Our story

Electrifying transportation is one of the most important and transformative endeavors of the 21st century.

Marain is a simulation-first fleet planning and operations software startup on a mission to make electric transportation ubiquitous. Founded in 2018 and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, our origins are in Stanford’s Autonomous Systems Lab and UC Berkeley/LBNL’s Behavior, Energy, Autonomy, and Mobility (BEAM) program.

We are focused on building solutions for current and future operators of large fleets of centrally controlled electric—and ultimately autonomous—vehicles operated in high-utilization and stochastic demand contexts.

We are looking for exceptional people who are as excited as we are to solve complex problems, build a unique company and make an impact on how people and things move in our world.

Our values

These are the six core values that are the cultural operating system for how Marain pursues its mission

Think Big

We have a bold mission and expansive vision for the future of transportation. We set goals that are ambitious because they require us to focus and make tradeoffs. We create more value and have greater impact by achieving 50% of the audacious than 100% of the timid. We are alert to opportunities that would be missed if we were not thinking big. We strive to have the greatest impact by working on hard problems that if solved scale massively.

Are Pioneers

We are on a challenging and uncertain journey, building new technology in a new company all in a rapidly changing market. We are motivated by curiosity, wonder and a restlessness at the status quo. We adapt and iterate. We are creative, resourceful and practical problem solvers. Pioneers do what it takes to make the mission successful, recognizing they must also get the basics right to make discoveries and breakthroughs.

Operate as Owners

We think and act in support of the company, our team and other teams. We take ownership and responsibility for our work and hold ourselves accountable. We take initiative and proactively and willingly go outside of our areas of responsibility to improve our products, culture, and the company overall. While surfacing problems is expected, it is always better to pair them with proposed solutions. Complaining about something doesn't fix it. We are frugal, spending money and using resources as if they were our own. We accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention.

Default to Pareto Action

We face many tradeoffs in the pursuit of our mission. We are guided by the Pareto principle - to prioritize the 20% of actions that produce 80% of value, and commit ourselves to exceptional quality in the 20% that matters. We value calculated risk taking and recognize that many decisions are reversible, leading to a bias for action. While we strive for success in everything we do, our humility tells us we will fall short at times. We believe it is okay to make mistakes but unacceptable not to learn from them.

Cultivate Trust

High trust is what enables us to take significant risks, rigorously debate ideas without colleagues feeling personally attacked or worrying about politics. We default to trusting the motivations, capabilities and judgement of colleagues. We actively build trust by being candid but kind. Transparency builds trust and we default to it; avoiding control of information for power, status or political ends. We challenge ideas when we disagree, knowing we can trust that once a decision is made we will all commit wholly to it. We also work to cultivate trust outside the company with customers, investors and other partners.

Create Fun & Happiness

We are doing something hard and uncertain which sometimes entails working long hours and navigating stressful periods. Given the amount of time we spend pursuing our mission, it is vital to make the time to create fun and happiness. Humor and laughter are powerful tools to break up difficult or challenging times. We take our core purpose and goals extremely seriously, but not always ourselves. We learn what makes our colleagues happy and work to create happiness for them where we can.

Leadership

Leaders in the transportation and energy industries with experience in transportation simulation and fleet operations

Damien Scott

CEO

Mobility, energy and sci-fi. Recovering physicist and F1 alum. USYD and Stanford

Colin Sheppard

CTO

Energy and transportation modeling maven. Stanford and UC Berkeley

Sid Feygin

Head of Simulation

Simulation and machine learning virtuoso. Uber alum. Columbia and UC Berkeley

Mike Caron

Head of Product

All around transportation ace. Greenbriar alum. Brown and Stanford

Our mission to make electric transportation ubiquitous