#StartupsEverywhere Profile: Matt Caywood, Co-Founder & CEO, Actionfigure
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Transportation Solutions to Create More Sustainable Cities
Actionfigure enables its customers to make decisions that best fit their needs by collecting and curating transportation intelligence data. Co-founder and CEO Matt Caywood spoke with us about his company, his experience working in the sustainability and transportation spaces, and how the federal government could help simplify the income tax process for startups.
Tell us about your background. What led you to create Actionfigure?
I was working on a PhD in San Francisco and had to take the bus or the streetcar to the lab late at night. There were times when I stood for 20 minutes on the street corner in the dead of San Francisco winter, waiting on the bus to arrive. It was not very pleasant and I wanted to simplify that process for myself. I used some of the new data sources that were being made available by transit agencies to put together the first version of our first product, TransitScreen®, which we now call Actionfigure Screen. It tells you how far away buses are and how many minutes it would take for you to get to them from your current location. With that technology, I was able to create a tool where I could work until the last possible minute in my office and never have to wait for the bus.
Then, when I moved to D.C., I got involved in a project with the local government where they realized that they could make this same tool on a scale screen and give more people access to the technology by putting it in places like lobbies of apartments or office buildings. At that time, so many new types of transportation were becoming mainstream. People began using bike share, scooters, Uber, Lyft, and more in addition to subways and buses. It was our mission to get all of that data together into one place, so people could make a decision about their transportation without having to search through countless different apps. We followed that vision and now our screens are in thousands of places around the country—from small businesses to stadiums to corporate campuses, offices, and apartments.
What is the work you all are doing at Actionfigure currently?
Actionfigure is all about helping people make better, smarter, more efficient, and ultimately more sustainable transportation choices. To that end, we’re using the data platform we created to build new tools for employers and real estate owners and operators. They can give these tools to their employees or to the people in their buildings and help them make better trips to and from the building. One of our products helps you understand how to get to your employer’s office and use all the benefits that are available, whether shuttles, or bike programs, or various forms of public transit. Employers can then use that same data to make better decisions about where to invest and how to best satisfy employees’ needs getting to and from the office.
In terms of real estate, often a third of the value of an urban building is about access to transportation, but that wasn’t being adequately measured or quantified before Actionfigure. Our technology allows our real estate customers to understand the transportation landscape around their buildings, find the right tenants, and monetize the building. Relatedly, we’re the company behind MobilityScore® that quantifies the transportation around a location. You can search an address and figure out the difficulty, transportation-wise, of getting to and from that location.
Can you tell us about your experience working with accelerators?
We are partnered with the AWS Sustainable Cities Accelerator, which has been great to work with in a couple different ways. Firstly, Amazon has been a customer of ours for a few years and has been really proactive in the sustainability space. They have a big environmental impact but they are making efforts to manage it with their climate pledge, and by taking responsibility for sustainable employee commutes and employee wellness. AWS has also been a great resource in connecting us with companies that work with governments and government agencies and offices themselves. In addition to that, we have received a lot of valuable mentoring from them. It’s those kinds of services that are extremely helpful to startups.
Prior to participating in the AWS accelerator program, we had partnered with a couple other accelerators. One was the 1776 accelerator, which was a fantastic community-building resource. That creation and feeling of community within the startup ecosystem was one of the things that was really missing during the pandemic for new and large startups alike.
What has it been like working in the sustainability and transit spaces within the context of the post-COVID “return to work”? How can lawmakers better support companies that are developing solutions in the sustainability and transit spaces?
Hybrid work is a big change from where the world was in 2019. But, that change doesn’t mean that people never need to go anywhere. People are still going into the office, but they are doing so in more flexible ways and at more flexible times. That means employers and employees need new tools to support transportation decision-making that are relevant to the current commuting system. Likewise, politicians need to create policies that support increased work flexibility and the dynamic nature of travel and decision making.
For example, many transit agencies adapted to the pandemic by changing their schedules to support the travel of essential workers and atypical commuting times. Those systems that have adapted should be rewarded because they’re providing an essential and sustainable service that is meeting the mobility needs of more people. A lot of cities have been changing their streetscapes, setting up streeteries, supporting new retail needs, and putting in new bike lanes. I’d love to see those kinds of trends continue and ultimately, we need to be pushing for a more sustainable mobility system nationwide. The United States’ current system is one of the most inefficient in the world with extremely high carbon emissions per mile traveled. There needs to be a mix of solutions to create a market of options so that people can choose what option is best for them and the best option for the environment.
Are there any tax challenges that you’ve experienced as a startup?
Like a lot of startups, we work with a professional employer organization (PEO), which is helpful for handling some of the HR and compliance challenges that create a lot of operational difficulties for us. But some of the challenges still remain. For example, our R&D tax credits and our PATH Act reimbursements were hung up for about a year while the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was creating a certified PEO process. Even now that the process is in place, we still have trouble with the IRS. New programs like the Payback Protection Program (PPP) and the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) are not very compatible with PEOs, so everything takes six months longer. At the federal level, government agencies, like the IRS, should prioritize their ability to work with these systems because there is a growing wave of companies that are using PEOs. This is especially important because, oftentimes, small businesses can’t afford to have their tax refunds or their credits delayed.
Are there any tax programs that have been helpful?
There’s a gap in the startup curriculum, especially for startups outside Silicon Valley and major hubs, and I think it would be helpful if startups were advised more early on about financing and the options available to them, including with tax credits and exemptions. In addition to the tax credits above, we’ve also been benefiting from Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS), which can be important for startups both in attracting investors and at the time of a liquidity event. Through the tax code, QSBS incentivizes people to reinvest money from returns on startup investments into new startups. For example, we had an investor who had a liquidity event, but because of QSBS tax treatment, he was incentivized to reinvest that money into a bunch of other startups and be a seed investor in new companies. And investment in startups is exactly what the government should be incentivizing.
What are your goals for Actionfigure moving forward?
Our goal is to change how businesses, the real estate industry, and employers think about transportation. We want these actors to be more proactive about how they think about, engage with, and manage the transportation available to them. Then, have them use that information to create more value for their properties and their businesses and help them retain tenants and employees. There’s a lot of potential for new markets, new business models, and greater efficiencies. I’m really excited about being able to help the industries that we work with, producing the overall outcome of better cities and better quality of life.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email advocacy@engine.is.
