Airspeeder, a go-to-market masterclass

TL;DR

As a guest of the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct (AARP) shortly before Christmas last year, I was lucky enough to hear first-hand from Airspeeder co-founder Jack Withinshaw.

What the Airspeeder team is doing with their incredible electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) cars (yup, flying cars) is way deeper than just very cool tech. You can check it out at this link.

But in short, Airspeeder is a masterclass in go-to-market (GTM) and adoption strategy.

By combining racing, e-sports, collaboration agreements, and regulatory engagement, they are creating a flying car market that many thought could never exist.

Racing as the onramp to adoption

What struck me most about Airspeeder’s approach is how they have flipped the flying car narrative.

Instead of waiting for broad consumer “flying car” demand, they are actively creating it through elite competition.

• Start with eVTOL racing. High performance, high excitement, high visibility. That builds credibility with regulators, engineers, sponsors and the public.

• This mirrors history. Early automobiles and aircraft (and many of their revolutionary components) often won public acceptance through motorsport long before mainstream use.

• The high-speed arena forces rapid engineering iteration, safety validation and standardisation.

By turning eVTOLs into a sport, Airspeeder accelerates both technological maturity and public trust. Both are prerequisites for mass urban aerial mobility (UAM) adoption.

Certification, regulation and proof of concept first

More than a concept or demo, Airspeeder has secured formal regulatory backing.

Its latest craft, the Airspeeder Mk4, has received experimental flight certification from CASA. It’s the first manned racing eVTOL in the world to gain that clearance.

This matters. It shows that eVTOLs can satisfy real-world aviation standards, safety protocols and engineering requirements.

Regulatory success is often the gap between an exciting idea and a market ready product.

Technology, sponsorship and strategic partnerships

Airspeeder is positioning itself at the intersection of aerospace, motorsport, AI and entertainment.

• The Mk4’s design draws on F1 automotive, aerospace and high performance engineering.

• The racing series acts as a live proving ground and data collection point for AI assisted control systems, connectivity, processing, storage, thrust management, safety systems and performance data.

• That capability has attracted global technology partners, including Intel, AWS, Acronis and others, who benefit from real-world, high-stress validation environments.

• The commercial model appeals to sponsors, media rights holders, esports investors and early adopters who see value in a new global motorsport category.

Why this masterclass plan works

Airspeeder leverages the reality of how things are often adopted in the automotive and aerospace industries.

• Racing builds visibility and credibility with exactly the people who matter.

• Certification and real test data reduce risk and strengthen investor confidence.

• Major global brands showcasing their enabling technology become heavily invested in the success of the platform.

• A staged path to adoption starts with remote piloted races, then manned races, then broader commercial applications once safety and confidence are established.

• Collectively, these dynamics drive highly desirable network effects.

Sound familiar? Well, yes, and if like me you were around in the early 90s, you might recall the story of Dunsborough local and visionary, Chris Heyring, and his company Kinetic.

The Kinetic team developed the world class Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (for cars) and took the hydraulics-based innovation to market by leveraging off its success in off-road World Rally Championships. This included high profile and punishing Paris-Dakar rallies, where the system was fitted to winning cars like the Citroën WRC Xsara and Mitsubishi Pajero.

Its improved traction, stability and most of all its multiple place wins across several rallies was enough to trigger commercial adoption in certain models of the Toyota Land Cruiser, Lexus GX470 (standard fitting in the U.S.), Nissan Patrol and some of the McLaren supercars.

The technology company was finally sold to Tenneco Automotive in 1999.

Listening to Jack at the presentation reminded me of Chris Heyring—another student of history and inspiring visionary—whom I’ve been fortunate to spend time with.

What still needs to happen

Airspeeder has a few more boxes to tick.

• Scalable infrastructure for wider use, including vertiports and air traffic management systems.

• Use case focus with reliability and pricing benchmarks set at compelling levels.

• Public acceptance that goes beyond novelty and moves toward trust and everyday utility.

• Mass versus niche (or both) market commercialisation.

Closing thoughts on strategy

Airspeeder’s strategy is well thought out. It shows you don’t always need a fully defined (or even existing) market from day zero to develop a credible path to adoption.

From a UAM perspective, maybe what eventuates is a private luxury eVTOL car market, or maybe you’d care for a third affordable mobility alternative from your car dealer: on road, off road, and above road?

Perhaps esports pod racing takes the monetisation trophy, or perhaps the winning model has yet to be discovered.

I don’t think anyone is sure, but what the Airspeeder approach does provide is collaborations, time, optionality and the funding to fully explore adoption before deciding on end-markets.

And that’s how you flip the usual path to market on its head!

At pitchhawk, we talk often about fortresses. What stands out here is that while Airspeeder isn’t yet definitive about its final end-market, it is already building its fortress offsite—ready to deploy once the right location becomes clear.

Having a killer GTM and adoption strategy is a critical element of investability, and we think that Airspeeder offers a gold standard example.

Thanks to Airspeeder and the AARP for hosting such a world-class event, and I can confirm that when Jack opened the presentation by saying “I’m here to talk about flying cars,” not one person laughed.

Whether Airspeeder ultimately reshapes urban mobility, motorsport, esports, or something adjacent is still uncertain.

What is clear is that they have designed a strategy that earns credibility first, creates demand second, and preserves strategic flexibility throughout.

That is not accidental. It is disciplined go-to-market thinking—and it is rare.

Mike Ganon, Hawk1

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