What does it take to build a global mobility company from a country of just 1.3 million people?
Markus Villig, founder and CEO of Bolt, joins the show to share how he scaled from Estonia to 50+ countries, navigating early scrappy days, a
near-bankruptcy from expanding too fast, and the hard-won lessons behind Bolt’s capital-efficient growth.
They also discuss building in Europe vs. the U.S., competing against much better-funded rivals, and why culture and ambition matter more than regulation.
Finally, Markus lays out what’s next: autonomy, robotaxis, and why the future of mobility will be a hybrid of human drivers and self-driving fleets.
Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:58 - Introduction & The Bolt Story 03:23 - Early Days: Taxi Companies & the Pivot to Drivers 08:55 - Surviving COVID &
Tripling Market Share 15:00 - Why Estonia Punches Above Its Weight 18:24 - Competing Against Uber on 12x Less Capital 22:57 - Bolt's Autonomous
Driving Vision 34:48 - How AI is Transforming Bolt & What's Next
Resources: Find Markus on X: https://x.com/villigm Find Gabriel on X: https://x.com/GEVS94
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