#73 - Meet the Startup Driving the Future With Autonomous Trucks

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We have the luxury to choose routes that are maybe slightly longer, but safer and easier.

That is Gautam Narang, CEO and co-founder of Gadig.

I love that. And it is boldly humble, right? It is a huge opportunity. The amount of these repeat routes that have to happen and have to happen across the country is so real. The fact that you commercialized it with, you know, Walmart originally, right? They've been like a building partner for you from And so many years ago.

And that is Laura Rippy, managing partner and board member at Alumni Ventures. And it feels like magic, right? So in my head, I've always thought, how does that work? Like, how, how is it possible that I could order one very specific niche thing and it's literally at my door the next day? And that's me. My name is Sam. I'm the guide, editor, and just Sherpa for this podcast. So Sit back and let's hop in. All right. Now, before we hop into the meat of this episode, uh, I'm gonna provide a little bit more context on Gaddock as a company. So Gaddock AI is an innovative autonomous trucking and delivery company that has made significant strides in the middle-mile logistics sector since its founding in 2017. So Gaddock was established in 2017 by our guest today, Gautam Narang. He's the CEO and his brother Arjun Narang, the CTO. And they also have their chief engineer, Apeksha Kumavat, in Mountain Valley— or sorry, in Mountain View, California. The company has offices in Arkansas, Fort Worth, Texas, and Toronto, Ontario. What is middle-mile logistics? I'm going to get into that a little bit later, but middle-mile logistics involves the transportation of goods between warehouses, distribution centers, and retail locations. Um, so Gaddock AI provides Level 4 autonomous trucks. So they developed and operate Level 4 autonomous trucks capable of operating without a safety driver on repeated routes. The company focuses on medium-distance deliveries, addressing a critical— a crucial segment of the supply chain. And Gaddock started with Ford Transit vans and has expanded to include electric versions and medium-duty trucks developed in partnership with Isuzu, which we also will get into earlier— which we also will get into later. So some major milestones and partnerships for GATIK. So they have a partnership with Walmart, which they started in 2019. They are the first driverless commercial service in 2021. They operate in Canada as well. And their sort of expansion of partnerships, right? They have established partnerships with major retailers and brands including Kroger, Tyson Foods, and Pitney And as far as operations and scale, as of 2024, there are over 60 trucks on the road, making it the largest revenue-generating commercial fleet of autonomous trucks in North America. And the company has made over half a million deliveries for Fortune 500 companies. And as far as like expansion plans and industry impact, the company aims to increase its fleet to approximately 300 trucks by the end of 2025. They're aiming for freight-only operations. So Gaddock plans to begin deploying fully driverless operations for multiple customers at scale in Dallas-Fort Worth. And Gaddock is challenging traditional Class 8 regional distribution networks, as evidenced by its work with Georgia Pacific and Sam's Club stores in Dallas. So as far as funding rounds and recognition, the company has secured multiple funding rounds, including investments from Japanese companies like Nippon Express Holdings Incorporated, Itochu, and Isuzu Motors. Forbes has recognized Gaddock on its list of America's best startup employers for 3 consecutive years. Um, so Gaddock AI is at the forefront of revolutionizing middle-mile logistics through autonomous technology, addressing critical challenges such as driver shortages and supply chain insufficiencies. Their focused approach on specific routes and partnerships with major retailers positions them as a significant player in the evolving landscape of autonomous transportation. Now, this is an awesome episode. Laura and Gautam have a really, really cool conversation here, and I am very excited to help provide that for you guys. And, you know, it's just an honor to be even guiding you through this story. So yeah, this is a top one. This is a top episode for sure. Huge fans of Gaddock, huge fans of Laura, huge fans of the work that they're doing together. Um, and yeah, we hope that you feel the same and enjoy. So please, um, enjoy episode 73 of The Tech Optimist, um, and our Meet the Startup episode of Gaddock AI. Before we hop into the nitty-gritty though, we're going to take a second for an ad. And then we'll be right back.

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Hi, everyone. I'm Laura Bordewijk-Grippie. I am managing partner at Alumni Ventures and thrilled to bring you this Tech Optimist with one of my favorite companies, Gaddock. I'm here with Gautam Naring, who is the CEO of Gaddock and someone I've known now for quite a few years. We've been working together and thrilled to share the story. So, why don't we introduce the company to everyone? How do you position Gaddock today and what you're accomplishing and the sort of the elevator pitch, if you will, for all of our listeners?

For sure. Firstly, thank you so much for having me on. I'm super excited about the podcast today. And just— Gatik is an autonomous trucking company. We focus on B2B short-haul logistics segment. So we call this the middle mile segment of supply chain. At a very high level, think of us as filling the gap between long-haul trucking on one end, which is usually highway driving only, moving goods interstate, And the other end of the spectrum is last-mile delivery. So between these 2 ends, there is a niche of a market that we call the middle mile that we as a company are now focused on. And the best part is the problem that we are going after is more constrained, more structured. So getting to the point of commercialization and scaling is faster and relatively easier than some of the other applications in the autonomy space.

All right. I'm going to add a few more words into Gaddock's philosophy and a bit about, um, you know, where they are, what they are, who they are, and everything like that. So I'm on their about page, as you can see right here up on the screen, um, at gaddock.ai/about. And I'm just going to read it because I think the graphics are really nice and the photos are incredible. And I love when a company really invests in their marketing systems and their marketing assets. So I'm going to prop them up a little bit. So. Their first page reads, the future of freight is here. At Gaddock, our philosophy has always been simple: use autonomous technology to help companies optimize their supply chains today, not 5 years from now. Since our first delivery, we've remained steadfast in our mission. So in 2017, Gaddock started their journey. They were founded in Silicon Valley by Gautam, our guest today, and then Arjun, and then their other chief engineer, Apeksa. And so, and then in June of 2019, they started getting to commercial deliveries for Walmart. They launched their first commercial service for Walmart between a warehouse and retail location in Bentonville, Arkansas. They then expanded into Canada. They then started more industry-leading partnerships with Isuzu, Ryder, and Goodyear, which we're gonna get into a little bit later with the conversation. And then they started in February of 2021, started to invest in autonomous electric trucks, Where this is the industry-first autonomous electric trucks transport customer orders from a Walmart Supercenter in New Orleans to a pickup location in another area of Louisiana. So then Walmart goes driverless in November of 2021, and then in 2022, Getac disrupts traditional Class 8 market. So they began transporting Georgia-Pacific goods to network of 34 Sam's Club stores in Dallas. Disrupting traditional Class 8 regional distribution network. And then in August of that year, their operations have expanded. And then October of that year, um, Gaddock and, uh, Loblaws make history by launching their online grocery deliveries from Loblaws PC Express system in Brampton, Ontario, without a safety driver behind the steering wheel, which is a Canadian first. And then March of 2023, Gaddock moves goods for Kroger. In September of 2023, GATIK and Tyson Foods deploy autonomous trucks in northwestern Arkansas. And then in May of this year, GATIK partners with Isuzu to mass-produce SAE Level 4 autonomous trucks. So state-of-the-art technology here. So far, they've started to deliver their promise of autonomy to California, Ontario, Canada, Arkansas, and Texas. But That doesn't mean they can't expand anymore.

That is what I have always loved. Like, you are solving the meatiest, meatiest part of the supply chain. This, this repeat routes with partners that are deep and want to stay with you and build those relationships over time. Maybe we can double-click on some of those big partnerships, because you have been working with some very impressive brands for quite a long time.

Yes. So today, Gatik works with about 10 Fortune 500 customers. These are customers across different verticals. So initially, we started out with a focus on retailers, grocers, then expanded that focus to e-commerce companies, logistics companies, and then more recently, distribution and CPG as well. And these are some of the largest brands in the world with very large fleets. And we are on a mission to help automate those fleets so that we can move goods more efficiently and safely between their businesses, which, which are typically distribution centers to other DCs or stores.

That's right. You're not going to share any of those brands with us, are you?

Well, uh, the ones that are public is we have been working with Walmart since 2019. Uh, Kroger is another partner. Loblaws, which is Canada's largest retailer, has been a partner since 2020. And then recently Pitney Bowes, Georgia-Pacific, and a few others as well.

So I'm so glad you're here. And one of the fun things to do is, how did Gathak get started? Like, what was that founding vision? What was the founding story? I know there's a good family piece to this too, so I'd love to hear that.

For sure. Yeah, so, uh, so Gathak, like, you know, we have, uh, uh, 3 founders. I'm one of the founders, and then, uh, uh, my other 2 founders, uh, Arjun and Apexya. So Arjun is my older brother. Him and I have been doing, uh, robotics for, uh, over 15 years now, had an early start. And then, uh, we have spent about 15 years developing core technology for robots and self-driving vehicles. And, uh, you know, fast forward to 2017 is when we decided to start Gatik. And, uh, we had 2 criteria, uh, to start the company. The first one was solving a real customer pain point. And I know it sounds obvious, and it should be obvious, uh, but that was not the case for our industry, uh, back in 2016 and 2017. The The thinking was, we'll solve the technology first and then figure out the use case or the business model. So most of the companies were promising that by 2020 and 2021, this problem would be solved. For me and my founding team, having spent many years developing the core technology, we were not believers in that timeline. So we really wanted to, one, obsess over a customer pain point and build technology and solutions around it. So that was the first criteria behind the company. The second criteria was we really wanted to focus on an application. application that we believed was more near-term from a commercialization and scaling standpoint,

right?

And, uh, we found, uh, uh, this use case, the middle mile or B2B short-haul use case, as, uh, the perfect fit and the perfect starting point where, uh, the customers, uh, they had a growing need around moving goods from DCs to stores, uh, and you combine that with the driver shortage, uh, it makes for a very compelling, uh, value proposition. And then in addition to that, the fact that we can operate the trucks back and forth on known and repeatable routes, constraining the autonomy problem gets us to commercialization and scaling faster. So middle mile, we believe, is the perfect starting point. I call this the Goldilocks of the AV problem, where it's hard enough that no random company, not every random company can do it, but it's not as hard as, let's say, a robotaxi that would require decades of R&D efforts and billions of dollars to get to the point of commercialization.

I love that. And it is boldly humble, right? It is a huge opportunity. The amount of these repeat routes that have to happen and have to happen across the country is so real. The fact that you commercialized it with, you know, Walmart originally, right? They've been like a building partner for you from so many years ago. And then to recognize that this is then the starting point, you can build a bigger business beyond this, but this opportunity is enormous in and of itself. And it has so many fabulous attributes for autonomous driving and the way that you have already And you've sort of answered that with, you know, over 1,000 trips, and to all of those with no driver involved. I mean, you've done amazing things at Gaddock. We're so proud to be on board, Gadham. So, the underlying software platform of Gaddock— Mm-hmm. I mean, you guys have been doing artificial intelligence before it was cool, right? And machine learning and sort of the intelligence behind us. Can you unpack that a little bit? Like, give us— give our listeners a sense of the software underneath the hood?

For sure. So, uh, the reason we chose this, uh, use case or this, uh, uh, market segment was we have the benefit of operating our trucks back and forth on known and repeatable routes. And, uh, at the heart of any autonomous driving, uh, technology is, uh, using AI and machine learning, uh, to basically get the vehicles to learn how to navigate urban scenarios or highway driving scenarios. So our technical stack is AI-first, meaning all the decision-making is happening in a learning fashion. But we also believe that it's important to have guardrails from a more traditional robotics approach as well. So at a very high level, think of our technical approach as hybrid. Hybrid in a way that it's AI-first, but then we have safety redundancies or the guardrails from more traditional more deterministic classical robotics techniques. So we get the best of both worlds where the decisions are not pre-programmed. We don't use a rule-based technique. Rather, we use an AI-first learning-based technique with the right guardrails so that, you know, the trucks, our trucks are always following the traffic rules. They are, you know, doing what they're supposed to do in a safe fashion.

Right. Is there a way you could visualize for us what one of your customers is using and sort of what's that scenario going from one distribution center to the next every week, taking right-hand turns? Like, tell me a little bit more about that, that sort of common scenario. What's a use case that people can get their arms and hands around?

Yes. So typically we operate our trucks for about 20 hours every day. So moving goods from our customers' distribution center to the retail stores. So we start our day you know, the truck shows up at the loading door, our customers' staff, they would, they would do the loading. And the good thing is we design routes in a way that prioritizes safety and ease of technology, meaning the fact that we are moving goods and not people, we have the luxury to choose routes that are maybe slightly longer, but safer and easier. So So we designed routes where we can, let's say, 3 right— take 3 right turns to avoid an unmerited left turn. We can avoid schools, hospitals, fire stations. All of that is fair game, right? A bag of potatoes won't care if you take a slightly longer but safer and easier route to get from point A to point B. And we have that luxury, uh, because we are moving goods, not people, over short distances. So that's how we have designed the whole, uh, uh, technology, and that's how we choose routes that are in line with our technology and product roadmap, prioritizing safety.

And that's part of why you're in so many states right now, right? Like how many geographies are you running now?

So now over 4, and now we're actively growing our market presence as well. So there are about 3 or 4 markets that we are going live in the coming months and like part of next year as well. So very much in growth and expansion mode.

So what are those 4 states in case people see the trucks out on the road?

Yes, so in Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas has been one of our our biggest market. We serve about 7-8 customers out of that market. And then we have also been in Northwest Arkansas since 2019. This was initially with Walmart and more recently with Tyson Foods. We have one more customer that we have not yet announced for that market. And then in Canada, we have been doing operations for Loblaw since 2020 and densifying our presence in Greater Toronto Area as well. There are a few other markets that are not public yet.

You have to keep some secrets for us so we can stay tuned, right?

So now this next section, we're going to sort of talk about more of the like business model and achievements behind Gaddock, right? But I want to sort of help define a few things. When I hear about the middle mile in transportation and distribution, I'm not entirely sure, like I'm not exactly sure what that is or what that means, right? Because I'm not a truck driver, I don't work in distribution or factories or warehouses, um, and I want to provide some context because I think it's a really fascinating thing, right? You know, where it's— I just keep thinking about how you order one thing on Amazon and sometimes there's next-day delivery where it ends up at your doorstep and it feels like magic, right? So in my head, I've always thought, how does that work? Like, how, how is it possible that I could order one very specific niche thing and it's literally at my door the next day. And so the middle mile plays a very crucial role in that. It's the vital link between the first and last mile of the supply chain. So let's sort of define this, right? So the middle mile delivery refers to the transportation of goods between warehouses, distribution centers, and fulfillment centers. It bridges the gap between the initial collection of products from manufacturers, the first mile, and the final delivery to customers, or the last mile. So route structure. Middle-mile routes are typically repetitive and predictable, often involving transportation between fixed locations. Hence why this is such a good opportunity or sort of obstacle in the road that machine learning and AI can sort of help automate, right? The stage deals— this stage deals with larger quantities of goods, usually shipped in bulk on pallets, compared to smaller packages in last-mile delivery, which is more of the Amazon scenario that I was talking about. So middle-mile transportation can cover significant distances, sometimes crossing regional or even international borders. So let's talk about some advantages of optimizing the middle mile. So cost reduction. Companies can achieve significant savings by optimizing this segment of their supply chain. Competitive edge: passing on cost savings to customers can provide a market advantage. Increased adaptability: greater control over middle-mile operations allows for quicker adaptation to changes. And enhanced efficiency: so streamlining this process can lead to faster overall delivery times and improved inventory management. So technology and optimization— this is really where GATIC comes in. So software can help automate recurring and repetitive middle-mile routes. So let's take, uh, Dallas, Texas, for example. Um, Dallas and Fort Worth, which is what, uh, a market example that Gauda brought up earlier. So I don't know the exact players here, but point A, let's say, is in Dallas. Point B, let's say, is in Fort Worth in Texas. And say Walmart the company, or another large Fortune 500 company Travels the same distance, the same route, the same directions multiple times throughout a distribution cycle. So Gaddock's thought, or their reason for creating their technology, is that driver that would be driving that same route every single day, the super monotonous, repetitive, um, like machine-like behavior, why don't you literally give it to a machine so that driver can drive the more complicated routes, right? So some trends with this: there's in-house operations. So some large retailers like Amazon— bringing back the Amazon scenario— are developing their own middle-mile fleets for better control and efficiency. And expansion of networks. So companies are expanding their middle-mile networks to cover more regions and improve overall supply chain performance. So by focusing and optimizing the middle mile, companies can significantly enhance their overall logistics operations, leading to improved efficiency, reduced costs, and better customer service. All right, that's my spiel. We're going to take a second for an ad, and then we're going to hop right into all the achievements that Gaddock has, uh, you know, added to their shelf over the last few years.

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So let's talk about some trophies. You guys have won all sorts of awards. And there's been some victories in terms of customers and hires, like When you go to sleep at night or when you think about this period so far with Gatik, like, what are some trophies that you hold close, Gautam?

The biggest one I would say is the Time's Best Invention for 2022. And it's close to our heart and my heart is because that was for a milestone that we are very proud of. So Gatik in 2021 became the first and the only autonomous trucking company to pull the driver out in a commercial capacity. We hit this milestone with our partner Walmart at their headquarters in Arkansas. So, uh, we got recognized for this achievement in this milestone, and, uh, Time awarded us, uh, for the best invention of pulling the driver out in the trucking space and, uh, hitting this worldwide first.

That is fantastic. I do remember that. That is such a big deal. So back in 2021,

yes,

you pulled the driver out in the first Enterprise situation. It was in what city? It was what country? What state?

Sorry. In Arkansas.

Arkansas. So, it was in Arkansas. So, it was with Walmart. So, how did you celebrate? How did the team sort of embrace it? Obviously, Time recognizing you as the best invention in 2022 is a big part, but what did that feel like in the team? How did you, in terms of culture building, it must have been great.

That was amazing. And that proved out the original thesis that we had, right? Like, the thesis was constraining the problem will get us to driver out faster and safer, it was great to see that we were able to, like, you know, prove that out. And since then, the company has been focused on scaling our driver-out operation. So we are very much focused on doing that across multiple markets and multiple customers. So scale is the name of the game. But yeah, it was great to be able to prove that out and do that with 100% safety record, right? So one important thing to note there is our driver-out operation was not a one-off thing. So, uh, we have been doing a driver-out, uh, we have done like thousands of driver-out commercial deliveries where—

A thousand? Is that what you said?

More than a thousand, yeah.

Wow, a thousand driver-out commercial deliveries. Fantastic.

So no one behind the steering wheel, uh, us moving actual customer goods in a revenue-generating fashion. But, uh, since then, uh, it's very important for us to scale. So that's what we are focused on. And the milestone that now we as a company are focused on is, uh, freight-only at scale, or driver-out operations, uh, but doing that in

Fantastic. So, part of what is amazing for folks to come into, to getting to know Gaddock, is how complex and interdisciplinary the business has been to build. I think that is like a really interesting piece. So, you have these big anchor partnerships, like a Walmart, like a Loblaws, right? Mm-hmm. You have some OEM partnerships. You need to get smart with regulations and convince local, state, probably some, maybe some national regulators in terms of that. Can you give us a sense of what are those legs of the stool that you've built out in a really comprehensive way to get you to this point?

Yeah, that's a very important point that, you know, level 4 driving at scale, no one company can do it alone, right? Many companies try doing everything on their own and those companies are not around today. So we believe that, you know, a partnership-heavy approach is critical. To be able to, um, you know, unlock scale. And, uh, today Gatik has a very strong partnership ecosystem. So we talked a lot about our commercial partners, but if I talk about our supply chain, uh, OEM and Tier 1 partners are critical, uh, to be able to get more trucks on the road. So, uh, we recently announced, uh, expansion of our partnership with Isuzu Motors. Isuzu is one of the largest OEMs for light and medium-duty trucks, and, uh, uh, Now together, Gatik and Isuzu are mass-producing Level 4-ready trucks. So this is an industry-first milestone where an OEM and an AV developer have committed to setting up a dedicated production facility where Level 4-ready vehicles are coming off the production line in a scalable way. So that is basically something that we are very proud of.

That's a big trophy. That is a big trophy. I remember when you— when that was a twinkle in your eye, what was that, like 2018 or whenever? You know, years and years ago that you were— have been building that relationship with Isuzu. So now you have an actual production line.

Yes.

And trucks with the GATIC software and the Isuzu hardware come off the line to service customers like Walmart with, you know, the 1,010th or the 20,000th commercial ride where there is no human driver. It is all autonomous vehicle with The GATIC software and the Isuzu truck. That is amazing. That is a big trophy too.

Yeah, maybe Laura, one clarification that that facility will be live in 2027, but yeah, we have been working with Isuzu since 2021.

Okay. Okay. Sorry. Good clarification on the dates there.

Yes.

I get excited about how long we've been working together and how long that relationship has been in place. So, and I know it is hard. I mean, this is, you're building things with moats. that make it difficult for others to contemplate. And that depth of experience that you bring to this is really important.

For sure. And then maybe just to highlight, like, you know, 2 other categories of partnership. The next one is just our fleet partners. So this is Ryder, Goodyear. So these are the partners that are helping us with the fleet leasing, servicing, and maintenance, right? Our business model is very scalable where we don't own the assets. So we have partners like Ryder, they own the assets and, you know, lease it to us, and then we provide a service to our customers. And then also we lean on their infrastructure for servicing and maintenance. So it allows us to expand to newer markets without having to invest anything in the underlying infrastructure.

That's right. So Gatik is really— you're taking the juice, the intelligence, the brainpower of this, and using partners that can do the block and tackle of taking care of trucks.

Exactly.

In other parts of it. But I also love that you guys are so embracing of partnerships. A lot of startups don't recognize that you can get further faster if you kind of have a community around you. And I think that's been central to what you've built from the beginning. So, love to see that. Let's turn now to safety and regulations. So you have vehicles out on the road. How do you think about safety? How do you think about regulations? What new ways should we consider this in the context of Gatic?

Yeah, so safety is front and center to everything that we're doing at Gatic. And one of the things that we are very proud of is, you know, being proactive with all the key stakeholders about safety. And to be a bit more specific, at the heart of our safety case framework is making sure that we are giving independent third-party auditors access to how we are developing the technology and how we are deploying the technology. And the reason we are doing this is we want to make sure that there is increased accountability, increased transparency that will lead to a higher trust when it comes to this kind of technology. And just maybe taking a step back, just talking about, you know, what are some of the, I would say, debates in the AV space, right, when it comes to safety. So right now there is a question mark on what is good enough, right? For the longest of time, companies in the robotaxi space, they have said, okay, the performance of a technology, as long as it's better than a human driver, that is good enough. So how do you define good enough is where the debate is going on. So our framework on defining what's good enough is get all the different stakeholders to the table. This is us as the developer of the technology, our customers as the adopter, the local regulators, policymakers, first responders, and emergency services. So together we come to the table and define what is acceptable and what is good enough.

Great, great. You guys are really at the head and leaning and learning, sort of leading everyone down the path of a sort of a more impressive definition of this. Let's turn a little bit to your partnerships. So I know you have some anchor commercial partnerships OEM partnerships. Can you kind of open the door here for us to understand how GATIC has been built, that you're not alone here? You have very large partners that have helped to make this possible.

Yes. So having a strong ecosystem of partnerships is very important, right? No one company can do it alone, which is scaling level 4 technology. So what we are really good at is the core autonomous driving software stack and owning the customer relationships. But when it comes to The platform itself, we work very closely with our OEM and Tier 1 partners. One of the key OEM partners is Isuzu Motors. We've been working with them since 2021. Initially, the focus of the collaboration was building a Level 4-ready or Level 4-capable platform. This is everything from redundant driver wire system to other aspects of the vehicle itself. And then more recently, Gatiq and Isuzu announced a collaboration to mass-produce Level 4-ready trucks. The production facility would be up and running in 2027, and this is an industry-first milestone where an AV developer and an OEM have come together, made a formal commitment with serious capital allocated towards the initiative of mass-producing Level 4-ready trucks. So we are super excited about this partnership, and this will help unlock the scale and help us meet the needs of our customers that are eager and hungry for more trucks.

Congratulations. That is a monster big accomplishment. And it's been built over, you know, multiple years from '21 to '27, right? That is a very significant amount of commitment and capital to that. So you've got your commercial partners, you've got Isuzu as your key OEM partner. I know you have some partners with the fleet management that's like Ryder and folks. So really multiple steps along the way so that what Gaddock delivers its focus on the software platform and kind of stitching everybody together and having a good customer relationship. And the ability to have these partnerships enables you to know, you know, that you, you have a partner in the game, that you, you know what to do right, and they know what to do there in their expertise. It's kind of the best, best of all of them. So that's terrific. Yeah. So, um, any, uh, any surprises you want to share with our audience? Some unexpected learnings? that you didn't anticipate?

Well, uh, as I mentioned earlier, like, you know, I'm focused, uh, a lot on scaling our original culture, right? Like, you know, so that's top of mind. So unexpected learning here would be scaling culture is not, uh, uh, not that easy. So it's challenging. And, uh, uh, I think obviously early on it is, uh, easier to maintain the core values and the culture of the company. The team is lean, uh, you know, everything is visible. But as you scale, you have to be very deliberate about, uh, communicating, you know, uh, the core values and the culture of the company, why you're doing what you're doing, uh, and then also demonstrating through actions that, uh, um, you know, you're living and breathing your, your core values and culture. So, uh, for me, the learning here was, uh, things that, uh, I thought would be obvious, the actions that, uh, I, I, you know, uh, I thought would be obvious, it's not that obvious. So you have to be very vocal about, uh, uh, sharing who you are with the broader team, especially as you're scaling, and then living and breathing and showing through actions the core values that you have. So being deliberate about, you know, the values and the culture is super important, especially during the scaling phase. So scaling culture, I took that for— I wouldn't say for granted, but I thought that would be easier. But now I'm much more deliberate about that.

Right. Can you give us a peek underneath the hood? What are a couple of those values that that you hold dear that, um, yeah.

My favorite one, uh, is, uh, we as a team, as a company, are boldly humble. So we are very bold, uh, in our actions, uh, in our decision-making. We have, uh, huge ambitions, but we are also very humble in a way that, uh, it's a, it's a long journey and we are in the early innings of this journey. So there is a lot of work to be done. And, you know, maybe, uh, tying it to how we are positioned. So we are going after this middle mile segment today, but we definitely have aspirations to, uh, tackle the, the full autonomous transportation, uh, ecosystem, move upstream and downstream as well. But, uh, so that, that is basically, uh, a core value that I'm very, uh, proud of, where the team is very, uh, I would say fierce and like, you know, uh, very bold, uh, but at the same time very humble as well. We don't, I would say, uh, bullshit ourselves in a way that, like, you know, we keep it real and we understand that, you know, there's a long journey ahead of us.

I love that. That is, like, absolutely you too. You live it, right? That is who you are. So that really strikes home. Boldly humble is a fantastic value and one that folks can remember and embrace and really live. Okay. Well, last question. It gets to be your ask. So what would you ask of the Alumni Ventures and more broadly the Tech Optimist community? Is there a way that we can be helpful to you?

I would say like, you know, uh, talent is top of mind. Uh, so, uh, we as a company are hiring across the board, right? Like, you know, so we have started expanding our non-engineering functions as well. So, uh, specifically, uh, growing our finance team. Growing our operations team, and this is, uh, our fleet operations and central operations as well. So, uh, you know, any, uh, referrals there or folks that would be interested in joining a fast-growing, uh, uh, very exciting company in a space that is highly visible, uh, you know, would love to like, you know, uh, uh, put that out there where, you know, uh, any referrals would be great. And then, uh, across different functions, so we as an organization are in growth mode.

I love that. I love that. Well, a couple of ways where people can take action on that. We will make sure to put a link to your job board. And just so everyone knows, there is one job board for Alumni Ventures called jobs.av.vc that pulls in opportunities from Gaddock and the other, you know, 1,399 portfolio companies or whatever the number's up to today. And, uh, it is, um, just amazing to see the growth and also just the complexity of what you're doing, that you're now in these business roles. I just, I couldn't be more proud. This has been such a treat. We are really happy to be on board your journey and appreciate your time today. This has been terrific.

For sure. Thanks so much for having me on, Laura. And thank you so much for the support that Alumni Ventures have put into, into Katik. So really appreciate it.

Fantastic. Thanks, Bedi.

Perfect.

Thanks again for tuning into The Tech Optimist. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd really appreciate it if you'd give us a rating on whichever podcast app you're using, and remember to subscribe to keep up with each episode. The Tech Optimist welcomes any questions, comments, or segment suggestions, so please email us at info@techoptimist.vc with any of those, and be sure to visit our website at av.vc. As always, keep building.