Larry Page’s flying car company Pivotal loses its CEO
- ID
- 20488
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 02 Sep 2026, 7:59 AM
- Fetched
- 02 Sep 2026, 10:37 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/01/larry-pages-flying-car-company-pivotal-loses-its-ceo/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 2.0
- Created
- 02 Sep 2026, 10:38 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_founders
What happened
Ken Karklin, CEO of Larry Page-backed eVTOL company Pivotal for over four years, has left the company. Interim CEO Mike Ross, a board member since November 2025, takes over as the company continues selling its $200,000 single-seat Helix aircraft and developing the defense-oriented BlackFly.
Why it matters
Minimal practical impact for this audience. This is a leadership change at a hardware aviation startup with no direct connection to AI, developer tooling, SaaS, or Malaysian/SEA tech infrastructure. Skip unless discussing hardware startup governance or founder transitions as a general topic.
Discussion angle
Only worth a brief mention as a case study in how hardware startups handle CEO transitions mid-product-cycle — Pivotal started Helix sales two years ago and is now bringing a fourth-generation model to market under an interim CEO.