Journey of Electrification

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This chapter chronicles the early development phases of an electric vehicle company, addressing the challenges of creating a prototype sports car with a limited team. It emphasizes the necessity for significant resources, strategic direction towards sustainability, and the courage to embrace risk amid self-doubt. Through personal anecdotes and reflections on the industry, the narrative illustrates the evolution of a vision aimed at making a long-lasting positive impact on future generations.

Guest: RJ Scaringe, CEO and Founder of Rivian

“I’m very comfortable with things not being in their end state,” says Rivian CEO and founder RJ Scaringe. The company’s challenging mission — to help make 100% of the world’s cars electric — will take a long time, and a lot of willingness to build the metaphorical plane in midair.

As Rivian has grown from one person to seven to 17,000, though, RJ admits that there’s a lot more pressure to not screw up. “There’s all these conflicting emotions I had ... is this the right product?” he recalls. “Is it the right strategy? Am I capable of doing this? But at the end of the day, I try really hard not to let that be overly distracting.”

Chapters:

(01:58) - Starting from scratch
(05:35) - Auto tech innovation
(08:03) - The supply chain
(09:52) - Rivian’s deal with Volkswagen
(14:28) - Outsourcing
(16:10) - Capable EVs
(19:06) - Brand and customer satisfaction
(21:05) - That nagging feeling
(27:26) - Raising capital
(31:31) - RJ’s father
(32:35) - The dark side of cars
(34:43) - Tesla’s influence
(37:13) - Financial challenges
(42:38) - Entrepreneurial mindset
(44:59) - Hard decisions
(46:46) - Don’t screw this up
(49:56) - 25,000 decisions a day
(52:16) - Daily routines
(54:57) - Who Rivian is hiring
(55:34) - What “grit” means to RJ

Mentioned in this episode: Porsche, Alex Honnold, Amazon AWS, Mercedes, Elon Musk, Lotus, U.S. News and World Report, MotorTrend, J.D. Power, Ford, Blue Origin, SpaceX, MIT, Jeff Bezos, and the Tesla Roadster.

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This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm