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REV: OCTOBER 13, 2017

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LYNDA M. APPLEGATE

TERRI L. GRIFFITH

ANN MAJCHRZAK

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Building

Breakthrough Innovations in Crowd-Powered

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Ecosystems
I believe that entrepreneurs can change the world. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are trying to change the world
but they have billions of dollars. What if you have a passion to change the world but don’t have access to that
kind of personal wealth? We believe that we are not only transforming the nature of transportation, we are also
defining the future of work in the 21st century.
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— Dirk Ahlborn 1

Dirk Ahlborn, co-founder and CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. (HTT) and CEO
of Jumpstarter, Inc.—a crowdsourcing incubator and platform within which HTT was launched-- had
a long day of meetings ahead of him. He had boarded a flight to San Francisco International Airport
from Los Angeles International Airport on the first Southwest Airlines flight of a sunny morning in
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April 2017 and would be heading back to Los Angeles on the 5:35pm flight that same afternoon. The
irony of launching a new venture that, he believed, would transform transportation and turn the trip
that this morning had taken him hours--counting security and airport wait time—into a trip that, in the
future, would only take 30 minutes was not lost on him. His vision for the future was to remove the
barriers that limit where we go and how we get there. Transportation should be simple, fast, safe, and
sustainable - economically, environmentally, and politically.
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To change the world’s view of transportation, Ahlborn, with co-founder Bibop Gresta, founded
HTT. But Ahlborn and Gresta wanted to do more: they wanted to also change how people think about
building new companies. From its launch in 2013, HTT was intended to be “crowd-powered”—not just
by crowdsourcing the design and early financing of the new Hyperloop transportation system that
HTT would build, but also in its development and launch. “We are working with a global community
of passionate engineers, designers, programmers, lawyers, marketers, videographers, government
transportation agencies, research and development labs, universities, engineering firms, and citizens
with ideas from around the world,” Ahlborn explained. 2 In January 2016, HTT had signed agreements
to begin construction of a Hyperloop in the Quay Valley, California situated along the busy I-5 freeway
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HBS Professor Lynda M. Applegate, Professor Terri L. Griffith (Santa Clara University), and Professor Ann Majchrzak (University of Southern
California) prepared this case with research assistance from Britni Chon and Kristi Chon. It was reviewed and approved before publication by a
company designate. Funding for the development of this case was provided by Harvard Business School and not by the company. Terri L. Griffith
and Ann Majchrzak became equity shareholders of the firm, receiving a small number of stock options in exchange for responding to questions
about academic research on crowdsourcing. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as
endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management.

Copyright © 2017 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685,
write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www.hbsp.harvard.edu. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied,
or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School.

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 817-134 Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Building Breakthrough Innovations in Crowd-Powered Ecosystems

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between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Between March 2016 and March 2017, HTT signed agreements
with government agencies in Slovakia, Abu Dhabi, Czech Republic, France, and Indonesia to begin
building Hyperloop transportation systems to link cities and countries around the world. (See Exhibit
1 for a timeline of key events and descriptions of key customers and partners.)

HTT’s founders believed that the vision of transforming global transportation would be so

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compelling and exciting that it would draw talent like a magnet. HTT would become—not just a
transportation technology platform—but also an organizational platform for creating, launching and
transforming transportation. As a result, in the process of launching what they called the “Hyperloop
Transportation Platform,” they would also be creating, launching and transforming a new crowd-
powered approach to organizing the global transportation ecosystem. In addition, they also believed
that the challenges of building and leading a crowd-powered ecosystem were as exciting as the
technical challenges of creating the Hyperloop Transportation Platform and the political and societal

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challenges of getting it funded and adopted.

Returning to the present, Ahlborn was thankful for the Wi-Fi and quiet time on the plane as it
enabled him to begin dealing with his overflowing e-mail in-box: so many options, so many experts.
He had university professors recommending ways to more fully engage the 40,000 people offering to
support the “movement” that was HTT. Other emails were from long-term, though part-time,
contributors who’d been working—not for salaries--but for small stakes of equity in the new venture.
Many had heard that HTT had hired some full-time, salaried, employees and were concerned about
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how this might affect the unique culture and community at HTT. Some also asked whether they could
apply for a “real job.”

Discovering Life’s Passion

Looking back on my life, I can see how each of my experiences leading up to running HTT was like being in a
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gym where I was preparing for what this project demands of me daily. Having the right mentors along the way
as I trained and practiced was a critical part to my growth and development. Everything I do today with HTT
draws on these collective experiences along with past work I’ve done in engineering, company organization,
finance, and art. It’s rewarding to combine all the things I’m passionate about into one visionary project.

— Bibop Gresta 3

Both Ahlborn and Gresta agreed that HTT provided a large enough platform for them to pursue
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their passion to “change the world.” In addition, they believed their varied backgrounds and
experiences helped “open their minds” to embrace their vision for a Hyperloop Transportation
Platform built and run by a crowd-powered organizational ecosystem.

Having graduated from the Organization of German Industry and Commerce with a Credential in
Banking and Finance, Ahlborn had followed the traditional path of most of his graduating class and
accepted a position as a broker in a large German bank. But he soon discovered his passion did not lie
in banking so he moved to Italy where he founded several companies before moving to the United
States and settling in Los Angeles, California. He initially became involved with the Girvan Institute
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of Technology, a non-profit incubator for launching technology ventures, which was originally funded
by NASA. He helped technology startups focus on mobile and web applications, search engine
optimization and online marketing, as these were the fields in which he had experience.

During his time with Girvan, it became clear to Ahlborn that there needed to be a new way to help
startups by bringing people together that share the same passion and interest. In 2012, he founded
Jumpstarter, Inc. with two of his Girvan Institute of Technology colleagues, Paul J. Coleman and

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Andrew Quintero. Jumpstarter, Inc. was a California-based non-profit that built technology solutions
for crowd collaboration to help entrepreneurs. When the Jobs Act of 2012 was signed into law that
made it legal for individual investors to “crowd fund” ideas and projects, the co-founders launched a
new service JumpStartFund.com, a crowd-powered online incubator and crowd collaboration platform
that enabled entrepreneurs to propose projects and ideas, build communities and seek the financing to
help launch their new ventures. Visit the company website for a description of JumpStartFund and

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sample projects (https://www.jumpstartfund.com/#!/project).

Turning a Vision into Reality

In 2013, irked by the $68 billion cost of California’s high-speed rail project, Elon Musk proposed an
alternative. He called it the Hyperloop: levitating pods that would travel in near-vacuum tubes at near the speed
of sound. By his calculations, a hyperloop from Los Angeles to San Francisco would take just 36 minutes and cost

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under $6 billion – a tenth of the cost [of the proposed high-speed rail]. "Short of figuring out real teleportation,
which would be awesome,” Musk declared, “the hyperloop is the only option for super-fast travel.”

Musk being Musk, the internet went crazy. Proponents argued hyperloop routes could transform economics
in a way not seen since the invention of air travel, turning far-flung cities into stops on a continental tube map.
Others thought the idea a sci-fi fantasy. Either way, Musk declared himself too busy running SpaceX and Tesla
to build it, and instead invited anyone ambitious enough to try.
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— Wired Magazine 4

On August 12, 2013, Ahlborn was skimming his online news feeds when he noticed that serial
entrepreneur Elon Musk had proposed another “moonshot” idea: the possibility of a Hyperloop
Transportation System. At the time, Musk was CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, and was Chairman of Solar
City. 5 While Musk had begun discussing the idea of a Hyperloop in 2012, on August 12 , 2013 he posted t

a design document authored by Tesla and SpaceX engineers, entitled “Hyperloop Alpha.” 6 Musk said
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that neither Tesla nor SpaceX would commercially pursue the project, though SpaceX might support
competitions and other tests related to the development of the ideas.

Ahlborn received permission to post the white paper on JumpStartFund.com to ask the crowd if the
hyperloop should be done. Hundreds of individuals responded indicating that it was a great idea.
Some even responded by sharing hyperloop designs and discussing the physics and engineering
challenges that would need to be solved. In addition, the significant societal, regulatory, and
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environmental challenges to a hyperloop transportation system made it clear that what was needed
was not just engineering and physics breakthroughs, but societal changes as well. Having had the
positive experience of using the crowd to launch Jumpstart, Inc., Ahlborn decided to use the Jumpstart
platform to start his venture. Consequently, Ahlborn stated, “While there have been past attempts in
history and they failed for specific reason, we had to build more than a company, we had to build a
movement. The Jumpstart members are part of our movement.”

In late 2013, Ahlborn formalized the hyperloop project as a new venture, Hyperloop Transportation
Technologies, Inc.--the first new venture to launch to solve Musk’s hyperloop challenge. In early 2015,
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Gabriele “Bibop” Gresta, a former Italian pop-star turned entrepreneur, was asked to become Board
Chairman of JumpStartFund.com and to help co-found Hyperloop Transportation Technologies
initially as Chairman and Chief Operating Officer (COO).

From a young age, Gresta had pursued his passion for technology, entertainment and travel. At the
age of 15, he became the Software Development Director for Alpha Center International in Italy. After
a few technical internships in the UK, US, and Australia, and after earning a Master’s in Linguistics &

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Information from Universita degli Studi di Milano, in 1990, Gresta joined the Mato Grasso dance music
project and became one of the top hit performers on the Italian dance charts. This further inspired him
to become a TV producer and host. In 1995, Gresta founded Bibop Research, a TV/media content
production and distribution company. Within the company’s first two years it reached approximately
8 billion Italian Lira in revenues. In 1999, 40% of Bibop Research was sold to Telecom Italia for 11 billion
Italian Lira. 7 In 2004, Gresta co-founded and served as a venture partner of Digital Magics SPA, which

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launched more than 70 new entertainment and media ventures. In 2013, Digital Magics listed on AIM
Italia, the Alternative Investment Market for small and medium-sized Italian enterprises managed by
Borsa Italiana (Italian Stock Exchange). 8

But Gresta’s passion in life extended beyond his entrepreneurial pursuits. He had become an
influential speaker at TEDx, the United Nations, and other global conferences, while also becoming
heavily involved in non-profit organizations. For example, he served on the advisory board for Project

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Happiness, the Steering Committee for Project Peace on Earth, and as a founder for the Cure Aids
Project.

By 2016, other competitors entered the race. Hyperloop One, founded in late 2014 by Shervin
Pishevar (CEO), Josh Giegel (President of Engineering), and Brogan BamBrogan (CTO), was considered
HTT’s closest competitor. In late October 2016, Wired Magazine published an in-depth article
discussing the hyperloop competition that Musk had launched, stating: “Today two startups,
Hyperloop One and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, are racing to be the first.” 9 In early 2017,
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several others entered the market. One of them, Arrivo, developed out of a notorious break-up of the
founders of Hyperloop One. “Given the scope of the engineering projects involved,” BamBrogan, the
founder of Arrivo told a TechCrunch reporter about how quickly a hyperloop could be ready, “we think
we can get some projects operational within the next three years. We’re excited about moving quickly
and getting to market.” 10 All HTT competitors were run as traditional technology new ventures,
financed by VC. The money was primarily used for salaries of full-time employees. Ahlborn’s
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experience with the crowd led him to think differently.

Running a Crowd-Powered Organization

The purpose of organization is to reduce the friction that comes when people need to work together to achieve
shared goals.

— Nitin Nohria and Robert Eccles, 1992 11

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Paying for full-time salaries and being focused on traditional employment had substantial
disadvantages when compared to a crowd-powered approach. A traditional company couldn’t
generate the best plan in the world—they could only develop the best plan that could be developed by
the talent employed by the organization. Instead, Ahlborn and Gresta took another route. They used
the JumpStartFund platform to invite smart people throughout the world to contribute to the design
in their spare time. Could they attract global companies to collaboratively partner with them on the
hyperloop design and business plan? Were there technologies or infrastructure (e.g., tracks, stations,
cars) already built that could be re-used? Instead of creating another start-up, they set out to create an
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“ecosystem supported by a crowd-powered platform” in which anyone anywhere could

collaboratively contribute to the hyperloop project. In doing so, Ahlborn and Gresta sought to start by
designing and building a hyperloop, but, in the long-term to envision a new way of thinking about
designing, building, and operating a global transportation ecosystem to include how transportation
would be funded, perhaps by surplus solar power generated on the hyperloop track and by advertising
generated by interactive glass windows. They also wanted to explore how new transportation systems

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could change where and how we live and many other potential social consequences that could not yet
be envisioned. As such, responding to the call for creating a hyperloop became more than a project.
For Ahlborn and Gresta, it became a movement that would transform the very nature of society.

In January 2017, HTT announced that it planned to design and launch a hyperloop demonstration
system by year-end 2017 and that an operational system would come on-line by 2020. 12 To accomplish

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these goals, HTT drew on its ecosystem, which had grown to over 800 team members from over 38
countries, working within 50 crowd-powered teams, supported by experts in their respective fields. As
discussed later in the case, HTT called these expert team facilitators “hyperleaders.” Working with the
crowd-powered teams, was a dense network of strategic partners, university R&D partners, and
commercial partners.

In late 2016, the decision was made to hire a full-time leadership team to work with them on
defining and executing strategy and providing the leadership and governance needed to manage the

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increasing complexity of the ecosystem. The leadership team included: a chief executive officer; chief
operating officer; chief financial officer; chief marketing officer; and chief digital officer, plus a head of
creative design, head of human resources, and a director of media relations. In addition, several
engineers and project managers were also hired to manage key initiatives. By early 2017, HTT’s
leadership team and key employees included 21 full-time and 25 part-time members.

The HTT headquarters building included a showroom, which displayed design documents and 25
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patents pending. Finally, there were over 60,000 followers on Twitter, Facebook, JumpStartFund.com,
and other social media sites who contributed in various ways, such as alerting Ahlborn to opportunities
to meet transportation decision-makers and of new engineering or research that might be relevant.

When talking with people working with HTT, comments like: “passion,” “being part of a disruptive
movement,” and “changing the world” were often heard. 13 “We work for the community and with the
community,” one employee remarked. “I think that one of the reasons for the success of our movement
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is that people around the world realize the importance of what HTT is doing to improve our
communities and society and that's why there is so much commitment and enthusiasm around it,”
another remarked.

While Ahlborn and Gresta had worked in (or helped found) several startups, they knew that HTT
had been founded with a specific purpose in mind—to catalyze breakthrough innovation that would
transform global transportation. They also knew that the most successful businesses built their
organizations to enable people to work together to execute a mission and strategy. Many startups were
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founded by a small team that worked together to turn their idea into an opportunity that could be
pitched to others who would be willing to invest time and/or money to turning the opportunity into a
business with products, services, and/or solutions that the company could sell to customers. But
Ahlborn and Gresta believed that the typical start-up model would not work for HTT with its mission
of leading breakthrough innovation that would change the world. Instead, they knew that they would
require access to global resources from the start and that these resources could not necessarily be
identified in advance. Such a transformation would require uniting the world’s most innovative
entrepreneurs with a global ecosystem of businesses, universities, and governments that would require
a new approach to building the “organization” needed to execute their strategy and fulfill their mission.
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“Most entrepreneurs set out to build the next WhatsApp or similar software, but only a few
billionaires are sometimes bold enough to try to solve the big hurdles. Our HTT model would allow
anybody to solve these issues as it puts passion upfront and money on a second level. Joining people
passionate about the same thing can solve these big issues with entrepreneurship.” 14

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Member Recruitment
When HTT started in 2013, 100 crowd members, who indicated interest or were recommended,
were asked to do a feasibility study. These included seasoned engineers and scientists in a variety of
relevant industries. Together, these 100 worked on a feasibility study for a hyperloop transportation
system, which helped to define the technical challenges ahead and the skills needed to tackle the

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challenges. Moreover, the importance of safety and security while also addressing the needs of a highly
regulated global political environment in the face of quickly changing intellectual property became
very salient. Finally, from the feasibility study, it became clear that crowds from the entire ecosystem
would need to become involved.

With the feasibility study completed, it was time to attract a broader range of talent. As the numbers
of contributors increased, there was increasing need to design organizational structures, incentives,

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and workflows that could scale to involve large crowds, balance relationships between more and less
expert participants so that two-way learning could occur, and avoid offending those not involved at
any given time so that their skills could be sought later. For example, in the words of one of the talented
individuals that had joined the HTT crowd: 15

A challenge in member selection is to be able to balance senior and junior

professionals... Having too many seniors creates challenges when basic tasks need to be
executed. [While there is a] tendency to look for individuals at a higher position in a
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network, [we found that these people were] less flexible… [But] having too many juniors
limits the depth of experience and knowledge needed to solve complex and novel
problems.... Part of the selection is also learning how to balance the roster [of available
talent].... This is more accentuated in our crowd-powered organization, from what I have
seen so far, because of the large pool of people that could be selected and that want to
participate. And sometimes it's not about finding work for the people we have but finding
work for the new people we are attempting to onboard into the ecosystem.
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To this point, HTT contributors increased via a snowball approach. HTT accepted some members
through referral and others through an open call to the public to upload resumes—initially to the
crowdsource talent platform JumpStartFund.com—and later to HTT’s website. Those not selected from
the open public call were asked to “stay tuned” until HTT could define tasks for them. Similar to how
many high growth ventures go through rounds of financing to accomplish specific work to design and
build its first product and engage the market, HTT grew through a series of “talent rounds” as it
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evolved from a vision in the minds of its initial founders to design its initial solution and engage its
market (see Exhibit 2 for the HTT Ecosystem Organizational Model in 2017).

Why did thousands of people post their resumes knowing that the company paid in stock, which
would only become valuable if HTT offered its crowd-based equity shareholders future opportunities
to turn their equity into cash (e.g., IPO, M&A, dividends)? Common answers to this question were:
“it’s cool,” “I want to change the world,” “I have opportunities here that I wouldn’t have anywhere
else.” 16

Role of Technology
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Technology was core to how HTT operated since almost all the members were geographically
distributed and the corporate headquarters was meant to serve primarily as a meeting place and show
room—not as offices or cubicles where people would work. The company successfully leveraged free,
low cost, or donated software as much as possible to keep costs down. Some of the software used to
integrate the geographically-dispersed organization included: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive,

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 Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Building Breakthrough Innovations in Crowd-Powered Ecosystems 817-134

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Slack, Workplace (sponsored by Facebook), Jarvis for scheduling meetings, UberConference, and
computer-aided design tools available from Autodesk (see Exhibit 3 for a sample of commonly used
tools and the tasks for which they were used). Unusual for a company this size, HTT senior
management was fairly agnostic on the technology used for communication, encouraging contributors
to use whatever tool helped them get their work done. Facebook Workplace served as the primary tool
for sharing all-company announcements. Facebook Workplace was also the tool used by project-

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focused engineering teams to conduct their work asynchronously, and by engineering SWAT teams
that were quickly “spun-up” for asynchronous discussions needed to make an urgent decision or
address an urgent problem and “spun-down” when completed. Teams were also expected to meet
weekly through UberConference to coordinate their work “face-to-face.”

In addition to strong communication support tools, HTT also designed custom tools that could be
used to manage the work of crowds. For example, HTT developed a tool called “Lucy” that enabled

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contributors to log the work they performed during the week so that HTT could keep track of the
number of stock options the individual had earned (options vested on the first anniversary of the grant
date). Another tool automated the on-boarding process for team members and team leaders. In early
2017, tools for talent-task matching and for rapidly designing new tasks and recruitment of new
members were also under development.

Ecosystem Design
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HTT was designed as a flat team-based structure but most team members were part-time virtual
independent contractors. In early 2017, there were over 800 part-time team members from 38 countries
working on HTT projects. Because the contributors were generally part-time, learning from each other
and ensuring that the maximum value was created with minimal use of people’s time was paramount.
Team leaders—often the more senior and experienced members of the ecosystem—were referred to as
“hyperleaders.” Their job was to support team members in building their skills and deploying them to
support the HTT ecosystem work. They also ensured that team members remained actively engaged
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and productive in accomplishing the work of the ecosystem. Using an “Agile/Scrum” approach to
designing complex software systems, HTT organized cross-team projects into “sprints,” with a product
team owner (responsible for delivering the work product) and a small set of team members who
signed-on to do the sprint over a short period of time. For example, the successful Abu Dhabi project
proposal was completed in less than two weeks involving contributors in engineering, marketing,
production, finance, and media relations - none of whom were full-time—and led by a product team
owner who was also a part time contractor.
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Incentives for Collaboration

A key challenge HTT leadership faced was how to incent individuals to collaborate given the broad
set of personal motivations of each ecosystem member. Early on, it became clear to Ahlborn and Gresta
that the type of people they wanted to have in their ecosystem would be those who wanted to be part
of something new—new to the world and new to each of them personally. Therefore, when new team
members were brought on board, they were asked about the team or task they would like to be
involved in. Because the scope of the Hyperloop Transportation System was so large and complex,
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individual preferences were often met—although not always immediately. In the words of an early
HTT team member: 17

Originally Dirk and Bibop asked me to be a coder, but I’ve done that for years and
currently do that in my day job. I wanted to do something more strategic, which is why I

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wanted to join HTT. They were able to meet my needs at the time and continue to meet
my needs for new challenges.

There were several additional solutions the co-founders used for incentives. Both co-founders felt
strongly that people were motivated to make their work meaningful. At a minimum, contributors were
provided shares of stock not based on one’s position in the ecosystem or length of time, but based on

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the amount of approved activity engaged in.

Culture of Disruptive Thinking

HTT was attempting an engineering feat that had never been accomplished: the creation of a cost-
effective, configurable, levitated pod, flying safely in a tube at speeds in excess of 700 miles per hour.
Accomplishing this at a reasonable cost required—not incremental thinking but— breakthrough
engineering design. It also required breakthrough organization design and a breakthrough approach

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to financing innovation.

As such, HTT’s core value was disruptive thinking. Idea generation comes from the crowd
community. Disruption meant that, if a contributor saw a problem, then s/he should offer
breakthrough ideas for solutions and let others build on the ideas to enable a solution to evolve from
the crowd. For example, contributors suggested that pylons could serve not simply to hold up the
hyperloop track but for organic farming, windows could be used as an interactive entertainment
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screen, and seats could be used as an entrepreneurial workspace, getting feedback from fellow
passengers as potential future customers. (Exhibit 4 provides examples of some of these innovative
design ideas that emerged from breakthrough crowd design sprints.) But disruption was not meant to
be chaotic. By having the community share their potentially disruptive ideas, the ideas could be vetted,
expanded upon, and sorted into those ideas that could be incorporated immediately and those that
would require a bit more work and/or financing before proceeding.
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Dealing with Intellectual Property: Open AND Closed, not Open or Closed
In an organization as “open” as HTT, concerns were raised that good ideas could be stolen and
possibly sent to competitors. Ahlborn and Gresta initially designed the organization to avoid this risk
by segmenting knowledge sharing such that each team was only informed of certain information. In
this way, for example, engineering team members working on a specific sprint only knew what they
needed to know about their particular part of the design, and would work without being informed
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about other parts of the design.

Tight constraints on information sharing within HTT, however, created a new challenge: how to
share knowledge broadly between the teams without losing control of intellectual property? Without
broad knowledge sharing, the co-founders soon learned that there was a risk that the technology
developed would not be as disruptive as desired, or that projects would take longer and cost more
because of the need to integrate individual components of the Hyperloop Transportation System to
effectively and efficiently achieve shared goals. HTT resolved the dilemma of how to protect IP while
also enabling knowledge sharing across its global ecosystem through organizational design: 18
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We defined our core technology and identified teams of HTT employees that would
work on this core technology at the “core” of our organization. Within that core
technology, new IP could be generated and protected from a legal standpoint. We decided
to keep these two core teams completely separated from the rest and to develop a
“gatekeeper” role that coordinated between the two core teams and the rest of the
engineering ecosystem teams. The other teams could ask questions of the gatekeeper who

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would decide whether information could be shared or not. The gatekeeper role continued
until IP was filed and patented (provisional) or an exclusive license was acquired. The
members of the two core teams were required to respect this procedure.

Adherence to this process was supported by privacy settings in the collaboration tools, use of
particular email listserves, and through ad hoc communications with the COO.

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From Design to Delivery: Can a Crowd Transform Transportation?
There hasn’t been any real innovation in the rail industry for - I don’t know how long. Either disrupt yourself
or you are going to be disrupted.

— Dirk Ahlborn 19

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When you start a business, you have a passion to solve a compelling problem or meet a compelling need. But
in traditional start-ups you think you are alone. [At HTT] we are driven to develop a new model for starting
new ventures—a model in which you can connect to a community of thousands of people around the world who
are also passionate about your idea. The community works together to solve the problem on a common platform
that enables them to coordinate work on projects that are needed to turn the collective passion of the community
into a vision and the vision into a reality.
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— Dirk Ahlborn 20

As Ahlborn headed to San Francisco International airport to return to Los Angeles after a hectic day
of meetings with potential partners, his thoughts turned to all that HTT had accomplished to date. He
marveled at the rapid pace of breakthrough innovation that had been unleashed by the “HTT crowd”
of over 800 scientists and engineers from leading universities, research labs, and companies. These
experts were actively working to solve the difficult technological and engineering challenges HTT
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faced in exchange for stock options that would convert to cash if the company was able to achieve its
mission of transforming the global transportation system. Ahlborn and Gresta also believed that this
crowd-powered approach to entrepreneurship had also enabled them to redefine the nature of work
in the 21st century as they sought to “democratize entrepreneurship.”

In addition to attracting the talent needed to design and develop the multiple breakthrough
innovations needed to achieve HTT’s vision, Ahlborn also recognized that the decision to involve a
crowd was crucial to HTT’s success to date. Six governments around the world had already signed
No

agreements to begin commercializing HTT’s Hyperloop Transportation Platform and these

governments had each committed millions of dollars to become members of the HTT crowd-powered
ecosystem. This had enabled HTT to raise over $100 million in in-kind contributions, not simply cash. 21
In the same way that the decision to provide its 800-member ecosystem of scientists and engineers with
stock options based on their level of engagement, the ability to attract customers to pay for designing
initial pilot tests, strengthened the bonds that held the ecosystem together. Ahlborn had also seen how
members of the crowd had enabled him to secure critical strategic and university R&D partnerships—
thus strengthening the bonds with the institutions that would be needed to continue work on the
Hyperloop Transportation System as it moved toward commercialization. For example, HTT had
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licensed its levitation technology from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, had partnered with
Atkins—a leading global design, engineering, and project management consultancy that had worked
on complex infrastructure development projects for governments around the world, and had
developed a close working relationship with Leybold Vacuum, inventor of the vacuum pump. (See
Exhibit 5 for a key strategic and university partnerships.)

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But, Ahlborn also knew that he needed to think carefully about the challenges he would face going
forward. Uppermost in his mind was to identify the organizational model for the HTT crowd-powered
ecosystem once it launched its first working pilot test in the field. He needed to continue pushing the
crowd of contributors to develop breakthrough innovations and protect intellectual property as it was
developed, but also needed to ensure that on-the-ground deliverables were met. In addition to
planning for how to transition the crowd-powered ecosystem from design to pilot, another

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organizational challenge that had not yet been solved was how to tap the knowledge and expertise of
HTT’s 60,000 followers—those who wanted to be involved but had not yet been assigned to work on a
specific sprint. HTT’s Core Teams had tried asking members to generate ideas that could be reviewed
by the crowd, but coming up with tasks performed by the 60,000 proved more difficult than expected.

HTT has recently announced putting its first full-scale passenger capsule into production,
beginning construction in the field in 2017. As the plane touched down in Los Angeles, Ahlborn knew

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the company was in good shape competitively, particularly as he looked at his news feed as saw that
the Wall Street Journal had just reported that his key competitor, Hyperloop One, had just delayed its
testing yet again. But Ahlborn knew he couldn’t rest on his laurels; the process of commercializing
breakthrough innovations was fraught with uncertainty. Hyperloop One, for example, had scaled back
the first full test of its prototype and slashed the length of the test track for the prototype by 80%. So,
Ahlborn was well-aware that there were many uncertainties to manage. He had been using an agile
experimentation model by identifying key assumptions and then conducting experiments that enabled
him to learn in real-time as HTT pivoted to address issues as they arose (see Exhibit 6). This agile
op
experimentation model was central to how HTT had designed its crowd-powered workflow model as
a series of “rapid sprints.” Was there more the HTT Executive Committee and Strategic Committee
should be doing to manage the uncertainty of such a complex breakthrough innovation as the
ecosystem transitioned from design to delivery? As the plane began to taxi to the gate, Ahlborn jotted
down a note to remember to discuss whether more should be done to ensure strong governance during
the next critical phase of HTT’s growth as it moved from design to delivery of its Hyperloop
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Transportation Platform.
No
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Exhibit 1 Key Events Timeline

Evolving Strategy Evolving Ecosystem Financing Growth

June Dirk Ahlborn and two of his Girvan The Jumpstarter, Inc. co-founders Individuals with
2012 Institute of Technology colleagues, Paul built an initial crowdsourcing ideas paid $10 to

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J. Coleman and Andrew Quintero, and crowdfunding platform and launch on
launched Jumpstarter, Inc., a non-profit launched a portal. See sample JumpStartFund.co
that provided technology solutions for projects at: ma
crowdsourcing and crowd funding. https://www.jumpstartfund.co
JumpStartFund.com was designed to m/#!/how-it-works?page=1)
provide a portal for entrepreneurs to
launch ideas, receive feedback and
mentoring, and crowd funding.

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Aug Elon Musk released a white paper on Tremendous interest from the Leveraged
2013 the design concept for a hyperloop JumpStartFund community, resources from
transportation system. Ahlborn which voted the Hyperloop Jumpstart, Inc./
launched the design paper on Transportation System to become JumpStartFund.co
JumpStartFund.com. a project. m

Nov Ahlborn incorporated Hyperloop Bibop Gresta joined as co- Continued to

2013 Transportation Technologies, Inc. (HTT) founder and Chairman of HTT. leverage resources
op
as a new venture on Public call for resumes on from Jumpstart, Inc.
JumpStartFund.com and became CEO. JumpStartFund.com; 25 team and
First competitor, Hyperloop One, members selected by the co- JumpStartFund.co
entered the competition. founders to work on initial m.
design and identify design
First strategic partnerships signed with challenges. Team members agree
ANSYS, GloCal, and UCLA to work at least 10 hours per
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week in exchange for stock

Developed vacuum tube technology options. By late 2014, 100 team
members with expertise in
operations, management and
engineering had joined the HTT
community.

2014 2015: Bibop joined HTT as co-founder. The number of team members Continued to
No

to February 2015: Partnership agreement working within the HTT crowd- leverage
2016 with city of Quay Valley in California. powered ecosystem grew to over crowdsourced
March 2016: Partnership agreement with 400 by 2015 and over 600 by 2016. resources while also
Bratislava, Slovakia government. As work progressed from beginning to collect
December 2016: Partnership agreement identifying high-level system fees from customers
with Abu Dhabi government. design challenges to engineering for feasibility
design of system components, studies.
2015: two Core Teams of HTT A Popular Science
Licensed Inductrack employees were created to define reporter stated that
18 utility patents the core technologies of the the company had
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Trademarks in 33 countries Hyperloop Transportation raised $10M by July

Platform. “Gatekeeper” roles 2015.b
2016: were defined to ensure December 2016:
Developed capsule skin technology coordination between the Core Seed round: $30M
25 patents Teams and the ecosystem. from Edgewater
Capital Partners.c

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Evolving Strategy Evolving Ecosystem Financing Growth

2017 January 2017: Partnership with the city Crowd-powered ecosystem Jakarta partnership
(Q1) of Toulouse, France. included over 800 part-time team announced as
January 2017: Partnership with Brno, members from 38 countries. $2.5M feasibility
Czech Republic government Senior experts acted as team study.

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March 2017: Partnership with private, leaders, called “Hyperleaders,”
local investors and Jakarta Ministry of supporting skills-based teams to
Transportation build expertise and experience.
Deploy teams to work on short
Forecast 2018-2019: Begin Testing First projects, called “Sprints,” led by
Commercial Passenger System Product Owners. Team members,
Hyperleaders, and Product
Owners were independent

yo
contractors working for stock
options based on the level of
engagement in approved project
work.

Source: Adapted by casewriters from company documents and press releases.

aCasewriter interviews with some data downloaded on 4-19-17 from HTT website press releases and press coverage:
https://www.jumpstartfund.com/#!/how-it-works?page=1.
op
b Vlahos, J., “Hyped Up: Startups race to bring the Hyperloop to life,” Popular Science, July 7, 2015. Downloaded on 4-19-17

from: http://www.popsci.com/hyped-up-startups-race-hyperloop-life.

c Crunchbase. Downloaded on 4-19-17 from: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/hyperloop-transportation-

technologies#/entity.
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No
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Exhibit 1 (continued) HTT Customer Descriptions

Quay Valley. In February of 2015, HTT announced its first partnership agreement with a community called Quay
Valley. Located on 7,200 acres between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Quay Valley was designed to be a 21st

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century, sustainable, model town. The goal was for Quay Valley to be 100 percent solar-powered, with a self-
sustaining residential community of 22,000 homes offering retail, education, entertainment, and hospitality – all
at the cutting edge of technology. The Quay Valley community promised to generate jobs, invigorate the economy,
and offer a test bed for high tech projects, while protecting the land and its beauty.

Bratislava, Slovakia. On March 11, 2016, HTT announced a partnership with Slovakian government officials to
explore a local hyperloop. Future routes could connect Vienna, Austria and Budapest, Hungary. The local area
included technological leadership in energy, material sciences, and the automotive industry. This agreement was
HTT’s first international agreement.

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Abu Dhabi, UAE. On December 6, 2016, HTT announced a partnership with the Abu Dhabi Department of
Municipal Affairs and Transport (DMAT), and H.H. Sheikh Falah bin Zayed Al Nahyan as local partner and
sponsor, to connect Abu Dhabi and Al Ain via hyperloop. This initiative aligned with Abu Dhabi’s governmental
goals to stimulate tourist, social and economic development in Al Ain. Sustainable solutions and environmental
benefits were also envisioned to enrich the lives of people living in Abu Dhabi while reducing the carbon footprint
of the UAE capital and eventually of the UAE as a whole.
op
Toulouse, France. On January 14, 2017, HTT announced a partnership to open a 3,000 square foot development and
testing facility in Toulouse, France. As the center of the European aerospace industry, Toulouse’s “Aerospace
Valley” had become Europe’s largest space center. In 2014, the Toulouse to Paris air route carried 2.4 million
passengers. 22 The goal was to provide a more sustainable and efficient form of transportation.

Brno, Czech Republic. On January 18, 2017, HTT announced an agreement with the city of Brno, Czech Republic
with an initial goal to develop a hyperloop within the city. The plan was to then connect Brno and Bratislava, with
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which HTT also held an agreement, and then to extend to Prague. Brno was considered an international crossroads
of railways and highways. Its main railway station operated at capacity, with 500 trains and 50,000 passengers
daily traveling between Brno and Prague. 23

Jakarta, Indonesia. On March 8, 2017, HTT signed its first agreement in Southeast Asia. Private local investors and
the Ministry of Transportation partnered with HTT for a feasibility study on new regulations and routes. The
initial work would focus on Jakarta, with the goal of then connecting Jakarta with Java and Sumatra.

Source: Adapted by casewriters from company documents and press releases.

No
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 817-134 Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Building Breakthrough Innovations in Crowd-Powered Ecosystems

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Exhibit 2 HTT Organizational Ecosystem in Early 2017

Defines spheres of influence and decision-making.

The closer to the center, the greater the degree of influence and decision-making.

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yo
op
Core: Board of Directors + Strategic Committee + Executive Committee. Vision, Strategy,
Leadership/Governance and Executive decision making is executed at this level: 8 senior
leaders (http://hyperloop.global/team/)
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Teams: Employees + Independent Contractors + Contributors working in teams executing on

HTT strategy: 21 full-time and 25 part-time and over 800 contributors working on 50
projects (http://hyperloop.global/team/)

Community: Friends of the Hyperloop Movement, Social Media Followers, and Interested Talent:
~60,000 individuals

World: Potential sphere of influence and future talent: Latest estimate from United Nations: ~
No

7.3B in 2015; Forecasted to rise to 8.5B by 2030; 9.7B by 2050; and 11.2B in 2100
(www.un.org/en/development/desa/.../world-population-prospects-2015-revision.html)
Source: Adapted by casewriters from company documents and website.
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 Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Building Breakthrough Innovations in Crowd-Powered Ecosystems 817-134

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Exhibit 2 (continued) HTT Senior Leadership Bios in 2017

HTT Position Background

Dirk Ahlborn Known worldwide for his outside-the-box approach to building paradigm-shifting
Founder & CEO businesses, leveraging the power of crowd-collaboration, the Internet, and

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Strategic & exponential technologies at the vanguard of the global sharing economy. Prior to
Executive HTT, two decades as a serial entrepreneur. CEO and Founder of Jumpstarter,
Committees Inc., a California-based, crowd-powered online business incubator. Used
Los Angeles, CA JumpStartFund.com’s crowdfunding and crowd collaboration platform in co-
founding HTT.

Bibop Gabriele Global expert in finance, transportation and media, specializing in mass market
Gresta community building and project design. World-renowned speaker, featured at the
Co-Founder & World Economic Forum, United Nations, Ted Talks, among others, focused on

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Chairman transportation and human mobility. In 2014, partnered with Dirk Ahlborn to become
Strategic & Chairman of JumpStarterFund.com and co-founder and Chairman of Hyperloop
Executive Transportation Technologies, Inc.
Committees
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Andres De León Known for creating healthy and growth-oriented businesses. Prior to HTT, served
Chief Operating as Corporate Development Officer for Jumpstarter, Inc. Brought nearly 30 years of
Officer; experience in international manufacturing, financial management, private/public
op
Strategic & business negotiation and tax and audit supervision to HTT leadership efforts.
Executive Coordinated a team of 800+ professionals in 40+ countries in development of the
Committees Hyperloop Transportation Platform.
Barcelona, Spain
Andrea La Mendola Prior to HTT, was Vice President and co-founder of Relov, an international brand
Chief Global for high tech fashion and design that integrated internet of things (IoT) and lifestyle
Operating Officer products, including design and launch of Skate Air, the first fully customizable and
transparent interactive skateboard capable of wirelessly communicating with a
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Strategic &
Executive virtual community through the RELOV mobile app. Also co-founder and board
Committees and member of Indyca, an Italian entertainment IP creator and producer. Served in
Engineering Council several capacities at HTT including strategic planning, operational planning and
operational planning of complex products. His understanding of IP management
Los Angeles, CA
and control, and customer-centric innovation and delivery was infused throughout
HTT’s design and management process.

Bernd Stephan Provided the invaluable asset of a strong accounting background, a firm hand and
No

Chief Financial years of wisdom with corporate start-ups and corporate finance for firms with
Officer; Executive billions of dollars of revenue. Prior CFO and Senior VP of Finance with several
Committee corporations. As CFO of HTT, provided financial controls and future forecasts,
Los Angeles, LA especially in the area of international business.

Robert Miller Neuroscientist with more than 15 years of experience in global marketing and
Chief Marketing operations. He began with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. as the
Officer; Executive Head of Marketing and then as Chief Marketing Officer. As CMO Miller drove
Committee HTT’s powerful move toward making Hyperloop an exciting reality worldwide.
Los Angeles, CA
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Note: Location of each leader is provided underneath title.

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Exhibit 2 (continued) HTT Senior Leadership Bios in 2017

HTT Position Background

Mahilani Akiona HR professional with over 12 years of expertise in strategic consulting and

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Director of HR; leadership with start-ups, nonprofits and global innovation leaders. Implemented
Executive best-in-class HR programs for high growth companies in marketing, retail, waste
Committee management, and technology industries with employee headcount from 6 to
Los Angeles, CA 40,000. Also served as Board Member for Girls Inc. of Los Angeles.
Michael Sarin President and chief engineer for Empower Tech, Inc., managing a pool of
Engineering Council international transportation safety experts in mechanical, electrical, software, and
related technical areas for equipment development, production and integration.
Responsibility included the identification, and mitigation design of all safety events

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for HTT, including FMEA document creation.
Dr. Chris Bobko Doctorate from MIT in Civil and Environmental Engineering and an adjunct
Engineering Council associate professor at North Carolina State University. He specialized in
micomechanics and nanoengineering. As the mechanics and materials expert, he
was responsible for infrastructure integration engineering.
Michael Symayda Formerly Senior Aerodynamics Engineer at SpaceX where he designed the
Engineering Council aerodynamics and control characteristics for the Falcon 9 booster. He was
responsible for critical parts of the original Hyperloop design at SpaceX. As a
op
member of the Engineering Council, he provided guidance to HTT design
engineers on aerodynamics issues.
Derya Thompson Director of Complex Bridges and Structures at Jacobs, a provider of technical,
Engineering Council professional, and construction services. Previously an associate principal of
ARUP, providing of complex structural and sustainable engineering infrastructure
services. As a member of the Engineering Council, she provided structural
engineering guidance to HTT engineers.
tC

David Doll One of the pre-eminent scientists in the world for magnetic levitation (maglev),
Engineering Council developer of the Inductrack system with the team at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, developed DOD’s super electro-magnet, specializing in
superconducting solutions and magnet applications. As a member of the
Engineering Council, he provided guidance on all aspects of the maglev system,
especially maintaining stability of the maglev system at varied speeds.
Dr. Jose Morey Physician and innovator: medical technology advisor for NASA, a senior medical
Engineering Council scientist for IBM Watson Medical, and professor at Eastern Virginia Medical
No

School. As a member of the Engineering Council, he provided human factors

guidance to HTT engineers
Lan Saadatnejadi Civil engineering project leadership in public-private partnerships for multi-billion
Engineering Council dollar public works infrastructure projects requiring innovation and ingenuity,
including the State of California’s $20B Measure R highway program. As a
member of the engineering council, she worked with HTT engineers and project
managers to ensure the proper management structure for the complex projects.

Source: Adapted by casewriters. Downloaded from HTT website on 4-12-17 from http://hyperloop.global/team/.
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Note: Location of each leader is provided underneath title.

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 Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Building Breakthrough Innovations in Crowd-Powered Ecosystems 817-134

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Exhibit 3 Sample Tools used to Support HTT Ecosystem Collaborative Work

Tools Available from Software Providers Activities Supported

Secure collaboration tools: dynamic team configuration;
GSuite: Google collaboration platform
collaborative messaging and document management;

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gsuite.google.com/together
live broadcasting from mobile devices; newsfeeds
Facebook Workplace
Teams could decide which collaboration platform and
workplace.fb.com
tools to use
Slack
Messaging for teams
slack.com
UberConference Teleconferencing tool with ability to record calls for
uberconference.com future use

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Autodesk, DATIA, Soldworks 3D, Simula,
Siemens Team Center Design and engineering software

lookat.io Video collaboration platform

Jarvis
Smart assistant for scheduling meetings
myally.ai
Trello
Project management
trello.com
op
Azure Cloud Services
Cloud platform for hosting and managing web
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-
applications
us/features/azure-portal/

Tools Developed by HTT Activities Supported

Time and task reporting used to facilitate transparency
Lucy of who is doing what and create peer-to-peer control; on
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online version of a “standup”

Platform for brainstorming through the internet with
images and text; collaboration tool for the hololense;
Beem
allowed distributed teams to give asynchronous
feedback
Personality Assessment test A test used to assess the fit of an applicant

Source: Prepared by casewriters based on company documents and interviews.

No
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Exhibit 4 Elon Musk Hyperloop Alpha Design

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yo
Source of graphic: “The Hyperloop is Coming, The Daily Mail, February 26, 2015.
Downloaded on 4-22-17 from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2970909/The-Hyperloop-coming-Elon-Musk-
s-radical-plan-let-people-travel-760-mph-tubes-tested-California-year.html.
op
Energy Cost per Passenger

Cost Forecast Los Angeles to San Francisco

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No

A: Car (30 miles per gallon, 2 passengers)

B: Motorcycle (50 miles per gallon, 1 passenger)
C: Airplane (2011 Transport Energy Data)
D: Train (2011 Transport Energy Data)
E: Tesla Model S (2 passengers)
F: Passenger Hyperloop (70% occupancy)
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G: Passenger + Vehicle Hyperloop (70 Occupancy)

Source: Elon Musk Hyperloop Alpha Design White Paper. Downloaded on April 16, 2017 from:
http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf.

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 Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Building Breakthrough Innovations in Crowd-Powered Ecosystems 817-134

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Exhibit 5 HTT Key Partner Descriptions

Strategic Description & Website

Partners

Anomaly Founded in 2003 to create an “anomaly” in the advertising space, in 2017, it

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was named Ad Agency of the year and had offices in Los Angeles, New York,
Toronto, London, Amsterdam, and Singapore. Anomaly differentiated its
agency by creating IP that it licensed to clients in addition to providing
services: In 2017, clients included: Apple, Google, Anheuser Busch and Pepsi.
(http://anomaly.com/en/home)

Atkins A leading global design, engineering and project management consultancy,

in 2017, Atkins had offices in UK and Europe, North America, the Middle

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East, and Asia Pacific with a specialty global practice in Energy.
(www.atkinsglobal.com)

Deutsche Founded in Berlin in 1994 as a joint stock company after the reunification of
Bahn Germany, DB was formed to reunite the rail systems in East and West
Germany. In 2017, the group had expanded to include—not just passenger
and cargo railways—but also logistics services, energy, and regional and
long-distance services across Europe. (www.deutschebahn.com/en/group/)
op
Carbures Founded in 1999 as a spin-off of a group of academics from Cadiz University
Group Chemistry school in Spain, by 2017 Carbures Group was a global
technological industrial group with over 900 employees operating in 7
countries across Europe, North America and China. The group specialized in
the manufacturing of composite parts and structures and in designing
engineering systems for the aerospace, automotive, civil works, railway and
security industries. (http://en.carbures.com)
tC

Lawrence Founded in 1952 to meet national security needs by advancing nuclear

Livermore weapons and technology, in 2004, LLNL researchers founded a magnetic
National levitation system, Inductrack, which used magnets to create a low cost
Laboratory solution for efficient intercity rail transportation. In 2016, the technology was
(LLNL) improved so that power did not have to be applied to the tracks or wheels.
(https://www.llnl.gov)
No

Leybold A pioneer in vacuum technology, in 2017, Leybold offered a wide range of

vacuum components, standardized and fully customized vacuum solutions,
complemented by vacuum technology accessories and instrumentation.
Core capabilities centered on the development of application- and customer-
specific systems for the creation of vacuums and extraction of processing
gases. (https://www.leybold.com/en/)

Paul Founded in 1951, in 2017, Paul Hastings was a leading international law firm
Hastings that was based in New York and had offices throughout Asia, Europe, Latin
America, and the U.S. (https://www.paulhastings.com)
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 817-134 Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Building Breakthrough Innovations in Crowd-Powered Ecosystems

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Exhibit 5 (continued) HTT Key Partner Descriptions

Pacadar In 2017, Grupo Pacadar designed, manufactured and assembled precast,

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prestressed reinforced concrete structures and had offices and factories
in Spain, Middle East, America and Australia. (http://www.pacadar.com)

PriestmanGoode From designing small consumer products to creating or applying a brand

across every consumer touch point, in 2017, PriestmanGoode used its
design thinking, range of capabilities, and diverse portfolio to “tackle new
projects with a fresh approach.” (http://www.priestmangoode.com)

yo
RE’FLEKT An international team of software developers, user experience designers,
and communication specialists, RE’FLEKT created sophisticated
augmented reality and virtual reality software. In 2017, clients included:
Google, Microsoft, Oculus, HTC, and Samsung.
(https://www.reflekt.com)

Source: HTT website. Downloaded on 4-16-17 from: http://hyperloop.global/team/.

Note: HTT also has R&D partnership agreements with: UCLA and Girvan Institute of Technology.
op
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No
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Exhibit 6 Experimenting to Reduce Uncertainty when Launching New Ventures

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yo
op
Source: Lynda M. Applegate, based on ideas developed by Thomas R. Eisenmann and Eric Reis, “Experimenting in the
Entrepreneurial Venture,” Core Readings in Entrepreneurship (Series Editor, Lynda M. Applegate), Harvard Business
Publishing #8087.
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No
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Endnotes

1 Casewriter interview, March 2017.

2 Casewriter interview, Fall 2016.

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3Linkedin “A Different Path to Success” “Honoring Mentors of Innovative and Disruptive Thinking”, Bibop Gresta,
November 19, 2016, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ones-who-believed-true-inspirational-stories-honoring-bibop-g-gresta.
4 Franklin-Wallis, O., “An Italian rapper, a 'hangman's noose' and a $250m lawsuit: the chaotic race to build Elon Musk's

hyperloop,” Wired, 10-6-16. Downloaded on April 17, 2017: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/hyperloop-hype-machine.

5 In a deal valued at $2B, Tesla acquired Solar City on November 17, 2016. Downloaded on April 26, 2017 from:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-17/tesla-seals-2-billion-solarcity-deal-set-to-test-musk-s-vision.

yo
6 Downloaded on March 15, 2017 from: “Hyperloop Alpha,” SpaceX,

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha.pdf.
7 Cruchbase, Profile of Bibop Gariele Gresta, Downloaded from Crunchbase on May 15, 2017:
https://www.crunchbase.com/person/gabriele-gresta.
8 Linkedin, Bibop G. Gresta profile. Downloaded on May 15, 2017: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bibopgabrielegresta/.
9 Ibid.
op
10 Ibid.
11 Nohria, N. and Eccles, R., Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form and Action, Harvard Business Publishing, 1992.
12 VPost, Culture Society, January 23, 2017, http://visegradpost.com/en/2017/01/23/slovakia-and-czechia-could-have-the-

first-international-hyperloop-railroad/.
13 Casewriter interviews, December 2016.
tC

14 Casewriter interviews, May 2017.

15 Casewriter interviews, Fall 2016.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Popular Science “Hyped Up: Startups Race to Bring the Hyperloop to Life”, James Vlahos, July 20, 2015
No

http://www.popsci.com/hyped-up-startups-race-hyperloop-life.
20 Casewriter interview, March 31, 2017.
21 Op. Cit., Davies, A., January 19, 2017.
22 “Toulouse, Occitanie, France,” TripSee, http://www.tripsee.travel/destinations/France/Occitanie/Toulouse.
23“Brno, Czech Republic Takes First Step to Create European Hyperloop Connecting to Slovakia,” Hyperloop Transportation
Technologies, http://hyperloop.global/brno-czech-republic/ accessed March 2, 2017.
Do

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