1. Using Water to Slice Laptops In Half

Slicing various objects in half and uploading it onto YouTube? That's a recipe for viral content. 

Cut in Half is a one-month-old YouTube channel already boasting a total of 600,000 views across 12 videos. Aimed to promote OMAX Waterjet, their YouTube strategy is reminiscent of Blendtec’s channel where they humorously blended up everyday items from broom handles to iPhones - demonstrating the power of their blender. Not surprisingly, sales exploded. 

Waterjet cutting has been around for a while. Used in shaping aircrafts and sculpting machines - it’s a powerful way to cut through objects without disturbing their inherent structures.

2. Drone Racing: The Next Big Sport

Imagine: instead of watching cars racing– you’re watching drones racing. With the spike in esports (an industry valued over $250 million) – drone racing seems like the next logical step in the sports industry.

Headed by Horbaczewski, and backed by $8 million, Drone Racing League (DRL) aims to be the “next big sports phenomenon”.  

Horbaczewski’s strategy? To make the drones appear like they are moving through art in 3-D space. To cement this vision, they considered fitting the drones with 100 LED lights. They captured a video of a drone crashing into these fluorescent light sticks at over a thousand miles an hour. What does that look like? Truly breathtaking. Catch it here.

3. Elon Musk’s $83 Million Deal

Elon Musk has always been a brilliant strategist. He makes seemingly impossible goals like producing a mass consumer electric car, launching a fuel-efficient rocket and landing a $83 million deal to launch a GPS satellite – realistic.

His company SpaceX successfully landed two reusable rockets within months (a feat that takes other companies years). This resulted in the US Air Force signing an $83 million contract with SpaceX – breaking United Launch Alliances’s monopoly on the industry. 

Within two years, Musk plans to send his spacecraft ‘Red Dragon’ to Mars and launching a GPS satellite. Red Dragon will survey the terrain and collect soil samples to gain a better understanding of the planet. It’s designed to “land anywhere in the solar system” and will answer questions like “did life ever exist on Mars?”.

Written by Lina Lau, Special Projects at Step Change