Siva Gurumurthy, SVP of Engineering for artificial intelligence-powered hardware and software company KeepTruckin, says it’s the mass disruption the company promised and offered that attracted him, after careers with Twitter, Yahoo, and IBM.
“I was attracted to solve real-world problems through applications of technology,” he says. “Almost 700 billion dollars’ worth of loads moved every year, touching every single person in the world, and it is all very slow and extremely inefficient. KeepTruckin was massively disrupting this market with a modern AI + IoT solution, and I wanted to take a bet on helping them realize that vision.”
That said, while there were several other disruptive tech companies Gurumurthy considered, it was the people themselves at KeepTruckin that also drew him in: “There are a lot of impactful companies, but the culture of the company dictates your everyday happiness. People at KT are humble, low-ego, and smart, and that’s a rare combination I couldn’t say no to.”
After years working for the hardware and software developer, Gurumurthy says that the company works on fundamentally hard problems – the kind that can attract the best engineering talent.
“Our customers are often working in very low connectivity areas, the customers are very price-sensitive, the data cost is a huge toll,” he says. “Without our solution, hundreds of thousands of drivers would be jobless. To solve all these problems in an efficient way is very satisfying.”
Gurumurthy says the team’s combined good practices and experiences help KT solve major challenges in an innovative way. The company’s internal Drive score can identify bad drivers at twice the rate of any other known predictor, such as a CSA score.
KeepTruckin launched in 2013 in order to improve the efficiency and safety of the transportation industry, by building reliable and intuitive technology for fleets of all sizes. They recently raised $190 Million in funding and KeepTruckin intends to invest its new capital back into its AI-powered products like its GPS tracking, ELD compliance and dispatch, and workflow, but it’s specifically interested in improving its smart dashcam, which instantly detects unsafe driving behaviors like cell phone distraction and close following and alerts the drivers in real-time.
“With so many ideas to work on at any given time, the most challenging thing is to keep myself and the team focused on the most impactful problems,” he says.
“On the Engineering team, we are building a distributed operating system for fleet management (and supply chain eventually) connecting trucks, drivers, safety managers, brokers, owners, HR, etc.,” Gurumurthy says.
The Engineering team is in the midst of working on several problems:
- Scaling IoT systems over low bandwidth
- Scaling distributed systems for low-latency, real-time video, and data streams.
- Next-generation AI products (like an AI camera for example)
- Novel algorithms around computer vision (running on the edge) to detect poor road conditions, poor driving behaviors such as close following, distracted driving, speeding etc.
- Novel data modeling and ML modeling algorithms to rank driver behaviors on safety incidents and fuel usage.
- Modern iOS/Android app for drivers and fleet managers.
The last year or so has of course seen the ultimate negative disruption, with the now-dwindling COVID pandemic shattering the old way of working and introducing a “new normal” that involves remote work for many, including most of KeepTruckin’s staff.
“It’s been an unbelievable 12 months,” Gurumurthy says. “I don’t think we will experience another 12 months like the last. ”
Processes and procedures that worked particularly well for the engineering leader and KT over the tumultuous last year include:
- Connecting with the entire team as frequently as possible, through different channels like all hands, team meetings, private slack messages, 1-1 meetings, etc. “As a leader, I recommend every leader to maintain as much high-touch as possible with as many team members as possible,” he says.
- Accelerated product roadmap. “We tried to keep ourselves busy with more projects and hackathons. This kept the team going despite tough external circumstances.”
- “Radical transparency helped a bit too helped with any issues that arose around remote onboarding or hiring.”
KeepTruckin was recently recognized by Comparably as one of the Best Companies for Diversity (“We know and have the data to back up the fact that a more diverse workforce is a more innovative and successful company. Diversity helps us achieve maximum impact,” Gurumurthy says) and for having one of the Best Overall Cultures.
As for how KT works to constantly improve diversity, Gurumurthy says, “We reserved roles as long as we could until we found someone who improved the diversity of the team. Even when there is no headcount, we made exceptions when we found candidates. We tracked and celebrated every single hire we made. I personally tried to meet with every single candidate during the interview process to explain our faithful effort in improving the diversity of our team. All this slowly moved the needle on diversity.”
The company is also active in several communities, and partners with organizations like Latinas in Tech, Techqueria, Afrotech, Women Who Code, Lesbians Who Tech, and more to make sure it is reaching a wide audience.
Those looking to join the engineering at KeepTruckin to help solve problems that can make a huge difference in the safety of the roads should be low-ego, of a growth mindset, and ready to work in an inclusive environment.
“Our company core values include ‘follow-through” and “ownership,’” Gurumurthy says. “We seek folks who are fundamentally strong problem solvers and who index towards a bias to action.”
“If someone wants an action-packed journey in a low-stress environment, and if they want to have a strong impact in moving the needle at company level then KeepTruckin is a good place for them,” he says in closing. “We are at the right stage for folks. We’re not so big that they’ll get buried, and not too small where you are constantly firefighting. At this stage, KeepTruckin can 10x in the next 5 years and every single hire can have an impact towards that goal. And that is exciting.”
