Press
"The Company Trying To Reinvent The Wheel (Literally)" by Ash Jurberg, Published in "Entrepreneurship Handbook"
The updated article is below.
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Introduction
Ben Shapiro emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1979 — the same year as the family of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. This is not the first time that Google intersects with Ben Shapiro’s story.
While Ben was settling into the United States, his younger Roman was left behind. Ben spent much of the next nine years petitioning various US government officials to press the Soviet government to allow Roman to leave Russia.
Finally, in 1988, he successfully lobbied 33 US senators and was able to add Roman’s name to a list of families that President Ronald Regan was handing to Mikhail Gorbachev, demanding for these families’ freedom to emigrate.
It was the first of many powerful connections that Ben made.
The first Business.
After reuniting in the U.S., the Shapiro brothers started their first business, Thinking Software Inc (TSI) — as seems to be the standard for many tech companies, in a garage.
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The first business (continue)
They used their engineering and I.T. skills to develop a dynamic code analyzer of Software Understanding Machine (SUM).
This product proved to be of interest to IBM, and the brothers were invited by the Director of IBM’s Software R&D, Daniel Sabbah, to present it at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, in upstate New York.
The demonstration was successful, and TSI was then invited to the IBM Center in Silicon Valley. At this presentation, the head of the IBM Santa Teresa Lab, Michael Wheatley, told them, “I see presentations every day of the week, and you are ahead of all of them.”
Feedback such as this from a person of influence at IBM would normally unlock the door to product distribution and sales, but despite several more meetings with IBM, nothing eventuated.
It was a lesson to the brothers that the path to success is difficult, even with a high-quality product and positive industry feedback.
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Persistence pays off
Several years passed before word of Thinking Software filtered through to Scott McNealy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Impressed by the possibilities of the software, McNealy passed the information on to a man named James Gosling.
Anyone involved in I.T. or coding will be familiar with James Gosling. Gosling is known as the Father of Java and is revered in the world of programming.
After seeing a high-level PowerPoint presentation of Software Understanding Machine® (SUM) functionality, Gosling called it “the Holy Grail of Software.”
This is like Warren Buffett telling someone they have come up with the Holy Grail of investing.
However, it was the next connection that accelerated the prospects of Thinking Software, Inc. That was when Ben took an independent contractor engagement at Google.
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The Google connection
At the time, Peter Norvig was an R&D director at Google.
Peter Norvig is another big name within the industry, having authored the most popular textbook in the field of A. I — Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach.
After seeing Peter’s article on a wall with the words: “All of humanity is working for us. We only have to decipher it”, Ben immediately saw an absolute parallel between Peter’s vision of Google’s business model and the vision and the business model of TSI.
Every new Line of Code written by the world's programmers adds to the business potential of TSI’s Software Understanding Machine® in absolutely the same way, as any new statement published on the Internet adds to a business of Google (and also as every new vehicle on the road adds to the business potential of ReWheel).
When Ben bumped into Peter Norvig at a conference room, Ben approached Peter.
Like others before him, Peter was impressed by the software, but unlike the others, he took this further. Peter organized a presentation of the software to Google, resulting in — a $100,000 check from Google to TSI to deliver a proof of concept.
Later Peter joined the advisory board of Thinking Software Inc (TSI).
Google’s involvement kickstarted a round of capital raising that led to $1 million being injected into Thinking Software. This makes for another interesting connection between the brothers and the founders of Google.
Google started with a $100,000 check given to Sergey Brin and Larry Page by Andy Bechtolsheim, another co-founder of Sun Microsystems. And thanks to that investment, Google’s next investment was also $1 million.
While not hitting the heights of Google, Thinking Software has become a revenue generating business.
But the Shapiro brothers had bigger plans —they had to reinvent the wheel.
More than cavemen
In 2017, Ben and Roman founded ReWheel.
They realized that this, yet another vision, is so extremely timely, that it cannot be delayed.
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More than cavemen (continue)
The brothers had developed the Reusable Energy Wheel, which will revolutionize the car industry while at the same time will reduce CO2 emissions.
ReWheel converts the kinetic energy of moving automobiles during braking into potential energy and then uses that energy to power the cars forward again.
This process saves a lot of energy, reducing the gas needed by the traditional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), vehicle, and carbon released into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Importantly, ReWheel is not electrical in nature, but is hydraulic. Being implemented directly on the wheel, it does not require re-engineering of the powertrain. That makes it immediately applicable to any of the 2 billion vehicles on the road today, including electric vehicles. ReWheel saves energy within the vehicle independent of the vehicle's power source.
The Case of EVs and CO2.
EVs are also responsible for additional CO2 production. Electricity required for the EVs is often produced by Electricity Generation Power Plants powered by burning fossil fuels.
Until such a time when all electricity generation becomes Green (Sun, Wind, Hydropower Plants), reduging the electrical power requirement of EVs will result in a reduction of secondary CO2 pollution.
But even at such a time, when all electricity generation will become completely Green, ReWheel will still reduce the amount of the energy needed for EVs, thus saving on necessary infrastructure.
The first U.S. patent was granted in 2019, with a second patent granted in 2020. As of today, a patent on ReWheel technology is also issued in Japan and in China, the world’s largest auto markets, and also the country with the largest air pollution.
There was an initial raising of seed funds for ReWheel in order to build the first version of the device.
Now it is the time for the next stage.
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Equity Crowdfunding Campaign
ReWheel Inc is about to launch a global Equity Crowdfunding Campaign. It is presently at the stage of "Testing the Waters" with non-binding reservations being accepted.
The technology behind ReWheel is exciting and is changing the world of transportation. There is an opportunity for you to be a part of this change. ReWheel Inc is looking to raise investment to build its production facility for the ReWheel device, and to bring the technology to market. In parallel ReWheel Inc will be licensing its technology to new vehicle manufacturers. ReWheel Inc has also started discussions with the US Department of Energy.
But that is not all. ReWheel Inc is expecting to cause a movement, where upgrading vehicles with ReWheel devices will become as popular, and as much promoted by worldwide governments, as is now done for the movement towards EVs.
And this is why: In 1988 Ben was able to get help from 33 senators and President Reagan to free his brother, now his partner, from the ex. Soviet Union.
And now, when it is not about freeing one family, but about freeing everyone on the planet – freeing from excessive need and excessive spending on energy, and from excessive pollution – they can do no less. ReWheel has already secured support of one of the Offices of US Congress, and that is only the beginning.
Not only will investors have the opportunity to be rewarded financially, but they will also be doing something very positive for our planet.
For more information on how to become part of the future see the "ReWheel Equity Crowdfunding" on the "Invest" page.
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