Tortoise co-founder Dmitry Shevelenko: ‘You can’t do too many things at the same time’

Silicon Valley startup Tortoise has made some quick pivots into new business models over the past year.

The company was founded by ex-Uber executive Dmitry Shevelenko, who wanted to use remote operators to reassign shared electric scooters to locations where prospective riders are or send them back to the warehouse for a charge.

In January 2021, Tortoise began working with Spin to test three-wheeled scooters.

Before the company scored its Spin pilot, it realized the potential behind remote positioning and all the cameras and sensors it had placed on scooters. Shevelenko realized that it would be malpractice to pursue the robotic sidewalk delivery because people were demanding it at the same time as the shared micromobility industry was taking a nose dive.

Tortoise started delivering with smaller local clients first, and then with big names like grocery story chain and convenience store chain KRS. The signs said that sidewalk delivery was a success.

Then.

In early March 2022, Tortoise pivoted again and decided to focus on mobile smart stores, which are fancy vending machines placed on top of Tortoise's delivery robots and located outside retailers. Now, Tortoise has moved from a hardware-as-a-service model to a take-rate scheme that gives it 10% of any sales made from its card payment-enabled bots, whether it's a box of pastries from a bakery or a brand new headphones from an electronics store.

Shevelenko was behind the acquisition of Jump bikes and served as the director of business development. Skip, Superpedestrian, Codi, Payfare, Skyryse, SpotHero and Cargo Systems are just a few of the companies the founder has advised or been on the board of.

Shevelenko knows the factors that can cause a startup to win and lose.

We sat down with Shevelenko to talk about everything from Tier's acquisition of Spin and the future of micromobility to how to own changing business directions.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

The acquisition of Jump bikes was one of the new mobility segments you were behind. What do you think about companies having multiple pillars, instead of just doing one thing well?

It is a strategy of capturing all your transportation spend for the company. The ultimate end state here is transportation-as-a-subscription product, which is why they are putting so much money behind it.

Ultimately, the way to win is to aggregate all the different ownership models so it’s shared, rented and owned. Dmitry Shevelenko

It's not really effective for companies to try to win you business by giving you special incentives. People lose if they switch back and forth between ride hailing companies. The way to win is almost always on an annual basis. How can you make someone your partner for a year? The lock-in nature of that consumer means you need to have more than just rideshare.

I think that bundling is important because of the ups and downs of rideshare. The demand for transportation is constant. You are always going to be doing well if you have multiple modes.

Tortoise's original idea of re-positioning scooters didn't pan out in the end, but do you think it's still a good idea?

Absolutely. It is just a function of relative prioritization. The only reason delivery is so good is because ofVID, right? Sharing scooters became bad.