Entrepreneurs for Impact (EFI) Podcast: Transcripts
#111:
Clean Mobility for Cities’ Transit Deserts — Su Sanni, Founder of Dollaride
Chris Wedding:
Su Sanni, what a name. Su Sanni here, S-U-S-A-N-N-I for listeners, Co-founder and CEO of Dollaride, welcome to the pod.
Su Sanni:
Thank you, Chris. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to chat today, so I appreciate the time.
Chris Wedding:
Hear, hear. So, I want to start off by reminding listeners of two really cool milestones or benchmarks for you-all's progress at Dollaride. One of those is that within a year of launching in just one neighborhood in New York, you guys have over 15,000 users of your service bringing better mobility solutions to underserved communities in terms of public transit. Then I guess you're getting noticed since you all just won this award from New York State, this clean transportation prize with 10 million bucks of grant money with a few expectations tied to that money. Pretty big milestones. Kudos in a short time, Su. What do you think are some reasons why things have hit or clicked so well for Dollaride?
Su Sanni:
Thank you, Chris. I think we are at a really interesting time right now where there's a tremendous amount of momentum and tailwinds around the types of services and things that Dollaride is doing. So, for one, our federal government is really investing a ton into our country's clean energy transition. So, projects and companies that can do anything that accelerates our adoption of clean energy, electric vehicles, the installation of charging infrastructure, those things are getting a lot of attention. Fortunately, Dollaride was already at the cusp of that type of innovation.
05:06
Then secondly, which is really more akin to like the reason why I started the company and was pretty obvious when you look at me and the rest of our team, then that has to do with transit equity and providing equity in disadvantaged communities. I started Dollaride because I grew up in areas of New York City that were severe transit deserts. My family has owned commuter van fleets for nearly three decades, so I learned a lot from the business angle of how to run a small business that delivers transportation to the public. But where this is all coming full circle is that from a government level and even some investors, folks are recognizing that, you have to bring disadvantaged communities or underserved populations into this new future along with the rest of the country.
So, Justice40, for example, that initiative is an example of this and Dollaride, I think has always flown that flag ever since we started four years ago. But now in combination with providing electric vehicles and charging stations to the fleet owners that we serve, we're getting a lot of attention. So, I'm really looking forward to the future.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, that's amazing. This is maybe one of the first times we've talked about a transit desert and transit equity on the podcast. Can you give us more background on why these deserts exist?
Su Sanni:
Absolutely. There's probably a multitude of reasons, but one really clear one is that there's been either disinvestment or lack of investment in public transit infrastructure, particularly in underserved communities all around the country. So, if we take New York City as an example, the New York City subway system was really designed to get people into Manhattan, which is the epicenter of the city. It's the canonical “New York,” quote unquote, that everyone knows of, but Manhattan is one of five boroughs in New York City.
For people who live in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, these are areas where I lived and where a lot of my friends and family hang out, for many decades, we've had indirect commutes to get to work or to get to school, or have simply just been disenfranchised by the lack of public transit and access to it in the outer boroughs. So, in short, all around the country, it's getting more and more expensive to live in the downtown area of every major city.
Every city has its own Manhattan, so to speak, and that's where everyone wants to live. It's certainly where the best jobs are, but because it's so expensive to live in these downtown areas, people live further and further away from the epicenter of the city. But unsurprisingly, the further out you get, the weaker the public transit service becomes. So, there lies why and how we have these transit deserts, even in cities as great as New York.
Chris Wedding:
I think it may be obvious to listeners, but just elaborate a bit on the implications of this lack of mass transit options as you get further and further away from the Manhattans of any city.
08:34
Su Sanni:
Sure. Well, in two ways the implications can be pretty significant. I'll first talk about it on a personal level. Simply put, if you're living in a transit desert or if you're in a city where the bus system or the subway or light rail just doesn't meet you where you are or doesn't take you where you need to go, you're going to end up having to either have a very indirect commute to get to your destination. So, you have longer wait times, you're walking to get to the leg or some part of your commute, you’re simply just spending more time in transit as opposed to productive time at work or at school or at the hospital, wherever you need to go.
So, the impact on people is time wasted. It's frustration dealing with this type of commute, but it can also be a barrier to jobs and healthcare and educational opportunities. But if we step back and even think about it from a macro level, there was a research study, I think by MIT a couple of years ago, maybe I can share it with you and the audience afterwards, but they found that the economic impact of transit deserts is remarkable.
We are probably losing in the order of billions of dollars a year in productivity because people have to drive a car in traffic to get to work because they can't really rely on public transit in their neighborhoods. So, that's more wear and tear on the roads, more money spent out of our own pockets just to commute and like I mentioned earlier, more time commuting as opposed to productive time. So, when you quantify these impacts, as a society, we're really losing out on quite a bit of productivity as we endure these inefficient modes of transportation.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I can guess that number is tens of billions of dollars lost productivity.
Su Sanni:
Yeah.
Chris Wedding:
A related subsector within climate tech would be electric scooters, let's say, so lots of VC capital and interest or controversy over the last three to four years. What role could they have played, do they play or should they not play in addressing transit deserts, do you think?
Su Sanni:
I'd like to start by saying, for one, I'm a huge fan of electric scooters and e-bikes. In fact, while I'm becoming known as like the dollar van man here in New York now and maybe even outside, I literally ride a city bike here in New York multiple times a week to and from the office. But I typically ride it when I get to about a mile or two miles away from the office, so I'm using a multimodal commute to get to and from work. I think that's an example of where micromobility with things like scooters and e-bikes can really play an integral role in how we get around the city. But those things have their own limitations and constraints.
11:53
When it's super cold out or if you're in a cold climate like New York or anywhere in the Northeast, you'll be unlikely to be on a scooter in January or February. Similarly, if you're someone who's doing errands, you're carrying bags or groceries, you're not going to hop on a bike or a scooter either. So, I think the main point here is that these things play a role and they should have a place in the fabric of transportation in any city. But if scooters and e-bikes are the only hammer that we have, then everything will look like a nail and we're certainly approaching this problem the wrong way.
They are one tool in the tool belt. I like to give my respects to scooters and I think there's a lot that we could learn from Bird and Lime and all the money that they've raised over the years, but they're just really one piece of the puzzle.
Chris Wedding:
Well, I promise that question was not a setup to pick your solution against theirs. I can just imagine a lot of folks wondering that question. I think you said it well, which is we need them all. We need all the mass transit mobility solutions we have today, plus some more, which you-all are working on. Let's go there. So specifically, Dollaride, what is it? Paint the picture in detail.
Su Sanni:
I'll talk a little bit about how we started and then where we're headed. I think that'll give people a full view of what the company does and what we're really trying to accomplish. Essentially, we started Dollaride a few years ago, basically launched in 2018 because we wanted to help people who lived in transit deserts find local dollar vans or commuter transit networks to get to school or to get to work or wherever their destination was. The company, including our name, was really inspired by dollar vans in New York City, which are very interesting, unique phenomenon in New York where there's a network of commercial drivers who pick up and drop off passengers along fixed routes for as little as $2 a ride. Back in the day, like in the 80s and 90s, they used to be a dollar, hence the name dollar vans.
I grew up on dollar vans. My family, I have two uncles who were drivers back in the late 80s. They now are fleet owners, but I got exposed to many aspects of this industry through my family, as well as being a rider of these services. So, ultimately, I wanted to build a technology platform that brought the Uber and Lyft user experience to the dollar van ecosystem here in New York.
My theory was that if we can make accessing dollar vans more transparent and smoother for riders, and then also make it easier for drivers to grow their businesses by finding more passengers, then, not only can we do good in the world, but this is actually a solution that would work in other geographies where there are similar informal transit networks.
Dollar vans are not only a New York thing, they really reflect the phenomenon that's happening all around the world, particularly in the emerging markets where people are riding around in mini buses or three wheelers.
Chris Wedding:
Tuk-tuks. Yeah.
Su Sanni:
Tuk-tuks, exactly. For folks in the global south or in the emerging markets, that is actually public transportation, not a subway system. So, that was my whole theory. A bunch of this was informed by my family. My family's Nigerian. In Lagos, Nigeria, we have a similar informal transit network. It's called Danfo or Danfo buses and it's the same thing like Matatus or dollar vans here in New York.
15:58
Long story short, we started out with a software program basically helps drivers optimize their routes, find and serve more passengers. Then it provides a nice cool modern experience for passengers who are using an app to engage with the transportation service. We got a lot of traction off of that business model for the last three years. We were able to raise some venture capital to build and grow the company, but then my uncles and other fleet owners began to complain to me about the cost of gas and its impact on their businesses. Then there's similar operational costs that they have, like insurance, that continue to go up while their income doesn't necessarily go up as much.
So, just trying to be helpful, I started looking into these things and long story short, I realized that if these informal transit drivers, some way, somehow figured out how to get electric vehicles, they could really reduce their operational costs significantly. Then reinvest that money into better equipment for their businesses, into proper insurance and other things that would make them a more sustainable business. Let alone no longer contribute to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions and all the other things that we're trying to get rid of with ICE vehicles.
I just kind of got obsessed with the potential of electrifying informal transit through the eyes of a small business owner. That really represents where Dollaride is headed now. We've already built software that we know optimizes a transit system, but now we want to deal with the physical assets that these fleet owners are working with, because that's where you can really make an impact on their net income and also have a bigger, broader impact on the environment.
Chris Wedding:
Okay, so does that mean that you're transitioning from something like an Uber tech platform, connecting the riders with the van slash fleet owners to a model where you're like helping to finance perhaps EV van purchases or something?
Su Sanni:
Yeah, that's correct. Basically, the insight that I had that led us in this direction was the fact that the first incarnation of our business when we were software first or software only, we were processing all the payments for drivers. So, we already had a view into their cash flows and thus their ability to service debt.
When I started seeing that, okay, not only is this a profitable venture for these drivers and fleet owners, but there's clearly here enough margin for them to upgrade their vehicle and pay it off over time if there was the right lenders or financing scheme that really appealed to their needs. Unfortunately, for a lot of small businesses, particularly if you are operating in a disadvantaged community or you're based in an underserved market, you might also have credit barriers. So, it's not easy to get a car loan or get a loan to build and expand your business.
In essence, we thought that we could use the software that we had already built to give us some insight into underwriting these types of loans. Then work with the supply chain to provide electric vehicles and charging infrastructure to the drivers who are forward thinking enough to want to get an electric vehicle and save some costs as soon as possible.
19:39
Chris Wedding:
Interesting. I wonder, have you heard of a company called Nithio by any chance?
Su Sanni:
No, I haven't actually. Tell me about them.
Chris Wedding:
Well, they're not in your sector, so that makes sense. They came up on a prior phone call I just had, which was convenient, but they're serving the off-grid energy market, so think like small solar home systems. I believe that's their focus. Maybe that's changed, but I bring them up because a lot of the households in emerging markets, developing countries, pick your term, there's no credit score. So, how do you underwrite and finance a solar home system for those communities? So, they're helping to create a credit score of sorts to make those purchases, that lending easier. That maybe just is an interesting thing to explore.
Another one, there was a transaction between, I think, Generate Capital and I believe BYD, where they essentially would finance the batteries and let, I think the towns purchase almost the market rate for a diesel bus. Then Generate Capital would fund the purchase of the battery portion or the battery premium let's say of the BYD buses and then it became a contracted cash flow with super awesome credit counterparties in that deal.
Anyway, I'm kind of spitballing with you as if we're just talking one on one, but realizing we're not talking one on one. I'm going to transition away from those two other companies, which came to mind.
Su Sanni:
No worries. I'll definitely follow up with you on those. I'd love to check out their businesses and learn more about what they're doing. It could be applicable to how Dollaride is going to roll out our EV in the future.
Chris Wedding:
Exactly. Yeah. No need to reinvent every single wheel. All right. So, transitioning to making the purchase or early financing of electric vehicles easier for these fleet owners. All right, so pretty cool. What are some other barriers do you think? Just chatting right now, I can feel how big this is potentially, but every great business has risks. What do you see as the major risks and how do you all seek to mitigate those risks?
Su Sanni:
Sure. I mean, I think obviously there's financial risk. That's an easy one to point out, but we are going to mitigate those risks by whenever we can, actually connecting our fleet owners to jobs or to customers who are looking for transportation services commercially. Fortunately, that was exactly what we were doing before we got involved with the physical hardware or assets in the first place. There is a flywheel that we're working through in our business that I think would really help us electrify thousands of vehicles effectively and provide a good return to the lenders that we'll be working with. But another risk that I think is noteworthy, I'm always thinking about how do I expand and grow this business, especially outside of New York? And it occurs to me that while they are dollar vans or things like dollar vans in other cities, providing Dollaride service to them is going to be the next chapter and challenge for my company.
23:08
Thinking about how to scale is the next frontier for us. I have some pretty kooky ideas, but I don't think this is necessarily rocket science. On one end, the common through lines here are that we're dealing with small businesses and wherever you see it there being like a shuttle service at a hotel or an airport or an apartment complex, those vehicles aren't owned by the hotel or the airport or the casino. There's a contract with that entity and a local small business who's providing that transportation service.
I imagine Dollaride having to create relationships with lots of different entities over time to build this awareness that even as a small business owner with a small fleet you can get on the path of electrification through Dollaride’s platform. We're still figuring out the scaling model, but certainly within the next 18 months, maybe two years, we'll demonstrate what we're doing in New York, but now in another city.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, on that first point, the flywheel effect where you're helping your borrowers to get more business to service their debt and then some, right?
Su Sanni:
Right.
Chris Wedding:
If you think about a normal lender, well, they're not helping you create more top line, that's your job. But in this case, you are helping your borrower create more top line, which is pretty cool. I mean, the scaling piece, I like what you said, it isn't rocket science. I mean, you have tech. Tech supersedes, jumps over geographic boundaries all the time and you get a financing partner. Once you decide what your mold is, your box, if you will, your criteria, they're probably on board, whether it's a borough in New York City or in Kansas City.
Su Sanni:
Exactly.
Chris Wedding:
Anyway, I get the scaling piece. All right. Maybe describe what these vehicles look like. I can't imagine what the various options are in EV or hybrid. I was going to say mini, but that's the wrong phrase, van or commercial vehicle. Like who makes these vehicles today that are the best fit for your model, Su?
Su Sanni:
This is a good question and it should be pretty fun to talk through. So, the good news is for the type of lead owner that we work with right now, there's a handful of vehicle models that they usually work with. I can just describe it. I'm sure the audience, this will resonate with them.
Usually, we're dealing with a Ford E450 or a Ford E350 and it's the type of shuttle bus vehicle that you would find when you're at an airport and you're taking the shuttle service at an airport, maybe to the rental car station or to the parking lot from the gate. Those shuttle buses that are serving the airport, they're typically a Ford vehicle that seats anywhere from 12 to 20 passengers with enough space for luggage or what have you. That's the most common type of vehicle in the commuter van industry here in New York. That vehicle is also popularly used at casinos for shuttle services between large apartment buildings or apartment complexes, and the same thing for hotels. So, you have that.
26:38
Then you also have like the common sprinter van vehicle, which might seat like 14 passengers or so. Mercedes has a pretty nice sprinter and there's the Ford Transit. Those are the models that are most popular, but the bad news is that there is no electric version of any of those models for a passenger business coming from the OEMs, from Ford, GM, Chevrolet, none of them. None of them have an electric version coming off the assembly line.
We all expect that maybe by 2025, those particular models will have an electric version and that will actually be great for my business and my company, because it should be cheaper to buy that EV right from the OEM than what we're doing now, which is taking the base vehicle, which is still an ICE vehicle or a gas-armed vehicle, and then upfitting it or converting it into an electric vehicle using some other partners.
So, that's really what we're dealing with now when it comes to the supply of vehicles. There just really isn't enough of them off the assembly line, but hopefully within the next three years, that'll change.
Chris Wedding:
Well, I have a thousand questions on what you just said, so we'll cover just a few. I had written the word down, like retrofit. Do you need to or have to? And the answer is yes.
Su Sanni:
Yeah.
Chris Wedding:
I couldn't picture which manufacturers are making this. Your partners who do the conversion, let's say, is that public information or is that secret sauce?
Su Sanni:
It's not public information yet because we're still—
Chris Wedding:
Okay, we'll leave it there.
Su Sanni:
…negotiating and choosing, but I can talk about at least what they do.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, go for it.
Su Sanni:
They are great partners. Long story short, within the supply chain, there's a type of company called Upfitter and basically what they do is they retrofit a vehicle from a gas-powered engine into an electric vehicle by replacing the engine with an electric power train and batteries.
So, you basically go from this engine and set of pieces that has like 8,000 thousand plus parts in an ICE vehicle to an electric version, which is a lot simpler and has, I think, maybe 200 or fewer parts. So, there are companies that really deal with that whole conversion process and they have factories and facilities where they're doing this stuff on an assembly line. Through labor, they're trying to convert as many as they possibly can, but indeed, because you're still dealing with a base vehicle or a chassis from an ICE vehicle, you have two steps of costs that you have to pay for.
29:26
You're buying that base vehicle, whether it's new or used, and then you're now paying for the retrofit, which is going to include the batteries, the powertrain, and then the labor for the conversion. The end result is a more expensive vehicle than if it was coming off the assembly line straight from the OEM.
Chris Wedding:
Okay, well, the story keeps getting more interesting here, Su, because now you have the tech to connect the rider and the driver and you're moving to control slash facilitate the underwriting and financing, two different things. And now you're telling me slash the whole audience that there's more secret sauce where you can't just buy these things, you've got to buy and reconfigure as well. I can imagine depending on the nature of those relationships with these, did you say Upfitters? Was that the right term?
Su Sanni:
Yeah, upfitters or EV conversion companies.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. Anyway, it gets to be a story where there are a few others that can so easily copy, replicate because it's kind of three sources of value adder uniqueness, I think. Is that right?
Su Sanni:
Yeah, I think so. Trust me, I would love for our value proposition to be a lot simpler. It'd make my job a lot easier, but I think the truth of the matter is that we're in an age of this energy transition where our supply chain for electric vehicles and charging infrastructure is just not fully there yet. There's a lot of things that are still developing. So, even if we are aggressive at getting off of fossil fuels and leveraging clean energy in transportation, we're still going to be cobbling together solutions with the best tools and things that we have today.
So, that's what I look at Dollaride as right now, I'm sure that in the future, when the OEMs get their act together and they get production up to meet demand with EVs and all the different models that the public wants, that'll make things easier for me. But until then, we're literally building our own supply chain on vendors and partners who can help us create a great product solution for our fleet owners. As complicated as it is, it's my job at Dollaride to at least make it appear simple to the end customers. So, what we're going to show them is like the Wizard of Oz, they only see the nice stuff instead of the real magic that's happening behind the curtain.
Chris Wedding:
Well, yeah, and to be clear to the listeners, I wouldn't describe what you're doing as cobbling together or necessarily complicated, but more differentiated. Three things you-all are doing that are unique out there and to your point about making it simple for the users, but it's complicated back here, there's that fun analogy of the duck on the pond where the duck looks super chill above water. But underground, those feet are moving like a million miles an hour, right?
Su Sanni:
Exactly.
Chris Wedding:
That's what we should all strive for perhaps. Hey, let's switch as we do at the end of all of our podcast from the business to the person here. So, Su, imagine you're talking to your younger self, give us some advice you might pass along to be more productive, happier on this journey.
33:09
Su Sanni:
The advice I would have given my younger self, I think the two most important things actually would have been to start earlier. Whatever that entrepreneurial dream or idea was, the earlier you start, the better. I started building companies at 27, maybe 26, I wasn't too old, but I mean, gosh, if I could have gone back and started at 21, when I was in college, it'd be a completely different game.
Chris Wedding:
Plus one, I hear you, yeah.
Su Sanni:
So, that's one thing, I wish that was advice that I got or encouragement I got much earlier on. The second thing is treating your physical health and staying in shape just as seriously as you're treating your business. Fortunately, I'm still in pretty good shape, but it's not because I work out a ton. I think I'm just pretty lucky genetically and I did work out an inordinate amount back in college and in my early years, I used to play football at Boston College, so I have those residual effects. But the main point here is that, you feel a lot better about everything you're doing if you're just in better shape and how you feel physically and your health directly contributes to your aptitude in business and in developing a company, which has so many different trials and tribulations and challenges.
So, the least you can do is be in great physical shape, because I think it's good for your mental wellbeing, your mental health, but it'll also translate into you having more energy. You just being in a better mood more often, which should translate into better results in your company.
Chris Wedding:
It's true, agree with all that. I think one of the ways it shows up is that if you take care of yourself really well, probably when you're in those investor meetings, in those customer meetings, you're showing up on the edge of your seat with energy, enthusiasm, power in your voice, because the opposite might convey the feelings you don't want the person on the other side of that Zoom call or table to feel. Yeah.
Su Sanni:
Absolutely.
Chris Wedding:
Well, that relates to the next question, which is, describe a few daily or maybe weekly habits, Su, that keep you healthy, sane, and focused.
Su Sanni:
I walk, I guess you can say an hour every day. I'm not sure what the mileage is or how many steps, but it's a lot, but essentially, I walk my kids to school.
Chris Wedding:
Good for you.
Su Sanni:
Thank you. Half hour trip back and forth to the house or to the home office, but I've learned to really relish that time and now it's a routine and something that I like to do. I was actually fighting with my wife earlier today, not fighting, but we had a bit of a little tiff. I offered to pick the kids up in the afternoon, which is something that she usually does, but I was glad to offer it because I actually like that time walking to the daycare and coming back.
36:15
It’s part of my routine now and I think it's helpful because it gives me a chance to get away from the computer and think more freely as I'm walking the kids to school, or even if I want to just get my mind off of work, I can just talk to them and play with them as I'm walking them to school. But nonetheless, getting out of the office, away from the computer and walking is really clearing in terms of my mind. I found it to be also thought provoking, because that's usually when I come up with my best ideas.
Chris Wedding:
There is research out there, which validates just what you said, that a lot of our best ideas come when we're moving, not when we're sitting. I mean, I guess I forget the nature of that reasoning, but at the simplest form, we're circulating our blood and therefore oxygen more efficiently during that process. I think a lot of great thinkers and philosophers used to swear by the power of having good ideas while walking, so you're in good company.
The piece about walking your kids to school, again, love that. I walked them into school to their classroom holding their hand as long as they would let me for my three, but also a good balance as you say. Like if things are stressful at work, you're hanging out with your kids, you're like, “Oh yeah, what's going to be important to me for like decades, it's certainly my kids,” and maybe it's the business, but definitely it's the family.
Su Sanni:
Totally. One of my little tricks, when I'm on the phone in business meetings, whether it's trying to close a deal, talking to investors, or even just having a difficult conversation with someone, I often take that phone call standing and I'll pace around the house or pace in my backyard while I'm on the call. I don't know why, but I found that I'm just maybe a better communicator when I'm walking and talking. I'm just more dynamic and just more into the conversation when I can walk around and pace with the headphones in while I'm taking the call. So, I don't know if there's any research about that, but I feel like I'm in a position of power if I can walk and talk while on these high-pressured calls.
Chris Wedding:
Well, the question I want to ask you is, when you're standing up, are you doing the Wonder Woman pose for more power? Yeah, I hear you. I'm a pacer as well whenever I'm on the phone versus Zoom. Let's wrap here, Su, with a couple more. One is, can you recommend a book or a podcast or a quote that you think the listeners should maybe pick up?
Su Sanni:
Yeah, actually I was listening to a podcast this weekend and I was just so impressed by this one specific episode. It's called The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast. So, that's the name of the podcast and the specific episode actually came out a few weeks ago, well, it came out on August 23rd, it's called Why Arguments Against Free Transit Are Missing The Point. It’s an interview with Dr. Destiny Thomas. She makes some excellent, excellent points about how our lens for evaluating the needs of public transit riders and the communities that public transit serves are completely narrow. It’s too narrow and instead, we need to use a different framework for deciding how should we invest in public transit and which people should benefit the most?
40:06
She really gave some great arguments. I don't want to ruin it for any of the listeners who are curious, but this is the first time I really heard a great assembly of reasons why free public transportation is something that we could accomplish, but it's going to take a completely different set of inputs in order for us to achieve that goal. But it's a worthy goal to pursue because transit freedom and transit equity is actually a net positive to our society and to businesses. So, it's worth us really rethinking, how do we fund the public transportation from a first-principle standpoint? So, yeah, I'm a real big fan now of the Streetsblog and Dr. Destiny Thomas because of that episode.
Chris Wedding:
Well, I love A, that you were finding this episode real time on the podcast, perfect, and how specific it is. That's the first for both. Anyway, love that you're keeping it real there. All right, final thing, Su, thousands of folks are listening, who do you want to hear from most and how do they find you?
Su Sanni:
Well, I'd love to hear from climate tech investors and family offices, people who work in family offices, or folks who are part of green banks. Essentially as my company grows, we're going to need more access to capital and I think we have, not only a great business, but a business model that really does have a double, if not triple, bottom line. So, I’d love to chat with folks who are on the other side of the table, investing in entrepreneurs, and I would love to start those conversations with folks who are interested.
Chris Wedding:
Well, hear, hear. Sounds like three differentiators for something that's pretty scalable, Su. Glad you're working on it with some firepower from New York State. Hey, rooting for you-all’s success at Dollaride, man. Talk soon.
Su Sanni:
Thank you, Chris. It was my pleasure and I look forward to coming back again soon once we have these electric vehicles on the road.
Chris Wedding:
Hear, hear.
Hey there, it's Chris again. If you want more intel on climate tech, startups and investors, please join the thousands of other founders, investors and world changers who have subscribed to our Substack newsletter at entrepreneursforimpact.com. Also, I'd really appreciate it if you took 90 seconds to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or give us a five-star rating on Spotify. This feedback is the number one way to draw more attention to the inspiring climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here. All right, until next time, keep on fighting the good fights.