XCOR and the Lynx rocket

[Lars-J]

In light of Jeff Greason leaving the board, this seems relevant:
"Founder-Led Companies Outperform the Rest--Here's Why"
https://hbr.org/2016/03/founder-led-companies-outperform-the-rest-heres-why

(Hello, XCOR people reading this right now.)

I think that depends on the founder. Did XCOR really look like it was making good progress with Lynx when Greason was at the helm?

[jongoff]

New board members appointed:

http://www.xcor.com/news/new-board-of-directors-and-advisory-board-members/

And with that, Jeff Greason is off the board as well. (Didn't take long) Has he left completely or is he working with XCOR in some capacity?

His board position was his last tie to XCOR at least as I understand it. I think he's now full-time trying to get Agile Aerospace up and running.

~Jon

[jongoff]

[I think that depends on the founder. Did XCOR really look like it was making good progress with Lynx when Greason was at the helm?

A related question though is was it an execution problem, or were they just trying to do something hard enough that anyone else would've done just as poorly. I don't think we have enough data to say either way at this point. But I think we could both agree that this probably would've played out dramatically different if XCOR had come closer to sticking to any of its development timeline goals of the past. If they really were just around the corner from flight testing, I doubt Jeff would be gone right now. Whether that's all his fault, or whether he really did the best that was realistically possible given the circumstances (or more likely somewhere in between) is something we may never know.

~Jon

[RanulfC]

New board members appointed:

http://www.xcor.com/news/new-board-of-directors-and-advisory-board-members/

And with that, Jeff Greason is off the board as well. (Didn't take long) Has he left completely or is he working with XCOR in some capacity?

His board position was his last tie to XCOR at least as I understand it. I think he's now full-time trying to get Agile Aerospace up and running.

~Jon

For those of us (me) who missed it:
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/xcor-aerospace-founders-launch-new-startup-agile-aero-for-frontier/

Which is interesting because the FIRST thing that came up with the search of "Agile Aerospace" was an article on BE Aerospace's "agile" aircraft waste disposal system... I make no judgments mind you

But the starting group is an interesting combo no doubt.

Randy

[tobi453]

Didn't Jeff mention in a interview some time ago, that the Lynx design is finished and all they had to do was putting the thing together? He also said that as CEO of XCOR he left that task to other people and spent his time envisioning an orbital launch system.

I think this the reason he had to leave. He didn't manage the problems at hand.

[jongoff]

New board members appointed:

http://www.xcor.com/news/new-board-of-directors-and-advisory-board-members/

And with that, Jeff Greason is off the board as well. (Didn't take long) Has he left completely or is he working with XCOR in some capacity?

His board position was his last tie to XCOR at least as I understand it. I think he's now full-time trying to get Agile Aerospace up and running.

~Jon

For those of us (me) who missed it:
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/xcor-aerospace-founders-launch-new-startup-agile-aero-for-frontier/

Which is interesting because the FIRST thing that came up with the search of "Agile Aerospace" was an article on BE Aerospace's "agile" aircraft waste disposal system... I make no judgments mind you

But the starting group is an interesting combo no doubt.

Randy

They didn't do a good job with the "google name test" when they picked Agile Aero (not Agile Aerospace apparently).

But here's the actual url for his site--it's just a placeholder at the moment: http://www.agile.aero/

~Jon

[jongoff]

Didn't Jeff mention in a interview some time ago, that the Lynx design is finished and all they had to do was putting the thing together? He also said that as CEO of XCOR he left that task to other people and spent his time envisioning an orbital launch system.

I think this the reason he had to leave. He didn't manage the problems at hand.

You're misremembering things a bit. After they brought on the SXC investors, at a certain point they moved Jeff laterally from CEO to CTO, and replaced him with Jay Gibson. Jay was taking over getting Lynx flying, and Jeff was moving over to work on orbital stuff. It was an intentional shift on the part of the company. So this wasn't the case of Jeff getting distracted, more that he was replaced, and asked to focus on longer-term stuff.

~Jon

[QuantumG]

What is taking ATK so long to supply the wings?

[billh]

Jeff didn't start the company with a pot full of money. My guess is that as the schedule stretched, eventually he had to give up control to raise sufficient funds. Once somebody else was in a majority position, they could move him aside and put their own man in if they weren't satisfied with progress.

[jongoff]

Jeff didn't start the company with a pot full of money. My guess is that as the schedule stretched, eventually he had to give up control to raise sufficient funds. Once somebody else was in a majority position, they could move him aside and put their own man in if they weren't satisfied with progress.

That's pretty close to my understanding of the situation. XCOR definitely didn't start with a lot of money.

~Jon

[meekGee]

Jeff didn't start the company with a pot full of money. My guess is that as the schedule stretched, eventually he had to give up control to raise sufficient funds. Once somebody else was in a majority position, they could move him aside and put their own man in if they weren't satisfied with progress.

He most certainly didn't, and the reason could just as easily been a personality clash.  Once you lose control of the board, any number of reasons why you may be moved aside.

Sad, really.  The people in control don't realize how much value the founder has.

[Elmar Moelzer]

It reminds me of other situations, I have personally observed before and it never was because the founders did anything wrong (with the resources they had). I really don't want to get into that more than that, though.

[Julia Loseva]

XCOR Aerospace Lynx project - Is it dead?

I was in Curaçao a few years ago. I can't remember exactly, but i think it was 2013. Me and my friend were returning from a Caribbean trip.

I remember, there was a huge advertisement inside the airport, with a huge photo of the 'Lynx spacecraft', next to where people were waiting for boarding the plane. It said something like:

"Coming soon in 2014", "Price $95,000" (or, something very close to that, but i think it was 95k)

I didn't hear any news since then, not even a test flight or similar, is there anyone who has some kind of information? Is this project dead?

[QuantumG]

It's under construction but they need another cash injection to get the wings from the contractor.

[Julia Loseva]

I found in my hard-drive the photo of SXC's advertisement which I saw in Hato Airport in Curaçao.

It was something like 1.5 meters high. That was 2013.

[JazzFan]

Doug Jones, XCOR’s chief test engineer and the one co-founder still at the company, provided a brief update on the Lynx development.

"The vehicle’s wings, though, have not yet been completed. At last year’s Space Access, Greason said that work on the carbon composite wings, by an unnamed vendor, was going slowly because of the difficulty in laying up the sections and the low tolerance for defects. The Lynx wing structure continues to be an issue for XCOR. “That’s part of the money problem,” Jones said, without elaborating on the apparent funding issue. “We’re moving along, but they’re in the works.”

"But when will Lynx itself finally fly? “Light under the gear all depends on how our schedule moves forward,” he said. “Honestly, I’m not going to say six months or nine months or twelve months. I just don’t know at this point because there are too many unponderables in the way. We move as fast as we can move.”


http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2975/1

[Lars-J]

Parabolicarc.com posted a story about a supposed significant(?) layoffs at XCOR - but no numbers yet:

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2016/05/27/layoffs-xcor-aerospace-morning/

[Robotbeat]

[Elmar Moelzer]

I had a feeling that things would go south when the founders "left".

[Jim Davis]

I had a feeling that things would go south when the founders "left".

I think you might be confusing cause and effect. Things didn't go south because the founders "left"; the founders "left" because things were going south.