The following is a report from The Detroit Jewish News.
Entrepreneur Sam Shapiro is leading an electric RV revolution from Detroit, Michigan.
If you’re looking for Shapiro, you’ll most likely find him “off the grid.” The 31-year-old former SpaceX engineer and entrepreneur is the founder and CEO of Grounded, a Detroit-based startup that builds smart, modular electric vans for outdoor recreation and things like mobile medicine, refrigerated food transport, pet grooming and more.
Grounded’s vans require no gasoline, they have solar panels to power appliances, a mini satellite dish for high-speed internet, and kitchens, showers, offices, bedrooms and workspaces inside.
“We have a modular, Lego-like system that enables us to quickly add new use cases while allowing customers to customize their vehicles,” Shapiro explains. “It felt hypocritical to pollute nature while trying to embrace it in a gas-powered camper van. I think we have a responsibility to reduce our emissions footprint on Earth. I also think the experience is significantly better — no vehicle maintenance, engine issues, loud generators, blowing exhaust or having a giant battery to pull power from.”
How far can you go in an electric RV? As far as you’re willing to travel. You’ll just need to recharge as needed. The vans get approximately 270 miles of range per charge. They cost $165,000-$200,000. Grounded has already logged sales in the double digits, accounting for around $3 million in revenue.
Destination Detroit
Sam moved to Detroit to launch his business a few years ago, but it was a long and winding road to get here. He grew up outside of Atlanta and attended Washington University to study business and computer science. After graduation, he moved to Manhattan to work for the creative agency TripleLift.
“I still felt the urge to scratch more of a technology itch,” he says. “So, I switched over to advertising technology and built the first-ever programmatic television advertising product — think dynamically changing products in television show scenes.”
In the midst of it all, COVID shut everything down, so Sam decided to build a camper van which he lived in for several months while traveling around the country working remotely. He was a product engineering manager for TripleLift before the company was acquired for $1.4 billion in 2021. Sam then moved to Seattle to work for SpaceX, a space technology company founded by billionaire businessman Elon Musk. He was part of the Starlink software engineering team, writing software for Starlink satellites, gateways and Wi-Fi routers.
