By mid-2021, Lacuna Technologies had built something cities genuinely needed. Its digital-twin platform created virtual replicas of real-world transportation networks, giving municipal governments the data infrastructure to manage scooters, ride-sharing services, and shared mobility programs with precision. An early deployment with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation had already produced results that no competitor could match. But translating those results into a national and global go-to-market strategy required marketing leadership that understood both enterprise technology and public-sector decision-making. Without it, Lacuna risked being a well-documented pilot that never scaled.
The Gap Between Proven Technology and Market Adoption
Lacuna's challenge was not the product. It was the distance between a successful deployment in one city and the kind of institutional credibility required to win dozens more. City governments move on trust, peer evidence, and demonstrated outcomes. They do not respond to standard SaaS marketing. Lacuna needed a CMO who could build a public-affairs strategy alongside a commercial one, position the company as a trusted partner to public agencies, and translate operational results into narratives that resonated with city leaders, equity advocates, and investors simultaneously.
A Search for a CMO Who Could Operate Across Public and Private Sectors
Christian & Timbers identified Kate Wood as the leader Lacuna needed. In late 2021, Wood joined as Chief Marketing Officer and Public Affairs, bringing senior marketing experience from Agio, where she led integrated and omni-channel campaigns, and from Certified Tracking Solutions, where she served as CMO with a focus on brand identity, digital marketing, and strategic partnerships. Her dual mandate at Lacuna, spanning commercial marketing and public affairs, reflected the unique nature of a company selling to city governments at the intersection of technology, equity, and urban policy.
Her arrival coincided with Lacuna's $16 million funding round in July 2021, bringing total investment to $33.5 million, providing both the resources and the narrative platform for an accelerated go-to-market push.
Building the Case for Digital Twins City by City
Wood's strategy centered on a simple principle: let the outcomes speak first, then build the category around them.
The Los Angeles deployment became the foundation of that approach. Under Wood's direction, Lacuna's marketing amplified two numbers that city transportation directors understood immediately: 110 digital policies enacted using Lacuna's platform, governing scooter and ride-sharing operations across the city, and a 73% reduction in complaints in the Venice Beach neighborhood following the digital-twin launch. Those figures, combined with evidence that the platform had identified inequities in scooter availability across low-income areas, gave Lacuna a proof point that combined operational performance with social impact.
Wood integrated Lacuna's equity commitment into the brand narrative directly. When Lacuna appointed two equity experts to its board in 2021, her team made it central to the company's positioning, differentiating Lacuna from purely profit-driven competitors and strengthening its credibility with public-sector buyers.
On the open-source front, Wood oversaw campaigns emphasizing Lacuna's role in building and contributing to the Mobility Data Specification, the open-source API framework standardizing data exchange between cities and mobility providers. That positioning paid off at scale.
From One City to a Global Standard
- Late 2021: Kate Wood joins Lacuna as CMO and Public Affairs through Christian & Timbers; $16M raise brings total investment to $33.5M
- 2021: Los Angeles deployment produces 110 digital policies and a 73% reduction in scooter complaints; equity experts added to the board
- 2022: Wood's campaigns position Lacuna as the category leader in digital twins for cities, using LA outcomes as the primary proof point
- 2023: MDS adoption reaches 50+ U.S. cities and dozens globally; hundreds of cities worldwide adopt the standard
- May 2023: Open Mobility Foundation releases MDS 2.0 with 160+ cities and public agencies actively using the standard
- 2023: Los Angeles' dockless mobility program, managed via MDS, records more than 8 million trips citywide while expanding access to historically underserved neighborhoods
A Platform for Cities, Validated at Scale
The MDS adoption numbers were the clearest measure of what Wood's marketing and public-affairs strategy accomplished. By May 2023, more than 160 cities and public agencies were using MDS to manage shared mobility programs, with hundreds of cities worldwide having adopted the standard. The Open Mobility Foundation's MDS 2.0 launch cited Los Angeles' dockless program as a flagship example: 8 million trips logged citywide, with expanded service in neighborhoods that had historically lacked access.
Those numbers did not happen through passive awareness. They reflected deliberate positioning through webinars, open-source workshops, conference engagement, and thought-leadership content that Wood's team produced consistently over two years, making Lacuna the trusted name in the conversation every time a city government considered how to manage shared mobility.
Placing a CMO at the Intersection of Technology and Public Affairs
Lacuna required a CMO with a specific and unusual profile: someone who understood enterprise marketing discipline and could operate credibly in public-sector conversations about equity, urban policy, and open-source infrastructure. Most technology marketing executives are built for one of those contexts. Christian & Timbers identified Kate Wood as someone built for both.
With over 2,000 CEO and board placements and 5,000+ C-suite assignments completed across the technology sector, Christian & Timbers brings the pattern recognition to match leaders to moments that don't fit a standard template. Lacuna's expansion from a single Los Angeles pilot to a platform used by 160+ public agencies across hundreds of cities worldwide reflects what a precisely matched CMO delivers when the category is still being defined.