The Exchanges

Q go public earlier on in the life cycle than other companies. Uh, it's probably one of the largest like frontier tech companies that's public. What was the decision to do that earlier on than later? Like strategically, was it financing? Cause now you get access to secondaries. Um, via public markets. What do you, how do you think about that as you build out this like really capex heavy business?

A I mean, I think that's, that's all part of the equation. So we, we were founded in 2009 and stayed very small for a long time, really understanding the fundamentals, the foundational pieces of that technology, understanding what needed to be invented, um, what worked, what didn't. And, uh, it was, it was in 20, kind of 2019, 20, 20, they closed in 2020. We raised the first big round. It was a series C. That Toyota led. So Toyota came in early as a, uh, as an investor from one of their venture arms, and then, uh, and then came in as an, it led the series C, which is between four and five hundred million, um, that we, that we raised. But we realized that this is a very capital intensive business, and especially with a vertical integrated model, we don't just vertically integrate down into building and designing, building, and testing all of the components that go into the vehicle platform. We're actually vertically integrating up as well. I like to think of it as, so we're vertically integrating to the customers. So we're actually designing and building the software that then takes that, that vehicle, the, the, the aircraft and lets you book it on demand, um, either through the app that we're developing or through one of our partners. So we're partnered commercially with Uber and with Delta, um, for example, to, uh, to be able to, to integrate our service seamlessly into these di…

AI assessment note: “we realized that this is a very capital intensive business... took advantage of an opportunity”

Q It's really fun. Let's be honest. It's fun. I want to talk more about the consumer experience because it is, it's a delightful thing. We've been wanting flying cars for a while. I don't, I don't think helicopters are flying cars, but I think this is more akin to a flying car. So could you explain more of like what that experience will be like to the consumer?

A Absolutely. So, so fundamentally, um, uh, you're going to open up an app on your phone. Maybe it's Joby app, maybe it's Uber, um, our rideship partner and, and you'll, you know, select where you want to go. Just like today, you open up Uber and you say, I want to go to, you know, the airport or I want to go to, to downtown or something. And the, in the Joby app, the only option will be Joby, but, um, in the, in the, in the Uber app, so you'll, you'll be able to kind of, you know, choose like the Joby option, which is going to be faster than any other way to go. And, um, And so then the reason why we're integrating, uh, and have partners, uh, a partner like Uber for, for ride share is that, you know, typically people won't be right next to where, uh, one of these aircraft can take off and land. Um, so we think of it as vertiports or skyports like to call them. And, um, and so, you know, depending on where you are, you know, a car will come and get you, um, just like a car picks you up today. If you're just going to ride in a car all the way, but instead of taking it to your destination and maybe sitting in an hour or two of traffic or something, depending on where you're going, it'll just take you a few minutes to the nearest, uh, vertiport. And then what we're doing is building the backend technology that we can have multiple people kind of meeting just in time essentially at t…

AI assessment note: “fundamentally, um, uh, you're going to open up an app on your phone.”

Q So exciting. So why did you decide to double down in America versus manufacture elsewhere?

A So we're a company that's born, uh, kind of on the coast of, uh, coast of California, Santa Cruz, California. And, uh, we've really been investing in from the very beginning and an approach that, uh, I think in the industry we call vertical integration. So we figured out very early on in the process of developing this revolutionary new type of aircraft. That the components, the parts to actually make this aircraft just weren't available. You couldn't buy them from anyone. You couldn't, you had to make them essentially. So that's in the DNA of Joby. Um, we started doing that very early on. Our, our founder and CEO, uh, Jovan Bivert was, uh, kind of, you know, it's a, he's a long time engineer, um, a very successful serial entrepreneur in other industries. And, uh, and he brought that, that experience to, to bear when, when Joby was started. And so we've started to, to build out that capability and we really value the idea of designing, building and testing in as tight of a loop as you can, because that's how you drive innovation in this new wave of technologies that we're bringing to market. And so that kind of just led to that philosophy. We're building, um, near where we are. Right. And so we, we, we built the facilities to, to manufacture, to test everything that we have to do. Um, all in that tightly knit way. And as we figure that out, then we can bring in other sites like …

AI assessment note: “we really value the idea of designing, building and testing in as tight of a loop”

Q with that. So they're focused on performance, and one of the things that they Kind of help a lot of startups, enterprises with is become more efficient as organizations, as they scale. For Joby, like, how do you think about that when you scale up the company because it's so capital intensive? Like, how are you moving internally? What systems are you constantly checking or like milestones are you reaching?

A Yeah. So that's a, that's a great question. It's, um, you know, when you have, we have, uh, a couple thousand people working at Joby across all of the different sites and disciplines, you know, everything from folks who are building the composite parts that actually make up the aircraft to, uh, the folks writing the software that's, that's building that customer experience that I, that I was just describing. Um, and so you have to keep people aligned, um, and, and driving toward goals. And so we, uh, we do a lot of that, you know, we set up goals and we, Drive people toward them. Um, we drive to, to accomplishments and celebrate the accomplishments when, when we get there. And, uh, but we also are building systems that, that help, that had to help to, uh, help to make this easier too. So, you know, we're looking at how do we leverage, um, some of the latest advances in AI across different aspects of the enterprise, um, whether it's kind of like mundane things where, you know, it's like really easy now to get fantastic results on reading, uh, reading a shipping, uh, Uh, a shipping slip, right? Or a packing slip, um, in a, in a shipment. Um, and you can, you know, integrate these tools right into, to systems, um, especially when you're developing them ourselves, like we are, um, to more advanced things. Like how do you, how do you start to, to kind of augment and, and enhance som…

AI assessment note: “we're looking at how do we leverage, um, some of the latest advances in AI”