Our guest today is Sampo Hietanen, the CEO of a Finnish company called MAAS Global. MaaS stands for Mobility as a Service, and they are the makers of Whim, an app-based platform for MaaS. Whim provides a single way to access all forms of mobility - everything from cars to trains, scooters, bikes and buses, through a subscription.
Sampo's influence extends way beyond Finland, in fact he is widely viewed as the ideological father of mobility as a service. As you’ll see from the conversation, Sampo has big dreams for how we might get from place A to B to Z, what it means for car ownership and the car industry, what it means for cities, and urban regions, and what it means for the environment. If you listened to our previous conversations in this miniseries, you’ll recall Israel Duanis explained that Fleetonomy was all about optimizing the use of fleets of vehicles and that Shai Suzan explained that WayCare was all about optimizing the flow of traffic. MaaS' vision includes both of these, I think , and more; their dream is about optimizing the experience that people have as they travel through and within a region.
We hope you enjoy the episode - please share it with other like minded curious people, and write us a review on Apple Podcast.