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So... How many of you have heard about the Hyperloop project?
That's not bad actually. Imagine this:
A capsule, big enough to host 30 people, traveling at 700 mph,
creating its own air cushion to glide inside a tube
from which almost all the air has been removed.
Now, imagine if we can use that capsule to connect cities 1,000 miles apart.
Cities like San Francisco, Sacramento, Albuquerque, Denver, Seattle,
Portland, all of them, available to you within 90 minutes.
If you would be called to join the team to make this a reality, would you?
How many would?
Sign up sheet is right there.
I received that call in September of this year
and, believe it or not, I said actually no.
I said no a few times, but they knew how to get me.
I am a challenge seeker, an eternal optimist, and an engineer, in that order.
And they got me with a challenge.
You see, now that I think about that,
I'm actually following the steps of my dad.
See, I come from a small town - today is the day of the small towns, by the way -
I come from a small town in Italy, up in the Alps,
right next to the Switzerland border.
My town has got 200 people and no groceries stores, zero.
So every time somebody has to do shopping, you have a decision,
either you go in Italy, drive 20 minutes, or you cross the border to Swizerland.
See, my dad, he owns a store, right across the border,
and I always thought what he does is selling food and selling things to people,
but in reality what he has always been doing, his business,
is a leverage financial business.
You see, he exchanges currency
so that people can do business and purchase things wherever they want.
Think about that for a second. Effectively, what that means is that
the concept of a border has disappeared.
Now, the Hyperloop, that's a transportation system, right?
But in reality what it is, is a possibility that we can have a project
that is going to change the way that we can tackle big problems in society,
that we can tackle big issues. Heck, it might even redefine what a city is!
In order to get it done, there's going to be a lot of challenges.
Engineering challenge, for example. Many people out there
they just flat out said "this cannot be done".
I looked a little bit at the math, I looked a little bit at the engineering behind it,
I spoke with a lot of experts, and none of them can find any problem with the math.
Societal, right? We have spoken with a lot of architects.
What they're interested in is this, it's the fact that if you can actually go
between a point, let's say LA, and San Francisco in 30 minutes,
and you can go see a friend for lunch,
then be right back for your 3pm appointment at the dentist,
if you can actually at that point choose where your favorite hair salon is,
you can choose where your favorite sports bar is,
while you can choose where your favorite job is, and decide where to live,
how does that redefines a city? how does that redefines a city limit?
Business. I'm not going to lie to you, it's going to take some serious cash to do it,
and I personally don't know any people that can afford it by itself.
Do you?
But here is the trick, how about we all can afford to do it?
How about we all can do a piece of it?
How about we all put our communal knowledge to solve the problem for one another?
Well, the Hyperloop is an opportunity to do just that,
it's an opportunity to make distance closer between people.
And you know what? The knowledge to make this project succeed is out there,
it just happens not to be under one roof, it's scattered all over the world.
Crowd. Crowdsourcing. In this case, crowd-sourcing on steroids.
Two managers, 4 groups, 16 sections, that's how we're starting.
Take a complex project, break it down to the smallest manageable blocks,
distribute these blocks all over the world,
let smart people work on it, think about the questions, think about the answers.
think about the process.
Sit back, take all these pieces with you, put them back together,
make sure that they all fit, and then do this process again, and again, and again,
until all constraints are no longer.
So, after this you might think that I spend most part of my time working on the
engineering issues.
Reality is, that's what I was thinking as well, but since September
I've been spending almost my entire time working on people issues.
See, there are no rulebooks on how to do this,
there is nobody that can tell me "apply this process or the other".
The way I'm used to do things just doesn't apply. You see, I'm used to
I gather information, I make decisions, and I follow actions.
Very simple. It worked, it still does, and it still will.
But in this case I don't have direct reports, I don't have people with me in a room,
I have to go out here and find all these people, and each of them
has got a piece that is going to make this project a success,
and I need to bring it all together.
So what do I do? I need a new approach.
I must provide, I must find a way to provide you, the community,
with all the information you need, all the tools necessary
to make the Hyperloop team to be the shining star.
I need to learn how to step back, be a mentor, listen when people talk,
or just flat out get out of the way and let the team take this to a whole new level.
So how did we start? Well, the same way many other startups do,
3, 4 friends, in a bar, you start drinking,
one of them gets up and says "I have the best idea ever",
you cheer to death, you drink some more
and you start blabbering out what then turns out to be the magical brainstorming phase.
How do I do brainstorming with 100 people all over the world? That's a hell of a drink!
The only way - I may be wrong - but the only way that I could think about was that,
take the problem, figure it out, the smallest manageable piece, and throw it all out there,
let them brainstorm, let them create their angle through that experience,
and I'm just going to take it back and try to manage it all.
So, the Hyperloop is going to be a big project,
it's a big undertaking, it's a big challenge.
But the possibility that this can be true, that this can actually realize
has already hooked an enormous amount of people all over the world.
And they're all signing up
only because they want to be part of it. Now, imagine that!
Thank you.