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Policy-Driven Infrastructure: How Form Mobility is Building the Future of Zero-Emission Trucking
The parallels between solar energy adoption in 2005 and today’s zero-emission trucking landscape are striking. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Form Mobility founder Matt LeDucq shared how this historical perspective shapes his company’s unique approach to building charging infrastructure for heavy-duty electric trucks.
“Just how much nay saying was being said about that. Solar isn’t a bonafide generation source. It’s intermittent. It’s got all these functional problems,” Matt recalls about early solar skepticism. “But if you look today, there is $2 billion of solar being put in the ground in the United States every single day.”
This context proved invaluable when Matt spotted a massive market opportunity in California’s evolving transportation policies. “California had implemented some policies that were going to make anything but zero emission transportation nearly impossible as time marched on,” he explains. The potential was so significant that “we had to run the numbers a few times because hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure has to be installed.”
Rather than following traditional startup playbooks, Form Mobility’s go-to-market strategy embraces the regulated nature of infrastructure markets. Their first key hire wasn’t a product or engineering lead – it was a policy expert. “One of the very first hires was a high power policy person,” Matt shares. “We have lobbyists in Sacramento, we work with the governor’s office. It is one of those things where the venture investors cringe at it, but you have to be in the weeds and you have to be in the room to get a jump on the markets.”
The company’s approach to customer acquisition is equally pragmatic. Instead of trying to convince skeptics, they focus on serving those who need to comply with new regulations: “We are not in the changing people’s minds business, and nor do we pitch ourselves as a green technology company. We’re a service provider.”
This service-first mentality translates into their core offering. Form Mobility provides trucking companies with charging stations, zero-emission trucks, and secure parking spots for a fixed monthly fee that competes with diesel costs. The market opportunity is substantial – in California alone, “33,000 trucks in the state of California travel about a billion miles a year moving containers from the port to the Amazon warehouse.”
Perhaps most notably, Matt advocates for collaboration over competition in emerging infrastructure markets. “We spend a lot more time figuring out how we can get things done together, whether it’s in DC or Sacramento or elsewhere, than we do working apart,” he explains. This cooperative approach extends to policy advocacy, where infrastructure providers often work together to shape regulations that benefit the entire industry.
The company’s execution strategy focuses on proving their model at a smaller scale before rapid expansion. “We got our pilot project in the ground about a year ago,” Matt notes. Their next milestone is deploying “$100 million of assets in the ground in the next 24 months” while delivering “an incredible customer experience.”
For founders building in regulated markets, Form Mobility’s journey offers valuable lessons in patience, policy engagement, and strategic cooperation. As Matt puts it, “You have to follow it and you have to understand it. You also have to understand politics as part of that.” In infrastructure markets, sometimes the path to success means working with competitors to grow the entire category rather than fighting for existing market share.
Actionable
Takeaways
Leverage Industry Experience for Innovation:
Matt’s seamless transition from renewable energy to zero-emission trucking underlines the value of applying insights from one’s past experiences to address emerging challenges. For tech founders, this underscores the importance of using your unique background to innovate and solve problems in your current ventures.
Focus on Regulatory Opportunities:
Matt’s strategic focus on California due to its progressive policies on zero-emission vehicles illustrates the importance of aligning business models with regulatory environments. Founders should consider how regulatory frameworks can create opportunities for their businesses and use this as a guide for strategic decision-making.
Start with a Strong Operational Foundation:
Identifying and securing strategic locations for infrastructure development was a critical first step for Forum Mobility. This emphasizes the need for tech founders to establish a solid operational base, whether it’s through securing key resources or optimizing logistical operations, to support scalable growth.
Offer Comprehensive Solutions to Overcome Market Resistance:
By providing trucks along with charging as a service, Forum Mobility addresses a major barrier to adoption. This approach can be a model for founders in other sectors: consider comprehensive solutions that address potential customer hesitations and make the transition to your product or service as frictionless as possible.
Engage in Policy and Advocacy Work:
Matt’s investment in policy engagement and lobbying underscores the impact of regulatory environments on tech innovation and market penetration. Founders should not shy away from policy engagement; instead, they should see it as an essential part of their strategy to navigate and influence the regulatory landscapes that affect their businesses.
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