Hyperloop One founder launches Own Company
Hyperloop One’s first CEO and former chief technical officer plans to challenge the company he started with his own Hyperloop startup. Brogan BamBrogan has made good on promises to launch is own unicorn.
BamBrogran hopes to have the research and development efforts of a company he calls Arrivo (Italian for arrived) up and running by June 2017, Wired reported. He wants to have at least 80 engineers and designers on the job at a Los Angeles headquarters by the end of the year.
Arrivo is Already Behind
BamBrogan did not say if he had hired anybody else or raised any venture capital. Arrivo is far behind Hyperloop One which had raised $50 million and was planning to raise $160 million in October. Hyperloop One has already identified potential routes and is planning a full scale test of its technology in April.
Arrivo is also lagging between Hyperloop Transportation Technologies or HTT which is planning to create a research and development center in France. News reports indicate that the crowd-sourced HTT has raised around $35 million and gotten land rights in a number of locations.
The Product of a Lawsuit
BamBrogan was essentially Hyperloop One’s first employee and co-founder. He was the first hire by Chairman Shervin Pishevar and served as the company’s CEO.
All that fell apart after BamBrogran and three other employees Vice President of Business Development, Knut Sauer, Assistant General Counsel David Pendergast and Vice President of Finance William Mullholland sued Hyperloop One in July. They alleged that CEO Rob Lloyd, Pishevar and his brother Afsin Pishevar were mismanaging the company.
Among other things BamBrogan claimed that Asfin Pishevar, then Hyperloop One’s chief counsel left a noose on his desk. Hyperloop One’s attorneys alleged that BamBrogan and company were plotting to steal the company’s technology. Hyperloop One countersued but both legal actions were settled in November.
At the time of the settlement, BamBrogan announced that he was planning his own company to take on Hyperloop. It looks as if he is making good on his promises. Now all BamBrogan will to deliver on those promises by digging up some financing.
One place BamBrogan might turn to for help and financing is his former employer SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company. Musk has built a Hyperloop testing facility at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and he has been staging competitions to develop and test a Hyperloop pod.
Since BamBrogan is going to need all the help he can get Musk would be a logical person to help. Arrivo would be a great way for SpaceX or another Musk company to enter the Hyperloop business in earnest.
