The Future of The Raven
Explaining my absence, a change of direction and where I’d like to take this project going forward
Hello again! Apologies, it's been another long delay since my last post on this project. As always, there are good reasons for that which I’ll try and cover today, as well as explain where things might go in the future.
Last time I made a post, I had just started on a venture builder program, with the hope of finding co-founders to take this clean aviation project official and turn it into a start-up. To cut a long story short, that didn't end up working out, however, I think there's still life in this project, though I won't be able to commit much time to it for a while.
What happened?
The venture builder/accelerator program was really invigorating. I've worked alone on climate projects for most of the past 3.5 years, and it's not been easy to keep going and to stay motivated. Suddenly being in a room with 70 smart, talented people with incredible backgrounds who also wanted to tackle the climate crisis was one of the most exciting and energising experiences I've had in quite some time!
However, there was some issues. The few folks there with serious aerospace chops wanted nothing to do with the sector, and given that that was one of the main skillsets I really wanted to find in a potential co-founder, I had a problem. Talking to mentors and other entrepreneurs advising the program, nearly all advised against starting a company in the aerospace sector. The immense regulatory burden, the size of the incumbent companies, and the vast capital requirements and long timelines made it unappealing from an investment standpoint, and would likely make for a brutal ride as a founder. As one ex-aerospace founder put it (I'm paraphrasing a bit here):
"The obstacles mean that no matter how skilled an entrepreneur you are, you feel like you're useless and making no progress".
All this took the wind out of my sails quite a bit. Heavy discouragement from investors and experts, and lack of potential co-founders meant I was dead in the water. Towards the end of the teaming phase of the program, I was left with a decision: do I double down on my aviation ambitions, quitting the program and going back to my solo work? Or do I park aviation for now, and find a team working in another area that I can get passionate about?
Ultimately, I decided that I would be unlikely to find such a collection of smart, climate-centric people again soon, so I went with the second option. I'm now the co-founder of an exciting biotech company looking to help animal-free proteins hit mass market scale and costs, something I’ve found myself surprisingly excited by! Already, in just a couple of months, we've made more progress in a new sector than I made in a year or so working solo, which feels like it justifies my choice, even if I still sometimes ponder the path not taken.
But what about clean aviation?
But this newsletter isn't about biotech, so what of the clean aviation plans?
Nothing in my journey told me that it wasn't a valid problem to solve, merely that the investment environment, timing, ecosystem and industry wasn't right for a VC-funded for-profit startup to tackle. This was something I was aware of going into the venture builder program, so whilst the evidence I was presented with really drove it home, it wasn't a massive surprise.
To that end, I'd been brewing other avenues to push clean aviation forward for some time, but the need to draw a salary prevented me from fully exploring them. However, given I now have a viable alternative on the financial front, and the start-up approach has been more fully ruled out here, I can now explore some of those other routes.
Broadly, as I see it, many of the challenges here are around innovation – trying new ideas and proving them out, and bringing them up the TRL curve. There's also a big motivation and public education piece – inspiring others and getting them excited by the potential here for something new and different. In my opinion, there’s a real need for fresh minds, ideas and different perspectives in aerospace!
A path less travelled
Given this, I've been considering more of an open source, non-profit approach. Taking inspiration from efforts like Copenhagen Suborbitals, The Ocean Cleanup and others, I think there's real potential for innovating in an open environment without profit motives, around grand goals. It changes the dynamics of the approach and solutions developed, and is a really powerful tool to get people excited.
What sort of grand goals? I see a few that could really help drive a project like this forward. The key aim is advancing zero-emissions flight, making such flights a viable alternative to the current aviation industry. However, before that, there are some key milestones to breach for clean aviation around speed and range that could be super exciting. For example:
Breaking the scale model electric speed record. I reckon Mach 0.5 is doable, but a really cool target would be to reach the transonic speeds of modern airliners with an electric aircraft. Supersonic would be an amazing stretch goal!
Don’t get me wrong, the Spirit of Innovation is pretty awesome, but I feel like we can do better than this! Full size, human-piloted clean aircraft speed records. Building on the previous goal, trying to push the boundaries of speed whilst producing zero emissions is an exciting idea!
Electric/hydrogen fuel-cell flights across the English Channel or even the Atlantic or Pacific. Yes, this has been done with the Solar Impulse project, but I think we can do a bit better than 40 knots!
Best of all, such efforts don't attack incumbents, which is key in an industry where the big players dominate so heavily. There could even be opportunities to collaborate with the big names, working with rather than against them.
I also see this project as a massive opportunity to inspire aspiring (aero) engineers, especially those from traditionally under-represented backgrounds. Aero engineering is dominated by white men, and I'd like play a part in inspiring a different, more diverse future!
Anyhow, this is all an idea right now. I have lots of thoughts, but ultimately I need a bit more spare time to properly structure this and launch it. Right now, I'm very much in the weeds of launching the new startup, which is pretty all-consuming! I do have limits, sadly, so this project will be on the back-burner until I have more time to commit. I'll try and do bits and pieces when I can, but I wouldn't hope for too much in the short term. Still, I'm really excited about what this could become!
If this sounds intriguing or interesting, I'd love to hear from you – even if I can't commit much time, I'd like to start building a little energy behind this and figure out where it can go!
Cheers,
Oli