Have New Apples Already Sprouted?

When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak began their ascent to Silicon Valley domination, they ignored the parameters of existing technology capabilities.

They sat in Jobs’ garage and tuned out all the naysayers, forming Apple Computer, Inc. on April Fool’s Day, 1976.

They took the computer and made it user-friendly, affordable, and marketable to the masses.

Thirty years later, they took the cellular phone and made it smart.

Because of those two and a handful of other innovators who started Apple, I don’t know a single person without a smartphone.

You probably don’t, either. But 30 years ago, nobody even knew what that was.

To say Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) “thought outside the box” feels underwhelming. It doesn’t do the company justice. It seems more accurate and worthy of the company’s accomplishments to say Apple reinvented that box.

If we’re going to find the next Apple (and hopefully experience a financial benefit from doing so), we need to explore companies that are taking the box we know, stomping all over it, and using those pieces to reconstruct a better box.

Think Outside the Internet

Hyperloop Technologies, Inc.

Today, if your cool, new product isn’t somehow inexorably synergized with the Internet, it seems like you’re going nowhere… fast.

Well, in some cases, this just isn’t true.

Back in 2013, when Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk revealed his abstract plans for a “speed-of-sound” transportation system, he described it as the love child of a three-way between the Concorde, a rail gun, and an air-hockey table.

Musk was basically laughed off stage. His vision of a 760-mph vacuum tube, called the Hyperloop, is a science fiction dream, right? There’s no way we could get from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes on the ground, right?

Wrong.

The race is on right now to turn the Hyperloop into a real, viable form of transportation — first for freight cargo, then for human passengers.

One company, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, is taking advantage of grassroots, crowd-collaboration strategies to see the Hyperloop model to fruition — and it’s working. Unlike its competitors, HTT has managed to keep costs down. How? 

The company doesn’t pay its employees. Not even the CEO takes a paycheck.

Instead, Hyperloop Technologies’ staff works part time — say 10 to 15 hours per week — while still maintaining employment at their other full-time jobs. In exchange, staff members receive a stake in the company.

Despite the absence of salaries, HTT has managed to attract some of the most talented and innovative minds available — minds that truly care about the field. They call themselves the Dream Team, and they can definitely back it up. There are engineers from Silicon Valley and SpaceX, researchers from NASA, and lawyers from Washington.

As the company grows, full-time teams are being formed — from Boeing, Harvard, and others. Although the company itself has no official connection to Elon Musk or Tesla, the majority of employees have a history of working with the visionary CEO.

The project has Musk written all over it, but the billionaire is only supporting from behind the scenes because, you know, he’s too busy figuring out how to colonize other planets.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies just recently secured a plot of land in California, where it plans to break ground on a test track as soon as next year.

The Hyperloop race is definitely still in the infantile stage, but it’s rapidly heating up as the technology gains both public and private attention.

HTT’s CEO Dirk Ahlborn has openly expressed his excitement for the company’s growth, which he expects to include an IPO in the next few months.

This is what we’re talking about. This technology can, and probably will, change the world. It’s new and exciting. It’s going to be big. You can still get in on it without breaking the bank.

Human-Technological Hybridization?

Innovega Inc.

We all know about Google Glass — the eyewear that provides the wearer with an augmented reality experience previously reserved for Tony Stark and his Iron Man suit.

The release of Google Glass was surrounded by the same hype as the Super Bowl halftime show… and then flopped like Janet Jackson’s top.

The project was pretty much a bust for Google. It was overly hyped before the product was ready, fell victim to drama and scandal, and was ultimately deemed a failure.

The project is still in existence, but it’s basically been swept under the rug.

Fortunately for us, Google isn’t the only one playing around with wearable vision technology.

I would even go so far as to say other companies are doing it better.

For example, when Innovega Inc. says “wearable,” it doesn’t mean a pair of bulky glasses; it means contacts, no bigger than the ones you might be wearing right now.

Wearable-optic technology, up until now, has been limited by the eye’s inability to focus on objects that are too close. Developers usually accommodate this by creating complex structures that trick the eye into thinking the object is much farther away than it actually is.

Conventionally, the eyewear device projects what appears to be a small monitor, like a TV or computer screen. The trade-off is in limited viewing scope and the bulk of the device.

You end up looking like Cyclops:

Don’t get me wrong; Cyclops is one of my favorite X-Men.

But the above style is not one I would call marketable or attractive for the non-mutant consumer.

Innovega Inc. decided to take a different route when developing its wearable optic technology. Rather than accommodate the eye, the company is changing how the human eye sees the world around it. The iOptik lens contains microscopic optical elements that do not interfere with the user’s vision but rather enhance it.

Right now, you can hold your thumb in front of your eye and only see a skin-colored blur. With iOptik contacts, you will be able to see your thumbprint.

Aside from having “super sight,” wearers can pair the contacts with a set of average-looking glasses in order to project images and information onto their existing scope of vision. Innovega’s website shows a pair of Oakley sunglasses with its patented lenses incorporates. So instead of looking like Cyclops, users can look just like themselves.

Innovega founders expect their technology to have military, industrial, and consumer market purposes. The company is working with awards from government agencies, specifically for defense simulation and field operations.

Innovega is also breaking ground into the augmented reality industry, which provides an entirely new way for users to experience media content.

In April of this year, the company filed a form D regarding $2.85 million in financing — a step that will infuse much-needed capital for the young company.

Failure… Not Optional, But Highly Variable

There are a few mantras circulating around Silicon Valley:

Fail often, fail fast.

Fail forward.

Fail better.

Tech innovators encourage failure as a source of learning and innovation. Projects must fail today in order to be better tomorrow.

Like Silicon Valley visionaries, we as potential investors must also throw a certain amount of caution to the wind. It can be a hard pill to swallow — no one likes to take a loss. But think about it this way…

In the 1980s, Apple shares were selling for less than $3.00.

Now the company is setting market-cap records and is expected to be worth over a trillion dollars in the next few years.

I wish I had the foresight back then to buy a few $3.00 shares of what is now the largest company ever to exist.

But here’s the thing: No one who invested in Apple in the 1980s, including Jobs or Wozniak, knew Apple would escalate to the magnitude we know today. Maybe it was a gut feeling, maybe they consulted a Magic 8 Ball, or maybe they were just lucky.

Or maybe they wanted to be part of a movement they genuinely cared about, regardless of financial losses.

Sometimes investing in something you believe in — something you believe could actually change the world as we know it — can pay off, too.

So we urge you to find a project you believe in. It could be the Hyperloop or wearable optic technology. You might have another ace up your sleeve. Either way, find it and take the leap.

Fortune favors the bold,

Alex Koyfman

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His flagship service, Microcap Insider, provides market-beating insights into some of the fastest moving, highest profit-potential companies available for public trading on the U.S. and Canadian exchanges. With more than 5 years of track record to back it up, Microcap Insider is the choice for the growth-minded investor. Alex contributes his thoughts and insights regularly to Wealth Daily. To learn more about Alex, click here.