Urban Loop

Ben Volkow is the CEO & Founder of Otonomo, an Israel based startup building the future of connected car data. Otonomo is building a platform to collect, cleanse, secure, and standardize OEM car data from over 18 million vehicles. Third party service providers then deliver innovative smart city, traffic, fleet management, and mapping services for other companies and customers.  Internationally recognized by various industry groups  along with OEM support from some of the world’s largest automakers, Ben and Otonomo are on a mission to create a mobility ecosystem that uses data to make every driving experience truly rewarding. In this conversation, we dive into… Otonomo and interesting use cases for car & traffic data The role that Otonomo fills in the connected car ecosystem How Otonomo has helped transform legacy automakers into technology players Data security and privacy for the end consumer And finally Ben’s entrepreneurial journey and his advice for future entrepreneurs Season 3 is in the works, to be returning early 2021 - thank you all for the support thus far! None of this would be possible without this community.   Ben can be reached at the following: LinkedIn Enjoy the show! See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-26-ben-volkow -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

Curtis Rogers is the Co-Founder of Parkade, an app that helps tenants in the same building share and rent parking. Parkade helps put your unused parking spots to good use. As for visitors to your apartment or condo, Parkade helps make visiting seamless, with finding parking just an afterthought. In this conversation, we dive into… Residential parking and why it’s such an exciting space The growth of Parkade and the initial MVP Thoughts on how mobility and transportation is moving away from cars, in general.  And as always, some comprehensive advice on finding problems within your cities and building some great products to solve them Curtis was also an early employee at Zimride (before it was called Lyft!), so we dive into some of those experiences and how Parkade was born out of a large-scale parking experiment at Lyft HQ. A book that’s played a pivotal role in Curtis’s world view about the role of mobility was The High Cost of Free Parking, by Donald Shoup. Check it out! Let’s dive in!   Curtis can be reached at the following: LinkedIn, Twitter See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-25-curtis-rogers -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

Khristian Gutierrez is the Chief Revenue Officer at Passport, a leader in payments in the city space. Passport provides the only end-to-end digital operating system for mobile parking payments, parking enforcement, digital permitting, and micro-mobility. Nearly a 1000 cities and universities across the US work with Passport to make parking as simple and delightful as possible.  Most recently, Passport partnered with Google Maps to enable mobile payments directly from the maps app itself! Parking is an area that has long been troublesome for citizens and difficult for cities to manage as effectively as possible - Passport aims to solve both those problems. In this conversation, we dive into… The current parking ecosystem in cities, and why parking is such an exciting opportunity How Passport aims to make parking seamless for cities, for citizens, and for businesses The Passport operating system, which enables a comprehensive platform for city leaders to manage all the available parking and their costs Some interesting stories and guiding principles from the early days of building Passport And as always, some comprehensive advice on how to learn more about and begin working in the smart city space What stood out the most to me is how intentional Khristian and Passport are as a whole in working with cities as true partners, enabling better operations, insights, and convenience for all involved - enjoy the show!  Khristian can be reached at the following: LinkedIn, Twitter Enjoy the show!   See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-24-khristian-gutierrez -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

Phil Beecher is the President and CEO of the Wi-SUN Alliance, a global alliance developing and promoting inter-operable Internet of Things wireless standards for smart city infrastructure.Phil and the Wi-SUN Alliance have pioneered the Smart Utility wireless network (IEEE 802.15.4g), bringing together the best of reliability, bandwidth, and latency to deliver a robust network paired with industry backing and a marketplace of third party components and compatible products.  An early engineer on Bluetooth and Zigbee protocols amongst others, Phil dives deep into the Wi-SUN protocol comparing and contrasting this to the several other popular IoT wireless standards.  In this conversation, we dive into… Why the Internet of Things is necessary to realize the promise of Smart Cities The benefits that the Wi-SUN standard provides for smart city infrastructure The process, conversations, and debates behind developing a standard How wireless networks and their development has changed over time As a communications engineer myself, it was a delight to learn about the Wi-SUN protocol from a wireless technology pioneer. Hope you enjoy the conversation! Phil can be reached at the following: LinkedIn, Twitter   Enjoy the show! See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-23-phil-beecher -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

Dr. Paul Van Buskirk is a legendary political figure from the city of Cohoes, NY responsible for founding the Cohoes Citizen Party in 1963 to defeat the Albany political machine, New York’s most corrupt machine. Today, he is the Founder and Chairman of Metro Forecasting Models, which helps several Southeastern US states predict population growth and movement, to accurately build infrastructure. His latest book, Big Mike, Uncle Dan and Me is available now, where he discusses his journey, learnings, and lessons.  In this conversation, we dive into… The social and economic climate when living under a corrupt political machine What led Dr. Van Buskirk to start the Citizens Party of Cohoes in 1963 How they effectively organized in a short time to defeat the political machine Why engagement in local politics is so low and why it’s important to correct that  And as always, some comprehensive advice on how to learn more about and begin working in the smart city space Dr. Van Buskirk helps compare political organizing then and now, and his learnings and lessons are just as valid today and especially relevant during an election year.  Enjoy the show! See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-22-dr-paul-van-buskirk -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

Jessie Feller Hahn is the Executive Director of Meeting of the Minds, a global leadership network and knowledge sharing platform, comprising tens of thousands of leaders in the urban sustainability and technology space.  Previously she worked on the Tri-State Region’s 4th Regional Plan through the Regional Planning Association, a historic planning organization from the times of Rockefeller and Robert Moses which was involved in projects like bringing the very first bus station to NYC. In this conversation, we dive into… Best practices for enabling effective sharing of knowledge, models, and ideas across industries How to enable resilience and sustainable growth in cities The paradox that leaders face between long term and short term thinking How the pandemic has reshaped city priorities Some interesting thoughts on the future of dynamic street management And as always, some comprehensive advice on how to learn more about and begin working in the smart city space Jessie is someone who routinely sits down with some of the most influential minds in Smart Cities, and we can all learn a lot from her insights into city planning and operations. Hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did! Jessie can be reached at the following: LinkedIn, Twitter Enjoy the show! See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-19-jessie-hahn -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

Chris Davis was most recently the VP of Smart Cities at CIMCON Lighting, who headed their expansion into building Smart City platforms. A recognized expert in Smart City technology deployments, Chris has traveled the world to speak at several international conferences. Furthermore, Chris has headed divisions at Schneider Electric and has mentored several early stage clean energy companies. In this conversation, we dive into… Why cities usually start Smart City projects with connected lighting The enormous energy and cost benefits of smart & connected lighting What typical engagements between cities and companies look like Commonalities between Smart City projects across the globe And as always, some comprehensive advice on how to learn more about and begin working in the smart city space Chris is someone that has worn many many hats over his career, and I enjoyed this opportunity to learn a lot about the business of Smart Cities from him - hope you do too! Chris can be reached at the following: LinkedIn   Enjoy the show! See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-20-chris-davis -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

Marc Morial is the President and CEO of the National Urban League, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, serving over 300 communities and helping improve the lives of over 2 million people nationwide. Under his tenure, the organization built stronger roots through its vast economic and educational programs. Marc also served as the Mayor of New Orleans, from 1994-2002, helping reduce violent crime and police corruption by over 60%. Marc’s latest book, The Gumbo Coalition, is a wonderful read into several of Marc’s unique experiences and the leadership lessons that guided him to success. The Gumbo Coalition is more than just the title of his book - it’s a movement to help leaders unite their teams to create meaningful change in the world. In this conversation, we dive into… The Black Lives Matter movement and how to harness the positive change we see into sustainable legislative and community led change How voter suppression is disproportionately targeted towards communities of color  Marc’s time as Mayor of New Orleans and his specific actions that helped reduce crime At a troubling  time like this - Marc’s message of hope shines through, and I hope that you walk away from this conversation as inspired as I did!   While you’re here - here’s a list of orgs that need donations and petitions that need to be signed! Thanks for your support! https://blacklivesmatter.carrd.co   Marc can be reached at the following: LinkedIn, Twitter Enjoy the show! See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-19-marc-morial -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

Dr. Jennifer Clark is the Author of Uneven Innovation and a Professor at the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University. As an expert in urban and regional economic development planning, she has taught at Cornell University and the Georgia Institute of Technology in addition to providing expert testimony before the US Congress and consulting on several committees for the Canadian, UK, and US governments. Her latest book, Uneven Innovation, details how the changing relationship between technologies and cities contribute to existing inequalities present around us. The real challenge is not in the technology, but really in understanding the city, embracing its local uniqueness, and in representing the city’s residents appropriately.  In this conversation, we dive into… How the privatization of public services will lead to a weakened public sector and promote uneven development across the city How tech companies often expect the city to subsidize R&D and deployment costs and the questions it raises on data ownership How cities need to enhance their in-house capabilities to evaluate and diffuse new solutions and act as an independent entity in new developments Civic discourse and how the newer models of participatory planning should be built to be inclusive of all communities And as always, some comprehensive advice on how to learn more about and begin working in the smart city space It’s rare to be able to read a great book and have the opportunity to speak with the author herself -  I hope you learn as much from this conversation as I did! Dr. Clark can be reached at the following: LinkedIn, Twitter See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-18-dr-jennifer-clark -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

Amos Meiri is the CEO and Co-Founder of Colu. Popular across Israel, and soon to be coming to the US, this Tel-Aviv based startup enables the coordination of infrastructure to reduce chaos, drive engagement with local business, and incentivize positive behavior through the distribution of a unique City Coin that can be spent across the city. Featured on Forbes, Colu has helped bring communities and local businesses to the forefront of the conversations around Smart Cities, along with creating a platform where cities can directly connect with its residents and businesses.  In this conversation, we dive into… How Colu incentivizes positive behavior and the larger effects this has on communities and businesses The 3 levels of engagement - Awareness, Soft Engagement, User Action How cities have been leveraging Colu’s platform to reinforce communities during the time of COVID-19 Cryptocurrencies and their potential in transforming a city’s relationship with its residents And as always, some comprehensive advice on how to learn more about and begin working in the smart city space Amos’ belief that a truly ‘smart’ city starts from the communities really shines through his work with Colu - enjoy the show! Amos can be reached at the following: LinkedIn, Twitter Enjoy the show! See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-17-amos-meiri -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram