Yeah… today’s episode is about jetpacks. Or, jet suits, more correctly. Read on for my thoughts on why Exovolar is well positioned and thinking the right way about bringing this technology to bear.

Jetpacks today & their applications

Jetpacks are no longer just experimental devices; there is a real interest from customers, like the US DoD.

Gravity Industries founded in 2017, which was an inspiration for the Exovolar team, has been working with various militaries around the world to build and test out jet suits.

A commonly proposed use for jet suits is in emergency response and disaster relief operations. Imagine first responders equipped with jetpacks, swiftly navigating through challenging terrains or reaching remote areas inaccessible by traditional vehicles. This capability could drastically reduce response times in critical situations, potentially saving lives where every second counts.

There’s also the simple opportunity of entertainment. The leisure industry has generated around $8.2 Billion in revenue according to this report.

But beyond defense and entertainment applications, two hilariously different avenues, the Exovolar team imagines something more with their jet suit technology.

When speaking with Guanhao Wu, CEO and cofounder, and Andrea Giannini, CTO and cofounder, a few things are clear:

1. They think about this problem with a fierce engineering mindset

2. They are seemingly un-phased with the magnitude of what they’re building

3. They imagine far more than entertainment and defense usage for their suits

Union of jet propelled minds

Andrea and Guanhao, Hao for short, have an impressive track record.

Hao founded and began building the company himself in 2019 after doing research at the Stevens Institue of Technology. Pretty light and easy research too, just building and publishing papers on neuromoprhic simulators and electro-optic modulators… I had to ChatGPT what 3 of those things were.

Before DMing Hao on LinkedIn, there’s a wonderful story about this in the episode, Andrea also did some insane stuff before cofounding Exovolar with Hao. From working at CERN, doing research at ETA Zurich, and working on Google Deepmind, Andrea brought a load of software engineering experience to the cofoundership.

The value of building SciFi tech

Building sci-fi tech, say a jet suit, for its own sake is not just a nice to have, it’s a fundamental driver of human progress.

When we strive to make the fantastical real, we're not just playing with ideas; we're actively shaping our future. Sci-fi tech acts as a catalyst for innovation, inspiring new generations of thinkers and makers, as mentioned by Andrea in Iron Man’s impact on the amount of mechanical engineers today.

Solving hard problems that we have today with technology is crucial, but so are new ventures that aren’t solving a direct and clear paint point.

This isn't just about technology; it's about the human spirit, our relentless pursuit of the unknown, and our undying curiosity. By daring to build what once existed only in our wildest dreams, we lay the groundwork for real-world advancements that can transform our lives in ways we've yet to imagine.

This is the essence of progress – the relentless pursuit of the seemingly impossible, turning fiction into fact, and in doing so, redefining what it means to be human.

Route to commercialization

As mentioned earlier, entertainment and recreation is a great first approach for the Exovolar suits, especially since they’re automated and don’t require any training to experience.

“What’s the term in software? Move fast and break things? We can’t afford to do that in hard tech.” Hao explained off camera while filming. It’s important to get things right, especially when the key hurdle Exovolar will need to overcome to expand out of recreation will be regulatory constraint.

The Exovolar team is aiming to open a recreational facility in Dubai that will fly customers on an automated flight path. They’re aiming to have this operational within the next 2 years. There’s a long road ahead to make this vision a reality, but if I believe anything after meeting Hao and Andrea, it’s that they’re driven in a rare way to make this a reality.

Keep on building the future,

— Jason

Filmed at New Lab in Brooklyn, NY | Edited in San Francisco, CA | Composed in Davis, CA