"Would all of these companies/investors be wasting there time if there was not something rather compelling about HYLN's technology and IP?"
Unfortunately yes. It happens in every market cycle. Dutch tulips in the 1600s, investment companies in the 1920s, savings and loans in the 80s, tech in the 90s, housing in 2008, and SPACs and Bitcoin today.
When your evidence for a good investment is other people investing, you better watch out. It reminds me of that pithy saying "in the short term the market is a voting machine. In the long run it is a weighing machine." You seem to be saying the thesis here is that a bunch of people are getting together to talk about the possibility of creating revenue (which doesn't exist yet and definitely no profit)....
The voting happened and so far at least some people could have lost 80% of their investment from the peak voting. In the long run, the weighing machine will take it's measure I'm the form of profits (or losses) ....
By the way if I recall correctly isn't HYLN supposed to make $8m+ in revenue this year? Up from $2m last year and in preparation for a $200m or so in the next couple of years? How's that going?
And your point about having IP and a head start.... What value is IP if no one is prosecuting it or using the technology it protects? And a head start? ...
You mean against all of the other drivetrain development companies who are making profits and have been developing hybrid drivetrain products with market proven benefits for decades? I guess I'm not following that.
Finally, Netflix is a fine example of a wonderful success on a business model with a significantly lower barrier to entry and one that was profitable very very early. If you want that to be your proxy for why HYLN what present you I go to risk adjusted return, that's fine. You're just wrong.
It's ironic that this is posted on a site called seeking alpha.... If you are familiar with the investing metric alpha, HYLN is a very very low alpha. From Seeking Alpha
