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XVeo CEO Candice Xie Is Bringing an Anti-Tech Bro Approach to Micromobility

Yet another micromobility startup will soon call Los Angeles home, bringing its two-wheel sensibilities to what’s long been a four-wheel city.
Veo, an e-scooter and e-bike-sharing startup, will open its new headquarters on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade later this month. Originally hailing from Chicago, Veo plans to hire up to 200 employees locally, as it outlined in application documents filed with local authorities. The company currently operates in more than 25 cities, including Santa Monica, and plans to launch across wider Los Angeles by the end of this month.
“With this kind of active user base year round, it’s like heaven for us,” according to Veo CEO Candice Xie. Both Xie and her co-founder, Veo president Edwin Tan, have moved to the L.A. area as part of the relocation.
Founded in 2017 as a bike-sharing startup, Veo has since expanded to include e-scooters in its offerings. It is also the only major micromobility operator run by a female CEO. Xie and Tan were inspired to launch Veo after witnessing the bike-share boom in Asia, but their ambitions were decidedly greener: Rather than sourcing cheap bikes that would eventually end up in a landfill, they wanted to build their own quality product and provide a scalable, sustainable service for communities.
Veo CEO Candice Xie.
Image courtesy of Veo
Tan, formerly an engineer for bicycle manufacturer Trek, brought his experience in manufacturing and supply chain logistics, while Xie—a former financial planner for Schneider Electric—brought her business background. They initially named the company VeoRide, as in “we all ride.”
As Veo grew its offerings from bikes and e-bikes to e-scooters in 2019, it continued its commitment to accessibility for all riders across socio-economic demographics. That’s a notable goal given how, according to a 2020 report by the L.A. Department of Transportation on the county’s micromobility pilot program, 64% of riders identified as male, 58% were aged 18-to-34 and nearly a quarter earned over $100,000.
After Veo built its first standup scooter in 2019, Xie saw an opportunity to develop a product that could appeal to a more diverse user base. “As a woman—and I cannot speak for all women—I am a more risk-averse person,” she said. “So standing there [going] 15 miles per hour, with cars riding side-by-side with me, made me a little bit freaked out.”
In 2020, Veo debuted the Cosmo, a sit-down e-scooter with a larger wheelbase and lower center of gravity. Xie said that they wanted to appeal to women who might wear high heels or skirts to work, as well as older users who would feel more comfortable sitting down. A Veo user survey last year found that women, people with disabilities and riders taking longer trips all preferred it to Veo’s standup scooter.
Xie believes that the future of micromobility is in a multi-model approach.
“I don't believe it if someone says, ‘This is the perfect scooter,’” she said. “No, it's not; we're just a couple of years into this industry. There are still a lot of things we can build from the safety, sustainability and inclusivity side.”
Veo plans to roll out more vehicle types and features, appealing to a wide range of users and use cases, in the coming months.
So far, it seems like Veo’s city-by-city strategy is paying off. It’s the only company operating in both Santa Monica and New York City—where, alongside Bird and Lime, it’s part of the Big Apple’s recently launched micromobility pilot program. (Bird was notably kicked out of Santa Monica last year, while Lime pulled out of the city in 2020.) Veo also raised $16 million in new funding last year to support its expansion into new markets.
Xie noted that cities are maturing in their approach toward micromobility after the industry’s tumultuous beginnings, with municipalities choosing companies that are willing to operate as community partners rather than chasing riders at all costs.
In December 2020, Xie took to Medium to call out other operators for prioritizing rapid growth at the expense of building a sustainable business model. She pointed out that Veo—and not Lime, as that company’s CEO Wayne Ting had intimated—was the first micromobility company to achieve profitability.
While Xie does not hesitate to throw down the gauntlet, being a female CEO is not without its challenges. She mentioned one investor forum where, as the only woman in the room, another attendee handed her his drink thinking that she was a server.
“A lot of products used by females are actually designed by males,” she said. “And I do think that’s something that needs to be improved.”
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TikTok’s Latest Ad Strategy: Let Brands Crowdsource Creators
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
TikTok’s newest advertising program will allow brands to crowdsource content from creators.
Branded Mission, which the Culver City-based video-sharing app announced Wednesday, is currently being beta-tested. The program lets brands release briefs containing specific creative directions—such as incorporating a specific hashtag, visual effect or audio—with the goal of procuring videos that will become promoted ads. Creators with at least 1,000 followers will be compensated with cash payments if the content performs well.
Creators participating in the “authentic branded content” program, as TikTok described it, can choose which brand initiatives they wish to participate in—with each Branded Mission “page” highlighting details like how much money a creator could potentially receive for participating. TikTok told Business Insider that it’s testing various payment models, including a first-come, first-serve model as well as “boosted traffic” compensation.
“Creators are at the center of creativity, culture and entertainment on TikTok,” the social media firm said in a statement. “With Branded Mission, we're excited to bring even more creators into the branded content ecosystem and explore ways to reward emerging and established creators.”
TikTok’s previous advertising strategies have relied on creators with large followings, with the recently announced TikTok Pulse targeting users with at least 100,000 followers. Branded Mission, on the other hand, gives creators with smaller platforms a chance to make more revenue beyond programs like TikTok’s Creator Fund.
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Greater Good Health Raises $10M To Fix America’s Doctor Shortage
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
The pandemic highlighted what’s been a growing trend for years: Medical students are prioritizing high-paying specialty fields over primary care, leading to a shortage of primary care doctors who take care of a patient’s day-to-day health concerns. These physicians are a cornerstone of preventative health care, which when addressed can lower health care costs for patients, insurers and the government. But there’s a massive shortage of doctors all over the country, and the pipeline for primary care physicians is even weaker.
One local startup is offering a possible answer to this supply squeeze: nurse practitioners.
On Wednesday, Manhattan Beach-based Greater Good Health unveiled $10 million in new funding led by LRVHealth, adding to $3 million in seed funding raised by the startup last year. The company employs nurse practitioners and pairs them with doctor’s offices and medical clinics; this allows nurse practitioners to take on patients who would otherwise have to wait weeks, or even months, to see a doctor.
“This access and equity issue is just going to become more pervasive if we don't do things to help people gain more access,” Greater Good founder and CEO Sylvia Hastanan told dot.LA. “We need more providers to offer more patients appointments and access to their time to take care of their needs. And in order to do that, we really need to think about the workforce.”
There has been a growing movement in the medical industry to use nurse practitioners in place of increasingly scarce primary care physicians. California passed a law in 2020 that will widen the scope of nurse practitioners and allow them to operate without a supervising physician by 2023. Amid a shortage of doctors, there’s also the question of what will become of the largest and longest-living elderly population in recent history, Baby Boomers. Public health officials are already scrambling for ways to take care of this aging demographic’s myriad health needs while also addressing the general population.
“By the time you and I get old enough where we need primary care providers to help us with our ailments and chronic conditions, there aren't [going to be] enough of them,” Hastanan said. “And/or there just isn't going to be enough support for those nurse practitioners to really thrive in that way. And I worry about what our system will look like.”
Nurse practitioners function much like doctors do—they can monitor vitals, diagnose patients, and, in some cases, prescribe medication (though usually under the supervision of a doctor). Nurse practitioners need to get either a master’s degree or higher in nursing and complete thousands of hours of work in a clinical setting. All told, it usually takes six-to-eight years to become a nurse practitioner, compared to 10-to-15 years to become a practicing physician.
Greater Good Health’s platform puts nurse practitioners in often years-long care settings where they manage patients—most of whom are chronically ill, high-risk patients that need to be seen regularly and thoroughly. This allows them to follow up more carefully on patients they have managed for years, instead of catching up on a new patient’s history and treating them in the moment. Patients, meanwhile, don’t have to see a rotating door of clinicians and can talk to a provider they already have an established rapport with.
The one-year-old startup will use the funding to provide learning and development opportunities for its nurse practitioners and also connect them with each other through virtual support groups. Burnout has been an issue across health care during the pandemic, spurring an exodus of nursing and support staff and leaving health care facilities woefully understaffed. Greater Good hopes that keeping nurse practitioners in more stable, years-long care situations and offering them career development opportunities will help retain them and keep them in the workforce longer.
“We want them to be well-rounded and balanced both in work and life, and we see that returns us healthier, more engaged and ready nurse practitioners,” Hastanan said.
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
Plus Capital Partner Amanda Groves on Celebrity Equity Investments
On this episode of the L.A. Venture podcast, Amanda Groves talks about how PLUS Capital advises celebrity investors and why more high-profile individuals are choosing to invest instead of endorse.
As a partner at PLUS, Groves works with over 70 artists and athletes, helping to guide their investment strategies. PLUS advises their talent roster to combine their financial capital with their social capital and focus on five investment areas: the future of work, future of education, health and wellness, the conscious consumer and sustainability.
“The idea is if we can leverage these people who have incredible audiences—and influence over that audience—in the world of venture capital, you'd be able to help make those businesses move forward faster,” Groves said.
PLUS works to create celebrity partnerships by identifying each client’s passions and finding companies that align with them, Groves said. From there, the venture firm can reach out to prospective partners from its many contacts and can help evaluate businesses that approach its clients. Recently, PLUS paired actress Nina Dobrev with the candy company SmartSweets after she had told them about her love for its snacks.
Celebrity entrepreneurship has shifted quite a bit in recent years, Groves said. While celebrities are paid for endorsements, Groves said investing allows them to gain equity from the growth of companies that benefit from their work.
“Like in movies, for example, where they're earning a residual along the way, they thought, ‘You know, if we're going to partner with these brands and create a tremendous amount of enterprise value, we should be able to capture some of the upside that we're generating, too’,” she said.
Partnering in this way also allows her clients to work with a wider range of brands, including small brands that often can’t afford to spend millions on endorsements. Investing allows high-profile individuals to represent brands they care about, Groves said.
“The last piece of the puzzle was a drive towards authenticity,” Groves said. “A lot of these high-profile artists and athletes are not interested, once they've achieved some sort of level of success, in partnering with brands that they don't personally align with.”
Hear the full episode by clicking on the playhead above, and listen to LA Venture on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
dot.LA Editorial Intern Kristin Snyder contributed to this post.