Craig Shapiro’s Post

Pretty fun weekend surprise! Collaborative Fund portfolio company Parallel landed on the front page of the Los Angeles Times Business section! I’ve always loved trains. They’re the quiet heroes that keep America moving -- carrying food, cars, toys, and everything else across the country. So seeing this story about a team of former 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐗, 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐥𝐚, and 𝐑𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐚𝐧 engineers reinventing the freight train feels a little magical. Parallel Systems is building small, electric trains that can drive themselves. They run on batteries, move super quietly, and talk to each other so they stay perfectly in sync while they carry huge containers. It’s a simple idea: make rail freight flexible enough to compete with trucks. If they succeed, it could unclog ports, reduce emissions, and give the country’s logistics network a big upgrade. I like ideas that seem small but contain a big shift in assumption. The assumption here is that progress only happens in new domains. But sometimes the things most ready for reinvention are the ones sitting in plain sight. Caroline Petrow-Cohen, Abe Yokell, Sophie Bakalar, Matt Soule