insight
Michael brings over twenty years of experience in electric and clean mobility as an entrepreneur, engineer, consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and published researcher, including two stints at Rocky Mountain Institute—the latter of which he led the Mobility practice as Vice President.
Most recently, Michael was founder and CEO of Evercar (and its precursor Vision Fleet), where he worked hands-on with customers, industry partners, and the incredible Evercar team to tackle the barriers to adopting shared electric-vehicles at scale. Evercar was named one of the top 100 global Cleantech companies in 2015, was widely featured in media outlets such as TechCrunch, and was the cover article in the July 2016 Charged Magazine (in fact, the first non-automobile given the cover photo, in turn bumping the Tesla Model 3 to the sidebar: an editorial decision even Michael disagreed with).
Founded in 2013 as a finance-driven Company trying to solve the EV adoption problem by adopting the solar PPA framework for fleets, Evercar pivoted to becoming the first shared electrified vehicle operator in the on-demand economy—a precursor of what’s likely to be the dominant mobility model of the 2020s (shared electrified autonomous vehicles).
Evercar grew at its peak to over 40 employees, $4M annual revenues, and 1000 members. In 2016, it was the largest global fleet EV user (at one point) of level 1, 2, and 3 charging with its portfolio of over 350 highly utilized electrified vehicles. As a carshare operator, Evercar sustained system-wide utilizations of over 40%, with several hubs over 60%—in a sector where 35% utilization is considered a “home run.”
Evercar pioneered many innovations, ranging from architecting the first financeable PPA-like contract for vehicles (“miles as a service”), developing the first deep analytics toolset for operating shared electric vehicles (Evercar ‘iQ’), and creating a technology and operations platform to put shared vehicles into on-demand (a remarkably complex operation given that on-demand was designed around internal-combustion, personally owned vehicles).
Prior to starting Evercar, he was co-founder and Senior Vice President at Bright Automotive. Michael led the founding research consortium of Google, Alcoa, and Johnson Controls, authored the business plan, and co-architected its flagship product, the Bright Idea light commercial vehicle. During his tenure, Michael ran the sales and marketing team, working with dozens of corporate and governmental fleets to understand their challenges and needs in adopting clean vehicles. He also led strategic partnering activities, securing General Motors Ventures’ first ever investment in 2010.
Previously, Michael’s diverse work experience included roles as Vice President at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), where he is currently a Senior Advisor,, and positions at Boston Consulting Group (BCG, where is is also a Senior Advisor) and Boeing Aerospace. He was co-founder and Vice President at Fiberforge, one of the first green automotive startups that aimed to commercialize Amory Lovins’ Hypercar Concept and automotive light weighting work.
Among his accomplishments at RMI, where he led its transport practice, Mr. Brylawski convened over 25 diverse companies, from GM and Ford to IBM and Cisco, on vehicle-to-grid infrastructure and co-authored a definitive primer on the subject. He led an engagement with a major global automaker on lightweight vehicle strategy, collaborated with the Brookings Institute on an ambitious oil-policy initiative, and published numerous technical papers on advanced-materials design and manufacturing.
Mr. Brylawski was among the first to publish in the 1990s on the emergence of efficiency and electrification as dominant trends in the automotive sector. He has been cited extensively in the press, including Forbes, MSNBC, Popular Mechanics, Fast Company, and The New York Times. He has spoken widely, including keynoting Automotive News’s Green Car Conference and was a featured correspondent for the Discovery Network. Mr. Brylawski received a MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and a MBA from MIT Sloan, and he received a BS in Earth Systems Science with honors from Stanford University. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters, who as a family of four share one EV (Michael himself is mostly ‘carless’ and transports himself with shared mobility options, including bike and foot).
EXPERIENCE AT THE DISTRIBUTION EDGE
See bio: 23+ years of experience at RMI and three distribution-edge (on the clean mobility side) startups
DESCRIBE WHAT YOU WANT TO OFFER TEAMS TRYING TO ACCELERATE THEIR PROJECTS
I am in a unique position to have worked long and deep in the RMI network as a thought leader, but also as an entrepreneur and practitioner who has attempted, now three times, to commercialize innovative, “distribution edge” models in venture funded startups.
My deep expertise is in electric mobility, vehicle-to-grid, and their related technical issues , but I also have experience in launching three new enterprises and dealing with the myriad of challenges in creating these new ventures—not only as co-founder but, as of my last Company, startup CEO of a Company that grew to over 40 employees and 1000 customers.
Some things I can offer:
- Creating the business plan
- Customer discovery
- Finding product/market fit
- Recruiting and hiring strategy
- Marketing and sales advising
- Building high-performance teams and a collaborative culture
- Creating pitch decks/how to pitch
- How to foster strategic partnerships
- Agile product development
- Subject matter expertise on: EVs, shared mobility, vehicle-to-grid, EV infrastructure, batteries, innovative contracting and financing (e.g., PPA models)
- Thousands of lessons learned through creating three, post seed-stage venture-backed startups (and failing – the best lessons can often come from failure)
WHAT PERSONALLY MOTIVATES YOU TO WORK ON ISSUES AT THE DISTRIBUTION EDGE?
As a long-time part of the RMI network, I am a deep believer and practitioner in Amory Lovins’ vision of the distributed energy economy (“Small is Profitable”). The beauty and practicality of Amory’s visions continue to inspire me 23 years (!) after I first started my career as an Intern in Old Snowmass working with Amory on his Hypercar Concept.
I consider myself ‘interdisciplinary’ and interested in the various parts of the distributed system, but have focused most of my career on electrified transportation and vehicle-to-grid issues.
EVs are a critical demand resource and an important component in a distributed energy future. The coming era of shared electric mobility will offer a host of opportunities for innovative business models that can benefit consumers and utilities, and create tremendous value. In my career I’ve co-founded or started three startups trying to create, deliver, and capture this value.
I am excited to use my personal experience in applying business model innovation to the EV space to help others wanting to accelerate clean mobility. There is, in my mind, nothing more rewarding than pioneering innovative businesses to solve complex customer and societal problems.
Authored Works
