We had the good fortune of connecting with Keli Kemp and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Keli, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
We thought to ourselves, if we are going to work this hard, we may as well work for ourselves. We wanted to have flexibility in our daily schedule and the types of projects we worked on, and build a company culture centered around our values.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Keli Kemp and Jennifer Zhan co-founded Modern Mobility Partners in January 2018. We provide transportation planning and traffic engineering consulting services, all with an eye towards new and emerging technologies and planning for the unknown. Whether it be driverless cars, electric vehicles, trends in transit and freight planning, or our changing transportation ecosystem overall, we strive to provide thought leadership with practical solutions to these new challenges and opportunities. We even have a podcast, Modern Mobility, that provides steps to addressing many of these new challenges for transportation planners, engineers, and decision makers. We are most proud of growing our company from 2 to 17 employees in less than 4 years! We have far exceeded our expectations and continue to grow. It hasn’t been easy, but it has definitely been fun! There’s something about building a company from the ground up that is so rewarding. We’ve learned to pivot quickly when needed, which has helped our small company not only survive the COVID-19 pandemic, but even thrive.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We would start out showing them our loft office space in downtown Atlanta in the Fairlee Poplar District, including time for them to have a massage in our fancy massage chair in our wellness room. Then we would take them to lunch at Dua or Thrive, our favorite lunch spots. If they are here on a Monday night, we would take them to the comedy show at Star Bar in Little Five Points. If they are in the mood for live music, we would take them to Northside Tavern for some gritty live blues music, or check out Blind Willie’s in Virginia Highlands where there’s “too much soul to control.” The patio at Raging Burrito in downtown Decatur Square is another one of our favorites. And, if they are in for a special treat and Keli has figured out how to ride two-up by the time her friends arrived, she would take them for a ride on the back of her Harley Road King!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Modern Mobility Partners wouldn’t be where we are today without our clients, teaming partners, and employees. Our very first client was the ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) in 2018 who knew and trusted us to provide quality solutions to address their challenges. We also want to shout out to our other clients that have awarded us work as a prime (lead) consultant in addition to ATL Airport CIDs, including the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, Atlanta Regional Commission, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency, and the Georgia Department of Transportation. Our “early adopter” teaming partner, Arcadis, has provided us meaningful roles and mentoring opportunities to grow our practice further as a small disadvantage business enterprise (DBE) firm. And last, but certainly not least, we want to thank all 15 of our employees, especially those who joined us early on taking a leap of faith and trusting us to provide a stable and exciting opportunity for career growth. Our clients, teaming partners, and employees have put their trust in us to serve them well. Giving us those chances has collectively helped us get to where we are today and we couldn’t thank them enough!

Website: www.modernmobilitypartners.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modernmobilitypartners/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/modern-mobility-partners

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ModMobPartners

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ModernMobilityPartners

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5RHWMzrF4OkLpxUW8z0lMg/featured

Other: Subscribe to the Modern Mobility podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Image Credits
Gianna Keiko Photography Photos are from open house when we moved to our new dedicated office space. Includes our employees, clients and teaming partners celebrating our success.

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