This Teenager Landed An $85 Million Dollar Investment To Build Hydrogen Weapons

Forbes

Ethan Thornton’s vision for Mach Industries wooed blue-chip investors Sequoia and Bedrock, but he has struggled to execute, hamstrung by technical challenges, safety hazards and a cavalier approach to leadership.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2024/05/23/sequoia-bedrock-defense-tech-mach-industries/?sh=515106956585  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Tuesday, May 28.

00:05Today on Forbes, investors gave a teenager $85 million to build hydrogen weapons.

00:12It's not going well.

00:15At 19 years old, Ethan Thornton had a grand vision for a new company.

00:20He'd do away with the U.S. military's centuries-long reliance on gunpowder munitions by developing

00:25an array of hydrogen-powered weaponry.

00:28He named the company Mach Industries and, after dropping out of MIT, began R&D work

00:34on an artillery that could be replenished by hydrogen generators deployed on the front

00:39lines, claiming it would give the military a critical battlefield advantage.

00:44Investors swarmed over what appeared to be an up-and-coming defense tech company led

00:48by a visionary teenage dropout.

00:50Sequoia's Sean McGuire co-led a $5 million seed funding round last summer.

00:56It was the venture firm's first check issued to a defense company.

01:00Three months later, Bedrock's managing partner Jeff Lewis led a $79 million Series A investment,

01:06valuing the nascent startup at more than $300 million.

01:11But Mach's giddy financing had been prefaced by a troubling and near-fatal misstep.

01:17Months earlier, Thornton and another employee were almost killed while testing a Mach weapon.

01:23Four former employees with knowledge of the matter told Forbes that Thornton was reaching

01:27into a blast chamber surrounding a hydrogen-powered gun when the gas unexpectedly ignited, blowing

01:33up the machinery and sending a spray of shrapnel across the room.

01:37Thornton was miraculously unharmed, but a colleague helping with the test was rushed

01:42to the hospital with hundreds of pieces of metal in his body.

01:45The employee recovered, though some of the shrapnel remains.

01:50Mach is part of a new cohort of defense tech companies led by young, patriotic entrepreneurs

01:55looking to build businesses serving America's national security interests.

01:58They're driving a defense tech boom engorged with VC funding.

02:02Between 2018 and 2023, $100 billion in venture funding poured into the sector, per PitchBook.

02:10But here, Silicon Valley's quote, move fast and break things ethos seems an unwise approach

02:16to building weapons.

02:18Interviews with nine current and former Mach employees reveal a chaotic early-stage company

02:23that failed to deliver on the vision investors were expecting, compounded by safety issues

02:28and a juvenile approach to leadership.

02:31Beyond hydrogen-powered firearms that work like pneumatic potato cannons, Mach had sold

02:35investors on its quote, Prometheus, a mobile hydrogen generator that could be deployed

02:40on the battlefield.

02:42But according to three former employees, the device was scrapped when Mach couldn't figure

02:47out a cost-effective way to produce aluminum fuel necessary for hydrogen production.

02:53Eric McManus, a former program manager and U.S. Navy veteran who left Mach last year,

02:59said quote,

03:00The most concerning thing about it all, honestly, was the financial aspect of it.

03:04To get that much money, that soon, without any real product, without a flight test, without

03:09a demo, nothing.

03:12The tests that did happen did not go well.

03:14During a jet propulsion test last year, Thornton attempted to hold a drone down with his hands

03:19while it was at full throttle to help steady it for launch, according to interviews with

03:24multiple people who were present.

03:26Senior employees were dismayed.

03:28Among many risks, the drone could have tipped over and effectively become a projectile,

03:32endangering everyone on the test range, 3x staffers told Forbes.

03:37Range administrators shut the test down, they said.

03:40Meanwhile, Mach employees struggled with Thornton's cavalier leadership style and childish sense

03:45of humor.

03:46At one point, a TV in the Austin headquarters' main foyer displayed a timer called quote,

03:52Time until Taiwan invasion, which, according to one photo seen by Forbes, estimated a Chinese

03:58attack would occur in 1,800 days, the time by which Mach must be ready to deploy its

04:03product.

04:04McManus, the Navy veteran, said quote,

04:07I was in the Taiwan Strait while there was civil unrest in 2008 and he was probably still

04:12in middle school.

04:13I found it very offensive.

04:17Thornton declined to answer a series of detailed questions, but did publish a lengthy blog

04:21post on the company's website addressing some of the issues Forbes raised.

04:26He wrote quote,

04:37Bedrock and Sequoia didn't respond to comment requests.

04:46For full coverage, check out David Jean's piece on Forbes.com.

04:51This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes, thanks for tuning in.

Category

Transcript

Recommended