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Founders: John Yuksel, Matine Yuksel, Edip Yuksel
Motto/Mission: To accelerate humanity towards a more walkable future.
Year Founded: 2020
Stage: Seed
Location: Cincinnati, OH, USA
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Climate Capital: What made you want to solve this problem?
John and Matine: Our passion to realize our father’s vision from 40 years ago to change the way humanity moves in popular locations so cities can be built around people, not cars.
Climate Capital: What are you building?
John, Matine, and Edip: Accelerators—modular, intelligent, high-speed pedestrian walkways. They work as stand-alone networks or integrate seamlessly with subway systems to expand the reach of public transportation.
Climate Capital: What is next?
John, Matine, and Edip: Deploy America’s first and the world’s only accelerator next year at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Contact hello@beltways.com to get a private pilot demo
Climate Capital: What are the core elements of the culture you are building at your company?
John, Matine, and Edip: BELTERS: Build, Explore, Learn, Trust, Educate, Respect, Sustain. If you want to join a fast-paced team building the fastest walkways, apply here: https://www.beltways.com/careers.
Climate Capital: What are the key challenges as you scale your company?
John, Matine, and Edip: Many challenges and solutions. Current challenges: (1) finding engineering talent in the Midwest who thrive in the fast-paced startup culture we knew in SF, and (2) convincing coastal engineers to relocate for our pre-Series A startup.
Climate Capital: What have you learned that you want to share with other founders?
John, Matine, and Edip: Starting a public transit hardware software company is crazy…impactful.
Climate Capital: How can the broader climate community help you on your mission?
John, Matine, and Edip: We’re partnering with the National Renewable Energy Lab to validate that Beltways’ accelerators deliver the best kWh per passenger-mile of any short-range solution—and we’d love to build more national-level connections.
If you want to learn more, visit www.beltways.com!