Startup Selfie

Most rockets fly once and fall into the ocean. Dawn Aerospace is taking a different route with Aurora, a small rocket-powered aircraft designed to take off from an ordinary runway, climb toward the edge of space, glide back down, and fly again the same day. The company describes it as a tool for routine, repeatable high-altitude and high-speed flight rather than a one-shot la...

A Belgian company is betting that building the shell of a house can be as approachable as assembling a set of interlocking toy bricks. Gablok, founded in 2019, makes insulated timber blocks that stack on top of one another to form the walls of a home, with a stated goal of putting self-construction within reach of people who have no building background.

The idea came f...

A growing category of “carry-anywhere” footwear is built around a simple idea: most people who wear heels eventually want them off. Souli, a U.S.-based footwear startup, has built its entire catalog around that moment, selling flat sandals that fold down small enough to drop into a handbag or clutch. The company markets the line as “Ultra-Compact Foldable Sandals” and describ...

A New Zealand boatbuilder has rolled out the first example of a redesigned amphibious vessel that drives down a beach on wheels and then motors away across the water. Built by StabiX, a company based in Invercargill at the southern tip of New Zealand, the 240UCC is the latest in a line of boats designed to remove the need for a traditional trailer and ramp.

The unit in...

Somewhere between a utility vehicle, a recreational kart, and an oversized cooler on wheels, the KoolerKart occupies a category of its own. Built by a California-based company called KoolerKartz, it is exactly what the name implies: a four-wheeled, motor-powered kart with a large ice chest built directly into its frame — designed primarily for outdoor events, beach days, tail...