Building AI Transit Management Software

As Co-Founder and Product Lead of Vennle, I had the opportunity to work on an exciting and ambitious project: developing an AI-powered transit management platform for transport operators. Our goal was to bring advanced analytics and management tools to public and private transport operators, allowing them to dynamically manage their networks and automate some of the high-frequency, operational decisions required of effective transit management.

Vennle's Transit Platform was a software solution that enabled operators to access forecasting, optimisation, and auto-decision tools, initially for micromobility schemes (bike and scooter sharing). This included features like recommended vehicle redistribution to help optimise the networks for utilisation, ridership, and profitability.

As a small startup, my responsibilities were varied. I was responsible for forming the product vision, roadmap and business plan, based on market and user research. I led the product development of our MVP, which involved working closely with engineers on the data analytics and data visualisation aspects of the software, and the overall user experience and design.

I also established partnerships with key industry players, such as the UK's largest bike-sharing operator, Serco, through a data sharing agreement and trial of our MVP. In addition, I helped secured funding and support through participating in accelerator programs, such as the Wayra AI Accelerator by Telefonica, Cisco and Edinburgh University, and winning various startup awards and grant funding.

In late 2020, my cofounder and I made the decision to wind up the startup due to shifted market conditions in the public transport sector amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the startup ultimately being wound up, we were able to make significant progress on product development and early customer validation to increase the chances of success. The experience also sparked my passion for product management and provided experience of building a new product from scratch.

In short, building Vennle was challenging, rewarding, and a lot of fun.