UP.Labs Adds Top CEO Talent to Lead Its Unique Venture Ecosystem
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SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — UP.Labs is proud to announce the addition of four world class entrepreneurs to lead its first cohort of startups being launched this year.
UP.Labs, the venture lab of mobility investment firm UP.Partners, delivers a first-of-its-kind economic model that attracts the best and most proven entrepreneurs, giving them opportunity to focus on the product, the customer, and their employees, versus distracting their energy toward raising capital.
Jorge Borbolla, Martin Gilliard, David Fisch, and Rakesh Hegde, who come from proven startup Founder/CEOs roles, as well as leadership roles with Apple, Meta, Ladders, and EdCast, respectively, will join as CEOs of UP.Labs’ first four startups — two built in conjunction with Porsche AG and two built in conjunction with the company’s second retail corporate partner. These professionals bring extensive experience in their fields, having successfully founded and exited numerous ventures. Their additions further validate UP.Labs’ unique business model of attracting the world’s most talented entrepreneurs to lead companies focused on solving core strategic challenges faced by its corporate partners.
Jorge Borbolla is a Stanford educated seasoned entrepreneur and co-founder of two software technology companies — the most recent of which was acquired by Apple. As CIO and CEO, Borbolla has deep experience starting businesses from scratch, assembling initial teams, crafting product visions, executing them, and guiding the business to a successful exit. He joins from Apple, who acquired his last venture, and where he served for seven years. Jorge is the CEO of recently launched Pull Systems — an AI data sciences company born out of UP.Labs’ collaboration with Porsche — helping EV makers manage their fleets with AI-powered data science insights delivered as a service.
Martin Gilliard, who joins from Meta, will serve as CEO of one of UP.Labs’ retail tech startups. Martin previously led Meta’s consumer retail business globally, which launched the company’s first retail store. With expertise in data analytics, digital transformation, and retail, prior to Meta, Gilliard worked as the CIO of Barney’s New York and was the founder and CEO of a data analytics company.
MIT educated, and known for his ability to deliver on strong exits, Rakesh Hegde joins from Edcast and will serve as CEO of the second startup in UP.Labs’ partnership with Porsche AG. With experience scaling rapidly growing businesses for future expansion, monetizing products, and uncovering new markets and revenue opportunities, he brought to market the first SaaS travel reservation platform, Rezopia, where he was Founder and CEO. In addition, he was Founder and CEO of XYKA, an early-stage AI/machine learning travel company. Both Rezopia and XYKA were successfully acquired in profitable exits and UP.Labs looks to leverage Rakesh’s proven track record in this area.
David Fisch is an accomplished CEO with over 15 years of experience in SaaS and internet-enabled businesses. He most recently served as CEO of Ladders, an AI-enabled executive job search platform. Fisch has successfully founded and led technology companies, revitalized struggling businesses, and identified niche markets to launch innovative digital solutions that generate revenue growth, profitability, and strong exits. More details regarding the startups that Martin, Rakesh and David will be leading will be announced later this year.
“We are thrilled to have hired our first cohort of four proven commercial CEOs to scale businesses with product-market fit, each of whom saw the value of the UP.Labs & the UP.Partners ecosystem model as the next step in their careers,” said John Kuolt, Founder and CEO of UP.Labs.
“UP.Labs is innovating the way startups are built,” says Kuolt. “We are able to attract CEOs of this caliber because we give them everything a proven CEO wants: the idea, product-market fit, a large revenue generating first customer, a secured seed round investment, and a likely exit in 3 years.”
UP.Labs follows a rigorous methodology that creates the startups in its lab, vetting hundreds of problems and opportunities by working closely with its large corporate partners — whose complex challenges and problems become the asset to create the idea. In return for solving the strategic problem, the corporate partner is committed as a first large scale paying customer. With an ensured seed round of funding from UP.Ventures and a likely exit in three years, the UP.Labs structure takes the talent, resources, and product-market fit with large corporations and pairs them with a system that allows entrepreneurs to innovate effectively and create maximum impact.
“We are thrilled to welcome Jorge, Martin, Rakesh and David to the UP community. The ability to attract such strong entrepreneurial talent to lead the first group of companies launched by UP.Labs is another positive validation of the significant growth opportunities that these companies present,” said Ben Marcus, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of UP.Partners. “We are excited to partner with these leaders as they create transformative impact for their customers.”
About UP.Labs:
UP.Labs is a first of its kind Venture Lab using a new venture model to solve core problems for the world’s most important corporations in the mobility world. By bringing together world-class business leaders, investors and corporate partners, UP.Labs unlocks innovation for corporations who have the scale and resources but cannot do it on their own. Recognizing that transportation is the underlying fabric of society, UP.Labs utilizes these strategic partnerships to rapidly ideate, build and scale disruptive startups transforming the way we move people and goods to be cleaner, faster, safer, and at lower cost. To learn more visit
https://up.partners/labs/
About UP.Partners:
UP.Partners is Transforming the Moving World by building and investing in companies that move people and goods cleaner, faster, safer, and at lower cost — on the ground, in the air, on the sea, and in space. The multi-strategy firm achieves this goal through its unique and virtuous ecosystem encompassing UP.Ventures, UP.Labs, and UP.Summit. UP.Ventures invests in companies and technologies to enable the future of mobility, working with some of the world’s most innovative investors and entrepreneurs. With flagship launch partner Porsche, UP.Labs is a first-of-its-kind venture lab, partnering with the world’s largest corporations to identify the most pressing challenges that they, and broader society, face. The UP.Summit is an invitation-only experience co-hosted with Tom and Steuart Walton and Ross Perot Jr., in Bentonville, AR and Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX respectively, bringing together the world’s most innovative minds to rethink the future of transportation. For more information, visit www.UP.partners or follow on Twitter @UpPartnersVC or LinkedIn.
Contact:
Katie Duckhorn
katie@bulleitgroup.com
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