Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc.: A Startup Using the Gig Economy for Its Core Business

HTT is one of at least five companies competing for the hyperloop market – transportation systems using vacuum tubes and magnetic levitation in striving for speeds of over 700mph. But HTT is more. It is one of the only companies in the world which is almost exclusively run and operated by hundreds of freelancers and 50,000 members of the public; and unlike other crowd-based companies such as ConSenSys, HTT is not simply building software, but rather attempting to change the world of transportation as we know it. So, HTT is taking two exploratory risks at once: entering into an emerging market which itself is high risk, and using a previously untried organizational form to do it. HTT is made possible by technology: the internet allows people from all of the world to participate in a variety of self-described ways. HTT is a technology strategy company: it is designing new technology for the hyperloop and complementary assets for use around the world. Finally, HTT is making technology for its organization: it is developing artificial intelligence (AI) and other systems to manage crowds.