Olympian Motors ✅ (YC W22)

Olympian Motors is developing electric vehicles and technical problems and engineering issues may delay the production of Olympian vehicles.

Olympian is building a new manufacturing and supply-chain for modular EVs, and has organizational and logistics risks involved.

Olympian Motors also has risks including potential product and material shortages in the automotive and semiconductor supply-chain.

Olympian Motors is using advanced t-Prismatic batteries built on lithium-ion, and availability of lithium as a resource possess a slight risk.

Potential layoffs, increasing interest rates, and deteriorating political environment may impact the business. 

Our limited operating history makes evaluating our business and future prospects difficult and may increase the risk of your investment. We are an early-stage company with a limited operating history, operating in a rapidly evolving and highly regulated market. Furthermore, we have not yet released a commercially available vehicle, and we have limited experience in full-scale manufacturing, successfully develop, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property and defend against claims of intellectual property infringement, misappropriation or other violation; establish and refine our commercial manufacturing capabilities and distribution infrastructure; establish and maintain satisfactory arrangements with third-party suppliers; anticipate and adapt to changing market conditions, including consumer demand for certain vehicle types, models or trim levels, technological developments and changes in competitive landscape.

The Company might not sell enough securities in this offering to meet its operating needs and fulfill its plans, in which case the Company might need to reduce sales & marketing, engineering, or other expenses. Were recurring revenue to decrease, further cuts would be needed and hurt the Company’s ability to meet its goals. Even if the Company raises the entire round successfully, we may need to raise more capital in the future in order to continue. Even if we do make successful offering(s) in the future, the terms of that offering might result in your investment in the company being worth less because of the terms of future investment rounds.

As a startup organization, the company is still very dependent on its co-founders. If anything catastrophic were to happen to the company's founding team, the future of the company may be compromised. The Company’s founders may not be able to work on the venture full-time in the event of health, family, or other extenuating circumstances thus slowing the company’s progress and potential downturn. The Company’s future success depends on the continued services and performances of key management, consultants and advisors, and it currently does not carry key person life insurance. However, the Company plans to secure key person life insurance when such coverage is deemed financially prudent. Also, the Company’s future success may further depend on the Company’s ability to attract and retain additional key personnel and third party contractual relationships. If the Company is unable to attract and retain key personnel and third party contractors, this could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.

Our intellectual property rights, including registered trademarks, may not be sufficiently broad or otherwise may not provide us a significant competitive advantage. In addition, the steps that we have taken to maintain and protect our intellectual property may not prevent it from being challenged, invalidated, circumvented or designed-around, particularly in countries where intellectual property rights are not highly developed or protected. In some circumstances, enforcement may not be available to us because an infringer has a dominant intellectual property position or for other business reasons. Any failure by the Company to obtain or maintain intellectual property rights that convey competitive advantage, adequately protect our intellectual property or detect or prevent circumvention or unauthorized use of such property, could adversely impact our competitive position and results of operations. We also rely on nondisclosure and noncompetition agreements with vendors, consultants and other parties to protect, in part, trade secrets and other proprietary rights. There can be no assurance that these agreements will adequately protect our trade secrets and other proprietary rights and will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any breach, that others will not independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information or that third parties will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or other proprietary rights. As we expand our business, protecting our intellectual property will become increasingly important. The protective steps we have taken may be inadequate to deter our competitors from using our proprietary information. In order to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, we may be required to initiate litigation against third parties, such as infringement lawsuits. Also, these third parties may assert claims against us with or without provocation. These lawsuits could be expensive, take significant time and could divert management’s attention from other business concerns. The law relating to the scope and validity of claims in the technology field in which we operate is still evolving and, consequently, intellectual property positions in our industry are generally uncertain. We cannot assure you that we will prevail in any of these potential suits or that the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, would be commercially valuable.

The Company could be negatively impacted if found to have infringed on intellectual property rights.

Technology companies, including many of the Company’s competitors, frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of violations of intellectual property rights. As the Company grows, the intellectual property rights claims against it will likely increase. The plaintiffs in these actions frequently seek injunctions and substantial damages. Regardless of the scope or validity of such intellectual property rights, or the merits of any claims by potential or actual litigants, the Company may have to engage in protracted litigation. If the Company is found to infringe one or more intellectual property rights, regardless of whether it can develop non-infringing technology, it may be required to pay substantial damages or royalties to a third-party, or it may be subject to a temporary or permanent injunction prohibiting the Company from marketing or selling certain products. In certain cases, the Company may consider the desirability of entering into licensing agreements to avoid the foregoing adverse scenarios, although no assurance can be given that such licenses can be obtained on acceptable terms or that litigation will not occur. These licenses may also significantly increase the Company’s operating expenses. Regardless of the merit of particular claims, litigation may be expensive, time-consuming, disruptive to the Company’s operations and distracting to management. In recognition of these considerations, the Company may enter into arrangements to settle litigation. If one or more legal matters were resolved against the Company’s consolidated financial statements for that reporting period could be materially adversely affected. Further, such an outcome could result in significant compensatory, punitive or trebled monetary damages, disgorgement of revenue or profits, remedial corporate measures or injunctive relief against the Company that could adversely affect its financial condition and results of operations.

We may be subject to future governmental regulations. Aspects of our business and our products may be regulated at the local, state, and federal levels. Our products may be subject to state, local and Federal environmental laws and regulations, including those relating to the handling and storage of hazardous materials. We and our products may also be subject to significant governmental regulation relating to labor conditions, safety in the workplace, healthcare and other human resource issues. The nature and scope of future legislation, regulations and programs cannot be predicted. While we anticipate that we and our products will be in compliance with all applicable governmental regulations, there still may be risks that such laws and regulations may change with respect to present or future operations. Such additional costs would increase the cost of investments and operations and decrease the demand for products and services. We and our products will be ultimately responsible for compliance with such regulations and for obtaining and maintaining all required permits and licenses. Such compliance may be time consuming and costly, and such expenses may materially affect our future ability to break even or generate profits.

We are subject to income taxes as well as non-income based taxes, such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, net worth, property and goods and services taxes, in the US. Changes in employment laws or regulation could harm our performance.

Any defects in the products we manufacture, whether caused by a design, manufacturing or component failure or error, may result in returns, claims, delayed shipments to customers or reduced or cancelled customer orders. If these defects occur, we will incur additional costs and if in large quantity or too frequent, we may sustain loss of business, loss of reputation and may incur liability.

We may provide certain projected results of operations to prospective investors in connection with this offering. Projections are hypothetical and based upon present factors thought by management to influence our operations. Projections do not, and cannot, take into account such factors as market fluctuations, unforeseeable events such as natural disasters, the terms and conditions of any possible financing, and other possible occurrences that are beyond our ability to control or even to predict. While management believes that the projections reflect the possible outcome of our operation and performance, results depicted in the projections cannot be guaranteed.

In terms of revenue, it could be that our financial projections are not accurate or that it takes longer (if at all) to meet projections. If this is the case, our investors may experience a lengthy period on their rate of return or lack of return that is well below that of other investment opportunities

We do not plan to pay dividends to its shareholders in the near future and there is no guarantee it will ever receive any profit from its operations so as to be able to declare and pay dividends to its shareholders.

We have registered the name “Olympian Motors” as a trademark in the United States. Even so, our competitors could choose to use our names or purchase rights to names similar to ours as Internet search terms, which could cause confusion for the public and interfere with our efforts to build our brand. There also is the possibility that owners of other trademarks with elements similar to our name could make infringement claims against us, which could harm our reputation and affect our business.

We may need to acquire or develop new products, evolve existing ones, address any defects or errors, and adapt to changes in technology and we may need to rapidly and successfully develop and introduce new features to our products in a competitive, demanding and rapidly changing environment. If we do not respond to technological changes or upgrade our websites and technology systems, our growth prospects and results of operations could be adversely affected.

The success of the Company will depend on its ability to compete for and retain additional qualified key personnel to enhance the growth. The Company's business would be adversely affected if it were unable to recruit qualified personnel when necessary or if it were to lose the services of certain key personnel and it were unable to locate suitable replacements in a timely manner. Finding and hiring such replacements, if any, could be costly and might require the Company to grant significant equity awards or incentive compensation, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial results and on your investment. The loss, through untimely death, unwillingness to continue or otherwise, of any such persons could have a materially adverse effect on the Company and its business.