Snap is a photo and video messaging app that lets users add text and drawings to their own photos and videos and send them to friends.

Launched in 2011, Snapchat, as it was originally known, is known for its fast-disappearing messages called “Snaps” that go away after the recipient views them. The platform has over 100 million daily active users (mostly between the ages of 13 and 34), who view over 7 billion videos every day.

In 2014, the company started aligning itself with music events: a natural fit for some of Snapchat’s most popular features.

Live Stories, which allow users at the same event or location share Snaps to the same Story, are the perfect conduit for live music events sharing. In fact, they’ve been tapped for festivals already: Coachella and the iHeartRadio Music Festival, just to name a few. Each story captures the concerts as they are heard by users, compiling photos and videos into stories that reflect the magic of live music.

More people watched the Snapchat stories on the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards than watched the event itself on cable. Snapchat Discover, launched in early 2015, also doubles as a platform for music sharing, with content based around music and entertainment, like the iHeartRadio channel that showcases artist interviews and song previews.

And Snapchat is turning itself into a powerful ally for media brands looking for access to millennials. A handful of highly curated brands like BuzzFeed, National Geographic, and Comedy Central use the Discover feature to offer up short-form content like quizzes, animations, and articles created specifically for the platform. In exchange, Snapchat gets some of the ad revenue. But the bar is high and the competition fierce to participate–Yahoo and Warner Music Group were quickly cut from the roster when their content didn’t resonate with the audience.

By the end of 2015, Discover was attracting 60 million monthly visitors. In 2016 new services such as news coverage, seek to drive $200 million in revenue, with an eye on a potential sale. CEO Evan Spiegel claims he has already turned down a $3billion approach from Facebook, and clearly he has something much more valuable, more in line with WhatsApp’s $19 billion.

In September 2016, Snapchat changed its name to Snap. This also signalled a strategic move beyond messaging, with the pre-launch of its new Snap Spectacles. With mini camera built into the funky sunglass frame, users will be able to capture short videos and share them instantly. It might be a gimmick, but it also might be an important step forward in augmented reality. Snapchat, or now Snap, is definitely an innovative brand and business model to watch!

Here are 12 insights from Snap’s success:

  • Start with a niche audience – be relevant to them, learn from them, work with them as advocates.
  • Make cool associations – be in with the right crowd, the right people, the right brands to connect with.
  • Spot a trend – Snapshot jumped on the social media wave a did it better, images more than words, fast and instant.
  • Engage psychologically – 33 minutes is the average time spent every day, driven met by FOMO – the fear of missing out!
  • Power of mobility – realtime content is only possible if you’re mobile, driving instant, location-based communication.
  • Self publishing – people love to create their own content, to be their own publishers, made easy.
  • Think locally – local content, micro stories, small communities, make’s it more relevant and engaging.
  • Keep disrupting – as you learn from customers, and competitors respond, keep being the challenger brand.
  • Find new directions – keep upgrading, more colourful content, new acquisitions to add new services e.g. bitmojis.
  • Create effective advertising – setting the trend in vertical videos, new services like Canvas, and ad metrics.
  • Work with brands – the Discover section has become a showcase for the most relevant brands in media, entertainment and fashion.
  • Stay fun – stay real, cool and relevant, keep disrupting yourself, moving with the trends, and not taking yourself too seriously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeQ0alGlsPg

Slack is a cloud-based team communication tool cofounded in 2013 by Canadian entrepreneur and now-CEO Stewart Butterfield.

Slack was originally meant to be an internal communication tool at Butterfield’s small company Tiny Speck, as his team developed the now-defunct online game Glitch. But by 2015, Slack had become a tech and media darling for its ease of use and fun in-app features.

It works by offering communication over topic-based “channels” in the form of Internet relay chat that allows collaborators to tag each other in conversation, “star” responses, and even share files in the thread of a chat.

It also offers private groups and direct message formats, as well as joyful features like a GIF-generating hack that pulls content from another playful company, Giphy, into a chat using a simple keyword text command.

And Slack’s growth is continuing at an exponential rate: In April 2015, Slack had 750,000 users. By the end of the year, it had close to 2 million and was valued at $2.8 billion.

That’s because Slack has succeeded where other collaboration platforms have failed: It makes company communication not just easy, but fun. Its elegantly designed chat rooms and intuitive interface allow for instant team communication, essentially eliminating the need for email chains.

The app is even being hailed by some as the death of email at work. Indeed, teams using Slack (which include those from Pinterest, eBay, NASA, and the U.S. Department of State) report a 49% reduction in emails sent, and some companies are using Slack as a de facto content management system.

The New York Times used it to live-blog a Republican debate leading up to the 2016 election. Individuals are creating channels for their friends and families, too. And Slack’s open API means it integrates easily with other platforms like Gmail and even Uber – one more reason the platform is much more than an enterprise communication tool.

(Extract from Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies 2016)

 

Farfetch is a global fashion e-tailer.

It connects shoppers with more than 400 luxury boutiques through a single Internet storefront for a seamless logistical experience for shoppers and sellers.

Farfetch offers any small mom-and-pop shop a sleek, streamlined online shopping technology to power e-commerce. It also offers logistical intelligence for global same-day delivery amd in-store returns, and provides access to a growing base of high-end clientele all over the globe.

By sending scouts around the world to canvas for local boutiques, Farfetch has signed on boutiques based in 35 countries and ships to customers in 190 countries, generating a revenue of $500 million in 2015.

The company has offices in 10 of those countries and offers customer service in 10 languages–even adjusting sales to the cultural customs of each place (for example, Brazilians like to pay in 12-month installments).

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But Farfetch, founded in 2008 by Portuguese entrepreneur Jose Neves and based in London, doesn’t just cater to small boutiques. In 2015, the site opened its doors to high-end fashion brand Jason Wu, offering all of Farfetch’s online ammo for logistics as well as a luxe, department store-like feel.

Now, the company will focus on growing its customer and designer base while streamlining its operations to keep improving its user experience on both ends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIAM84-DjMI

Here is an extract from a recent FT article, exploring the next steps for Farfetch:

José Neves, the Portuguese-born founder and chief executive of luxury fashion technology business Farfetch, sits in a private room at one corner of his company’s vast new open plan office on Old Street roundabout, the fulcrum for London’s tech start-ups, reeling off the material advantages of living in the digital age. When he arrives at the joys of hailing taxis from smartphone apps, however, his relaxed demeanour transforms into a stern seriousness. “I don’t like Uber in London,” he says. His beef is that one of the world’s most well-funded tech start-ups is taking trade from small business people maintaining a level of service admired globally. “The black cab is an institution that we need to preserve,” he says. “That may cost a little bit more, but if you go to a Michelin Star restaurant it will cost a bit more than if you go to McDonald’s.” There is a logical thread between this and his pitch for Farfetch.

The company helps luxury fashion brands and boutiques sell their clothing globally while dramatically improving the efficiency of their back office operations through clever data use. Although Farfetch’s client list includes many leading labels, a lot of the 400 boutiques and more than 1,600 luxury designers that pay for the company’s services are small independent traders. Farfetch, whose website gets over 10m hits a month and ships garments to more than 190 countries, is redressing the power balance in clothes retailing in favour of the little guys by enabling them to have the economies of scale enjoyed by multinationals, states Neves.

Pointing to his crisp white shirt and casual black trousers, he notes that similar garments could easily be obtained by generalist clothing manufacturers but he says that his have a special quality because they are made and sourced by people with a passion for high quality tailoring. “We work with a fantastic store in Newport Beach [California] called A’maree’s,” he says. “It’s one of the most beautiful stores in the world. It’s just mind-blowing, stunning; the building, the architecture, the way it is laid out, but it’s in Newport Beach, which is a small town south of LA.”

His point is that without the kind of support that Farfetch provides, the store “will be open only 10 hours a day, six days a week and it will be constrained to a geography”. Technology entrepreneurship does not have to be a winner-takes-all battle between multinational behemoths, Neves argues, but can be a way of creating companies that nurture the qualities of small business service. “When you look at the companies in the first wave of the internet — the eBays and the Amazons in retail and to a certain extent what the Yahoos did with newspapers and media — these first companies threatened to kill individuality and they threatened to kill creation.

 

 

“What is very interesting, if you look at the second wave of companies, and I include Farfetch in these, is that we are saving these traditions and the industries we operate in.” One of Farfetch’s recent innovations has been to offer same day delivery in 10 top cities around the world, including Los Angeles, Miami and London. This is only possible, says Neves, because his company has a critical mass of client shops in these locations. This guarantees a wide enough choice, he adds, for demanding customers and faster reaction times than are possible under the traditional ecommerce model of shipping stock from a few large warehouse hubs. It is easier to gain a foothold in the fashion industry than the market for books or music, he notes, because by its nature it is fragmented between thousands of companies.
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“Fashion cannot be downloaded so it needs to be touched, it needs to be tried on and there is an element of experience and retail experience which people love. The physical store is not going to go away.” Last May, Farfetch became a boutique owner itself when it acquired Browns, a London boutique known for pioneering bridal and menswear in the sixties and nurturing British designers such as Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. Neves admits he had admired the shop from a distance when he tried his hand at shoe design after moving from Portugal to London in 1996, opening a shop in London’s Covent Garden under the brand Swear.
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This was followed in 2001 by B-Store, for which he received a British Fashion Award. The business logic of the purchase of Browns is to give Farfetch a physical space to pilot innovations created by its store design team, which can then be used to the benefit of client boutiques around the world. “Browns has this DNA of being a revolutionary company,” he says. “It pushes the boundaries and really reinvents fashion time and time again and that is very aligned with Farfetch. We do it on a more tech, digital side of things. They do it on a traditional physical store retail side of things.”

 

 

Last year, Farfetch’s sales grew by 70 per cent to more than $500m, says Neves. This remains a drop in the ocean in the global luxury fashion industry, which generates sales of $250bn each year, according to consultants McKinsey. Only 7 per cent of clothing purchases are made online, Neves says, so companies like Farfetch will continue to serve only a thin slice of the market even after years of high double digit growth. Nonetheless, online sales, he adds, are growing by 30 per cent a year.
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 “This industry will never be a winner takes all,” he insists, adding that the fashion business is only at the dawn of a dramatic improvement in efficiency and selling capabilities created by online technologies. “There are multiple tectonic plates shifting,” he adds. “Our focus is on the movement of consumption from offline to online because if you ride that wave, growing as fast as it is, you have no need to worry about competition.”
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Although Farfetch started trading barely eight years ago, it is now a global operation employing about 1,000 staff spread across 10 offices, from Shanghai to New York and São Paulo to Oporto. Among its various business divisions, processes and administrative teams, it calls its human resources department “people and talent” in an effort to show different thinking about the way people are managed.
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Neves tries to develop his own and his managers’ leadership skills by hiring external coaches. A key part of everyone’s development in the business, he adds, is sharing knowledge. His unpretentious work clothes seem designed to reflect a collegiate mentality, although he claims this is not conscious. “I do not try to create a persona in terms of styles,” he says. “I just wear whatever I want and it is actually quite basic. Recently it’s more monochrome, and on the baggy side of things, but it changes.”
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He attributes at least some of his entrepreneurial genes to his grandfather, who ran a shoe factory in his native Portugal. But he began his entrepreneurial career in 1994 with a technology business founded whilst he was studying economics at university in Oporto. This set him on a road towards digitising the fashion business. Although Neves traces a logical progression from his previous ventures to Farfetch he has achieved immensely more with this venture than his first start-ups.
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Last year Farfetch acquired the moniker “unicorn” after gaining a valuation based on its equity fundraising of more than $1bn. Like Uber, this is a U-word which causes him to bristle. “We don’t get hung up on it,” he says. The key metrics for Farfetch are the lifetime value of a customer, a combination of the cost to acquire a customer and the cost of retaining them, not the price investors put on the business at any one point, he insists. “The fact that we reached that valuation, I think, is a collateral result of us living our values and fulfilling our vision. For us, we get a kick out of being revolutionary, being brilliant, amazing [our] customers. This is what matters.”

Robinhood is an app-based stock brokerage that offers commission-free trading. It was founded in Palo Alto in 2014 by two former Stanford roommates, Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev.

Robinhood is currently available in the U.S. and is accepting users to its waitlist for an upcoming launch in Australia, where fees for a single trade can run up $65 USD. The various fees attached to trading stocks often deters young people from entering the market, but by eliminating fees and streamlining the process, Robinhood hopes to open up trading to a new demographic.

The tool is the fastest-growing brokerage in history, with hundreds of thousands of customers and more than $2 billion in transactions. In 2015 it raised $50 million in funding and won an Apple Design Award–the first finance app to do so. Now the company is letting developers build its functionality into already existing products like StockTwits and Quantopian, which could revolutionize trading.

The company is eyeing international expansion and already has 20,000 people in Australia waiting to get in.

(Extract from Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies 2016 which ranked Robinhood as the world’s most innovative financial services company)

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Uber was founded in 2009 by two entrepreneurs based in San Francisco, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp. Uber Technologies is an app-based transport platform headquartered in San Francisco, USA.

  • Inspiration: The idea for Uber emerged when Garrett Camp had trouble hailing a taxi one evening in Paris. He realized there was a need for a more reliable and efficient way to get around the city.
  • Epiphany: During a tech conference in Paris, the pair had an epiphany: “What if you could request a ride from your phone?” This led to the birth of Uber’s concept.
  • Prototype: Camp began working on a prototype for UberCab as a side project. By summer of 2009, he convinced Kalanick to join as UberCab’s “chief incubator.”
  • Official Launch: UberCab was tested in New York using only three cars and officially launched in San Francisco in May 2010. The company later shortened its name to Uber.

Key to Uber’s strategy has been a disruptive business model that has delivered exponential growth

Uber’s disruptive business model revolutionised modern transportation. Its ride-sharing app allowed users to request rides via their smartphones.

  • The ease and simplicity of the Uber app fueled its popularity, making it the most valuable startup company globally at one point.
  • As Uber expanded into unique regional markets worldwide (from New York to Shanghai), it adapted its business model to comply with regulations and compete locally1.
  • Uber’s strategy involved understanding local dynamics, adjusting pricing models, and collaborating with local partners.

While Uber took some time to become profitable, it now is

  • Investors valued Uber at up to $120 billion before its highly anticipated IPO in 2019.
  • On May 9, 2019, Uber went public, but it made history with the biggest first-day dollar loss in U.S. history.
  • Since then, Uber has worked on becoming profitable, partly through acquisitions of other companies.

In its 2022 annual report, Uber reported:

      • 7.6 billion trips completed.
      • $31.9 billion in revenue.
      • A net loss of $9.1 billion.

CVS Health is reinventing the pharmacy to have a more active, supportive role in each person’s unique health experience and in the greater health care environment … from advising on prescriptions to helping manage chronic and specialty conditions to providing quality walk-in medical care and pharmacy benefits management.

The company says. “Health is everything. Because we’re present in so many moments, in ways that are more affordable and effective, we’re able to positively influence health behavior and shape the future of health care for people, businesses and communities.”

Through our more than 9,500 retail pharmacies, over 1,100 walk-in medical clinics, 65 million pharmacy benefit manager plan members, and expanding specialty pharmacy services, we enable people, businesses and communities to manage health in more affordable, effective ways.

This unique integrated model increases access to quality care, delivers better health outcomes, and lowers overall health care costs. We leverage our unique combination to help payors control costs, improve patient access, and promote better health outcomes in a way that no other company can.

The first CVS store, selling health and beauty products, was founded in Lowell, Mass. by brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and Scandinavian American Ralph Hoagland in 1963.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_iwNy_pZ7A&index=1&list=PLLUzEQYSggzJYEcIke7nLFD0nY3zXZMWH

In 2016, FastCompany named CVS Health the world’s #3 most innovative company:

CVS Health is an American pharmacy and health care company with nearly 10,000 stores in its network. Formerly CVS Caremark Corporation, the company was rebranded as CVS Health in 2014, and its health-focused business includes pharmacy services, retail, in-store health clinics, and its own Digital Innovation Lab aimed at creating smart devices and apps to improve health care.

At a time when competitors like Walgreens are closing stores, CVS is looking to grow its customer base with extra services that explode traditional expectations. At its health clinic subsidiary MinuteClinic, patients can get everything from flu shots to cholesterol screenings to a urinary tract infection diagnosis.

The first tools from its Digital Innovation Lab in Boston began rolling out in 2015, including an Apple Watch-compatible mobile app, and a new feature that lets users scan paper prescriptions and insurance cards to fill medications remotely and set reminders to pop pills. The chain also added healthier food choices, including fresh fruit and organic brands, in its aisles.

The company banned tobacco products from its stores in late 2014 and even introduced its own smoking cessation program. Up next, CVS is rolling out full-service hearing and optical services and, in a bid to further its patient education program, has partnered with IBM to use Watson’s artificial intelligence system to predict which customers need interventions to avoid health crises.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZU5GllSHGE&list=PLLUzEQYSggzKbqYN-fPaaNffZa-drBSMU&index=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCLr4VlE38g

BuzzFeed is a New York-based, international news and entertainment company that attracts over 200 million monthly unique visitors monthly.  It describes itself as the “social news and entertainment company … redefining online advertising with its social, content-driven publishing technology … providing the most shareable breaking news, original reporting, entertainment, and video.”

BuzzFeed was founded in 2006  as a viral lab, focusing on tracking viral content, by Jonah Peretti, John Johnson and Ken Lerer (co-founder of the Huffington Post). Peretti had previously experimented with contagious media as Director of R&D and the OpenLab at  Eyebeam, Johnson’s New York-based art and technology non-profit.

The company has grown into a global media and technology company providing coverage on a variety of topics including politics, lifestyle and business. In late 2011, Ben Smith was hired as Editor-in-Chief, in a move to expand the site into serious journalism, longform and reportage while maintaining its popular fun and entertainment-oriented content.

In 2016, Fast Company named BuzzFeed the world’s most innovative company.

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BuzzFeed’s reputation for innovation is based on its highly shareable news posts, quizzes, and its signature “listicles,” BuzzFeed has grown to include 11 editions – from Australia to Mexico – and has raised $300 million in capital as of January 2016. But while it continues to dazzle the world with cat GIFs and funny lists, BuzzFeed has also transferred its specific brand of virality to deep political coverage, personal and critical essays, and breaking and in-depth global news. To accomplish that pivot, BuzzFeed has thrown its weight behind social media, which delivers 75% of its traffic. In 2015, it launched on Snapchat Discover, which now garners 21% of its traffic–nearly a third of its total readership. And the brand has a growing presence in video, too (a “S’mores Dip” tutorial in 2015 snagged 123 million views on Facebook). With an almost protean ability to reinvent itself and plenty of outside investment (most recently, an infusion of $200 million from NBC Universal in 2015), BuzzFeed will look to continue evolving as it scales, potentially pursuing an IPO.

The company’s competitive advantage:

  • Massive reader base
  • High brand recognition
  • An infusion of capital, including a $200 million round in 2015 from NBC Universal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V82JTa3iJfk

Read more

To do the “impossible” now

The asteroid mining company. Founded in 2009 by Eric Anderson and Peter Diamandis, Planetary Resources is establishing a new paradigm for resource utilization that will bring the solar system within humanity’s economic sphere of influence by enabling low-cost robotic exploration and commercial development of asteroids. Asteroid mining will open a trillion-dollar industry and provide a near-infinite supply of precious resources to support humanity’s growth both on this planet and off.

Space-Economy by PLanetary Resources

 

Extract from Space.com July 2015:

A private spaceflight company took one small step for asteroid mining this week with the launch of its first spacecraft to test technology that may one day help tap into the riches of the solar system.

The Arkyd 3 Reflight spacecraft, a small satellite built by the space-mining company Planetary Resources, launched from the International Space Station on Thursday (July 16), beginning a 90-day mission to test the avionics, control systems and software needed to make asteroid mining possible.

Planetary Resources first tried to launch a version of the satellite into orbit last October, but that spacecraft was lost when the commercial Antares rocket carrying it and supplies for the space station exploded shortly after liftoff. But a new incarnation, Arkyd 3 Reflight, made it up to the station earlier this year and is now set to begin testing the technology that will be needed on mining spacecraft.

Arkyd 3 Reflight, or A3R as its builders call it, was delivered to the space station in April on a commercial Dragon spacecraft launched by SpaceX. It is the first in a chain of test satellites Planetary Resources plans to send skyward.

“Our philosophy is to test often, and if possible, to test in space,” Chris Lewicki, president and chief engineer at Planetary Resources, said in a statement. “The A3R is the most sophisticated, yet cost-effective, test-demonstration spacecraft ever built. We are innovating on every level from design to launch.”

The spacecraft is small, but mighty: At just 12 by 4 by 4 inches (30 by 10 by 10 centimeters), it will test key systems and control schemes that will allow later craft to land on asteroids to extract water and minerals. Eric Anderson, co-founder and co-chairman of Planetary Resources, said in the statement that the mining technologies could also help monitor and manage Earth’s valuable resources.

Later this year, once the satellite completes its 90-day mission, Planetary Resources will send up another satellite: the Arkyd-6, which will be twice as large and will test even more systems needed for the asteroid-mining process, representatives said.

The new satellite will bring along an infrared imaging system to measure temperatures and help identify and measure water and water-bearing minerals. Researchers will test the system out by measuring areas on Earth to see how it would perform analyzing an asteroid. Eventually, it could be a key step to finding water-rich asteroids. Water extracted from the asteroids could potentially be manufactured into propellant on the fly, because the key components of rocket fuel are hydrogen and oxygen.

“The successful deployment of the A3R is a significant milestone for Planetary Resources as we forge a path toward prospecting resource-rich asteroids,” Peter Diamandis, Planetary Resources’ other co-founder and co-chairman, said in the statement. “Our team is developing the technology that will enable humanity to create an off-planet economy that will fundamentally change the way we live on Earth.”

In 2018, Planetary Resources was acquired by ConsenSys, a blockchain technology company. ConsenSys will operate its space initiatives out of Planetary Resources’ former facility in Redmond, USA.

Extract from OneWeb’s homepage:

In 2018 we will begin launching a constellation of satellites to provide affordable high-speed Internet access for the world’s unconnected. We recognize this isn’t easy, but it is both achievable and too important not to do.

Our vision is shared and supported by the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The ITU recognized the potential disparity in connectivity access and prioritized specific global spectrum to connect the world. This is the only spectrum of its kind and OneWeb’s license to utilize this capacity is a globally unique position.

The OneWeb system will seamlessly integrate into existing mobile and Internet Service Providers networks allowing them to cost effectively expand into uncovered areas. Our system can provide access to health centers, schools, libraries, and homes through a low cost user terminal. Optionally solar powered, our small cell terminals have embedded WiFi/LTE/3G and 2G radios to provide coverage directly to cell phones, tablets and laptops.

Our role is as a technology and infrastructure provider. Mobile carriers, ISP’s and other partners globally will sell and manage the services on the ground. We see this as the most cost effective way, with the help of our partners, to accomplish our communal goals.

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Extract from Forbes Magazine July 2015:

The race to build global, high-speed, satellite internet is on.

In one corner is SpaceX, which filed with the FCC earlier this month for permission to test satellites for low-latency internet broadcast. SpaceX received a billion dollar investment from Google and Fidelity earlier this year, part of which is widely believed to be to support this initiative.

In the other is OneWeb, initially backed by Virgin Group and Qualcomm, which has today announced a $500 million series A round that attracted investors including Airbus Group, Bharti Enterprises, Hughes Network Systems, Intelsat, The Coca-Cola Company, and Totalplay.

The funding, according to OneWeb, will be geared toward further developing its satellite technology, as well as stations on the ground for mobile providers to further distribute internet access via LTE, WiFi, etc. The company aims to have its internet services up and running by 2019. The ground stations will be built by Hughes Network, which already provides high-speed satellite internet to certain markets from satellites in geostationary orbit.

“The dream of fully bridging the digital divide is on track to be a reality in 2019,” OneWeb founder Greg Wyler, said in a statement. “Together with our committed and visionary founding shareholders we have the key elements in place: regulatory, technology, launches, satellites, as well as commercial operators in over 50 countries and territories.”

Wyler is no stranger to building statellite internet systems. He also founded O3b Networks, which currently has satellites in orbit providing high-speed backbone internetto ISPs in emerging markets.

OneWeb is an even more ambitious venture than O3b, however, with a goal of being able to provide internet access globally rather than targeting specific emerging markets. To that end, the company has announced an alliance with communications satellite company Intelsat.

Intelsat’s communications satellite network is located in geostationary orbit. When OneWeb completes its satellites, they’ll be in low Earth orbit. The low Earth orbit has the advantage of lowering the latency of internet signals, which makes them comparable to fiberoptic networks on Earth. However, satellites in low Earth orbit also have a limited range of geography that they’re able to target. By combining the two networks, both IntelSat and OneWeb will gain the advantages of communications satellites in both types of orbits.

“By complementing our GEO services with LEO services, we will be able to provide connectivity over the Earth’s poles and in urban canyons, coverage that is important for certain mobility applications, including automotive services,” IntelSat CEO Stephen Spengler said in a statement. “In collaborating on Ku-band access hardware, we will develop technologies with additional scale that will simplify access, reduce costs and open new addressable markets.”

As part of the deal, IntelSat has taken a $25 million stake in OneWeb.

In addition to the satellite and funding deals, OneWeb has also announced today that it has signed deals to launch its satellites with two companies, Arianespace and Virgin Galactic.

With Arianespace, the world’s largest commercial space launch company, OneWeb has signed up for 21 Soyuz rocket launches, beginning in 2017 and leading to full satellite deployment by 2019. OneWeb has also reserved contract options for five additional Soyuz launches and three Ariane 6 launches after 2021 for replenishing its satellite network.

In addition to ArianeSpace, Virgin Galactic will be conducting 39 launches of OneWeb satellites via its satellite launcher system LauncherOne. The contract also reserves an option for 100 more satellite launches from Virgin. No date has yet been provided for these launches. This is likely because although Virgin Galactic has been making a lot of strides to get its satellite business up and running, the first LauncherOne hasn’t made it to space yet.

“Our vision is to make the Internet affordable for everyone, connecting remote areas to rest of the world and helping to raise living standards and prosperity in some of the poorest regions today,” Sir Richard Branson said in a statement. “We believe that OneWeb, together with Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne satellite launch system, has the capability to make this a reality.”

“Don’t take from the earth, accept from the sun, untold memories for a gallon of light” goes the voice over as Tesla’s incredibly sexy Model S pulls up at a beautifully sun-setting Californian beach.

Tesla, named after the Serbian physicist who invented the AC induction motor, started as a Silicon Valley dream. To create the world’s leading electric car company, believing that, unlike the Toyota Prius, being good didn’t need to compromise great performance.

Tesla describes itself an electric vehicle and clean energy company with a mission statement “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”.

It was founded by Elon Musk, Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, JB Straubel, and Ian Wright. Here’s a brief overview of the key founders and the development of Tesla.

Tesla Motors (as it was initially called) was founded in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Eberhard served as the CEO, and Tarpenning as the CFO initially.

Elon Musk became involved with Tesla when he led Tesla Motors’ initial round of investment funding in February 2004. He became the largest investor and assumed the role of chairman of the board. In 2008, amidst financial challenges, Musk took over as CEO of Tesla, and he has been the face of the company ever since.

JB Straubel was the Chief Technical Officer, overseeing the technical and engineering aspects, while Ian Wright focused on vehicle development and was a co-founder. Both played crucial roles in the early development of Tesla’s electric vehicles.

Tesla’s first production car, the Roadster, was launched in 2008. It was based on the Lotus Elise chassis and demonstrated the  Tesla’s first mass-produced electric sedan, the Model S, was introduced in 2012. It gained acclaim for its long-range capabilities and innovative features.

Tesla invested in Gigafactories to produce batteries and vehicles at scale. Notable Gigafactories include those in Nevada, Shanghai, and Berlin. Tesla expanded beyond electric cars to include energy products, such as solar panels and energy storage solutions. The company continuously improved its vehicle lineup, introducing the Model X, Model 3, and Model Y, catering to different market segments.

Tesla achieved profitability in 2013 for the first time and has since become one of the most valuable automakers globally.

Tesla is known for introducing Autopilot, a semi-autonomous driving feature, and pushing the boundaries of electric vehicle technology. However Tesla also faced challenges, especially in the early years, including financial difficulties and skepticism from the automotive industry. However, the company managed to overcome these challenges under Musk’s leadership.

Elon Musk’s ambitious vision, coupled with Tesla’s focus on innovation and sustainability, has propelled the company to the forefront of the electric vehicle industry. Tesla continues to shape the future of transportation and renewable energy.

Tesla’s first master plan was published in 2006 and called The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (Just Between You and Me). The title was tongue in cheek, but the message was clear. “Build sports car,” it explained. “Use that money to build an affordable car. Use that money to build an even more affordable car. While doing above, also provide zero emission electric power generation options. Don’t tell anyone.”

Master Plan Part 1

To address the over-reliance on fossil fuels and global warming, Tesla Inc., seeks “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” Musk and his colleagues plan to create “a vertically integrated company that builds electric vehicles, batteries to store the power, and solar panels to generate the power.” According to the Master Plan, Tesla built the Tesla Roadster, a luxury sports car, in order to use the resulting cash profits to build the luxury vehicles, the Model S and Model X. Currently, Tesla plans to use that money to build a more affordable car, the Model 3, all while providing its customers with zero-emission electric power generation products.

As the final component to the Master Plan, Tesla seeks to integrate renewable energy generation and storage into residential buildings. The company’s acquisition of SolarCity will allow for the widespread distribution of its sustainable energy products, including its solar panels, Powerwall and Powerpack batteries. The batteries will enable homes, businesses and utilities “to store sustainable and renewable energy, to manage power demand, provide backup power and increase grid resilience,” empowering the individual as his or her own utility.

In a joint venture with Panasonic Corporation and other strategic partners, Tesla Inc. signed an agreement in 2014 that laid out their cooperation on the construction of a large-scale battery manufacturing plant, known as the Gigafactory.  Located in Reno, Nevada, the Gigafactory not only manufactures the individual lithium-ion battery cells but also assembles the immense packs that power a Model S or store energy in a customer’s garage. Although still under construction, the Gigafactory has produced limited quantities of Powerwalls and Powerpacks and will begin mass production of the lithium-ion battery cells in late 2017. As a result of its ability to control all aspects of manufacturing, Tesla has a head start incorporating new battery chemistries and technologies into the manufacturing process relative to its competitors. This competitive advantage allows Tesla to circumvent waiting for suppliers to develop the cells. Inside the Gigafactory, robots carry out most of the manufacturing while the engineers supervise from desks not far from the production line. Although heavily automated, the Gigafactory will employ approximately 6,500 people when in full production.

The Gigafactory’s rapid completion is imperative as Tesla plans to begin building the Model 3 sedan and producing half a million vehicles annually, both in 2018. To achieve this goal, Tesla must dramatically increase battery production to decrease costs. In a recent interview, Musk claims that the Gigafactory will produce batteries for significantly less cost “using economies of scale, innovative manufacturing, reduction of waste, and the simple optimization of locating most manufacturing process under one roof.” Furthermore, the Gigafactory will be powered by renewable energy sources to ensure the achievement of net zero emissions.

Master Plan “Part Deux”

In 2016, Musk released the second part to his Master Plan, which acknowledges the progress Tesla has made with a renewed focus on new product development. Most importantly, Musk intends to create self-driving cars that are ten times safer than conventional cars. In his Master Plan, he anticipates the needs of the customer long before R&D can deliver a finished product. This motivates Tesla engineers to develop the necessary software as quickly as possible. Although the technology software is not yet complete, Tesla has already begun installing the hardware in its vehicles. While this decision could jeopardize the company’s strong financial standing, as the software may never be developed, it is indicative of the ingenuity and risk-seeking nature that characterizes Tesla’s innovative process.

In addition to self-driving capabilities, Tesla seeks to transform car-ownership. If Tesla is successful in realizing the fully autonomous vehicle, an individual could contract out his or her car to “make money for you when [he or she isn’t] using it”. The car would act as a taxi when not in use by its owner, and in effect, offset the overall cost of the vehicle without sacrificing quality. These societal mentality shifts — on how we use and think about public and private transportation– are some of the most innovative aspects about Tesla’s product development. They understand the needs of the customer today but also anticipate the willingness in younger generations to share modes of transport.

Overall, many products Tesla hopes to make in the coming years demonstrate the company’s creativity. The Master Plan itself relays a creative vision while demanding implementation within certain constraints. There are clear, achievable goals for very challenging tasks, that give Tesla the necessary framework to design and manufacture breakout products in sustainable energy.

Master Plan Part 3

When the MP3 was published on the Tesla website in early April, an initial skim read suggested a well-thought plan that covered all the bases. But when I examined it in more detail on holiday, I was extremely impressed. Using data from the International Energy Agency, the plan reminds us that the world currently uses about 165 petawatt-hours of energy per year (PWh/yr), of which 80% is from fossil fuels. Losses and inefficiencies, however, mean that barely 36% of the total energy is actually used for the purpose intended (59 PWh/yr).

But because electrically-driven power sources are far more efficient than combustion engines, the “electric economy” only needs 82 PWh/yr to do the same work. A Tesla Model 3, for example, is 3.9 times more energy efficient than a petrol-powered Toyota Corolla, while a heat pump is 3–4 times better than a gas boiler. Of course, a truly electric economy will need vast amounts of materials to build solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and so on.

What’s more, as the MP3 report estimates, we’d need 240 TWh/yr of battery storage to manage the 30 TW power generated from solar, wind and other renewable-energy sources. That in turn would require us to spend up to $10 trillion mining, refining and manufacturing everything from concrete, glass and steel to all sorts of rare-earth elements needed in batteries.

It is an eye-watering figure but, according to the MP3 analysis, it’s actually less than the $14 trillion the world is projected to spend over the next two decades on fossil fuels. What’s more if the $10 trillion were spread out over 10 years, it would be only 1% of the world’s total GDP (currently $100 trillion) and only 0.5% if spread out over 20 years. It doesn’t sound implausible if we put our minds to it, especially when you realize that fossil-fuel firms made a total of $4 trillion in profits last year.

MP3 outlines five steps we need to take to reach an all-electrical economy. First, we need to switch to renewable power, which would cut our use of fossil fuels by 35%. Second, move to electrically-powered vehicles (a 21% reduction). Third, install heat pumps (a 22% saving). Fourth, get industry to switch to “green” hydrogen for processing metals and other high-temperature operations (a 17% cut). Finally, sustainably fuel planes and boats (a 5% saving).