Meet the Team: Phil Williams, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Iomob
Phil Williams leads projects of strategic importance to grow our product and business globally, and manages our connection to the broader Centrality ecosystem of startup companies.
How did you get involved in iomob?
In late 2017, Centrality started a project called TRANZ, to develop a decentralised mobility marketplace. I was given the lead and full ownership on that project, including writing the business whitepaper and doing all the early market validation, which confirmed that this would be a game-changer for urban mobility. So — essentially — we invented the same thing as Iomob around the same time. By sheer good luck, we were introduced to Boyd and the team in 2018. We had a choice at that stage: build up our own team or, instead, invest in Iomob and “merge” the projects. I strongly believe in collaboration (and not duplicating effort), so I recommended that we do the latter. The Centrality board agreed and thus we parked TRANZ and became an early-stage large investor in Iomob. Over the past year, I have transitioned my workload to work with Iomob full time. It’s been great!
How do you feel about your role as Director of Strategic Partnerships? What does this role involve and what do you aim to achieve as Iomob’s DoSP?
My role is to really understand the strategies of other key actors and track where the mobility market is heading. I use this information to ensure that the product we are offering provides real answers to the hard problems facing urban mobility. I then mould all of this information into a well-articulated, focused vision and translate it into working partnerships. Finally, when we have big projects underway, my job is to leverage them to create more opportunities for Iomob.
How do the visions of Centrality and Iomob link?
On a practical level, Centrality is building foundational pieces of Web3.0 infrastructure for decentralised apps: services like identity, payments, and messaging. These are useful to any business creating decentralised apps, including Iomob. At a vision level, both businesses are motivated by the idea that every individual should be the custodian and benefactor of their data. The model of the monopolistic, privacy-invading technology company, like Facebook or Google, is causing measurable harm to society and can’t continue into the future. Both Centrality and Iomob are, therefore, strongly motivated by the concept of digital equity for all people and seek to create wonderful, cutting-edge products with “built-in fairness”.
How did you get into smart cities and urban transit/tech and blockchain?
I first developed an interest in blockchain through small-scale crypto investing back in 2014/15. In 2017, I decided it was a space that I wanted to work in: there was a sense of unlimited possibility and the opportunity to change the rules of the game, so that we, as citizens, could regain power from our digital overlords. By the time that late 2017 came around, I was teaming up with Fred Ehrsam from Coinbase and an amazing securities lawyer, Rachel Paris, to write some policy advice for the NZ government about the potential of blockchain technologies and how they might be categorised and regulated to give NZ a seat at the global table. So, in summary, I was led to blockchain because of cryptocurrencies and stayed because, on a personal level, I am very motivated by ideas of equity and fairness. Now I am actually working with blockchain technologies to concretely achieve this equity!
What motivates you in your work historically and specifically with Iomob?
I come from a strong sustainability background: my father was New Zealand’s Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and I have always been a passionate urbanist, previously running a coworking network and helping to set up Auckland’s largest innovation precinct, GridAKL. The combination of sustainability and urbanism naturally leads to transport, one of the largest levers of change with which we can improve cities, people and the planet. I’ve also seen how legacy markets can digitise badly, from my time working in healthcare. The transit sector is about to experience a massive digital revolution. The decisions we make now will affect us for a lifetime: I want to help to make sure that we build open and equitable systems for all now before it is too late.
What is your vision for the future of Iomob?
I would like to see Iomob become a leader for open mobility networks, helping to create fairer and more innovative local and global transit markets. Through this foundational work, we want to see urban transit become smoother and easier to navigate, improving people’s lives every day. We also want to reduce carbon emissions caused by transit by favouring sustainable modes and reducing the number of private, single-driver cars on the road. Connected transit means better outcomes for people, cities, and the planet.
What is your vision for the future of shared mobility?
There is no doubt that shared mobility will become the default way we move around in cities at some point in the near future. It will become easier and cheaper than private vehicle ownership for many, many, many people. Whether this happens in 10 years or 30 depends on how visionary policymakers are today.
Read more about Phil’s vision for mobility here:
What do you think the role of blockchain is in smart cities, and, in particular, in urban mobility?
Blockchain has a crucial role to play, in that it can create markets where many businesses can collaborate on equal terms, using fair and free access mediated by smart contracts. The problems with the current market are numerous: everyone wants to own the customer and control other people’s access to them. Blockchains are the single best tool for creating trustless marketplaces that any legal provider can access, without having to spend a fortune on market entry. This will encourage innovation and investment in the things that matter most: better vehicles and better service.
What do you think about the term ‘smart city’ and do you see it remaining a popular term in the future?
Cities will continue to digitise at different rates depending on their capabilities and goals. I think the definition of a “smart city” will change — from a city that commissions technology as a bolt-on (what it is today) to one that uses technology on every level to administer and enable better services and a better quality of life for both urban businesses and citizens.
At what point might you feel you’ve met true success for Iomob?
When we have our first country fully committed to the protocol, running a network of hubs that all mobility services can supply to — and that a vibrant network of competing apps can access. On top of that, when citizens book thousands of journeys on any and every mode every day through the protocol. That would be true success for me.
What tips would you give to other blockchain mobility startups out there?
It’s an open world: I would advise them to discard business models that see them building a walled garden or a proprietary customer base. Instead, I would say: focus on how you connect and add value in open networks.
Who were your early mentors and inspirations?
I’m an industrial designer by training, so I took a huge amount of inspiration from Marc Newson, a well-known Australian product designer, and from Jony Ive at Apple. Marc was an outrageous showman: for him, design was, first and foremost, an art. Jony was the consummate craftsman, a master of detail and restraint. I started my professional life identifying with the former approach: I’m now very much in the latter camp.
What currently inspires you in life/work?
I am inspired by the use of technology to improve our lives in ways that actually matter. We don’t need more gadgets or flying cars, for that matter: we need thoughtful, carefully designed technologies that enhance our relationships with each other and with society.
What was the best advice anyone ever gave you, and did you follow it?
“You’d care less about what other people think about you, if you knew how little they think about you at all” and its related cousin, “don’t take anything too personally”.
I live by these expressions every day. As a result of removing unnecessary anger and conflict from my own head, my outward life is a calmer, less anxious, and more rewarding place.
About us:
Iomob revolutionises how people get around. We are a technology platform for mobility. We enable seamless, multimodal journeys across an open network where any participant can interact and connect with any other. It is an open, neutral system where large transit organizations, major service providers, startups, and independent operators can be integrated into a single user’s journey. In short, the Internet of Mobility.Learn more about Iomob by connecting with us:
