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- Electric Boats and an Angel Round from Arduino Prototype
Electric Boats and an Angel Round from Arduino Prototype
Kenneth Cassel
September 29, 2023
Hey y’all in this weeks issue we have:
- An Electric boating company raises $70mm
- A sales bro raises an angel round with an Arduino Uno powered prototype
Arc boats raises $70mm to electrify boating
The 2 year-old company, based in LA, builds a high-performance electric boat. They just announced their $70mm Series B.
Today, recreational boating uses .5% of all the gasoline in the US and accounts for roughly 0.7% of transportation carbon emissions. Arc’s boats on the other hand are fully electric, and produce no emissions.
I’m a big fan of companies that tackle climate issues by creating products superior to their traditional counterparts, which also happen to be better for the environment too.
Arc frames it the same way in their press release.
Say goodbye to loud motors, smelly fumes, and jaw-dropping gas prices. Electric boats unlock an entirely new way to experience the water. They offer unprecedented performance in a modern package, meaning they are far more reliable and easier to maintain than gas-powered boats. Oh, and they’re better for our planet
The company makes its own battery packs, software, and cooling systems. This all-in-one approach is pretty typical for companies with founders who've got some SpaceX time under their belts, like Arc.
Their first boat the Arc One is sold out, but can be reserved on their site.
B2B sales bro quits to make mushroom machines
Jared Steele is a twitter mutual building a interesting hardware company, terrashroom. terrashroom makes it easy for anyone to grow mushrooms at home.
This recent tweet caught my eye. Since starting this newsletter I’ve had a ton of folks ask me about getting started. I think Jared is an amazing example of jumping into hard tech by just doing it. He was a self-proclaimed “b2b sales bro” before starting terrashroom.
Idk what sales bro/marketer needs to hear this but you CAN change paths mid-career & do something radically different.
2022 I was a b2b sales bro.
1.75yrs later, we're now getting thousands of these manufactured.
Chase your irrational dreams.
— jared steele 🍄 (@Steele_Jared)
Sep 28, 2023
The best way to start is to start
In an exchange with Jared on twitter he revealed his Arduino Uno powered prototype that helped him raise his angel round. Since then he’s sold over 5000 pre-orders of their mushroom growing machine.
So if you’re thinking of building a hard tech company, you might be one pos prototype away from getting started.
Give Jared a follow on twitter!
Quick Links
- Cracked engineer builds a telescoping robotic arm for <$100. And he’s open sourced the build.
- Ashlee Vance takes a tour of LA startups in his new youtube video on building the New Age of US Manufacturing
- Some more progress in low-cost ways to create training data for robotic arms
- Raspberry Pi announces the Pi 5
- Helion begins collaboration with Nucor to build a 500 MWe power plant directly connected to a steelmaking plant.
That’s it for this week.
A lot of y’all responded last week that you’re more interested in quick short stories on hard startups rather than deep dives.
I appreciate y’alls feedback!
As always, if you want to help out, share the newsletter with a friend! 🫡