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INNOVATIONTHE MOST POWERFUL WAYTO CREATE
By Vivek Wadhwa
In the 1920s, New York hotel owner first privately financed team whose Such competitions do this by setting
Raymond Orteig offered a $25,000 spacecraft would carry three people a specific target that several teams
prize to the first person to fly to 100 kilometers above the Earth’s strive toward.
non-stop between New York and Paris. surface twice within two weeks.
Several unsuccessful attempts were Unlike traditional philanthropic
made before an American airmail pilot Renamed the Ansari X PRIZE, in organizations, which focus on specific
named Charles Lindbergh won the recognition of the family who donated projects and determined outcomes,
competition in 1927 with his plane, the the purse, pursuit of the prize large purses backing competitions
Spirit of St. Louis. motivated 26 teams to spend more attract sizeable amounts of operating
than $100 million on research and capital, and teams often wind up
Lindbergh’s achievement made him a development. On October 4, 2004, the investing significantly more money
national hero and a global celebrity, but Mojave Aerospace Ventures team won than the prize offers. Consequently,
it also sparked interest and investment the competition, launching a new era responses with broader applicability
that led to the modern aviation industry. in competition and yielding the $2 are created.
billion commercial space industry
In 1996, inspired by Lindbergh’s that exists today. Diamandis explains that such
achievement, Peter H. Diamandis competitions, in setting an audacious
wanted to reach for the stars. He Unlike traditional venture-capital but achievable target, “offer credibil-
formed a new organization called the firms, which back one idea, specific ity and ‘air cover’ for entrepreneurs,
New Spirit of St. Louis and created a competitions inspire multiple solu- innovators, and inventors who want
$10 million competition to reward the tions, often leading to new industries. to pursue a path that would otherwise
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