In fact, a lot of times we, like I said, almost always we make all of the key business decisions together. I thought I would give it a shot and try to spend a few years learning about that. He called me, and as he was explaining—we have this sort of relationship—as he was starting to explain and we were just thinking, I felt like, “Oh, yeah. On the one hand, we had all these, what I would call maybe ride hailing companies that had already been operating for maybe a couple of years. Those first six months were really challenging because I essentially had two jobs. Take my quiz and get a custom action plan to start raising more capital. I’m daniel@ridewithvia.com. Alejandro: Got it. I see a lot of it. I wanted to give them a lot of notice. There are so many pieces that go into it. People are talking about ridesharing and new stuff coming up now as well as with electric scooters and things like that. We really thought of Via as a dynamic bus system. I’m actually very, very excited. : Got it. In particular, the main product there was a very large custom-designed supercomputer that we were building to accelerate by a law of certain class of biological simulations called molecular dynamics. Just one piece of advice. People are talking about ridesharing and new stuff coming up now as well as with electric scooters and things like that. I think having that brand and having that success of cooperating initially in New York, then in Chicago, then Washington D.C. with the regulators, with the municipality, kind of created the foundation that we could then build on to—these days we have nearly 70 partners all over the world, different cities, public transit authorities, and so forth who we work with very closely to run public transportation. Daniel Ramot: You have very limited resources, obviously. We knew that we wanted to do something entrepreneurial. I’m based in New York, but we’re on the phone with each other certainly every day, often for hours on any given day talking through challenges, thinking about things together. Then, obviously, throughout Manhattan where there are a lot of investors. How to think a lot about recruiting. At the time, it was GetTaxi in Israel. Then Oren did his Ph.D. Then through some friends got introduced to D. E. Shaw Research. We’re providing these rides at $5, sometimes less throughout Manhattan. View Danny Pollak’s profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. I think that’s one piece. I think what’s much more important in a sense between founders is that you have a common understanding and that you get along really well, and that you work together well, and that you are just compatible in that way that you’re going to be successful together solving really hard problems because you’re going to run into a lot of really hard problems. I don’t think the regulators every contemplated that, but just by chance, by luck perhaps, the way they’re written, it was legal to provide these shared rides. View the profiles of professionals named "Daniel Im" on LinkedIn. That has created a lot of regulatory, I would say conflict because this idea of using citizen drivers. So, we were running these simulations called molecular dynamics that allowed us to visualize how proteins interact with drug molecules, how proteins fold, how they change their shape when they bind a drug molecule and try to use those simulations to discover new drugs. We really thought of Via as a dynamic bus system. If we can solve it well, we can create a very useful technology that we can provide to cities, to transit agencies to run their public transportation system. 4. We basically converted them, you know, the most expensive limousine into a bus, which was interesting. And those six months are super valuable. They’re not getting any work. That was quite a bit of time. That approach of working together with cities, together with regulators, or partnering with them, has been very beneficial for us, and I think is what has allowed our business to evolve, to be honest, was the intention from the beginning to evolve also into and have a piece of the business. Just one piece of advice. The data was a crucial piece, and I’m not sure we fully appreciated in the beginning because that feeds back into the algorithm and has really driven the system to be dramatically improved versus the original version that we built. We’re using your service. Can you really not just start tomorrow? I have to say we had a number of quite terrible ideas that I’m very happy we didn’t choose to pursue. I think having that brand and having that success of cooperating initially in New York, then in Chicago, then Washington D.C. with the regulators, with the municipality, kind of created the foundation that we could then build on to—these days we have nearly 70 partners all over the world, different cities, public transit authorities, and so forth who we work with very closely to run public transportation. What you learn very quickly is that it’s an incredibly complex organ and that we really don’t know that much about it. And you are reducing your risk in those dimensions, but what you don’t realize as a founder is that you are creating substantially other risks, which is substantially greater by delaying. He said, “Why can’t we use those?” I said, “I don’t know if you can take the most expensive limo and make the guy who’s driving it effectively a bus driver. It was a fantastic place to work. I think that connection that we have, that ability to work together very effectively, that was really the most important piece for us in this understanding. D. E. Shaw, some folks may be familiar with is a very large hedge fund. Alejandro: Got it. You can read a lot about. So, my advice is always—or my question is why haven’t you already launched? The way I had always thought about it was that I was a product person. That’s a very broad question. On the other end where it’s certainly not tailored to an individual. Daniel Ramot: I think that’s a great question. We came up with a system that’s right in the middle, one might say, where we’re using these mid-sized vehicles. So, how did you guys get this kind of like chicken and the egg or supply-demand type of thing in motion? That was quite a bit of time. Then at some point, Oren went back to Israel to the Wiseman Institute. The vans, their routes are determined in real time dynamically based on where people are requesting rides. Where do you see the on-demand transit heading? I just thought studying how the brain works is probably the most interesting thing anyone could do. So, fundraising has always been if you’re going to build a marketplace like this, as you said, you need liquidity. Most of the time where we were having to play catchup is on the supply side. The business piece, I think, you can learn. How much capital have you guys raised to date? For you guys, how was the incubation process of Via? The funny thing is that if you look at what some of the other players have raised, whether it’s Didi in China, Grab, Uber, and so forth, it feels like a tiny amount of money, which is frankly ridiculous. Looked like he could have a very promising academic career. It’s really amazing to think about it. The people there was great, and the project was just super interesting. How did the entrepreneurial bug all the sudden hit you one day? The company has raised so far over $450 million from investors such as Pitango Venture Capital, Daimler, Kapor Capital, Hearst Ventures, or RiverPark Ventures. We weren’t desperate to find something, but we really wanted to, and we spent about a year brainstorming. Alejandro: And the business, you guys started in 2012. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. I think they launched before we launched our service in New York. : We spent about a year, I would say, Oren and I, trying to come up with an idea. Alejandro: Nice. So, as you were pointing to this, I was just thinking like, “Wow.” You guys have similar backgrounds, so first and foremost, how did you guys decide to divide responsibilities. Daniel Ramot: I’m really happy to hear, Alejandro, that you also found it difficult. Those first six months were really challenging because I essentially had two jobs. You pass your cash up to the front. During the week I was working at D. E. Shaw Research as did Oren. At least, we thought we did. One end to the bus. I just wanted to let you know I’m not leaving right away, but I’ll be spending weekends working on this. In fact, if you were to ask me other than the subway, I believe it has a really good likelihood of becoming the major way in which people get around cities because it hits this sweet spot. You get in. The other piece is our marketplace, the product we launched, fortunately for us had just a tremendous response from riders, from passengers. : Thanks so much. So, by the time we had launched the company formerly, we had nearly a million dollars, I would say, in commitments from early backers. So, we talked to the taxi limousine commission in New York. I think there are a lot of other macrotrends happening including competition that probably transit agencies are feeling from ride hailing companies. Daniel Ramot: Initially, and I think maybe throughout this time, you’re most likely to be successful with investors who you either know personally or have a warm introduction to. These 13 Largest NYC Tech Startup Funding Rounds of 2020. by Reza Chowdhury. Via $200.0M Round: Series E Description: Via develops and provides on-demand public mobility solutions.Founded by Daniel Ramot and Oren Shoval in 2012, Via has now raised a total of $587.1M in total equity funding and is backed by investors that include Shell Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, Millhouse LLC, Kapor Capital, and Hearst Ventures. That’s a very broad question. The driver passes back the change. In terms of metrics, where are you guys at in terms of rides and all of this? Everything you need to need to know about the largest NYC startup funding rounds of 2020; broken down by industry, stage, investors, ... LINKEDIN INSTAGRAM. How was it? I think that may be fair, but it’s hard for me to say. So, we decided to launch our own service. We didn’t have the first mover advantage on the whole idea of using an app to book a ride, for sure. : Yeah. : I would say that while certainly the work I had been doing up until then was much more technical and really about technology and very technology-focused in my day-to-day. Alejandro: Got it. Alejandro: Got it. Daniel Ramot is the cofounder of Via which provides on-demand transit on a mass scale. He was doing very well. The business piece, I think, you can learn. Via, which says it … It wasn’t easy to make that transition, so one thing that I remember trying to do pretty consciously with myself, it’s funny, I started telling all of my friends that I was going to do this so that I would create an environment for myself that it would be very difficult to back out because it was a difficult thing to do. On the one hand, you’re absolutely right. We assumed that only about half of them would actually give us the money. I think when you think about the problem Via is trying to solve which inherently has a lot to do with traffic, and traffic systems, and interactions between people, and road systems, and traffic, thinking about that in a structured, analytical way, thinking about how to distill a complex system like that into some simple equations much like you could think about how do I take the brain and behavior and try to instill that into a set of simple equations and use data to do that?