The Team
Back row, left to right: Andri Rupp, Alex Ziegler, Yannick, Carlos Serrano Quan (Project Provider), and Mike (Carlos’s protégé).
Front row, left to right: Darlene (Project Provider) and Regina (Carlo’s Wife) .
The Project
Living in a city of millions of people in the United States, you quickly notice one of the biggest problems its residents face: air pollution. It was this problem that led Carlos and Darlene, our project providers, to set themselves an ambitious goal — building an ecosystem around emission-free vehicles.
The technology already exists. Hydrogen is well-known and proven in China, but largely unapplied in the US market. At the same time, the State of California has introduced regulatory changes requiring parts of the public and municipal vehicle fleets to go emission-free. The problem: the ecosystem to support this regulation doesn’t exist yet. We’re talking about fueling infrastructure, manufacturers, suppliers, investors, government — all the pieces that need to come together before a single truck can run.
That’s where our project and our team came in. Over six weeks, we built the business plan, drew up an ecosystem strategy, and prepared the materials for investor pitch decks — turning Carlos and Darlene’s vision into something concrete that fleets, partners, and investors could act on.
The Experience
From a project standpoint, this was hands-on in a way that changed how we think about our education. All the knowledge we’d built up in school suddenly turned into something meaningful and solid — applied to a real problem, with real stakeholders, real stakes. Experiencing the startup spirit of Silicon Valley firsthand was something we couldn’t have dreamed of before stepping into it. Looking back, all of us are glad we took the chance and went for this international project experience.
From a personal standpoint, it was a trip with friends — a chance to experience another way of life in a country where everything is bigger and better. Arriving there, we quickly learned not everything was better, but it sure was bigger ;D
Project Log
Week 1
Kickoff with Carlos and Darlene, full clarification of the problem and scope. Started the stakeholder analysis for the California hydrogen market.
Week 2
Deepened the stakeholder analysis and completed research on the California Hydrogen Ecosystem. Built the initial structure for the business plan.
Week 3
Analyzed failed competitors (Nikola, Hyzon, Quantron) and compared BEV vs. hydrogen. Laid the groundwork for the compliance guide and demand forecast.
Week 4
Completed Business Plan Version 1. Built the compliance guide and the California Hydrogen Ecosystem graphic, prepared for the investor presentation in San Francisco.
Week 5
Finalized the demand forecast and investor one-pager. Built pitch and teaser decks for investors, government, and fleet buyers.
Ecosystem Map
We built a stakeholder map of California’s hydrogen truck ecosystem, organized into five domains politics and regulation, capital and financing, supply-side and technology, demand-side, and society. Each domain lists the real actors involved, from regulators and government funding programs to fueling-station developers and waste haulers. The map helps us understand the big picture, who needs to move for the ecosystem to work.
