Image Credits:TechCrunch9:02 AM PST · November 27, 2025
Build Mode is backmost pinch a vacation prize episode. This week, Startup Battlefield editor Isabelle Johannessen is joined by the victor of this year’s competition, Kevin Damoa, nan CEO and laminitis of Glīd, a logistics infrastructure institution that intends to streamline nan analyzable instrumentality shipment process.
Damoa first discovered nan challenges of shipping larger cargo arsenic a caller enlistee successful nan U.S. Army, wherever he worked connected a squad loading tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles onto nan railroad. He learned firsthand that while railways don’t person nan aforesaid congestion arsenic roads, they travel pinch their ain group of problems. The biggest 1 ended up being nan analyzable multistep process of moving cargo from nan roads to nan rails.
Cut to 2025, and Damoa is opinionated connected nan TechCrunch Disrupt shape holding nan elephantine check, having conscionable beaten 200 different companies to triumph nan Startup Battlefield competition. In this week’s section of Build Mode, TechCrunch’s caller postcast for builders and entrepreneurs, Damoa breaks down really he recovered nan hardware and package solution to nan logistics issues he’d seen firsthand. And he does a heavy dive into really nan squad came together to guarantee those 3 products (launched astir simultaneously) were fresh for a unrecorded demo connected nan Disrupt stage.
“Oh that was crazy, making judge nan package works,” Damoa said. “And anybody that knows package knows that it takes an service of people,” which was thing that Glīd astatine this shape doesn’t have. But that pressure, and very nationalist deadline, gave nan squad a attraction and thrust to get their location successful bid much swiftly than ever.
In this interview, Damoa is caller disconnected this large triumph and eager to usage nan momentum and prize money to accelerate Glīd into their adjacent phase. They’re already launching a aviator pinch Great Plains Industrial Park, and their adjacent merchandise Glīder is astir to deed nan market. And nan squad is hiring for roles successful astir each facet of nan business. Their process is much connected nan casual extremity of nan spectrum, pinch Damoa calling it “an integrated process” wherever an first vibe cheque and résumé reappraisal tin move into a caller squad member.
Damoa says that process has attracted group who are ngo driven, laser-focused, each while practicing mindfulness. That makes consciousness erstwhile nan CEO is nan benignant of leader who responds to nan news that they’ve made nan apical 5 successful Startup Battlefield by saying: “I’m going to meditate.”
Using this human-centric approach, nan Glīd squad has attracted group who are ngo driven and laser-focused, each while practicing mindfulness. That makes consciousness erstwhile nan CEO is nan benignant of leader who responds to nan news that they’ve made the apical 5 successful Startup Battlefield by saying: “I’m going to meditate.”
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For nan afloat section and galore much tips from Damoa connected really different companies tin position themselves to triumph Startup Battlefield, cheque retired nan video below, aliases listen and subscribe to Build Mode wherever you for illustration getting your favourite podcasts. And if you’re liking what we’re doing, springiness america a reappraisal — aliases if you person feedback astir nan show, scope retired to america astatine podcasts@techcrunch.com.
Isabelle leads Startup Battlefield, TechCrunch’s iconic launchpad and title for nan world’s astir promising early-stage startups.
You tin interaction aliases verify outreach from Isabelle by emailing isabelle.johannessen@techcrunch.com.
She scouts apical founders crossed 99+ countries and prepares them to transportation connected nan Disrupt shape successful beforehand of tier-one investors and world media. Before TechCrunch, she designed and led world startup acceleration programs crossed Japan, Korea, Italy, and Spain—connecting world founders pinch VCs and helping them successfully participate nan U.S. market. With a Master’s successful Entrepreneurship & Disruptive Innovation—and a past life arsenic a master singer—she brings a blend of strategical rigor and shape beingness to thief founders trade compelling stories and guidelines retired successful crowded markets.
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