Managing Director of Europe, Middle East & Africa Operations, Lumen
Search every verified Richard Warley interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a 2014 talk, William "Whurley" Hurley, then a co-founder of Katic Moon, discussed his views on innovation and risk. He identified five types of risk—financial, compliance, strategic, reputation, and physical—that he said companies often cite as reasons not to innovate. Hurley described several projects his company undertook that he characterized as risky, including an autonomous shopping cart, a skateboard mounted with a Microsoft Kinect, a game demo called "Shark Punch," and a mind-controlled skateboard. He stated that these projects generated press attention and led to new business opportunities, such as contracts with automotive manufacturers. Hurley asserted that "innovation is risk" and that it is about knowing how to mitigate and take that risk. He argued that companies that are unwilling to take risks will not innovate. He also noted that his company's brand was sometimes misunderstood, stating that "what we really do is we make a lot of money doing really cool technology."
“The first one I'm going to talk about is financial risk. Usually financial risk comes down to a point where you have an existing customer, and in this case for us it was Whole Foods, and they said well that's really risky and we don't want to do it because it could disrupt the Whole Foods business and if it disrupts th...”
“We built an autonomous shopping cart with cool features, and despite the risk, it got us more press than anything except for one project in our history, and it attracted hundreds of potential customers who were looking for people willing to take risks outside their companies.”
“Compliance risk is not just about falling out of compliance with existing laws and regulations, but also about interesting situations like user license agreements or contracts with companies or providers.”
“We mounted a Microsoft Connect on a skateboard and did everything the user license agreement said not to do, like using it outside and in ambient light, which was a huge success and demonstrated great software overcoming technical challenges.”
“That skateboard project got us into a whole new market with automotive manufacturers like Toyota, who needed a solution to the sunlight problem in gesture-controlled cars, leading to huge contracts.”
“Strategic risk means doing something that might detract from the core way we make money, but we always push the limits and don't care what the future brings because we have no crystal ball.”
“We created a game demo called Shark Punch for South by Southwest, which was controversial and some thought offensive, but it got huge attention and helped us gain many Oculus development projects.”
“Reputation risk is often the last excuse companies use to avoid innovation, but we took a big risk making a mind-controlled skateboard that could go 35 mph, which involved legal and safety concerns.”
“Innovation is risk. It's only about risk, knowing how to mitigate that risk, and stepping out and taking that risk. If you're unwilling to do that, you're never going to innovate at anything.”
“We built a drone with a taser to demonstrate how fast innovation is happening, but it got misconstrued and attracted calls from every military-industrial complex member on the planet.”
WHURLEY - INNOVATION: RISK IS IT'S OWN REWARD William Hurley, or Whurley, as he is known worldwide, has been ...
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