How Land Raising Works | Laurence Allen, Terranova

Overview of the massive flooding infrastructure crisis facing cities worldwide. Current solutions (seawalls, levees, demolition/rebuild) cost hundreds of millions and have severe limitations. San Rafael alone needs $500-900M for seawalls, while levee systems face trillion-dollar failure risks from issues as simple as gopher damage.

• •Seawalls cost $500-900M for a 60,000 person city - prohibitively expensive
• •Levee failures could cause $1 trillion in cascading damage in the Bay Area
• •Traditional solutions require 1-1.5 years of compaction time and massive service interruption
• •Terranova offers <10x cost of seawalls with immediate protection and no service disruption

Technical details of Terranova's injection process using wood chips, water, and thickening agents. One modular unit (ARC + 3 Prometheus rovers) can lift one acre by one foot per day, processing 20 semi-truckloads of wood chips. The technology works 15-300 feet underground with 2mm precision.

• •Each ARC unit supports 3 Prometheus injection rovers processing 20 truckloads/day
• •Can achieve 2mm vertical precision - far exceeding requirements for infrastructure
• •Wood chips are neutrally buoyant and flow extremely well underground
• •Non-permanent wells avoid most permitting requirements in many jurisdictions

Terranova trained AI models on 900,000 geo-cores in California to model underground geology across the entire state. This enables cost modeling and project planning without on-site work, critical for quickly vetting the massive pipeline of potential projects.

• •Trained on 900k California geo-cores to model entire state's underground geology
• •Can do most cost modeling without any on-site geological work
• •Plan.terranova.inc lets customers model their own flood projects and injections
• •Similar to mining - uses core samples and AI to optimize injection patterns

Wood chips are essentially free (delivered) while cement costs 5x more for material alone. Cities like San Rafael ship 8 truckloads daily to biomass plants, paying $1000/load for disposal. Florida produces enough waste wood annually to lift all of Miami by the required amount in one year.

• •Target cost: $50k/acre-foot vs $250k+ for cement (material alone)
• •San Rafael pays $1k per truckload to dispose of wood chips at biomass plants
• •Florida has enough annual waste wood to lift entire Miami in one year
• •Wood persists indefinitely when anaerobic - proven by Alaska highway system built on wood fill

In the 1970s, Venice lifted an entire island with buildings using cementitious mud jacking - proving the concept works but was too expensive to scale. Terranova solved the cost problem with wood chips and the complexity problem with autonomous robots and AI planning.

• •Venice successfully lifted whole island in 1970s but never repeated due to cost
• •Cement-based injection requires wells every ~10 feet vs Terranova's every 1000 feet
• •Wood chip slurry flows much better than viscous cement mixtures
• •Underground, wood chips compress into particle board-like material - better than dirt for earthquakes

Allen worked on Dragon thermal protection systems at SpaceX, experiencing the intense culture of responsibility and rapid iteration. Key lessons: empowering engineers immediately, zero-failure mentality for critical systems, and the value of co-locating work and living spaces for maximum productivity.

• •Worked on Dragon back shell and Raptor engines during production crisis at Starbase
• •SpaceX gives interns real hardware ownership and $15M+ impact potential
• •Thanksgiving midnight all-hands showed the surge intensity culture
• •Living across from SpaceX enabled 3D printer farm side project and after-hours iteration

Rather than vertically integrating, Terranova licenses technology to local contractors who understand regional permitting. This enables simultaneous multi-state and international projects. Building 10 new Prometheus units in 2024 to support 100-acre projects and concurrent deployments.

• •Licensing to contractors enables Jakarta, Cambodia, and multi-state projects simultaneously
• •Meeting with Cambodia PM in January - existential problem for many countries
• •Building 10 Gen 2 Prometheus units in 2024 for 100-acre project capacity
• •Revenue split model with contractors - they make higher margins than traditional fill projects

Terranova operates from 16,500 sq ft Berkeley facility at $1/sq ft. Allen lives in the office for maximum efficiency and intensity, similar to his SpaceX experience. Team works 8AM-11PM with minimal downtime. Decided to manufacture in America rather than China to control destiny.

• •16,500 sq ft Berkeley space at $1/sq ft - enough for 10 robots/year production
• •Living on-site eliminates commute, enables 90+ hour weeks during fundraise
• •Rejected China manufacturing to maintain control and rapid iteration capability
• •Hire SpaceX talent and makers with portfolio proof-of-work over traditional credentials

Terranova prioritizes candidates with maker backgrounds and portfolio proof-of-work over traditional credentials. Looking for people who would be soldering at night even without the job. Early exposure to engineering and sales (like selling raffle tickets) creates compounding advantages.

• •Can identify spiky candidates in 10-second portfolio scroll
• •Maker background = 3-4 years undervalued industry experience not on resume
• •Ex-SpaceX/Tesla engineers valuable for maker culture, not company name
• •Early childhood exposure to engineering and sales creates lasting advantages

Allen discusses the personal cost of startup intensity - relationship challenges from never leaving the office, difficulty enjoying time off, and the constant feeling of responsibility to team and investors. Views time as highly leveraged given global need for the solution.

• •2.5 year relationship ended primarily due to never leaving office
• •Can't enjoy social activities due to feeling of responsibility to work
• •Four consecutive all-nighters before launch to complete website and video
• •Success/failure directly correlated with effort - can't point to missed weekends if company fails at 30