Mile Marker

The Impact of Innovation (Mir Baqar - Ridecell)

February 07, 2023 Season 1 Episode 6
Mile Marker
The Impact of Innovation (Mir Baqar - Ridecell)
Show Notes Transcript

Mir Baqar, Ridecell’s Senior Director of Product Management talks about the impact of innovation in the mobility industry, how Ridecell stays at the forefront of fast-moving trends and the importance of how solving today’s challenges leads to the successes of tomorrow using fleet automation.

https://ridecell.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ridecell/
https://twitter.com/ridecell

Stacey Papp:

Welcome to the Mile Marker podcast. My name is Stacey Papp and I will be your guide, taking you on a journey into the world of fleet automation and shared mobility, focusing on innovations for businesses with fleets.

Joining me today is Mir Baqar, Senior Director of Product Management at Ridecell. During his career Mir has been a hands-on leader, helping to empower organizations grow and thrive as digital enterprises. His ability to leverage his cross-functional industry experience and passion for innovation has given him the ability to see the big picture and truly understand how to meet unique problems with unique solutions.

Today he joins us to talk about the impact of innovation, how Ridecell stays at the forefront of fast-pmoving trends in the mobility industry, and how the importance of positive change impacts customers today and leads to the success of tomorrow. Mir, welcome. It's great to have you here.

Mir Baqar:

Thank you, Stacey. It's a pleasure to join you today.

Stacey Papp:

Absolutely, so let's get right into it. We're talking about the spirit of innovation, and Ridecell is known for having that deep spirit that carries into our everyday culture. Talk about what that means to you and your team and how you continue to foster that spirit on a daily basis.

Mir Baqar:

Great starting question, Stacey. Interestingly enough, Ridecell has been in business for many, many years, but it still functions like a startup. This is because of our deep-rooted culture of innovation, which is really embodied in a couple of our core values. One of the core values we have is called Obstacle is the Way. We have another one called Mission Obsession. These values really drive us all at Ridecell, and this is really how we help our customers solve some of the tough and complex problems around mobility and fleet operations in new and creative ways.

Stacey Papp:

It's no secret that the mobility industry moves fast. So what is RidcCell doing to keep up with the emerging and changing trends we are seeing in our industry?

Mir Baqar:

Yeah, moving fast is probably an understatement.

Stacey Papp:

No pun intended, right, moving-

Mir Baqar:

No pun intended, yeah. So yes, I mean, the mobility industry is rapidly evolving all over the world, and it's really evolving with some unique regional needs and challenges. The pandemic period over the last couple of years have showed us all how quickly things can change and how that could be an impetus for innovation. For example, pre-pandemic mobility was all the rage. Ride-hailing was growing, food delivery was picking up. Peer-to-peer car sharing was becoming widely accepted. Virtually all the OEMs were venturing into car-sharing, vehicle subscription, and other forms of mobility. And Ridecell was in the thick of it, helping our clients build and offer innovative mobility services, whether it's in North America or Europe.

Then, as we all know, pandemic hit and all of this came to a grinding halt. Nobody was going anywhere, no one was traveling. The concept of sharing was really scary due to the concern of spreading the virus. The entire world came to a grinding halt when it came to mobility. This obviously created a significant impact on the mobility industry at large, where a large number of these innovative services and business offerings essentially ceased to operate, and the ones that remain went into survival mode.

Well, as a famous quote from Sir Winston Churchill during World War II stated, "Don't let a good crisis go to waste." Well, Rid cell was also in a tough spot, but to the credit of its innovative culture, as I mentioned earlier, and the never-give-up attitude, it was able to capitalize on this crisis to help its customers really look at how they could automate their mobility, fleet operations, which was triggered by labor shortage during the pandemic. Well, this was the genesis of Ridecell's intelligent fleet automation platform, which, when combined with our mobility platform put us in a pole position to capitalize on the resurgence of the mobility industry coming out of the pandemic.

What's really interesting about this resurgence is that it is now being driven by a new set of challenges and opportunities, not the own motivations and challenges and opportunities before the pandemic. These challenges and opportunities were related to some of the supply chain constraints around vehicles, the pricing of new and used vehicles that were out there, a lot more emphasis on climate change realities. The electric vehicles were growing and becoming widely accepted in the market. And the consumers themselves were reevaluating vehicle ownership, which is usership. And it was not only about providing new and convenient mobility solutions anymore, but it was also about how those fleets could be operated in a sustainable and economically viable way at scale.

It was interesting, there was another trend we started seeing, and this was driven by the explosive growth of eCommerce during pandemic, as we were all confined to our homes and yet wanted to try to lead a normal life, there was a massive resurgent on commercial last mile delivery, where we were getting practically everything getting delivered to our homes. Well, that growth really drove some interesting innovations that are coming out of the consumer mobility industry to scale that operation in a more cost-effective way.

So at Ridecell, we're actually fortunate that we were able to send some of these trends and pivot towards helping our mobility customers transition through those tough times, and in the process build out our intelligent fleet automation platform to compliment our leading mobility solutions. Like I mentioned earlier, Stacey, this really positions Ridecell well to capitalize on the new and emerging trends in the world of mobility.

Stacey Papp:

You touched on something that I want to revisit real quick, is that the word "share" became scary during the pandemic, and you're so right. Just touching doorknobs put everybody into a fright, so you can imagine sharing a vehicle that may or may not be super clean when someone gets into it.

But we've all heard of the Great Resignation. I'm listening to your story and I'm wondering, did we just touch on the Great Pivot for Ridecell? Because Ridecell as a company, the word "share" was synonymous. You order a ride with your cell phone.

Mir Baqar:

Yeah, that's right.

Stacey Papp:

And it was shared mobility, but the pivot came out of necessity at that point. But it was in such a time of darkness, in such a time of uncertainty and just complete and utter fear, Ridecell did a product pivot and said, "Look. Okay, cool. If share's going to be scary, let's make it not scary and let's ebb and flow with the market." Like you mentioned, so many ... I mean, I can't tell you, at least in my neighborhood, how many times the Amazon truck paid a visit, multiple ...

Mir Baqar:

That's right.

Stacey Papp:

I'm embarrassed to tell you, to be honest, how many times he pulled into my driveway, but there was such a pivot in technology. And I think you touched on that, that was so important and thank you for sharing that, because a lot of companies were not able to make that pivot. And I'm almost wondering where you think or what you think Ridecell did that was exceptionally well in that great pivot to be where we are today, to kind of ebb and flow with the word "share?"

Mir Baqar:

Yeah, that's an absolute reality that we all went through. And I think Ridecell probably, there were two factors. One was obviously being very focused around helping our customers succeed, and it was central to our team. The second thing was our tenacity to be creative and innovative in terms of helping our customers thrive and survive in this space. It gave us the opportunity to see how we could pivot to really build on the competencies, the skills, the technology that we had to actually help them get through those tough times.

And that was a great learning experience for us, because as we started things evolving coming out of pandemic, we could capitalize on some of those and really double-down on how we could come out of it a stronger, better, innovative company, to be in a great position to help our customers. And we knew things would migrate out of post-pandemic, so we wanted to be ready and be flexible to help them out.

Stacey Papp:

I think flexible is the key word. Now we're talking about safety and security. And you mentioned again that last mile delivery side of things, which we're talking about more and more now because of the pandemic, but how do you keep those drivers, their cargo and their vehicle safe?

That's a newer narrative that really got legs because of the pandemic, because it's, people were leaving doors open on delivery vehicles and people were taking packages out, or taking the entire vehicle, or drivers were being harmed. I mean, we're now finding ourselves in really cool situations to tell a different story, based on the challenge of the customer or the prospect. Which I think is such a great place to be because, again, we talked about meeting a unique problem with a unique solution, and it sounds like that puts you and your team exactly in that seat.

Mir Baqar:

Yeah. No, absolutely it does. And I think this goes back to just how some of these companies are also evolving, and our ability to actually help them through digitization and transformation to be able to be a lot more efficient. I mean, they had really reacted to the need and the demand of the market during those times, but coming out of it, they realized it was not efficient, it was not scalable, it was not operationally economically viable.

And us, with our mindset and how can actually help our customers be successful and grow economically, allowed us to engage with some of these new segments of mobility around commercial and last delivery to be able to help solve problems that honestly we hadn't thought about before.

Stacey Papp:

Which now puts us in the driver's seat to talk about digital transformation, which was, you hear that phrase and you think IT, but that's not always the case. It's now we're talking to enterprise-size fleets, like you said, that realize that a little bit of a spotlight was shown on some of those inefficiencies, that now they can go back and say, "We need to fix those, and here's what it's going to do for us in the long-run."

Mir Baqar:

Absolutely. And new models came into existing, new challenges came into existing, new trends came into existence. And our client's ability to help address that in a way that they could not only thrive but grow, required a level of digital innovation that we were fortunate to bring to market.

Stacey Papp:

Keeping with the customers as our topic point. Can you give us some insight into your process of finding the intersection between understanding a customer's challenge and then coming up with new ways to solve it that might be faster, easier, and less expensive than they have experienced in the past?

Mir Baqar:

Yeah, great question. Well, first of all, I don't believe that there is one or only way to approach this.

Stacey Papp:

Sure.

Mir Baqar:

And there've been a lot of success stories about companies out there that they've had their unique ways to go address this in their markets, for their products, for their customers.

I mean, one example that's a well-known example is actually Apple. And at the risk of belaboring that point, I think one of the things that's been widely known about Apple is they don't spend a lot of time and energy on asking their customers what they want or the problems they're trying to solve. Yet they have some of the best products in the world that you and I use every day. The approach they used was they really went with their imagination and intuition around how to design products and experiences around it that we all know now. So that's one example.

But for us at Ridecell and the industry we serve, the process and approach we typically take is one of what we call collaborative creation. And the mobility industry, the reality is the mobility industry is still a new and evolving area. The technology is evolving, the business models are being rethought. The operations or the fleet in the mobility business is getting more complex. The consumer needs and behavior are constantly changing. And there are a lot of regulations that they need to navigate that play a big role in how our customers really be successful in those space. So these are all evolving items. And this means innovation needs to be rapid and iterated. Nobody's got the perfect answer, nobody's got the crystal ball, but innovation is happening, it's continuous, and we need to be able to embody that.

Well, interestingly enough, this plays really well with Ridecell's strength as a technology platform provider that thrives on collaborating with our clients. Some of our clients are actually introducing brand new mobility businesses, whether it be model, whether it be operational approaches, whether it's digitization. Some of our clients are actually trying to grow, so they have established and validated that hey, they have a viable business, but they're growing. Others are just trying to scale in a more efficient, economically viable way. So there are different spectrums of the challenges that the market is going through.

From our standpoint, I mean, from day one, we're not only there to understand their mobility and fleet operation business goals and outcomes, and we're very much focused on outcomes, but we're there to work closely with them to co-create the mobility solutions and do it in an iterative manner, bringing our mobility expertise, a year's worth of being in this space to help our clients, as well as the strength and the creativity that goes into a technology platform. And then we started doing it in such a way that we can deliver those unique solutions to meet their business goals, but more importantly, in an economically scalable way.

That's really the approach fundamentally. We used to actually engage and look for those challenges, look for those opportunities, work closely with the clients. And help them innovate, validate, grow, and scale efficiently.

Stacey Papp:

You're talking, and my mind immediately went back to a saying I heard years ago, it said, "All roads lead to Rome, but they're not always straight." And it is such a great visual, that you'll get to where you need to go. It's just sometimes you got to take a really severe curve or it's full of hills and peaks and valleys. And it almost sounds like that's kind of where the road to innovation lies, is that there's not just one straight answer to, "We have problem A, here's solution B, and there's one straight line that's going to connect the two." You might have to get all the way to Z before you come back to B and say, "Okay, cool. I think we found a way to solve this."

But it's the journey that makes finding that solution, it sounds like for you and your team, is the most fulfilling part. Because if without that, innovation just becomes burn and churn. Here's one problem for every one solution, it's a one-to-one tie. And I guess you guys probably wouldn't have as much fun that you do today if that were the case.

Mir Baqar:

No, that's absolutely true. I think it's a lot to do with the journey, but the journey with a clear understanding of what the outcome is. So you might take different routes. Like you said, all roads lead to Rome. In our world, it's not any Rome anymore, it's Rome, it's Berlin.

Stacey Papp:

You're all over the place.

Mir Baqar:

Singapore, right. It's constantly evolving, and innovation becomes the heart of it. Iteration becomes at the heart of work. And failure is a perfectly viable option, as long as we can quickly fail, validate, learn, and evolve. And being such a evolving industry in itself, both pre and post-pandemic as we talked about, it's very important for us to be nimble, flexible, come across as a innovation partner and co-creator with our clients. So there's no straight line, but the journey is equally fulfilling.

Stacey Papp:

No straight lines and in multiple cities.

This one might be a bit obvious, but I feel like it's worth an ask. What is the impact on companies who take a bit of a backseat when it comes to innovation? They take that wait-and-see approach, or they rely on that out-of-the-box solution to solve those complicated and unique challenges we just talked about. What are they facing in terms of their fate when they take that one-to-one approach?

Mir Baqar:

Yeah, obvious indeed. Well, I think it's common knowledge, and there are enough examples out there of what happens to companies or enterprises that are not innovating, they're not evolving with the changing times. That are not adapting to the changing dynamics of the market, or the constituents, the customers, the technology. They don't really grow and eventually cease to operate.

And there are tons of examples around us that have been quoted over and over again, and at the risk of sounding repetitive, I would too. I mean, Blockbuster versus Netflix is an example. Barnes & Noble versus Amazon. Motorola, Blackberry versus Apple.

Stacey Papp:

Sure.

Mir Baqar:

And then there are many more examples like this. What's interesting is we're also seeing some of this play out in specifically in the world of mobility as we know it. I mean, look at what Uber and Lyft has done to your traditional taxis. Look at what Amazon is actually doing to FedEx and UPS in terms of delivery.

Stacey Papp:

Yeah, that's so true.

Mir Baqar:

And your traditional car rental companies, that we've all seen and heard and experienced for years, and then what's happening from these new up-and-coming peer-to-peer car sharing. These are just some examples of how things are evolving. And since the mobility industry is going to experience, I believe, what I call a breakout stage on a number of these different fronts. So it's important, those who are not paying attention to the market trends that are driving some of this and not innovating to capitalize on these trends, will lose out.

One key factor to also keep in mind through this innovation process is once that business model, that mobility business model that takes hold and grows, you also need to account for how you can quickly enable efficient operations. It's very important that a lot of people are experimenting, validating these new concepts and ideas, and it takes hold, they quickly declare success and run the risk that if they're not thinking about scale and operating at scale and operating efficiently at scale, they also run the risk of being marginalized.

So that's why it's critical, in our mind obviously, is to have a technology or solution partner that is there that you can collaborate with, and who's there on the journey with you to make sure that we're always staying ahead of the curve. Staying ahead of those pivots, seeing those trends, capitalize on the trends, but doing in such a way that you can operationally be a successful enterprise.

Stacey Papp:

Well, you took me back a little bit when you mentioned Blockbuster, but the Netflix example is so on par because Netflix started off, you just ordered DVDs in the mail, and that was ... You got a two or three and you had to return them before you got new ones. And then all of a sudden ... I don't know of a household who isn't streaming, whether it's not Netflix or Hulu or what have you, you're streaming on something. And look at now the catalog of content, and original content, that they have produced. I mean, they've really ... And this was way before the pandemic happened. But when that hit, again, part of the great pivot, and this is such a elementary example when you're starting to talk about watching and streaming versus fleet automation, but it was this innovation that came in and said, "Well, if you can't go to the movies and see it, we're going to bring it to you."

And it sounds like you and your team have that exact same approach, that no solution is really too challenging. There's certain things that obviously we can't do, just whether it's technologically not sound or we just don't have that right now because we're not tracking astronauts in space, or something that's really out of the box. But there's still the ability, like you said, to pivot and say, "Okay, now here's where technology meets your challenge in order to come up with the solution you never know you needed," and here we go.

Mir Baqar:

Yeah. Yeah, no, 100%. And what's interesting when you brought up Netflix, another thing just popped in my mind which is very interesting, is Netflix, short of providing content on demand into your living room, onto your phone or on-the-go, whatever the case is, Netflix's monetization model is based on subscription. We're all getting comfortable with subscription. Amazon Prime subscription.

Stacey Papp:

Yeah, that's true.

Mir Baqar:

What's interesting is now the mobility industry is looking at, hey, how can they bring the concept of subscription, this predictable fixed pay on an ongoing monthly basis, for services. And vehicle subscription all of a sudden is picking up momentum, because the concepts of subscription is very much established. Well, why can't it be applied to, rather than buying a car, you can subscribe to a car?

Stacey Papp:

Sure.

Mir Baqar:

I mean, there's these adjacencies that are coming into it. Another example of innovation. So the concept is not new, but how do you innovate to actually implement and operate it in the world of mobility? That's where things get a little interesting. That's where we're at a point where we can create and innovate with our customers to help them deliver something like that.

Stacey Papp:

Exactly. On the customer side of things, and I know you can't divulge too much information and I would never ask you to, but is there a success story that really made you stop and think, "Wow, that would not have been possible without thinking outside of the box." Coming up with something new to meet the challenge. And doing something that maybe we've not done before, again, the art of the great pivot, in order for them to achieve the success that maybe they just have been grasping at but could never really get ahold of?

Mir Baqar:

Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure how much success [inaudible]-

Stacey Papp:

Don't share, don't overshare, but just give us some highlights if you can.

Mir Baqar:

Yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely. So let me think of maybe a good example. Okay. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. I have one.

Listen, we have this one customer we're working with, who's actually in the commercial last mile delivery fleet business. We're collaborating with them. We're actually been collaborating with them for some time now, but collaborating with them to help them solve two different problems. One problem was to how to secure their delivery vehicles while they were out on delivery, on the delivery routes. And it was to solve it without adding additional step or effort for the drivers to take action, like locking, unlocking with physical keys. As it was really critical for drivers to make all the delivery stops within the planned time window and not any more additional time. So that was one of the challenges.

The other problem our customer was looking for some help from us was to ensure that all the delivery vehicles, when they're back at the location and getting ready for the next day's delivery, that they're properly serviced, inspected, and ready to roll the next day. I mean, imagine having one vehicle out of commission actually has a material impact on their business operations.

So we're trying to solve these problems actually differently, because they're two different problems we're trying to solve it differently, as they had separate business goals and objectives from our client's standpoint. So we completely, in our minds, separated the two problems independent of each other. And the approach we were taking was to understand how things were done now, and we're looking at, "Well, how can we make those things that are done now more efficient through digitization, but again, doing it independently." So all solution approaches we came up with with our client actually ended up being relatively complex and costly to implement and scale. So they weren't bad solutions, they were just probably not the right ones based on the objectives we had.

It's interesting, at one point one of the team members, as we were brainstorming and working with the clients, asked the question, why are we trying to improve that that already exists? And why don't we think, quote unquote, white space, that is to basically eliminate all the constraints and references to how things are being done and rethink what the real problem is and how we will solve it. Well, great idea, great approach, great thinking, but we want to make sure that our customer was okay with us going down this approach of unconstrained thinking and gave us the permission to literally reimagine the problem and solution.

We were all fixated on digitally streamlining our existing process by enabling drivers to use digital keys. That's how we're trying to solve it. Hey, how can we, through technology, solve it by rather than having physical keys, give them access to digital keys on their mobile app, and then still the driver taking action through those digital keys to lock, unlock. Well, that's still friction. The drivers are busy driving and delivering.

What we were not thinking is, is why do we even need the driver in the equation of this? Why can't we actually come up with an answer where, based on the proximity of the driver and the state of the vehicle, why can't we lock and unlock the vehicle automatically? Without the driver really doing anything different than what they're supposed to do, is drive and deliver.

All of a sudden the joint team completely [inaudible] the solution approach. Which by the way, interestingly enough, also ended up being the approach to help solve both the problems, which means helping the, quote unquote, driver, without taking any action lock and unlock the vehicle while out in delivery. But also the service personnel. While the vehicles are at the location overnight, as they get close to the vehicles, knowing the fact that it's time for servicing that, it would lock and unlock the vehicles for them to service the vehicles.

So all of a sudden, one solution solving two different problems when we thought about it in a completely unconstrained way. I think that's a great example of just how we co-created a solution with the customer, without the constraint of how our minds were thinking with what is already known.

Stacey Papp:

That's also a beautiful example of what we talked about earlier, about solving a solution or solving for a problem they didn't know that they had. I mean, you talked about the maintenance part of it, which impacts every fleet-based business.

Mir Baqar:

Correct.

Stacey Papp:

Everything from oil changes to flat tires. And we talked a lot about road worthiness of vehicles. But yeah, I feel like my mind kind of exploded when you talked about that, and I'm sure that the customers did too because they probably probably were sitting there thinking, "We didn't know we had that problem." Well, you don't anymore.

Mir Baqar:

Yeah. And you know, what's interesting about when the customer saw this and they were supportive and engaging, all of a sudden the customer's mindset switched from-

Stacey Papp:

Sure.

Mir Baqar:

... "Hey, here's a technology partner who's solving problems," to, "Hey, this is a technology co-inventor with us to helping us take our business forward." Completely different mindsets.

Stacey Papp:

Yeah, it turns the relationship into a true partnership.

Mir Baqar:

Absolutely.

Stacey Papp:

Can you share with us some things, again, don't give away too much, but share things that you and your team are currently working on that will have those positive impacts on our customers, just like you mentioned above.

Mir Baqar:

Yeah. Listen, I think we're busy with a number of interesting things around here. But the things that I can share, broad strokes against, well, first, we're focused on expanding our intelligent fleet automation platform. I think that's one of the pivots we made during pandemic, and it's been a great decision we made. I think it's capitalizing on the trends that we're seeing now going forward. And by expanding it, I really mean really making it more richer in terms of how we can actually help our customers manage their mobility fleet, through offering them this end-to-end operational processes that they can actually scale efficiently through that automation platform.

And this becomes especially important now as electric vehicles are being embedded and growing as part of the fleet footprint. Different approach in terms of how EV vehicles can be managed, should be looked at, and operated as part of that. So I think that's one of the areas we're doing some good stuff in.

We're also doing some interesting work around bringing micro-mobility as part of what we call a multimodal mobility experience for all our mobility-as-a-service customers. I think Europe is a great example of how micro-mobility, which is scooters, E-bikes and the likes of those, are now becoming an integral part of offering that as a service to the constituents due to actually density and urbanization. But more importantly, a lot of regulation that is being established in different parts of the world to drive sustainable. So one of the areas we're working on to be able to do that.

I think another area that is actually quite fascinating is, and it's emerging more and more, is we're looking at mashing up rich in-vehicle data. And there's a lot of data that's being generated out of these sophisticated software in wheels. Whether it's be around driving behavior, all the sensor data that produces rich information, the health of a vehicle when it's an operation. And we've taken all of that data, mashing it up with the traditional fleet operations data, to really help some of our mobility fleet operators get insight into never before information. To see how they can actually better predict the growth, better manage their risk, and be in a position to make more precise and timely decisions to help grow and operate their business.

§So these are the two, three things that we see are areas that really will start differentiating us and the market is looking for.

Stacey Papp:

Well, this may answer the very last question I have for you, and it's my favorite one to ask. So if you had a crystal ball, where do you see Ridecell in the next five to 10 years when it comes to innovation in the mobility industry?

Mir Baqar:

Yeah, that's a billion-dollar question, isn't it?

Stacey Papp:

If we only all had crystal balls.

Mir Baqar:

Only, and-

Stacey Papp:

For everything.

Mir Baqar:

Absolutely. Well, I mean, if I had a crystal ball, I am sure it would only be able to predict five years ahead, not 10 years ahead.

Stacey Papp:

Hey, that's okay. That's fine.

Mir Baqar:

Yeah. Listen. In the next five years I see Ridecell really continue to be a technology solution partner for our growing list of customers. As they continue to innovate and grow their mobility business, how they capitalize on some of these evolving trends, how they pivot themselves to meet the changing behavior and demands of their customers, whether it be regional-specific or global.

And it's really predicated in the fact that our ability to be nimble, creative, and always willing to partner with our customers to innovate. I think it'll keep us at the forefront of growth in the world of mobility, as that industry itself goes through these market transitions or pivots. Listen, we've so shown this from our history, as we talked about pre-pandemic, during pandemic, and up until now, we've shown it through our history, and I'm confident we'll continue to do so in our journey. It's part of our DNA, it's who we are, it's how we've come this far, and this will be part of our journey to become the market leader in this space.

Stacey Papp:

As you said earlier, the obstacle is the way.

Mir Baqar:

Obstacle is the way.

Stacey Papp:

Mir, I want to thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights on everything innovation. And opening our minds to not only what Ridecell is doing, but what the mobility industry is evolving into and how the two are catching up to each other to truly be the innovators in our space.

It was a pleasure to chat with you and get a peek inside your mind, and I already can't wait for you to come back to teach us some more. So thank you again. It was truly wonderful to have you.

Mir Baqar:

Well, thank you so much for having me, Stacey, and we live an exciting times so we look forward to how things evolve.

Stacey Papp:

Well, we're in good hands with you at the front of innovation, so until the next time, keep moving the world better.

Thank you for listening to the Mile Marker podcast. Stay tuned for another episode full of insights and ideas to keep the mobility industry moving forward. In the meantime, follow us on social media and be sure to like, comment and share today's episode.