Why Boston, Why Now: Next Mobility Labs’ Transatlantic Venture Studio Play

We see the future of mobility as an international endeavor. Establishing a reliable innovation pipeline between Europe and the United States is a critical step in that journey. On our recent visit to our U.S. base in Boston, we spoke with founders and students, investors and corporate operators, policymakers and community builders. The topics differed, but one principle kept surfacing: mobility innovation should be global. To build what comes next, we need to connect talent, capital, networks, ideas, and solutions across both sides of the Atlantic.

Boston is a uniquely dense environment for that work. In a short radius you find entrepreneurship programs that teach company-building by doing, early-stage investors who understand the pace and risk profile of deep tech and climate, and regional alliances that convene mobility companies alongside policymakers and researchers. The result: shorter learning cycles and faster, evidence-based iteration—exactly the conditions a venture studio needs to turn validated problem insights into venture-backable business models.

How Boston Reads the Venture Studio Model

Within this ecosystem, venture studios are understood less as service providers and more as co-founders who work alongside entrepreneurs. As Mitch Peterman puts it, “a venture studio’s primary role is to create new companies and operate as co-founders.” That stance complements traditional venture capital, which specializes in evaluating and scaling existing opportunities.

Institutional interest is rising, too. In Peterman’s words, “there is growing demand from larger organizations to partner with studios.”

In practice, that means earlier access to real customers, clearer go-or-no-go decisions, and—where it makes sense—the use of AI and modern tooling to reduce the time and cost of validation and first builds.

Our Approach in Boston (Deliberately in Formation)

We are building our U.S. presence step by step. Rather than announcing a fixed roster of programs or partners, we’re expanding touchpoints pragmatically and doubling down where the signal is strongest.

Discovery conversations, mentoring, and pilot projects proceed along clear decision gates; the same studio discipline we apply in Europe guides us in Boston. From day one, we frame cases for both markets—regulatory context, go-to-market, talent, and financing—so that promising ventures can travel when timing and evidence align.

Who’s on the Ground?

Ava Gordley-Smith, our U.S. Country Manager, is the first point of contact in Boston. She maps the local landscape, curates conversations with investors, universities, corporate innovators, and public stakeholders, and channels market signals into our venture process. Her mandate is simple: build the right relationships, in the right order, for the right hypotheses.

What Success Looks Like

We measure success by speed to evidence and quality of decisions. Faster access to customers and mentors shortens validation cycles. Clear go-or-no-go points keep focus high and burn low. Better matching between founder profiles and problem spaces strengthens our Entrepreneur-in-Residence pipeline. And when a case proves out, a transatlantic path is part of the design, not an afterthought. That is how a studio can responsibly de-risk the earliest stages while preserving the ambition required to build category-defining mobility companies.

If you’re a founder, investor, corporate operator, or public stakeholder engaging with the future of mobility in Greater Boston, we welcome a conversation. Ava can be reached at ava@nextmobilitylabs.com.