 So, thank you Just starting with basically setting the scene So the global road freight mobility market is a four trillion dollar market It's that dominated by the large truck manufacturers and global Freight service providers and it actually counts for 10% of the global greenhouse gas emissions and looking back at 2016 and we'll come back to what what else happened back then but at that point like a lot of change was already happening in the passenger car space We already seen a lot of movement in terms of both electrification and automation But you saw something linear you and your co-founders that that change wasn't happening in the track industry Yeah, exactly. So I think when you start out as an entrepreneur you need to choose what you're gonna go after and Both myself and my co-founders. I think that we are very much entrepreneurs as hard and so we started out We were looking for a problem that was big and that we wanted to put a really big ambition to solve and Turns out that like you just said that the freight industry hasn't really changed in 100 years and it's one of the biggest contributor to to Emissions so Yeah, I mean someone had to do something and I think that we find a good way of Yeah tackling it. So that was actually quite a big challenge to take on right? Yeah Like can you describe like the moment when you and your co-founders decided to like really do this This very bold move and the challenge is soul industry It's actually funny story. So Robert Founder and CEO of the company He's been working in the traditional industry and he had this idea of that you should be able to do transportation Sustainable. It's not the technology that is not in place It's actually the system itself that preventing it from moving forward And so he was just like talking about this every day for like six months And I felt you know, okay So either you you know you need to shut up about this now as I can't take it anymore Or we need to do something about it. And so that is really like the defining moment and we really you know Remember that moment when we decided, okay, let's do it. Let's jump very cool And what and what do you think was actually stopping the industry from transforming already before you guys started? Like what was there? Where were they obstacles that you needed to kind of overcome? Oh, there's been a lot We can spend hours I think the current industry it's hard for the current industry to transform to electric because electric is so fundamentally different from diesel and so if you want to make electric Efficient and you want to to have a good business model. You need to rethink the whole mythology and That's where we come in because we're looking at it from a technology perspective And we're looking from a volumes being moved and that's also why we we like to call what we're doing freight mobility because it's so much about How you can make sure that moves good that you move goods in the most Yeah efficient and the smartest way And this has been quite a journey right in many ways But like if we start with the product because when we first met I think it's now five or even six years ago Like my first impression was like this is this super cool company building a very futuristic autonomous electric pod And like if I look at the product now It's at as much as software company as a hardware company as at least that's how I see it like would you agree to that? Absolutely, I would say that we're technology first and for we would we have always consider ourselves being a software technology Company, but when we started out It was very hard to explain that we're building an operating system for electric and electric autonomous freight And when we were out pitching that to customers, they're like what what is that? What is autonomous and I mean also going back to 2016 the industry Didn't believe in electric trucks and I think that is so important to keep in mind when we started out Actually, the the common Understanding was that electric trucks will never work because the batteries are too heavy. You cannot do a good business case and I mean that has really changed now and I think now all the big industry players are having some sort of ambition of going electric in the next couple of years and It's been really cool to be part of that journey and to see that that changing Yeah, so much maybe just to give a little bit more flavor to the audience You could like describe a little bit how you're working with your customers today in terms of the different like parts that you guide Them through and like to actually take them to the end game of being electric and where suitable like use autonomous trucks Yeah, absolutely. I think the biggest difference is if you want to go electric you also need to go digital because there's no way that you can actually manage how you're gonna run an electric fleet if you don't have a digital interface to it and So what we are helping the customers is to first of all look into how you can go digital and then take the next step To electric and then electric autonomous and so what we always start I think this is a good maybe to visualize a bit How we working is that we start looking into the data so coming from a technology perspective looking into the capacity Looking into where are the customers the shippers? moving their goods today, and then we run that for our digital Platform where we look into where would it be suitable to go electric today with current infrastructure? But also of course where could you actually build out infrastructure to go electric and like five and more? capacity and The good thing by going electric is that it's very similar to going autonomous because you need to look into those very repetitive flows You need to look into having a much more systematic approach to it And so what we understood quite early on was that autonomous and electric goes So well hand-in-hand and that's also how you can really get a great business case by going sustainable Cool, and so I guess you've kind of educated both your customers and like the whole industry in terms of how this could look like and Maybe if you would like to share also your vision like so how would this look like at scale? So we're thinking about it from a grid perspective And we're building grids in different regions that has a bit of different purpose And I mean what we would love to see in the future is of course that all of these grids Ultimately connect each other in one way or another and I mean as you started out saying this is a four trillion dollar market So it's huge and today 99% of all transport or even more 99.9 is based on a diesel platform And so it's a huge task. We have a really big ambition And we want to be part in really making sure that this happened because it needs to happen And there's so many obstacles in this in this industries that something needs to change Mm-hmm, and it like when you describe it like it's quite a big challenge as you say that you've taken on to kind of really Transform this four trillion dollar market with big players in there Like what could you maybe share a little bit about the founder's story around this? Like what has it been like to navigate these kind of these different steps that they've been through so far and like where you're heading I mean You can't prepare for it, right? You just need to you know, get your head down You need to focus on what what's your next big milestone and you know, you can give so many advice how to do it but I mean It's going to be it's gonna have its own life And you just kind of I just need to enjoy and be part of that ride And I think that if there's something that I often say to to aspiring entrepreneurs or in early phases is that Don't try to control everything like you're part of a journey and you need to accept that It's part of it like you need to accept that you know focus on what it's you're gonna deliver Focus on your customers make sure that you have a great business a great team But everything else just like enjoy the ride yeah, and Another thing I was thinking about like transforming an industry again Like it's a big big task and you probably don't want to redo it again in like ten years when everyone has kind of kept up But like how do you build for the long-term success like so that you now create this Transportation as as we want to see it also form from the sustainability perspective. Hmm I think that it's it's very interesting times right now And we've been hearing about that I think all of these days when when we've been here that we are we're in a very turbulent market and but what I do think is very Interesting to know and to understand is that we are looking at a new Industrial revolution in one sense So we need to start building for a new infrastructure And so a lot of the companies that came out for the last 10 to 20 years has actually been built on the previous infrastructure And so now we're gonna see a new infrastructure coming in place and I truly believe it's going to be very much based on electric and There's gonna be huge opportunities in that market. And I think that that's also I Mean when we talk about resiliency and we talk about sustainability We can always just use the technologies that we believe is the best right now not all technologies, you know, it's always You know pros and cons with different technologies, but we always have to strive for To find the best way moving forward and right now I would say that electric is one of them that we we know that it's better than diesel We we know that it's it's it's we know that it's working and so therefore we need to start adapting to that new infrastructure as well and speaking about this next generation of next generation industry basically and I think in my opinion and Also for full disclosure, we are invested in and right I think and right is the perfect example of what we define as a impact unicorn So a company that not only has the potential to reach evaluation about one billion dollars but also can positively impact the lives of one more than one billion people and Like we really think that now is the time to show that there's a correlation rather than a contradiction between Impact and financial returns Yeah, could you like when you speak to your customers like what's typically the rationale for for them like going along for the n-ride ride Like how did they look at the link between these two aspects? Oh, it's I we have so many beautiful stories about that We had you know Customers or shippers coming up and saying we want to work with you because our kids loves what you're doing And they can really see that you're doing something that's meaningful and that will have an impact for their generation Or just also people that just say, you know, I want to I want to create a better future for my kids I want to be part of this and try to do my part in making sure that we that we fight yeah, the the climate crisis and There's so many of that that really also motivates Myself and and the team and to really feel like we can do a difference we just need to do it together and I must say we're very grateful for North Korean and that was also our first office in in Stockholm So it's we've been together for quite some time. Yeah, we have we have actually And speaking about impact and maybe also a culture because you said like you're you're on a long-term journey And you're now a big team and have you seen that the impact mission has kind of affected your company culture And like how you work together Absolutely so if there was one thing that That Robert said in beginning was that the best engineers in the world wants to solve the hardest problems And so here we are we having one of the biggest challenges of our lifetime talking about Climate crisis and and everything going on and right now with you know Even more and I think something that became very obvious during pandemic is how fragile the logistics is to miss and that we need to build resiliency to be able to serve society and So we have we have it from a from a climate perspective we have it from a social perspective and It's a really big engineering task to solve and I think that has been We've been very fortunate in that sense that we've been able to recruit I would say some of the best people in the world to be able to solve and to work to solve this problem It's it's not an easy task. It's super hard and I mean we're very humble that this is a You know, it's going to impact a lot of people's lives So we need to do this right and we need to do the best that we can also being a humble You know about that it's tough, but also have the confidence to say, you know, if anyone's gonna solve it It's gonna be us And together of course with partners and with customers to make sure that we that we reach this ultimate goal Yeah I guess like the the impact that n-ride has it's not only kind of what you yourselves are doing and and just to give an Example like so n-ride like coming out of Nordic. She started five six years ago You were you were actually the first company to get the permit to drive autonomous tracks on on US roads Like how has the rest of the industry? Reacted and like have you seen that they've kind of accelerated there The kind of way you're working or what's the what's been defect outside of of n-ride? well maybe not Yeah, how do we answer this question? I think that a lot of people were a bit surprised that this small Swedish company were the first to get the permit in US to drive in public road and I think that annoyed a lot of people and maybe a lot of investors as well But of course I think what that really goes to show is that our way of thinking about it And it's a really breaks down to mythology in how you're implementing this technology that it's working And we have said since day one that if you want to go sustainable you need to have a sustainable business case and To have a sustainable business case You need to have customers that wants to buy what you're selling right and if you want to go autonomous We so that's why we started out with a pod that we didn't have a safety driver since day one because we know as long As you have a safety driver in the vehicle, it's not going to make business sense So you need to remove the the truck driver from the equation if you want to make autonomous Cheaper than today's solution and then of course we have the monitoring and we have a driver that can work remotely But that can monitors multiple vehicles and so I think it's interesting I think there's a lot of people now looking our direction and looking into that This could be a way of solving and the next This is too soon to say that kind of you will be doing to the truck market What Tesla did to the passenger market? I think we're getting there. I think that there is some there's Yeah, I think we're getting there And I know there's a lot of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs to be out out there in the in the audience and We were speaking backstage about kind of And you said before now that you don't want to give advice But still maybe you can share some of your your wisdom and maybe we start with kind of Where to where to start like how do you define if you want to start a company and therefore probably address like a challenge of some Sort of kind because that's I guess what entrepreneurship is about like. Yeah, where would you guide people to start? I would start. I think this is Very typical with start with the customer start to look into is this something that people actually want Is there any attraction for it and a great way of doing that is to work with design and to work with design principles And to visualize That this is something how the future might look like and if this would be possible and that's actually what we did with the pod So we went out to customers and we said we're building this software We're building this operating system Let's go in late the foundation to go sustainable Would you like to be part of it? And you know people couldn't realize what it was because it was so abstract in that sense And so then we created a pod which was a great visualization of that This is how the future will look like or at least this is how the future might look Might look like and would you like to be part of it? Mm-hmm, and then we got plenty of customers, but everyone wanted to buy the pot Mm-hmm the second challenge for us were like no you don't buy the pot you actually buy You know the the transportation or the capacity, you know moving goods for need to be but I think a lot of people really You know really love the idea of what the pod represented and I mean still to today I think that's for us as well. It's one of us most Cherries than most valuable. I think almost like a mascot for us. Yeah So first start with a problem like find a way to maybe visualize the solution in your case the pod and start selling Start selling okay, like how early did you start selling? Yeah, I mean it doesn't need to be like, you know But at least get like an LOI that if we're able to If we're able to produce this would you buy it and can we get that like in writing and to find those people that really want You know the buy-in to your company into your idea. Mm-hmm, and in terms of building the team Like what would you what did you think about when you put together your first team and I think it's been different stages in In the company for us. I think that ultimately what's been really for me is to be very clear about expectations And to be a really I think something that we talk a lot about is that we want to be one of the best companies in the world And we're very open about that. We're like, you know, we want to play in the Premier League want to play in a NFA NFL But we really want to be one of the best and if you want to be one of the best You need to be very open to your team and to say that that it's okay If you don't want to put in those hours But then probably you should not work at and right because we're in here together because we really truly believe that we have a Shot on making this happen And we want people that are in that timing of their life that they actually want to be part of that and I think that's the That's the beauty of being very open about expectations and to also say like, you know, this is a journey This is the right of we're doing together and this is what you can expect from everyone in the team So it's not only expected of you, but you can also expect that from everyone here And of course you need to have a lot of kindness and you need to have working with a lot with Inclusion and to make people feel very welcome. But to you know, we're we are very ambitious We have a really ambition goal. We're not that big of a team, but we have you know, we're challenging some of the biggest Infrastructures there is yeah, yeah I think anyone who has seen kind of your your pod or your Kind of your your work around that has probably realized that kind of building the brand and the design has been also very important part of of your strategy and And also says the CMO and co-founder co CEO like what what what would you say like what? Importance has the brand played in your journey so far I think it's very important and now I see something that I I'm a bit surprised that a lot of startups Actually start with the brand and lay in the brand Platform very late because I think it's so important because the brand is also it's your culture, right? So it's about you know, what can people expect of you customers and you know partners investors But it's also internally what can people like you know again going back to expectations And when you set up the brand platform your that's the first time where we start to say, okay Articulate this is our vision. This is our mission. Now. This is our key values. This is where we want to go And that has been so important for us again because it makes it easier I think especially when you're working with innovation because innovation is always hard because yes requires so much knowledge Education for people to understand and me for us. We're working with technology So you need to understand technology you need to understand logistics you need to understand transport and you need to understand that all Of this is gonna change and this is the future and so it's it's you know It's a massive Knowledge needs to goes into this to be able to you know to connect all of that dots and for that you need to have Individuals that are open to learn that are curious that wants to be part you know learning and it's also to educate others in how this will work and That's a journey in itself to find those people and to find the talents that you know really wants that that loves it But when you do that's that's really when you create magic. Yeah And we're speaking a lot about transforming an industry and there are plenty more industries that needs transforming out there like specifically for the founders taking on those challenges like what would be your non-advice to them Okay, can I Actually, I think it was a slush that I read this that there's too many bad advice out there And I cannot really resonate it with me because I there's so many bad advice. So now I'm gonna give you one good advice You're always gonna have to Be accountable for the decisions that you take for your company and so you could have a bunch of advisors But in the end you're the one that's gonna be accountable and I think that I Think I learned that the hard way because you have an advice you're like I've been doing this for 20 years and this is how you build a business and you're like when you're early on you're like you listen to That and then you're doing it you're taking that advice and then six months later That person is no longer in the company and you're there in a bad position because you know you went Against your own gut feeling and I think that's what's so important that that goes back to intuition as goes back to your core What is it that you're trying to achieve and people always told us that we're too ambitious and you know I got one of the advice in the beginning linear you need to choose if you want to focus on you know Transforming for sustainability or equality. You can't do both. I was like, of course, I can't do both Like there's so much like you need to go back to like what you truly value And you need to go back to what you believe in because that's that's the fight you're gonna go along the way So trust the gut always trust the guy. Yeah Maybe to finish off like what's what's next for n-ride? I Mean we're six and a half years in but I honestly feel like we're just getting started It's very it's very exciting times ahead I would say I think that a lot of the challenges that we see moving forward is it's gonna be have to be solved with Technology and we are in a very good position as a technology company to solve some of our times biggest challenges and so I'm very I'm a bit excited Of course the market right now is comes with a really big responsibility. I do think that we need more leaders We need more leaders that takes more responsibility now over the next couple of years. I'm very happy to see a lot of the And a lot of the investors having more of an impact and climate focus I think that's exactly what we need and I think that's also the leadership that we need in the next couple of years And we need more founders and we need more companies that are going to to solve these problems So, thank you linear with those non words of wisdom non advice Thank you and thank you for listening. Thank you so much