This ex-Ford and GM executive asks job candidates how they traveled to the interview. Here's why. (TSLA)

Dan Grossman Zagster

Zagster's new chief executive is a mobility veteran who's spent time at Zipcar, Ford, and General Motors.
Dan Grossman recently spoke to Business Insider to discuss scooters, mobility, and more.
Given his industry, asking job candidates how they traveled to the interview is his go-to question.

Plenty of tech executives have go-to interview questions that break from the usual mold.

Richard Branson likes to ask what a candidate couldn't fit onto their resume, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh wants to know how weird a potential hire is, and Warby Parker co-founder David Gilboa is interested in an applicant's latest Halloween costume.

Dan Grossman, who took over at the mobility startup Zagster this month, wants to know how candidates literally got to the interview.

"I ask them how they got to work, or to the interview," Grossman said in a recent interview with Business Insider about his new job. "I'm always curious, in a shared mobility kind of world, how people move."

It's a question that makes sense, given Grossman's deep background in all things mobility and transit. The former Zipcar executive has had stints at GM, helping oversee the automaker's Maven car sharing service, and Ford, where he was in charge of the company's short-lived Chariot ride-hail offering.

Grossman said that his previous commute in San Francisco involved driving to a train, taking that into the city, and then taking a Chariot ride to his office. In Boston for his new role, he's excited for a possibly shorter commute.

"My pattern just kind of evolved as technology evolved," he said. "So it's helpful if they've experienced all of these options consistently because then they bring that frame of reference to whatever piece of the business we asked them to run."

You can read Grossman's full interview about how he plans to help grow Zagster's "mobility-as-as-service" scooter platform here.

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