Glīd won Startup Battlefield 2025 by building solutions to make logistics simpler, safer and smarter

Build Mode is back with a holiday bonus episode. This week, Isabelle Johansen joins Startup Battlefield editor Winner of this year’s competitionKevin Damo, CEO and Founder Smootha logistics infrastructure company that aims to simplify the complex container shipping process.

Damoa was discovered for the first time The biggest challenges of shipping cargo as a new recruit in the US ArmyHe worked as part of a team loading tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles onto railways. He learned firsthand that although railways don’t suffer from the same congestion as roads, they do come with their own set of problems. It ended up being the largest operation, the complex, multi-step process of moving goods from roads to rails.

Come 2025, Damo stands on the TechCrunch Disrupt stage holding a giant check, having just beaten 200 other companies to win the Startup Battlefield competition. In this week’s episode of Build Mode, TechCrunch’s new podcast for builders and entrepreneurs, Damo explains how he found hardware and software solutions to logistical problems he saw firsthand. It delves into how the team came together to ensure that these three products (which launched almost simultaneously) were ready for a live demo on the Disrupt stage.

“That was crazy, making sure the program worked,” Damoa said. “Anyone who knows software knows it takes an army of people,” something Glīd doesn’t have at this point. But this pressure, and a very public deadline, gave the team the focus and motivation to get their house in order more quickly than ever before.

In this interview, Damoa has recently achieved this big win and is keen to use the momentum and prize money to accelerate Glīd into the next stage. They have already launched a pilot program with the Great Plains Industrial Park, and their next product, Glīder, is about to hit the market. The team is hiring for roles in almost every aspect of the business. Their process is more common, with Damoa describing it as an “organic process” where the initial screening and resume review can turn a new team member on.

Damo says the process has attracted people with a specific mission and laser focus, all while practicing mindfulness. This makes sense when the CEO is the type of leader who responds to the news that they’ve made the top five in Startup Battlefield by saying, “I’m going to meditate.”

Using this human-centered approach, the Glīd team attracted people who were on a mission and laser-focused, all while practicing mindfulness. This makes sense when the CEO is the type of leader who responds to the news he makes Top 5 in Startup Battlefield “I’m going to meditate,” he said.

For the full episode and many more tips from Damo on how other companies are positioning themselves to win the Startup Battlefield, watch the video below, or Listen and subscribe to Build Mode wherever you want to get your favorite podcasts. And if you like what we do, give us a review – or if you have feedback about the show, drop us a line at podcasts@techcrunch.com.