC packable. The reason that
we do that is simply because, of course, with various
other milestones that we want to achieve and have a
very disciplined way of growing. We don't want to bled
(20:48):
scale right away, but rather have a very disciplined approach
to raising as well as getting revenue getting customers on board.
So at the moment we are really focused on angels,
angel syndicates, operators running. And it could be pre seed
or see v ses, but I think that we might
have some chances, but Europe doesn't work that way, so
(21:10):
we have we have talked about it, so we are
really focused on first revenue and angels.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Great. Who do you read?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I know, So with all of this in the long past,
how do you find the inspiration to keep going? I'm
sure there are ups and downs every day, right and
the like you said, right to sign the first ticket,
it's still you know, it's a little ahead. How do
you keep it going?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I think it's the motivation being in this industry. I
definitely see how how the world has to move on
to and for a better world to have a better livable,
smart city. What needs to be, what needs to change,
and somebody.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Has to solve this problem for sure.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Besides that, as I mentioned that, I do have my
own hobbies as well as some friends and family that
keep me on track. Sometimes when there are tough difficult times,
I think my founders.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
They have been my best friends, my best support all day,
all time.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So I'm really really lucky to also have them as founders.
And as founders, we have grown very fond of each other,
very very much deeply attached to each other. We would
say Jeff has that how do you say? Jeff has
that coolness effect? He is very calm, one of the
most I would say, the most humble people that I've
(22:35):
met in my life, as well as the most inspiring
person that I would have seen, you know, in terms
when it comes to mobility. And Ahmed and I go
back about like thirteen forteen years. He was my senior
at my university, so we do have that relationship, but
we also have that senior.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Junior relationship working as well.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
So it's a very good dynamics that way, and it
just comes together to make that work. There's a lot
of respect for each other and friends and family and
other things. I do have a little bit of a
spiritual background as well, so that that also is a
big time help and pushing me forward towards this journey.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, I know, Ani, one of the questions can we do?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I mean so, I think the whole senior junior thing
brings about a question in me because I as a senior.
I mean, how is it from it to work with
a junior as a CEO? And does he reject a
lot of your ideas?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
You know?
Speaker 4 (23:40):
I want to know how that dynamics goes. I mean, again,
you already mentioned that you've become best friends, but I
think kidding aside. I mean, it's more about decision making, right.
I mean a lot of founders that I speak to.
There's obviously your heart telling you certain things. You know,
(24:00):
trust your gut. Go with what your heart tells you,
versus your numbers might say something different, you know. I
mean early on, your numbers might be saying, oh, we're
not doing very well, you know, don't invest more time
and money there that sort of thing. So how do
you make decisions? Mohit? I mean do you have you
come up with some sort of mechanism that you go
(24:23):
through to make key decisions for the company, anything you
can share.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, So as a decision making within our own team,
we have come to the degreement that the final decision
comes through me, which means, of course naturally it would
mean okay, there are some big boys in the play
in the in the team, so do they agree to it.
I think as professionals, we don't look at each other
(24:52):
being younger or elder to each other, but rather really
respecting each other's opinions.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
So when there is when there are.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Somechallenging opinions, we really respect because it's coming from a partner.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
It's not just someone else, it's really coming from an
equal partner.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
At the same time, when there are when they're really
heavy conversations, when we have we do have a psychological
safety net within the team because of our own bonding.
So there have been a couple of challenges where we
I would not say argue, but rather debate very strongly,
(25:29):
but at the same time completely being respectful of each other,
making sure that we play that a good cop bad
cop quite often, and that helps to create that sort
of a team bonding within our So it's as a
profession it has never as professionals, it has never come
across whether you are young or elder. To me, it's
(25:49):
just that we respect each other and move forward with it.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Outside the work, there are tons of.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Things you don't know, so I mean what you said
it reminds me of a conversation and a couple of
my co founders in the startup I used to work
in used to say they would be unhappy if everybody
agreed with them. You know, they want opposition or opposing
thoughts to anything that they propose, because that always, you know,
(26:18):
nurtures a very healthy environment. Because I mean, you know
you would have thought of three things. I mean somebody
else might say, oh there's two more things to consider
and oppose a decision that you made, which makes for
a healthy relationship. But at the same time, you know,
it's also important to take in all those inputs and
makeing a final decision what you think is best for
(26:41):
the company. Right, So it's a very neat the way
you guys do it.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
I think one point that we have all decide from
day one. It's not about the personal decision that we
have to make it's really thinking from an atomical perspective,
whether you're a CEO or not. Whether you're CEO or
not doesn't really matter. Does this help atomical If yes, okay,
we go for it, it doesn't, no change course. So
that kind of mentality has really kept us going. So
(27:11):
it's really and within the team, there's no senior junior relationship.
It does help to bring more personal bonding, but as
professionals that that thing is not there.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Great.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I'm actually glad you said that because a lot of times,
especially right not in the startup, but people find an
excuse for collaboration, not to challenge ideas, and then you
just go with it, right, and that that's what stands
it apart, right, those decisions, making those solutions. So I
think I that's brilliant.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
The other thing I wanted to ask you, mo Hit
is I mean you you started your startup journey pretty
early on. I mean, you know, in a certain way,
like you said, by chance. You know, you you had
your good support from your parents and all of that.
Your friends were supported. But you know, compared to let's say,
I mean I would consider me the oldest here. I
(28:03):
mean I'm pretty old compared to you, I guess, but
being the older Statesmaniam back in the day, I mean,
you know, at least where we come from in India,
I mean, you know, going and doing your own thing
was kind of frowned upon. You know, things have changed
quite a bit in India. I mean, I would say
around the world as well. I mean, you know, kids
in general are much more open to trying out their
(28:27):
own thing right out of college.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
I know a few kids whom I work with, they
actually don't even want to complete school. They want to
be doing their startup second year of school because they're
itching to get out there and prove themselves. So, which
is a lot of fun to see. Is obviously there's
risk and reward to it. But I think you will
have a unique perspective on any advice you want to
give want to be entrepreneurs so to speak, you know, Sony,
(28:54):
any words of wisdom from you, having been through what
you've been through, to say when to do a startup,
you know, what to consider, what to watch out for,
any of those inputs.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Well, I'm still learning along my way, but based on
my own learnings and the mistakes that I've made, the
biggest the key point I would say, is to stay
away from the wanna be thingy, but rather focus on
the problem itself, falling in love with the problem and
(29:29):
not with the solution, because we often our human mind
often gets into that solution. Well, not the solution would work,
This solution must work, and things like that, And it's quite
natural to also pivot and change strategy along the course
because the problem we are trying to solve is that problem,
that root problem that we want to solve. Maybe that
solution doesn't work, but maybe some other solution works. So
(29:51):
falling in love with the problem would go a long way,
and then really being open to being challenged in a
big way, because well, yeah, arrogance can take over very quickly.
So my biggest In many ways, I do have a
different way of looking things, but in many ways I
(30:13):
would say humility goes a big a long way in
terms of looking at the problem as it is and
respecting other people's opinion at the same time knowing when
to say no.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I think as Indians.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Specifically, I would say, we have a hard time to
say no. And thank goodness, I came to Netherlands because
they are so direct and I love them. They will
write on your face say no, and there's nothing rude
about them.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
So I kind of learned from them to say no.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
And that's totally fine because we got only what twenty
four hours in a day. I hope we had thirty
six hours, but that's not going to happen in a
million years. So I think that focus in many parts,
my mistake has been the lack of focus in some
in some ways in the past, and then really drilling
down to okay, this is where I want to focus
(31:05):
a lot more. I would so falling in love with
the problem, focus, humility. I think that that alone will
be the biggest criteria taking taking the person forward.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
That is incredible, mohit. I mean that's the court for
the day for me, fall in love with the problem,
because I mean I've been there a few times where
you know, you develop something or you put together a solution,
and the solution or the product is always looking for
a problem to solve, which is the other way around,
(31:43):
you know, which is exactly what you said right now,
which is so you got to look at it the
other way based on what you said saying, I mean,
what's the pain point?
Speaker 1 (31:53):
You know?
Speaker 4 (31:53):
How can I look at that pain point deep and
say why is it happening? What are the different ways
to attack it? And then go about it, versus saying, oh,
here's something that's going to work amazing. So you're missing
the whole problems, so just love it mode. So thanks
for that than anything else we missed.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Ready, No, I was going to say at this point,
this is parenting advice. I'm like, God, we always keep
telling our kids, right, like, go find a solution, but
we forget can you amplify the problem you're having? What
can you even articulate the problem you're having?
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Right?
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Because it's like so much don't don't tell us what
the problem is. So that was a beautiful closure. No,
I think we got a lot. I think we can
wrap up with this.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
Yeah, so thanks so much for taking the time on
a Sunday for those who probably don't know when we're
recording this, right, so on a Sunday afternoon in the Netherlands.
I mean, I'm a big fan of Atomical and I
wish you the very best, and I wish you and
the team the very best, and I'm sure we'll have
you here once again once you solve for some of
(33:02):
these problems. Either an attract or somewhere else. We'll have
you on the show again. Moheat, thanks, thanks so much
for being with us.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Thank you both of you. Thanks for having me on
the show.
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