This is how you make real money…
__Building the future!
I want you to look at this short YouTube video and tell me what you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLNQwCoy_yA
As you can see, it is a “flying boat” powered by electricity, just like a Tesla car. The inventor is 37-year-old entrepreneur Dr Sampriti Bhattacharyya who I met a few weeks ago in Silicon Valley.
After graduating from a small community college in her home country of India, Sampriti looked to expand her #Knowledge with an internship working overseas. She didn’t know anyone in the USA so she did something most of you can do… she Googled “American internships,” did research, and then applied… to about 540!!
#Imagine! In her search, she sent hundreds of emails but received only four responses, and one acceptance… from Fermilab, a particle physics laboratory that promised to pay her about US$9/hour. At 20 years of age then, this entrepreneur-in-the-making flew to the USA, with $200 to her name.
As an intern at Fermilab she had a chance to work with advanced machines and computers, and she said that’s when she fell in love with “hands-on building, coding, and solving hard problems”. When asked about what she would have done if Fermilab had not offered her an internship, Sampriti said she would go on to email 500 more companies!!
You can read more in the Afterthoughts about her #Learning journey so far that’s included a Masters in Aerospace Engineering, a stint at NASA, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she received her PhD. [You ask any engineer and they will tell you MIT is one of the best and hardest universities in the world!]
In 2020, while the world was reeling from the pandemic, Sampriti co-founded NAVIER to develop this amazing flying boat, an electrified hydrofoil with intelligent software and design like an airplane. It can glide smoothly over the water, even in very rough seas! Wow! [It’s named after a Scientist from the 1800s!)
We #Learn to #Do.
Believe you me, Navier is a tough, tough engineering marvel, even though it looks simple. It takes the latest engineering know-how including the use of AI to pull that off!
Whilst in Silicon Valley recently, I visited Sampriti’s workshop to meet with her and the amazing team she has assembled. I also had a chance to take the boat for a spin, or should I say a “flight”! It’s quiet, efficient, fast, zero-emission, and very cool to captain!
Only a week before my visit, Elon Musk had taken Navier out for a spin, too!
“No one thought maritime was backable,” she said, but she #Persevered…
Now that Sampriti’s #Innovation is a #Product and she has assembled a team of world-class #People, investors are bearing down her door!
“In an age where we are afraid that we will lose jobs with AI,” Sampriti remarked, “I envision a new booming economy that can be unlocked with such scalable transportation”.
I met an old friend of mine, a billionaire who invests in #Innovations like Sampriti’s, and he told me that he remembers going for a spin in Elon Musk’s prototype Tesla, before investing.
“That’s how they all start!” he quipped.
“That young lady will be a billionaire with her innovation,” and I agreed.
I would love to have some of her boats on the Zambezi River, cruising towards the Vic Falls; what do you think?
What about those of you who live in coastal cities or islands, with lots of pollution and traffic?! Did you know 46% of the world live in coastal cities? Got you thinking?
Homework: From the things I have told you in the past, why don’t you list at least three lessons you have learnt from this. Start with The Drucker Formula: Innovation + Marketing – Cost = Profit.
Image credit: Navier. San Francisco, California.
Strive Masiyiwa