Grant Gregory, Partner on the American Dynamism team at a16z, discusses the economic scale and critical importance of maritime transport.
Assertion Partly supported
Maps of Mars and Venus are 50x more detailed than ocean maps
“Most of what we actually know about the ocean seafloor today has been gathered from gravity data from satellites. And so it's a useful starting point, but the resulting resolution that we have is only about two square miles, I think. And when you compare that …”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Geopolitical and climate disruptions will accelerate maritime tech demand
“We're seeing companies like Flexport, Saronic, and SailDrone, and many others have already started modernizing maritime, and we anticipate that continued geopolitical supply chain and climate disruptions will further accelerate the demand for change here.”
Assertion Partly supported
Shipping containers reduced global goods transportation costs by 99%
“Something like the shipping container that reduced Global costs of transportation for goods by something like 99%.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
The maritime industry still operates largely on pen, paper, and email
“A lot of the current state of the art is very analog. And we're talking about an industry that still operates largely with pen, paper, and maybe emails and phone calls.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Flexport proved maritime supply chain digitization is a viable market
“Flexport's a great example, and there's plenty of others that have kind of proven out this is a real market, and there's real opportunity here to digitize it, and it's difficult, but it's possible.”
Opinion
Arc Boats brings Tesla and SpaceX manufacturing principles to maritime
“Arc boats has done a great job of encapsulating what the future of maritime looks like in that, you know, from a process and team perspective, Mitch and Ryan delivered the Tesla and SpaceX vision and mission to maritime. They're not just creating Consumer boat…”