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And now here's your host, Eric Kavanaugh.
Film.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, Hello, and welcome back once again to the only coast to coast show that's all about the information economy. It's called Inside Analysis. Yours truly, Eric Cavanaugh is here, and I'm very excited to talk about one of my favorite topics today, folks, we are to talk about public private partnerships. As some of you may know, I have a whole history in this space.
Many years ago in a past life, I represented the Downtown Development District of New Orleans, which was a fantastic public private partnership. You had folks from the business community who joined folks from the government world to collaborate on projects and make good things happen for downtown New Orleans.
They did everything from economic development efforts to street signs, to all sorts of programs to highlight attention for retail, for hotels, research projects, all kind of fun stuff, and I saw firsthand how well those kinds of things work.
So obviously, in the business world, you get an investment from companies who want to build out their portfolio or maybe see some future in what you're building on, so they can bring some venture capital to the table, and usually they want equity or something along those lines to give you that money upfront. That's not really the case in terms.
Of public access.
So governments who want to better the lives of their community will work with the community directly or sometimes they'll work with other agencies and other organizations to figure out how to build cool projects, how to do cool things that benefit all of society. And that's what we're going to talk about today. We've got a guest from Silvic Foundry, very interesting company I came across earlier this year. They're doing fantastic work in consulting with all science kinds of
organizations around innovation. So they work not just with venture capitalists, but also with big companies, also with government agencies, with a whole bunch of different organizations. They do really good work to help shepherd these projects and get some cool things happening. It looks like We've got Trevor Paul joining us now as well, so we're going to have a lot of fun talking with him. But first time we
throw it over to Eli, promised Sell of Silicon Foundry. Eli, tell me a bit about yourself and the kind of work you're doing over at Silicon Foundry.
Absolutely, thank you so much.
Eric.
My name is Eli. I am with Silicon Foundry. I've been with the team for the past three years or so and I'm a principal over here. And the work that we're doing is a mix of Effectively, what we're doing support corporate innovation teams alongside governments and economic development organizations.
For the purposes of today, we're going to focus primarily on the government side and the work that we're doing with edios and effectively how we're supporting them is being able to foster innovation thriving innovation ecosystems in order to foster some of these first of its kind type of initiatives and project while projects while also attracting very innovative
and emerging businesses from around the world. So that's effectively how we're working with economic development corporations and government leaders around the world today.
Yeah, that sounds fantastic, And Trevor Paul has dialed in and he is the former Chief Mobility Officer from the State of Michigan. I believe Trevor, welcome to the show today. Tell us a little bit about yourself and the cool work that you did with Silicon Foundry.
For the State of Michigan.
It's great to be here.
So, you know, we may not realize it, but every day all of us contribute participate in public private partnerships. So yeah, so you may buy your vehicle and maybe a Ford or a still honest, but often you drive on a state road or you go to an airport that is the perfect example of a public private partnership given both on the safety regulation side, but then also just pure infrastructure.
Who pays for it all?
And so really our job, at least while I was at the state as chief Mobility Officer, was to think not just about twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, but think about twenty thirty, twenty thirty two, and what does a public partnership look like that we all use.
Every single day in twenty thirty two.
And so we worked with Silicon Boundary to really test the bounds of what was possible, see what technology was out there in the world that was scalable, and then try to bring that to the citizens of Michigan. You know, we are the mobility capital and we are the automotive capital, but you got to earn that title. And we're at this very interesting point in the automotive industry that is similar to the nineteen tens nineteen twenties.
Things areanging very fast, not just with the vehicles but also with the environment around those vehicles.
And so it was paramount that you know, a lot of people think, yes, Detroit is the home of the Model T, the first vehicle, but the truth is we're also home to like the first three color traffic light, the first mile of paved road. So there's a leadership role that Michigan should play around infrastructure, and we found Founder to be the best partner in dreaming of what could be possible.
Yeah, that's really cool, I have to tell you. And I think for a lot of folks working with the government can seem daunting. For some folks, working with big tech can seem daunting. And it helps, maybe ELI throw
this back over to you. It helps to have a consultant, a trusted partner advisor to work with you and help you understand the ropes of working with government agencies, the ropes of working with venture capitalists or big tech companies, because they are different environments, they have different more rays, different customs, They have regulations, policies, deadlines, all these kinds of things that can be difficult to ascertain for the common man of the common business per So that's where
Silicon Foundry really comes in and helps understand and shepherd that process.
Right absolutely so, in a nutshell, we like to think that we operate within the nexus of the innovation ecosystem. And when I say the innovation ecosystem, I think about absolutely the public public side, the public sector governments, edios. It also includes corporates, corporate innovation teams, corporate venture capital teams, the big tech companies. It includes the role that the media plays in that space, includes the vcs, the venture capitalists,
the private equity firms, the family offices. It also includes the incubators and the accelerators. There's this vast, rich, expansive innovation ecosystem and everyone plays a super important role in fostering this ecosystem, especially when it comes down to the regional level, whether that's at the local level, at the
state level, or at the country level. And so I think it can be to your point daunting to serve on one side of the ecosystem and understand how to effectively interact with another side of the ecosom, or understand
how to communicate with different sides of the ecosystem. So in many cases we can often serve as translators, we can serve as catalysts for these types of opportunities and being able to bring together and convene some of these different players across the ecosystem in order to Trevor's point, create something in many cases first of its kind or
truly innovative. And so that's a lot of the work that Selicon Foundry has been doing really behind the scenes in many cases, but also really serving as an extension of economic development teams and of innovative government agency teams to help really bring some of these initiatives to life.
Yeah, that's really cool stuff, and I'll throw this back over to you. In a past life, I was a journalist and I remember interviewing a guy from the Illinois Department of Transportation and we were talking all about planning highways, and he told me something that was very interesting. He said, in our world, we're not allowed to expect more traffic in the future. We have to look at current traffic patterns and use that as our baseline for building roads
and where we build roads. This is back when they were building three fifty five, which was a huge undertaking and really transformed the Chicago suburbs because it was kind of about west but it went northwest through a lot of major suburbs and just was fantastic. And I was like, well, that's very interesting. So you have to be forward looking. You have to understand the regulations, you have to understand the budgets, the processes around all that, and then work
with partners to figure out what can be done. And that's kind of what your role was, right.
Yeah, yeah, I mean.
To a degree, yes, you have to look at what has been done, but then you also have to look at, you know, like what's been wrong about what's been done, and people don't like that, right, yes, yes, And you know, in our case, I understand that mindset because you have an obligation to the taxpayer to be as efficient as effective as possible with with their dollars with their tax dollars, and so you can't really use that money to bet on the future. However, it is incumbent upon government to
plant the seeds for innovation to allow innovation. Sometimes that that is done through regulatory right away passing laws, but other times that's done by seeding just a little bit of capital, saying to industry, hey, if we put down one dollar and maybe you know, you could put down two dollars, because ultimately this will feed into your business model.
Maybe we can do something special together that saves lives.
Maybe we can do something special that you know, could you know, help with a MISSI in an area within the Detroit city limits that that has been one of the most polluted in the nation for decades.
There are things we can do together to create a better world.
And we're really proud of, you know, in working in foundry for the period of time that we did that. For every dollar we were putting down because the concepts were so great, we were getting like thirty five hundred dollars back in industry match in some way, shape or form where they're like, yes, we will invest in this idea,
Yes we see the future. While the returns might not be right away, these are returns that you know, we not only want to want to see happen in the world, but but ultimately could create other new business models beyond what we have currently.
Yeah, and Trevor, I'll throw this one back over at you. Economic development is such a powerful engine, and mobility is central to that. So enabling safe traffic not just to people, but of goods throughout urban areas and throughout the state. The size of Michigan. A lot of people may not know.
Michigan is a big state. I've driven all the way up northn all the way outside.
Oh yeah, I've been up to what is it, Saginaw and Sussein, Marie and all these princes, so I know it's a beautiful state.
It's beautiful in the summer.
Lots of mosquitoes. That's my only complaint. If you guys could work in the mosquitoes, maybe that would be.
We're working on it, working on it.
It's tough, but the point is that when you make these investments, their fruits of that labor can be enjoyed for years and decades to come, right, Trevor.
Yes, as long as it plugs into the existing infrastructure, the existing systems. One of the things I'm careful to say, and you know, whether it was to you know, lawmakers, policymakers or CEOs, it's like, no, we're not trying to land a spaceship on the current way that we live our lives, like, this is not something that should make you get to go out of your way to use. This should plug into everything that you have in ways that sort of how Steve jobs to with the iPhone,
in ways you could never imagine. And so in our case, you know, I'll give you a couple of examples of the projects that Foundry played a direct role in incepting. You know, we worked with a company Electrion, which Foundery introduced to US. Company based in Israel but with ties in Sweden, and they had done some really successful deployments in Sweden of a road that actually charges an electric vehicle as it's in motion.
Pretty cool.
Not something that is useful on every single road or every single mile of the twenty eight thousand miles of road there are in Michigan, but something that works for say, routine deliveries, something that works for transit.
And so you know, with the idea being.
So buttoned up so detailed with a partner that was willing to invest some of their own funds into it, we were then able to go back to multiple state departments and the city and say, hey, can we stitch together a public private partnership and do something that's never been done in America? And we did that and right now it's active in downtown Detroit and actually, you know, it made national news when we did it, so beyond just being a functional solution that we hope to grow
in the future, it was perceptional training. And there are many other examples like that that you know, we just needed a little bit of proactive intellectual muscle because the nature of government is being pretty reactive and trying to make sure that you take care of what's in front of you and what the citizens need right now.
So to have that forward leaning leaning partner is huge.
Yeah, that's really big.
And I think it's a good segue to throw it back over to Eli And I'm in the tech business, e Lie, and I'm privy to certain information about advances and AI and analytics and things of that nature, and it takes time, and it takes effort, It takes research to stay on top of these things, and also to know who's real, who's maybe not quite as real, who's got better marketing for example, who's got better product. It takes time, attention, research, and due diligence to understand all that.
But now you can see talking to Trevor here, sometimes that really pays off, right.
Yeah, Well, one thing I would add to that, you mentioned time research patients. One thing I would add to that is a community, a network, and that's really what Silkin Foundry is putting forward as a really core part of our offering and our value proposition where we firmly believe and I feel like this is a mantra that we'll say across the firm internally, but true insights don't
live in a database. We leverage research tools, We have access to secondary research platforms, and these are fantastic to help us get up to speed on certain topics very quickly, fantastic for us to be able to gather certain data points. But at the end of the day, true insights, true intelligence that isn't available to everyone just by logging onto
the net and googling something. It comes from conversations like the three of us are having right now, conversations that Silpen Foundry is having day in day out with the startup community, with founders across the world, with investors, with the corporate innovation and corporate venture and community, and the
work that we're doing with the governments and edios. So by having those conversations day in day out, we're able to extract those key data points and then to Trevor's point, proactively facilitate what we like to call a curated flow of insights, intelligence, and in many cases, actionable opportunities and
actionable outcomes. In the case of DEOS, that could be an opportunity for a company like Electron to come in pilot its technology and test its technology in maybe a test site setting or in eventually a real world setting which is in process right now. Or it could be within the corporate setting. It could be a similar pilot or trial type engagement. It could be a strategic partnership,
It could be a strategic investment. It could be a merger acquisition opportunity, depending on the that's involved.
Yeah, there are lots of opportunities, and I guess this gets to the heart of our conversation today, which is the intrinsic value from public private partnerships. Because government has tremendous capabilities. They can ask laws if they need to, they can pass regulations, they can modify regulations, they can explain certain things, and they have access points that private
industry companies just don't have. Meanwhile, out in the private sector, there's a tremendous amount of innovation happening.
All over the world.
To your point just a minute ago, Eli, it's not just here in the United States. It's in Israel, it's
in Europe, it's all around the world. Being dialed into a network of professionals of consultants, analysts, engineers, people who are actually working on these things is incredibly valuable because, number one, it saves a lot of time, and it also helps you to have very productive conversations, right if you have someone in the room who can tell you, yeah, actually that technology is not really ready for prime time yet. Here's why, Xyz, that's extremely useful because out there in
the wilderness on your own, something can look good. But if you don't have experience deploying these technologies managing the process over time, bad things can happen. I mean, you know, I lived many years in New Orleans, and I watched as the casino went up and then the public private partnership fell apart, like we just saw this big hulk of a concrete building for like a year and a half until they finally got their act together again and
finished the job. So it really does pay to know people, to know processes, to understand processes, and to make these commitments.
And I think that's what it really boils down to. But folks, don't touch up. That will be right back.
You're listening to Inside Analysis, expect.
Welcome back to Inside Analysis. Here's your host, Eric Tavanaugh.
All right, folks, welcome back once again. You're truly Eric Kavanaugh here on Inside Analysis. Fascinating conversation today. We're talking to Eli, a promisel of Silicon Foundry, one of the coolest companies that go across in a while. Very interesting folks.
They shepherd projects, they make connections, they network, They have all sorts of resources in terms of understanding different kinds of technological innovation, but also bureaucracy and understanding how to deal with bureaus, understanding how to deal with government agencies, understanding how to deal with innovators and venture capitalists. So it helps to kind of have that spectrum that panoply, if you will, of experts at their disposal. And we've
also got Trevor Paul here. He's the former chief Mobility Officer from the state of Michigan. And Trevor, in that first segment, I'll throw this back over to you. I did not know that Michigan is where the first three light three colored stop light came from. That's pretty good stuff, right, yellow.
Green, and red.
And I don't know if anyone ever saw the movie, but way a long time ago as a move about an alien landing, and he's driving around the girl and she goes, don't you know what those lights mean? He goes, yes, red means stop, green means go, and yellow means go very fast. And she's like, no, it means slow down, it means caution. But that's just one cool part of
the history of Michigan. Of course, Motown with Motown staff or Motors ban general motors cars being manufactured, so there is a there's a spirit of an an innovation and industry in Michigan, right.
Trevor, Absolutely, But it's an interesting time in our history. You know, electric vehicles require less parts and so as we think about the transition from internal combustion engines two evs, our supply base stands to shrink unless there's ways that we can diversify get into other modes of transportation. If you believe any of the future mobility predictions that you see from either big consulting companies or those in the industry, the way that we get around.
Is going to change in the next fifty to seventy five years.
And you know, car ownership maybe something that is a thing of the past.
I'm not saying it's.
Going to be like smoking on airplanes or anything, but it's something that eventually maybe we have four lanes for autonomous vehicles transit and one lane for those that want to drive themselves, because driving yourself could be extremely expensive depending on where our high volume manufacturing takes us and how prices you know, go up and go down as you think about the future of automotive and so really it's important to us in Michigan right that we're thinking
now about the future that we all want to live in, and how can we take that supply base and give them a diverse set of opportunities, Maybe the future of drones, maybe the future of even freight shipping both on waterways and highways. You know, there are all these different ways that we can think about transportation, micro mobility, the future of scooters, the future of bikes. Michigan's a place that makes things, we design things, We think of things too.
It's not limited to sedans and SUVs. And so the role that I had in the state was very much like sort of being this evangelist's promoter for a future and mobility that isn't just anchored an automotive, but anchored in a bunch of different things.
Yeah, that's very cool, and Eli, I'll throw this over to you, And I'm glad that Trevor threw in there the concepts about or the reality of moving products, not just moving people, but moving product, moving supplies and supply chains. In fact, the first show we did with Silicon Foundry was focused on supply chain, which is incredibly complex stuff.
It's something that not many people knew about until. Really it was the not just the COVID but before that, the tariffs on China that threw everything into a bit of a tizzy. Especially if you were a cyclist like me. You couldn't get bicycle parts because they were all over
in China and that all stopped. But my point is that this is another kind of value that an agency like Silicon Foundry can bring to the table, because to understand the nexus of supply chain, urban planning, development, manufacturing, and artificial intelligence is pretty important stuff because you can And we just did a show in fact last week with the folks from Dell, and I was pointing out I remember twenty five years ago being amazed by what Dell did with just in time delivery, and I joked
that I actually knew a guy who drove a van all around the Dell plant, just all day long with motherboards, waiting for the call because they's okay, we got norms for fifty, like did you'd be driving drop off fifty and then did you drive off? That's just in time delivery.
And that's twenty five years ago. So what I think is interesting here is that you folks at Silicon Foundry can bring this kind of knowledge and expertise and contacts to the table to work with folks like Trevor who has his own array of context, right, maybe talk about that for a second.
Yeah, absolutely, thank you. I think one of the things that is really cool about Silk and boundary as a platform and as a as an organization is the way that we so first and foremost were industry agnostic. And when I say industry agnostic, I mean we are working with a broad range of members clients across a range of different industries. Whether it's supply chain logistics, as you noted before, whether it's financial services, consumer retail, automotive, aviation.
We're working across a very broad set of different industries. And what makes sort of what allows us to be able to do that is really the horizontal nature of a lot of the subjects subject matters that we deal with.
So take mobility for instance. The mobility serves as a technology that impacts a broad range of different industries and starts to touch into and teeter into what's happening in supply chain logistics in the movement of goods and Trevor refer to freight before, what's happening in energy as we
talk more about electrification. And because of the nature, this horizontal nature of the topics that we're dealing with, we're able to work across this broad set of different spaces and therefore bring insights that come from unexpected places in many cases, So if we're working with one of our members that exists in the supply chainnel logistics space that's trying to look at the future of the warehouse and what's happening within the warehouse context and some of the technologies,
whether it's humanoid robotics or computer vision, well, a lot of that technology is universal, industry agnostic, horizontal by nature, and that can come into play in the aviation space and what's happening out on the tarmac and what's happening above and below the wing and everything that's happening with baggage handling and so in one of the really interesting things I think about economic devel in particular is the Michigan is home to and as this you know, a
lot of this conversation as has sent time on, is home to the It is a true landing zone for mobility innovation. This is an unofficial tagline that I've been trying to push for so long, but I do believe all roads in mobility lead to Michigan, and so it becomes this very natural landing zone for a lot of
innovation that's happening in mobility around the world. And so whether it's mobility, whether it's supply chain logistics, whether it's advanced farial mobility, there's a lot of opportunity for innovation to take place in edios, to act as a catalyst no matter where you are in the world.
Yeah, that's a really interesting point you made, Aline. It kind of speaks to one of my soapbox topics, which is centers of gravity. And Trevor, I'll throw this over to you. You see this all over the place in the business world. Companies and regions will get known. I mean, look at Silicon Valley for example. It's one of the
ultimate centers of gravity for innovation. And to Eli's point, You've got a center of gravity in Michigan around mobility, not just because of Motown, but because of many different innovations.
Over the years.
There's a cultural awareness around the criticality of mobility, and that, infused with the Michigander spirit, infused with the history and the communities and the cultures that are making the fabric of that state, has created these interesting innovations, right, and so it is now a center of gravity for mobility, and that, to Eli's point, can lead to future advances, whether it's designed of new products or understanding the economic impact I mean that's another side of the equation too,
is being able to measure and manage and report on the economic impact of these things.
That's all some pretty cool stuff, right Trevor.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, when you think about reporting out, what is it that you report out? Typically in state government, it's it's ultimately what outcomes the governor that's elected chooses, you know, And I've been fortunate I worked for two governors that you know, we had we had reports out that not only included the economic impact, so new jobs created or retained, but also our communities safer, greener, more productive, Are they more accessible? The technologies were bringing to bear,
do they uphold the person's dignity? How are we how are we making Michigan not just the mobility capital, but just simply one of the best places to move around, whether it's a good or whether.
It's a person.
And so that that's one of the cool parts I think of of working in government. It was there's always a couple of different bottom lines that that you were focused on. That wasn't It wasn't just about profitability in return. Clearly you wanted to make sure the dollars beings wisely, but it was literally about making home a better place.
Yeah, that's a fantastic line. And for what it's worth, my wife deals with mobility issues. She has MS, so she's in a scooter all the time, and there are places that are not very ad a friendly, let's say. So, you know, we're certainly hopeful in the in the consumer jet pack where she go just kind of you maybe use the magnetic fields or whatever. But there are trains
that run on magnets all around the world. Now, so there are really cool things that you can come up with, and you maybe, Trevor, I throw this back over to you and then back over to Eline a second. But you know, when you have again these centers of gravity around certain domains of expertise material science, for example, what's wonderful is that these groups or these centers have such an advantage and then can leverage that advantage for the broader communities in our country.
Right go ahead, Oh absolutely. You know.
I think one of the roles in government is and that's core and often under is the convening mechanism, how we can pull everyone together. We're one of the few entities that can get industry to sit in the room with civil rights leaders or folks that don't wake up thinking about business every day, and we have resources to potentially create a structure like an innovation challenge or something that can incent collaboration beyond wanting to make again make
the world a better place. And so one of the examples we did right at the beginning of the Foundery relationship, we worked on something called the Michigan Mobility Challenge and that.
I believe was six.
To nine million dollars of resources that ultimately would go towards deployments of new technologies that would help those that are aging, those with disabilities, and veterans, and really focusing on areas of the state, like rural areas like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and parts that maybe don't already have these networks in place to help folks get to the grocery store, get to a doctor's appointment, and even
just simple ride share. So we saw that, I mean, that was the first of its kind type of challenge in the country, at least for that amount of money. And since then we created this always on program the state still running and I believe the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform and ELI you can talk about I think recently it's been updated again, but it essentially, like always, is rolling out different.
Really qualified, really thought through.
Grants to community partners to help with these intersection by intersection issues and frankly audience by audience issues because different people have different mobility challenges. So I don't eli maybe you can talk a little bit about about where that program is at now, but it really excited that it's still going.
Yeah.
I think what's what's really cool about the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform as in I think the key operating word there is platform, because it really started out at Trevor's point around being able to test new and emerging mobility technologies in a testing environment, but then also deploying some of these maybe more slightly more mature technologies in a
real world environment. And since then it's evolved into this broader foundational platform upon which a range of different challenges, initiatives, and programs sit which create opportunities to tap into non dilutive grant funding to help offset costs for these deployments. And I think that's a really key aspect of the economic development playbook to be able to attract new companies, to be able to help foster and develop the innovation activity within a region.
Yeah, and I really liked Trevor how you mentioned intersection by intersection. You know, when you get right down to brass tacks have to live in their communities and have to be able to move from place A to place B. And you know, of course urban planning comes into all this. Maybe we'll talk about that in our next segment in just a minute here, but these are all very critical concerns.
And if you look at how the.
Suburbs were developed over time, well, the automobile had a lot to do with that because gas was cheap, and so you could build outside of the city and start building bigger homes and communities. And then of course we had rush hour. And then COVID came and maybe the rush hour was pushed back a little bit, which is probably the best thing that happened from COVID is just
all right, it's all slow down a little bit. We don't all have to get on the highway and try to move into the downtown area at eight am every morning and come back at five pm.
And I grew up in Chicago. Let me tell you.
For a short period of time, I drove into the city from the suburbs.
That was no bueno. No, it's no fun sitting in.
Traffic moving in a mile an hour for forty five minutes just to get to a destination by a predetermined start time for your day. But that's another opponent of this dynamic world that we live in these days. A lot of people work from home. Now a lot of people can work from home, and we learned in COVID that a lot of jobs they thought could not be done from home can absolutely be done from home.
That's good news.
But it's also good to go into the office and to mix it up with people.
But folks, don't touch up. That'll be right back.
You're listening to Inside Analysis.
Welcome back to Inside Analysis. Here's your host Eric Tavanaugh.
All right, folks, welcome back once again to Inside Analysis. Your host Eric Kavanaugh here. Well, a couple fantastic guests. We're talking to Eli Promisel from Silicon Foundry and Trevor Paul who was the chief Mobility officer for the State of Michigan, and they've both done really interesting things.
In the break there we were chatting. We're talking to baseball.
Trevor found out that I'm from Chicago and he started harsh number of teams.
But it's okay.
I understand, like the White Sox are not doing so well these days. But the Detroit Tigers, man, I had that. I've always liked the Tigers. I always had you had a secret love for the logo and just like the top.
The best logo in sports.
It's pretty good, dude, It's a pretty good And you're and the stadium is like right downtown, right, so you've got all this transit coming in. You got the Convention Center there, you got the stadiums, a bunch of buildings, and that's a big part of life and community, right. It's like allowing people to get to the games, have some fun, get back home.
That's all part of the mix, right, Trevor.
Oh, you know, I think it's important.
You know, Detroit's no different than other cities that are between the coasts, where you have a downtown core that maybe has seen some more dense days. At one point, Detroit was the fourth largest city in the country. We had two million people just in the city limits. Now we're around seven hundred thousand, but the city has seen its first population growth since the nineteen fifties this year,
so that's a big deal. And so a lot of times when the city does get busy, it's from people coming in for events, whether it's coming in from out of town or whether it's even coming in from ten miles away for a game.
And so it's an opportunity to showcase the city.
It's an opportunity to up improve economic development by allowing folks to get around in multiple different ways so you don't have to wait in a line if say, for instance, you have a disability or you're a little bit older and it's tough to walk, have options so you can experience the city just like a twenty five year old.
So for us, you know, there's definitely a role for the mobility that entertains you, the mobility that inspires you, the mobility that makes your city shine as much as you know, of course, our priority is the mobility that helps folks get to the essentials and again holds up their dignity. But there's a role for all sorts of ways to sort of impact a person's life.
Yeah, no, that that's great stuff.
And you know, we live in communities, so it's important to respect the community and to show respect. And as you suggest, Trevor to really allow everyone to live with dignity, and maybe Eli.
Will throw this over to you.
There's a lot of planning that has to go into these things, you know. I mean, urban planning is not new. It's been around for a long time. Maybe it wasn't in play in the formative days of cities like Houston, where they don't have any sort.
Of different zones.
You get skyscrapers in the middle of neighborhoods, which is fine, I guess for the folks down in Houston, but it is a strange environment.
But my point is that planning urban planning.
Especially these days, takes a lot of effort, a lot of insights, and a lot of connections to do things right. And that's another place where silicon foundry can come into play.
Right.
Yeah, absolutely, I think there's a great opportunity, especially when it comes to working with state agencies and offices like the Office Future Mobility Electrification in Michigan and idios more broadly, to serve as a central convening point among the different state agencies and among the different public and private stakeholders
across the region. And to your point around planning, it's important to engage with each of those different stakeholders and understand what are their needs, what are their priorities, how are they approaching situations X, Y and Z, and really getting their input. I think and Trevor can probably speak
to this better and better than me. But I can't remember a single project, Trevor, that that we had worked on together in which there weren't There wasn't an alphabet soup of different agencies involved in the in the conversations from day one. It's important here. Please, yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
You know, when Governor Whitmer wanted to create this Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, it was the first of its kind for a state in the country. And the reason it was created was because we had seventeen We did the math, seventeen agencies across the state working on some form of trans future transportation, and no traffic cop no no switchboard, no anything to leverage the good work
being done across state government. Our Department of Labor hearing about what our Department of Energy is doing.
Clear collaboration opportunities missed.
And so the idea for this office was to sit really between the four departments that were doing the most in the future of transportation, and when I tell you where they are, it's going to make a lot of sense. So the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which is like a hybrid government agency private agency. They do economic development, bring business in the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. So that's our Department of Energy, so the grid charging
all of those things. Our Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, which is workforce talent retraining. As the industry changes, we need to make sure we have new sets. And then our Department of Transportation, who own the roads, operate the roads and are looking to get to zero fatalities and are looking to improve our rush hours on the state. So we kind of sat smack that in the middle to make sure that what we were hearing shared as
far as it could go across state government. And I think we did a pretty effective job because over time we saw that our projects, our concepts, weren't just getting funding from one or two departments, from from three or four departments that saw application, or maybe it wasn't funding, maybe it was just dedicated staff, maybe it was work helping us pass a law. We did a project that
foundered and incepted that is now in motion. It's a stretch along Interstate ninety four that is essentially a lane just for self driving vehicles, first of it's kind in the country. Again, and the idea is to run that lane especially for trucks, especially for you know, moving people, say from downtown to the airport. Our airport's a bit far from the downtown, or from Detroit to ann Arbor,
which is about a forty mile stretch. And so making sure that that particular project had the right how do you say it protocol not only the local communities, but then also across the different state department So making sure that m DOT was in a good place, all the local dots, county dots were in a good place. But then also thinking about the future of energy and grid and what does it mean when you have this smart highway, So getting our Department of Energy involved, who's going to
work on it, what types of jobs? These are going to be different jobs than any other road worker jobs, the job that you've seen across the country.
These are going to have to be higher tech.
So working with our Department of Labor and then having this as a backbone to what is that the most active commerce corridor in the state, you can use this as an economic development tool to attract businesses. So these ideas that Founder's brain to the table were really sort of becoming core to how state government ran. This is you know, it's like, man, I haven't talked about Cavenue in a while, but that's a great program, or that's a great infrastructure project.
Something ahead, something out out to that is, you know, we spoke about Michigan mobility funding platforms as a platform and sort of this enabling platform. Well, there's also these physical platforms that serve as points of attraction for innovation.
And so whether that's the the Cavenue Corridor on ninety four, whether that's the wirelessly charging road, whether that's what's happening in the Michigan Michigan Central Innovation District, these all serve sort of as these physical platforms for opportunity within testing and deploying innovative mobility technologies. There's there there serves you know, these anchor partners being the state, being Cavenue, being various
state agencies. But then if you think about it like almost like a tech platform, there's content that comes into this and that content is what really activates these platforms to become true of exponential opportunities for attraction.
That's very interesting, and you know, the concept spinning in my mind here as we're talking through these different projects and programs and the culture of innovation that you foster over there is the flywheel, which of course is a very important part of a vehicle, but just the concept of a flywheel is always fascinated me because it's stores energy.
Right.
You've got multiple parts and they're cruising along and they're storing energy in the middle, which in the case of a car is used to help it go and slow
down and do various things. But to have these innovation flywheels in cultures is very powerful because they get energy of their own, and so they start taking up through the individuals who participate, through the teams who hear about it, that people who experience the work, who see the end result of it, and you understand, wow, there's something special
going on there. And that kind of gets back to your common a few minutes ago Trevor about attracting the right companies, about attracting the right people, about attracting people who want to innovate, who wants to build new things. Right, So I think we'll pick this up in the podcast bonus segment to dive into it a little bit more.
But the point is that the.
Proof is in the pudding, as they always say, and when you get these kinds of organizations moving forward, there is momentum.
It's a real thing.
It's maybe a psychological or cultural, a sociological momentum that can be very palpable and can sustain the innovation wave and can sustain even through difficult times and of course in fruitful times.
But folks, don't touch up that will be right back with the podcast bonus segment.
You're listening to Inside Analysis. All right, folks, time for the podcast bonus segment. Here on Inside Analysis, you're truly Eric Cavanaugh. We've been talking to Eli Promiself from Silicon Foundry and Trevor Paul, the former chief Mobility Officer for the State of Michigan, and maybe travel throw it over to you first. You have fascinated by this concept of the flywheel, of an innovation flywheel and genuinely building up momentum,
human momentum. Of course we understand what that means with the car, but in the world of people and getting things done, there's something very palpable about that and it's energetic, right.
It captivates you, it gets you excited.
What do you think people want their lives to mean something.
They want to solve problems that once they are solved, that.
Solution lives on for generations. That's important.
And I think the reason why so many people are wanting to come to Michigan and Detroit right now is there's a lot of things to solve.
There's a lot of things to solve that in the.
Past, Detroit and Michigan as an industry has solved for the world. And now we're having to solve a different set of variables. And there are issues with the city. We know our city grew in the twentieth century and there were certain decisions made that now we're having appeal back and we need good smart people, good smart partners to come in and help us do that. I'll give you one example and then I'll kick it over to Eli.
So there's symbol of blight in downtown Detroit is Michigan Central Train Station and it was the center of town, the center of activity in the early twentieth century, and it had been vacant since the eighties and most recently Ford Rehab that whole Michigan Central Station campus, which included a very large book depository, and now it's a center for mobility technology. Hundreds of startups have come from all over the world. Investors have come from all over the world.
Google has a spot there, and so Foundry has played a very integral role in the development of that innovation hub and really drove us as a state and the city to think of this opportunity in a more global way. And it wasn't just about rehabbing the building. It was about making sure that we had the proper programming to meet the moment given everything going on in the industry
and all the problems. So they've they've kind of been like this true north for us when there are big moments, that intellectual muscle that always that future leaning mentality that they have really really comes in handy.
That's awesome, Eli, I want to comment on that.
Hope you're.
Sorry about that.
One of the first things that comes to mind really is just the I wake up every morning and I hear Trevor in the back of my ear going, what's the next big idea?
That's annoying. I'm sorry, no, And.
In a good way though, because I think it always pushes us to strive for something big or something better, and at the end of the days, that's how we're working with governments and economic development organizations around the world, whether it's with the City of Risco and looking at the future of sports and media and entertainment, whether it's with the Dubaid and National Financial Center and the UAE
driving the future of finance and everything surrounding it. I think it's a really important aspect of what we're doing and making sure that we're keeping a finger on the pulse and making sure that we're able to bring in this new flux of whether it's ideas, insights, intel and opportunities from whether it's derived from our network or the people that we're meeting again day in day out around the world.
Yeah, that's really good stuff. And I'll just kind of comment and folks, if you want to learn more about these folks, look online sifoundry dot com. It's called Siliconfoundry and you can find Trevor and Eli on LinkedIn as well.
And Eli, I'll just throw last comment over at you.
The ability to bring people together to convene as you suggest, is very compelling because a lot of division. A lot of a lot of division stems I think from lack of communication, or from misunderstanding, or from misconceptions that people may have, or just feeling like they're not being included. So when you include people in the conversation, this is why I love the inclusion part of the storyline these days. When you include people early in the game, you give
them a chance to participate. If they don't want you, that's fine, But at least if you know you have a chance to get involved, to have your voice heard, that's what makes people happy. I mean, folks understand that not everyone can be involved in every project, that everyone can benefit from this or that, But at least if we feel like we're respected and honored that dignity point that Trevor made earlier, Eli, that's crucial, And you guys really seem to have that in your DNA.
What do you think.
Yeah, that's a big part of who we are and what we're doing on a daily basis. The work that we're doing with our members, whether it's the Michigan Office, future mobility, like education I mentioned a few others before, the Outside of that work, we see ourselves as a community that consists of a broad set of members across different industries, and we serve as a conveniing point ourselves.
So whether that's within the work that we're doing that or some of the in person programming and events that we have, whether it's at a big, big conference like CEES or south By Southwest and we're convening a bespoke, private, intimate dinner with some top executives, government leaders, top founders and investors. It gives people the chance to connect in person, which I hope one time, maybe in the future, we
could do a podcast like this in person instead. But we really do believe in the power of convening in person, and I like to think that whether it's small intimate dinners, whether they're happy hours, whether they are events that take place at our hub, which is our HQ and a co working space for our members in San Francisco, these really serve as the physical manifestation of what we're doing day in, day out, and the physical manifestation of our network.
Convening folks from different sides of our network and being able to bring them together to pursue opportunities together.
Yeah, I just love this.
Ahead I was just going to say, you know, a word that comes to mind when I think about you know, Eli's work and Silicon Bound founder is demystification. Like they demystify uh tech communities for government, and I think that they also do the same for the tech communities they serve.
They demystify government.
So it's fitting that you know on your image on the Zoom Zoom call here you have a bridge because literally you are a bridge between the two that is always open and helps demystify some of the things I think we that can limit innovation and limit partnership. You're or a bulldozer. There's another word, but anyway, I could think of words all day.
Now that that's a wonderful term. It is a bridge.
You're you're bridging communities and groups for the benefit of the overall populace. And you know, to your point, Eli, there is a tangible aspect of the world. Yes, we are digital these days, but the world is very eat tangible, it's very corporeal on it's very good stuff, right, and so we want to be able to bring people together to convene and to build cool things for the future. Will folks send me you know if you want to be on the show info at Inside analysis dot com.
Look up SI foundry dot com. We'll talk to you next time you've been listening to Inside Analysis.
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With sixty years of fascinating facts. This is the man from yesterday and back in time. We go to this time in nineteen sixty five. Get ready for Get Smart, starring Don Adams as Bungling, aged eighty six on NBCTV beginning in September here in nineteen sixty five.
Eighty six, Report to headquarters immediately just a minute. Who is this? This is the Chief?
Who else will be calling you on your shoe?
Max?
And I want you to report to headquarters, pick up a suitcase and meet me at the airport.
Right, Chief, where am I going to the airport?
I know that, Chief, but where are you sending me?
Truly?
Airport?
And from this time In nineteen seventy five, former Teamster's president James R. Haffa is reported missing after his car was found abandoned outside a restaurant. James Hoffa will never be found.
According to his family, Former Teamster's president Jimmy Hoffa is missing. The family made the missing person's report this morning after haffe failed to return to his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, last night. Haffa thought he was meeting with a local mobster and a New Jersey Union leader, but neither man showed up.
From this time in year twenty ten, Lola Palooza kicks off at Chicago's Grand Park and the first performing artist is Bob also performing at Lola Palooza here in twenty ten. Over the next several days, Sandgarden, Lady Gaga, Green Day, and Devoud.
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The Democratic governor of Maryland, is criticizing members of his party who publicly demanded President Biden end his re election campaign. Maryland Governor Wes Moore told ABC's This Week that Biden deserved better than people around him publicly calling on him to step aside. Although he agreed that Biden should end his candidacy, I'm a loyalty.
Person, and I believe that you can have proper conversations and tell people the truth and you know and be able to tell them what you're hearing without also then turning around and publicly then trying to embarrass them.
Biden exited the election last week. Democrats have now coalesced around Vice President Harris to be the nominee. Here's the latest from the Summer Games in Paris.
Team USA took down Serbia for their first one of the Paris Olympic Men's Basketball Tournament. Lebron James was a dominant force on both ends of the floor. James perfect defense, He comes James in transition, James get out his Lebron had twenty one. The women's basketball team looking to open Paris twenty twenty four of the victory when it faces Japan on Monday. In swimming, Carson Foster finished third in the men's four hundred meter individual medley to capture the
bronze medal. He finished five point seven to one seconds behind France's Leon Marshawn, who sent an Olympic record on his way to the gold. In the women's one hundred meter butterfly, Tory Husk and Gretchen Walsh finished first and second to win the gold and silver. Nick Fink also took home a silver medal after time for second in the men's one hundred meter breaststroke. Team USA finishes the opening weekend with twelve total medals, the most of any nation,
including three gold. France has eight total medals, Japan with seven. This has been an NBC News Radio Olympic report.
Justin Timberlake is due back in court on Long Island Friday to be rearigned on drunk driving charges. The pop singer was charged with d wy following a traffic stop in Sag Harbor on July eighteenth. Timberlake is currently on tour in Europe. I'm Chris Karai, Geo NBC News Radio
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