For thousands of years, urban civilizations worldwide have seen the rise and fall of kingdoms, empires, governments, and corporations.

In a span of a few decades, however, the urban environment has undergone a series of major transformations. Today's wave of mass urbanization is historically unprecedented: almost half of the global population today thrives on the urbanized lifestyle!

Under these transformations, cities of today are still facing great challenges.

With the rapid increase of the urban population, environmental issues and high expectations regarding the living standard seem to be more notable than ever.

The real question here is - can cities meet those challenges halfway and resolve them?

Better yet, how does the role of digital technologies fit into this modernized concept?

Daniel Doctoroff always felt confident that his platform for urban innovation- Sidewalk Labs- would provide the answers to this social riddle- and he was right!

Simply, through combining the physical and digital worlds in a functional unit- there was not a task Sidewalk Labs couldn't resolve.

Read more on its growing success here:

A Goal-Driven Man

Coming from money, business abundance and prosperity, Daniel Doctoroff has always considered himself a goal-driven man.

Throughout his entire career, Dan stood for three key values - the public good, a better environment, and an overall easier way of life, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Born in Newark, in 1958, Dan is the oldest of four sons in the family Doctoroff.

His father, Martin, was a former FBI agent and a Michigan Court of Appeals judge, while his mother worked as a PhD psychologist.

Dan grew up in Birmingham where he also finished high school. From his early school days, Daniel had developed an affinity for entrepreneurship and business, and took interest in people sharing bold ideas - people fascinated by companies and riches- just like he was.

Dan went to Harvard College, where he received a degree in government in 1980.

During that time he also met Alisa Robbins, his future wife. The couple married in 1981, following which Daniel headed to law school at the University of Chicago, where he eventually received a J.D. degree.

Daniel began his career as an investment banker, working for Lehman Brothers in NYC.

He left the Big Apple in 1987, and later became a managing partner at Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm, holding a spot until 2002.

After his departure, and as a result of his involvement with NYC2012- a project Daniel ran low-key in hopes of bringing the Olympic Games to New York- he helped catalyze long-standing infrastructure and development projects within the city.

As could be expected, Dan was offered a position within the Bloomberg administration, to serve as Deputy Mayor for economic development and rebuilding.

Dan parted ways with city politics in 2008 and moved on to become president of Bloomberg L.P - a global media, financial data, and analytics conglomerate, where he laid low until 2014.

Inspired by Innovations and Changes

The problems cities have to deal with on the daily are rapidly progressing.

For a while there, the most common issues cities faced included ageing infrastructure, inadequate transportation systems, lack of resources, scarce-clean water distribution, and suited waste management.

Nowadays, a great deal of the population is still lacking fundamental services and care.

The crime poverty rate in cities across the globe grows larger by the minute, whilst the opportunities for individual realization remain a mere tattletale.

Naturally, Daniel was struggling with all of the above, given the way all had been affecting society and was displeased with the solutions at his disposal. One of the things he considered the most was developing a way to improve and advance society as he knew it. So, he started the only way he knew how- by crafting a first-aid plan society so desperately needed.

Driven by the idea of entrepreneurship and rich in experience, Daniel figured he'd combine the two to kick off a start-up that developed technology in favour of urban living.

Given the growing population, environmental challenges rose higher, and the time has come for cities to seriously rethink their modus operandi.

The Urban Innovation Company

Bringing urban innovation built on brains, Daniel's Sidewalk Labs was his ultimate effort.

Urban innovation constitutes finding new ways to deal with a number of issues- social, economic, environmental, and governmental. It is the combination of new practices, solutions, and services to the problems at hand.

Impressively, Daniel's product covered all those grounds!

Founded in 2015 - a collaborative effort of Daniel and Google - Sidewalk Labs is a platform built to deliver historic transformation to cities worldwide!

While Daniel remains the company CEO, Alphabet- Google's holding company- funds it.

Since it was founded, Sidewalk Labs has played a major role in developing new technology products, platforms, and advanced infrastructure to implement at scale in cities around the globe- and ensure them progress in areas such as housing, energy, and transportation.

Sidewalk Labs is changing society by introducing sustainable cities, affordable for all.

Moreover, the platform is making investments in companies of interest, thus easily putting their plan to practice.

Ups and Downs of Sidewalk Labs

The company's success expanded mostly due to its initial investments.

Sidewalk Labs invests in and incubates companies to develop tools that can support its projects and better more cities globally.

In June 2015, the platform led a group of investors in the acquisition of Control Croup and Titan, thus forming a new company called Intersection. The company works in cities and public spaces where it offers internet connectivity, information, and content of relevance.

A year later, Sidewalk Labs collaborated with the U.S Department of Transportation to assess road data from smartphones and analyze congestion and remaining traffic conditions, while ultimately developing a transportation coordination system to boost road, parking, and transit efficiency.

In 2017, Sidewalk Labs announced plans to develop Quayside, a twelve-acre neighbourhood in Ontario, in response to a competition organized by Waterfront Toronto.

Branded as Sidewalk Toronto, the project aims to become a 'testbed for emerging technologies, materials and processes' and address issues such as sustainability, accessibility, inclusiveness, and prosperity.

In May 2020, the company was facing drastic financial changes due to the pandemic of COVID-19, so they had to cancel the whole arrangement and face the repercussions.

Sidewalk Labs had no intention to dismiss the project, but they were left with no choice.

Of course, that brought massive criticism, and a great number of other deals were brought under a question mark, as was the company's reliability.

Back on Track

Although the company had massive obstacles, Daniel and his co-workers managed to overcome all adversities thrown at them. long-standing

A company like Sidewalk Labs would always continue creating new projects, making brand new investments, and come face to face with any given scenario.

Headquartered in New York City, Sidewalk Labs is currently aiming to get back on the right track, and statistics are indicating solid results, with estimated annual revenue of $15.2 million per year, or $102.000 per employee.

Sidewalk Labs is a triumphant example of consistency, adherence, and endurance. What does the future hold for Daniel and company?

We don't know, but you can bet that whatever it is, it's going to be good!