Looking at the team page on Damon‘s website, it appears that their long-standing CTO – Derek Dorresteyn – has left the company. We have not seen a press release or information to the exchanges to this effect, but Damon has been pretty prompt in the past in updating their team page whenever a senior management person has separated from the company.
Last month, Damon replaced their founder-CEO, Jay Giraud, with co-founder Dominique Kwong as interim CEO.
Derek Dorresteyn is one of the most valuable CTOs in the electric two-wheeler industry. He is widely considered a technology visionary and is responsible for creating two motorcycle designs, both way ahead of their time, pathbreaking, and radical. His work at Damon created the Hypersport, the motorcycle that Damon Motors has been showing to the media for the last three years, and is yet to bring to production. The Hypersport cuts the weight drastically by using thin-wall castings as a structural element in creating a monocoque battery & motor casting that supports the motorcycle.
Before Damon, Derek was the CTO of Alta Motors and created the Redshift, one of the first electric motocrossers in the world. Alta ran out of funding after H-D reneged on a funding promise.
We interviewed Derek Dorresteyn and Jay Giraud sometime back to talk in detail about the Hypersport.
Damon Motors has been scratching for funds for a few years now. The company’s most-awaited listing on the NASDAQ has been disappointing, with the share price under continuous pressure. As of writing this (15th-Jan-2025), the company has a market cap of less than USD 15m.
Impact
First, there seems to be a lot happening at Damon, with Jay Giraud (CEO) and now Derek Dorresteyn (CTO) leaving. Given this latest event, it is likely that the company does not have the cash needed to bring the Hypersport to production. Further, with Derek not a part of the company anymore, it may be inferred that Damon is rethinking its business direction.