Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Grinde.
Hi Andrew, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story begins in northern Montana where I had the good fortune of spending my childhood. I grew up working on a family farm, assisting my dad as he cultivated wheat and barley. But my parents intentionally raised me in a manner that increased the chances that I would never intend to take over the farm and become a full time farmer. As much I as I appreciated the upbringing and the inability to do anything but work hard on what I am doing, I am even more grateful for parents that wanted me to get out and explore the world. I ended up attending Yale University and starting two businesses in Florida and Texas prior to moving to Nashville at the end of 2024. Initially while here, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do next beyond the hunch that it would not be normal. Sure enough, I met my co-founder and we saw a wonderful opportunity with the technical “bones” we saw in a software company that once was reasonably prominent in Nashville. We ended up starting a corporation and acquiring their intellectual property and since then have been devoted to making upgrades on both the tech while developing a comprehensive business strategy that I am thrilled to roll out in Nashville before expanding. As the CEO of an early stage tech company, I am not living in the realm where everything is work but it is all quite enjoyable. My co-founder Demetre Gostas and my head of engineering Brooke Lacey are absolute machines so I am surrounded by incredible individuals that know how to operate more effectively than anyone I know.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. If anybody that has started one or multiple businesses says it all went smoothly, I will immediately wonder when the tornado or earthquake is coming. I believe you have to be slightly callused, mentally, so the inevitable chaos and uncertainty associated with entrepreneurship doesn’t lead to too much internal volatility. Those that make it are generally just those that thrive in chaos because their convictions are the beacon that shines much too bright to ever let darkness (stress, doubt, fear) permeate through their minds and corresponding actions. It is also quite nice to have a wonderful family and set of friends. They are excellent at smoothing the roads.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about MobileFlow Inc.?
MobileFlow Inc is less than 1 year old and our actual flow started just at the end of 2025. MobileFlow Inc is building a technology platform called Hytch that will enable us to gamify transportation and let our clients/sponsors write the rules of the game. What this looks like is this: we build a transportation incentives platform with technical infrastructure that enables us connect businesses, non-profits, and governments with users and reward them for engaging in transportation and movement behaviors that such sponsors want to promote. For example, local governments can reward carpooling by allocating funds to our ecosystem that then are placed in the pockets of those that engage in carpooling behaviors (with rewards adjusting based on when and where people are carpooling). If you and a few others carpool to work at 9 AM on a Monday morning and your route takes you down I24 then the rewards multiplier built into our software will lead you to receive more in rewards than if you carpooled with just one other to lunch on backroads on a Sunday. Another set of examples: 1) clinics or any appointment-oriented businesses provide rewards to their patients or customers for being punctual to appointments or reservations; 2) restaurants provide rewards to those that drive directly to them while using Hytch; 3) non-profits reward positive behaviors associated with their goals such as minimizing drinking and driving which can be alleviated if we incentivize bar goers to call an Uber or a sober friend (the bar goer and the sober driver each earn a reward) in this case; 4) event hosts can incentive carpooling to the venues (minimizes parking infrastructure requirements and allows attendees to be able to more freely enjoy their experience) and delayed departures (keeping them around longer while also decreasing the problematic post-event traffic bottlenecks. The list goes on. We track carbon emissions and fuel costs saved when Users are carpooling with others and we have many more plans up our sleeve. I am the CEO and as such, I specialize less and focus more on the comprehensive mission and ensuring we build a very strong, proactive, creative, and energetic team. I currently couldn’t ask for a better team. I am proud to know we all excitedly maintain the primary vision of being a company that is unequivocally a net positive for society – helping improve traffic, helping small businesses, allowing everybody to have another chance to earn, and providing a platform that allows people to connect and interact with the outside world in a much more enjoyable way. Ideally, gamifying transportation should make many people happier given how intertwined it is with our lives in the present day.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I count my blessings every day. I had the good fortunate of meeting my co-founder Demetre and my head of engineering Brooke over the past 13 months and for that I will always be grateful.
I do believe you have to throw yourself into the wild and do so with your head held high in order to receive increased levels of good luck. However, both bad and good luck occur in various ways for everybody, so it is important to take it all with grace and enjoy our short period on this floating rock because the quickest way to depression is believing this world isn’t for you due to the bad luck you believe you received.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hytch.org
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hytch
- Twitter: https://x.com/newhytch
