165. AV, Mobility, and the Disruption of Big Auto (Evangelos Simoudis)

Evangelos Simoudis of Synapse Partners joins Nick to discuss AV, Mobility, and the Disruption of Big Auto. In this episode, we cover:   Backstory / Path to becoming an investor What is the investment focus/philosophy of your firm? What are the key drivers of automotive disruption? Can you talk about the role of big data and machine intelligence in AV? Can you give us an overview of the framework you use for investing in mobility and talk about the new investment areas in the category What business models have and will emerge as we adopt autonomous vehicles for on-demand mobility services? What needs to happen for these business models to be implemented and what sort of timeline are we looking at? Talk about some of the notable companies funded in the space and potential exits in the short-, medium-, and long-term? What do you think will happen to the large, incumbent automakers? Where do you find interesting big data and AI startups working on mobility-related problems outside Silicon Valley, Israel, and China? How do you identify areas to invest, create value for your portcos, and help drive exits? Advice for founders working on AV and mobility tech?   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.