Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Michele, thanks so much for joining us.
Michele Buonopane, Motional
Thanks, Keith. appreciate being here today.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Yeah, I'm excited talk to you, because we're gonna talk about autonomous vehicles, which is an exciting growing area. So let's talk about Motional. And what the company does.
Michele Buonopane, Motional
Excellent, thank you. At Motional, we're focused on building fully autonomous vehicles that are going to be used for both Robo taxi and autonomous delivery. So you know, we're focused not only on building those vehicles, but offering a safe, reliable and accessible form of transportation for individuals in, you know, various cities around the world.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
And this is technology that is incredibly complex to build. And yes, we want it to be safe. And what Motional is building this is like level four, technology, right? When it comes to autonomous driving, there's different levels emotionals building level for, right?
Michele Buonopane, Motional
Yes, absolutely. And that's really about being sort of fully driverless. So, you know, there's various aspects of being driverless, but to get to the point where you can be fully driverless, and, you know, operate as a robo taxi and delivery space, you know, is what we're focused on.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
And this is technology that's happening now meaning Motional, has pilots in place where this is actually occurring as we speak.
Michele Buonopane, Motional
Absolutely. So you know, we have this running today, in various test modes, in various cities around the country. And, you know, you get the opportunity, if you're in Las Vegas actually to, you know, through Lyft, to be able to take a ride, and one of these cars. And so, you know, it's just really exciting. And to your point, I can't believe we're at this point in time, you know, that we're actually in, you know, almost driverless vehicles.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Now, the company is growing very aggressively. I'm curious to know how many employees you currently have, because I was looking at your job openings. And I think there's over 400
Michele Buonopane, Motional
Yes. So there are over 400 job openings. Today, we're 1100. As of, I would say, the end of January, it's moving on a regular basis. But that's about double where we were, you know, eight months ago, let's say, and we expect to double from where we are today, by the end of the calendar year. So we're, you know, fast paced on a growth mode as we move towards, you know, commercialization of the product.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Now, as far as that growth and higher-end, yes, there are 400 job openings, which is very, very high growth, is that across all different functional areas, there are their concentrate areas where you want to be focused on hiring for?
Michele Buonopane, Motional
That is an interesting question. So, you know, say back a year ago, you know, we were primarily focused on, you know, what we call it, say, r&d, but you know, engineering, in autonomy, and software and hardware, and, you know, across the spectrum of, you know, r&d, as we get closer to commercialization, we're still looking for those, you know, r&d, folks, but we're now pivoting a bit. And so now we need to bring in individuals that can get us through that next phase, as well, as you know, as you grow as an organization, you need to be able to scale. And so, you know, within the font, you know, kind of regular functions within a company, you also need additional individuals to support the growing business. So now our, our hiring is become much more expansive, across, you know, many different fields.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
So, before joining Motional, what's your background, Michelle, and what led you to join the company?
Michele Buonopane, Motional
So, early background, way too long ago, was finance actually did finance and accounting, but over time, I moved into the HR space, and prior to being CHR O for Motional, I was CHR O for software enabled services company in Boston. I, I thought the Motional technology is so cool. And you know, as first time that I had the opportunity to be in cutting a cutting edge, sort of nascent fields, and it was just so compelling. On top of that, you know, once you actually are inside of Motional the culture, the way we work the people, it's just such a great place to be there's so much excitement and you know, I would say sort of the respect for people and investment in people is, is really makes it you know, a great place to be.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Let's dig a little bit deeper tech, because you mentioned the company's culture. So what's it like working there? What's the day to day environment like?
Michele Buonopane, Motional
Yeah, so I can't take any credit for this whatsoever. The company is basically the culture is anchored on five core values that are really focused on you know, safety, safety, safety, right and I As you can imagine, in an autonomous vehicle operation, you know, making sure that your ultimate product is as safe as it possibly can be is critical and Paramount. Right. So safety is one of our core values. But collab collaboration through winning together, taking ownership builds for everyone be for everyone, you know, these are values that allow us to really, you know, support coming together as an organization, collaboration, working together and being accountable. And that's what it's like, to work at Motional. You know, every, it's, it's high energy. And there's a lot of, you know, very, when I say aggressive goals, because the market is moving so fast, and we need to get, you know, our cars out on the road, as our competitors are. But it's, it's not political, as in some organizations, it's not aggressive in the way in how you're treated. So I just find it to be, you know, a really great place to work on top of the fact that, you know, it's cool, exciting, new, and all the rest, you know, as you as you grow and scale as an organization, keeping that culture in place, and making sure that it continues as you grow, and you enter new cities, I mean, that's part of what I'm here to do.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
The job market out there is very competitive, there are lots of job opportunities for people to explore, which is a good thing, it's good to have options, but why is now the ideal time to join Motional?
Michele Buonopane, Motional
I would say there are a couple of reasons. First, you know, one I alluded to just a moment ago, we call it, we're a scale-up and not a startup. So, you know, as I as I was looking for, you know, a new opportunity, I said, you know, I really want to go to, you know, a small organization, but I don't want to be, you know, creating the strategy and sweeping the floor at the same time, right. And so what's nice about, you know, where we are, from a size perspective, is that there's the structure. But at the same time, you still have the ability to add really unique value, you know, we're changing, we're moving so fast, you bring ideas to the table, and we're able to implement them, you know, there's not a lot of bureaucracy, there, it's, it's really a great time to add both your individual and your team level value. The second is that, you know, we're really driving with a purpose, we call it so we're not just making an autonomous vehicle. But our goal is really to create that accessible reality for individuals and reliable transportation and communities. And so we're very focused on the impact that we can have in the way the world moves.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Well, as far as I'm concerned, this is an opportunity to join a groundbreaking company that is building technology, that is not only the future, but it's the not too far off future, meaning this is going to be a time when we're going to look back and say you used to have to drive vehicles like, you know, like, at my age, maybe my grandkids would look at me and say, Wait, you actually had to drive? Yeah. So I think it's an exciting opportunity. You've got an amazing cluster of companies that came together to build Motional and the caliber of people that are working there to build this technology, which is really hard to solve. So it's an amazing opportunity to help build the future. So you need to go to their company page on VentureFizz, which has all their listings there, go to venturefizz.com/motional and you'll see all their job listings. Michele, thanks so much for taking the time to walk us through all the great things happening at the company.
Michele Buonopane, Motional
Thank you very much.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
