What’s Chris Talking About?

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Here are some of the conversations Chris has had on other Pod Casts, Radio Shows, and Live TV:

Talking points:

Q: Where did the idea come from to build a hydro-foil personal water craft with a stand-up riding position?
A: I’ve been fascinated by Hydro-Foils since I was a kid, I built an operational Hydro-Foil model boat that uses the same triangular foils when I was in my late 20s.
Q: How did you arrive at the unique steering system that allows a rider standing up yet is able to keep the craft so stable?
A: It’s only been in the last six months that it dawned on me to integrate the same steering system as the RYNO Bike on a personal water craft. That one sort of, peanut butter and chocolate moment, is what allowed everything to fall into place where I just had to build it.
Q: Why is standing up on a craft such a benefit?
A: In this Instagram high visibility vacation environment the stand-up paddle board became a big hit because lifestyle conscious people could present themselves in photos and to others in a more attractive way. Take that with how Jet-Ski’s are outlawed now in most lakes from the noise and wake, a gap in the market exists that the RYNO HF-1 fits perfectly.
Q: You have said before RYNO products appeal to the rebel in your customers, why is that?
A: Our customers are like Subaru owners who’s second car is a Prius. They want to explore and mingle though a dense urban landscape or in the reaches of the wilderness without disturbing the environment they are trying to enjoy. The silence helps them to be approachable and inspiring for being in command of a product that feels like a brighter future is coming.

Talking points:

Q: Where did the idea come from to build the Micro-Cycle?
A: My 13-year-old daughter and I were going out to go fishing and she asked: “Hey daddy, I saw a one-wheel motorcycle in a video game, could you actually build that? She drew me a sketch and that were it started.
Q: You’ve been promising this product for three years almost, what’s the delay?
A: We built 20 bikes in Portland, Oregon but just as we were setting up dealers on the west coast we found a blocking patent on the steering geometry we use. We reached out to the inventor but were unable to reach a compromise. Since then we have managed to reach an equitable deal which now allows us to put the bike into production.
Q: That must have been a disheartening set-back, how did you manage it?
A: It was the perfect thing to have happen. It allowed us to slow down a bit and watch the self-balancing market mature a bit on someone else’s dime. They say it’s hard to me market leader without dying on the beach. Having to wait to enter the U.S. market we had the rare opportunity to watch the Hoverboard market literally explode at $4.6 billion in sales in 2015. Then the fallout and the consolidation. What happened was all the technology that we were spending years to develop and make cost effective enough was being commoditized by thousands of factories in Asia. Today, all the electronics and software we were trying to protect is now readily available off the shelf.
Q: What choices does that leave you for a competitive advantage?
A: We don’t compete as a manufacturer. The value we ended up with is a solid U.S. based RYNO brand with some well-defined design patents that we can license to companies that already have manufacturing capacity. Since the RYNO is so easy to manufacture, it’s really is a global opportunity to partner with companies all over the world to have it built there locally. The same goes for the HF-1 Hydro-foil. It’s a global play as well. The hard-to-product parts can be purchased in bulk in Asia and shipped as sub-components. So, by being given the time to step back and watch, we can re-enter the market with a much bigger vision in mind.

The RUBRIC Car and the Parking Vending Machine

Talking points:

Q: You seem awfully passionate about urban transportation solutions, why is that?
A: The innovation that excites me has a lineage all the way back to when humans stood up on their hind legs to be confronted by a pair of hands, and how those hands demanded new mental capacity to take full advantage of their utility. Once those hands had the dexterity to move not as threat or protection, but to offer the motivation behind their expression, these hands then had the capacity to create new realities, art, dance and music.
I believe what’s coded in our DNA has millions of years of history creating innovation that’s more than simple products but is coded to build tools to improve our society so we all can thrive together. Innovation is what’s trapped in the core of who we are. My mission it to unlock these gifts through vulnerability, transparency, self-referenced decision making and the accountability to share our decision-making processes, so we can learn from each other’s discoveries and failures.
Q: Why is the Rubric Car a sort of poster child for your vision of making tansportation better in our cities?
A: It’s not sexy but parking is the real problem. The Tesla Model S has nothing to do with reducing traffic conjestion. There is no low-income entry point into the green EV market unless we get the cost down and accesibility up. Until that happens we’re all just high fiving ourselves with technology that goes nowhere.
Q: What have you been so down on autonomous driving?
A: Other than the fact that it’s never going to happen at highway speeds or as a driverless car in the city, it doesn’t save time. No body really cares about electric cars or saving the planet, but if they can save time, you have their attention.
Q: Doesn’t the Rubric car rely on autonomous valet parking?
A: Yes, at 10 MPH in the city it’s perfect. Just pull up at you destination, pile out and tell your cat to park itself. When you want it, no matter where you end up in the city, the car comes to pick you up. Picture a parking vending machine at every train station, or airport then see how many more people will ride public trains and busses knowing when they arive at the end of a long commute, they have a car to drive the last five miles.
Q: Are you planning to put this system into production?
A: Again, no. It falls squarly into our corporate strategy of designing products and systems that fit into exsisting use cases and regulatory environments and then license those products for global adoption. The RUBRIC Car Vending Machine, including being filled with cars, will cost less to build than a standard poured concrete parking structure and generate five times the revenure. To impliment it would require no urban planning changes, no infacstructure changes or any laws to be rewriten.