Automotive Entrepreneur Nikita Bridan Shares Journey of Launching a Groundbreaking Limited Production Car

Entrepreneur twin brothers Nikita and Iliya Bridan forged their automotive careers based on their youthful passion for cars which began in Ukraine. Nikita shares how the brothers have lived their ultimate dream, founding an automotive startup that will introduce in 2026 its HF-11 limited production car priced at over $1 million.

The HF-11 is being honed to be the ultimate street-legal vehicle. Only 25 limited edition cars will be available worldwide.

Hear how Nikita and his twin brother Iliya executed their strategy to launch a capital-intensive automotive startup.

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Jeanne Gray: I'm Jeanne Gray, publisher of American Entrepreneurship Today and host of the podcast series, Experienced Voices, where I talk with highly accomplished people who share the critical elements that led to their success.  

Entrepreneur twin brothers Nikita and Ilya Bryden forged their automotive careers based on their youthful passion for cars which began in Ukraine. Nikita, our guest today on Experienced Voices shares how the brothers have lived their ultimate dream, founding an automotive startup that will introduce in 2026 its HF11 limited production car priced at over $1 million.

 Nikita, welcome to Experienced Voices. I'm excited to hear about new vehicle that you're producing that has some phenomenal features for your customers. 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me and look forward to a fun chat 

Jeanne Gray: So let's start by you just explaining to the listeners the f11 what you've built and why it's such a breakthrough vehicle. 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah so the HF 11 the culmination of yet 10 years in the automotive industry for my brother and I And you know, , it's very much a different approach than all the big OEMs. Are kind of our main feature is sort of we're powertrain agnostic.

So , we're both. either gas or EV on a very modular platform. And it's basically a game changer in terms of the, the technology involved. 

Jeanne Gray: So as far as a driver, the discerning driver, who is your, your target what are they? Valuing in the car in terms of feature, but also maybe the feel and the drive that they have in your car.

Nikita Bridan: Yeah. You know, I think we, we build cars for, the proper enthusiast, and in many ways sort of the industry's moved away from that. Things have become a little bit homogenized and standardized. And so. , our clients, our buyers, , they're very much buying these things as first of all, as like a piece of art.

Right. Second of all for the technology involved. So on the EV side, we're super, super high-tech combustion side. We have a cutting-edge sort of engine 12, 000 RPM , and So it's, this combination of sort of early adopter, but a lover of art and obviously pure driving joy. So that's who we, we cater to.

Jeanne Gray: It does have a high price tag though. 

Nikita Bridan: Yes, yes. The price tag is very high. You know, starting, starting a car company, very capital intensive. A lot of the R and D costs and, , , where we play is certainly very elevated. Our goal is over time to scale and bring a product that's much more affordable later on, maybe in, you know, three to four years.

But first we, yeah, we do start with a, with the halo product as we call it.   

Jeanne Gray: And it's a limited production run that you're doing as an introduction. How many cars and when will they be available? 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah, initial batch of 25. We chose 25 because that was the homologation number back in the 60s to go racing.

You had to build 25 street cars. So we, we like that number. We're very much influenced by that period. And they'll be available, first customer deliveries will be like end of 26. And then we start testing in a few months with our first prototype.   

Jeanne Gray: So this is a very ambitious goal that you have set for yourself and your, your brother.

So what research or, or how did you form your vision based upon what you had seen other? Automotive entrepreneurs attempt in the industry. 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah, I mean, it's, it's a crazy, crazy difficult thing to do. Would basically, if anyone asks, I would advise them not to do it, but we were, naive in a way.

you don't know what you don't know. And if you did know everything, you wouldn't start it. But we, we came from a place of, of pretty, you know, decent knowledge. After 10, 15 years in the automotive industry my brothers put 7 million cars on the road for, for Honda Acura. So we came from sort of an insider point of view.

But we just saw a lot of problems in the industry, a lot of problems in the approach. Of course , we're huge students , of history. We've studied all the successes, but also all the failures, right? The, the DeLoreans, the, the Dyson's, et cetera. And what, went wrong there?

And so, yeah. We definitely did a lot of research kind of compiled it all together. And, you know, , in 2019, when we started oil, steel, and we built the half 11 prototype and it was just like a fun project for my brother and I, and it somehow went crazy online and spread like, you know, Like a crazy virus and people started reaching out from all over the world saying, Hey, we would like to buy this.

So we kind of had a little bit of traction that we've built up over the last four years. And there was definitely a desire for something like this which led us to even considering to start this very capital intensive business. You know, this is not for the faint of heart. And so, Yeah, I began basically putting a business model together and began planning, putting supply chains and engineering teams together, figuring out all the costs and filtered, of course, with the fact of what we've learned from other companies, successes and failures.

But yeah, it was a long process. I mean, we often joke it's an overnight success, 10 years in the making. 

Jeanne Gray: Exactly, exactly. So that's one of the questions I was curious about is going back to, the very early stays is how do you set up shop? This is, you said capital intensive, but you're basically pulling together, zero.

So many different components to create your first vehicle. You did it in your garage or you put some initial money together to set up a facility. How did those first set up days go? 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah. I mean, kind of have to go back to like, yeah, 2019 when we started with the original prototype that was fully self funded my brother and I.

And it took us, you know, three, four years to put this thing together. But it gave us a huge amount of connections , in the industry also from our 10 years in the automotive industry which helped. We knew who to talk to, who not to talk to. And then as we built this car. , obviously the traction and sort of the attraction to the automotive community, people were inviting us to all these events, you know, and so the prototypes now been all over the U S we drove her from L.

A. to New York that got a lot of excitement. The car has been to Goodwood in the UK. It's won awards at. , the most prestigious car events like the quail up at car week. , and so as that's all coming together, obviously it's creating a lot of hype and energy around the brand. so people want to be part of that and people start reaching out.

And so that's how we sort of have met a lot of people that have now contributed to the new. Car that we're developing. So it's like building blocks, slow building blocks over five years. We are now in the process of, I guess I'll back up a little bit. So after the traction and we decide, okay, we're going to do a production car.

We did raise an initial round through an angel investor, and that guaranteed us basically the funds to sort of develop and build this first prototype. And going forward now we're, Okay. Looking to set up the final sort of factory assembly location which is getting interesting with all the tariffs and stuff.

So, yeah, it's fun times. 

Jeanne Gray: Yes, it's an exciting time. I would, I would have to say especially what I'm reading about for the automotive industry. Yes. So I was hearing from another entrepreneur that having the prototype as a demo. Really can seal the deal in so many of the conversations that you're having.

Would you say that's true when you put your prototype together, how it changed the storyline when you were talking to potential investors or prospective customers? 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah, absolutely. I think you know, the. We call it the, the MVP, right? Most viable prototype. And certainly the first car put us on the map.

And it, it was also good for our design business and our branding and storytelling business. So we ran that on the side. So that was great. But also, yeah, it shows that you have. The internal team to develop something, to build something that's real. I think in today's age, obviously technology has been democratized so much in terms of 3D modeling, rendering, AI visualization, all of these tools.

It's easy to create images. It's easy to create videos even, but that's not a real thing. And we deal in, in the hardware space, right? So these things need to be real. Someone needs to sit in it, smell it, feel it, you know, get scared by it in our, situation. So yeah, I mean, it's vital for us. And the new car, once the new car comes online that's going to be a huge milestone for us as well.

So, yeah, it's exciting times.   

Jeanne Gray: Your prototype is unique in that not everyone is building a car as their, their first product. So there must have been some starts and stops as far as your, your test driving. So how does A prototype get tested that then leads to sort of additional iterations of development.

Nikita Bridan: Yeah, the First car was developed. , it was a much more primitive car than sort of the production cars, much less sophisticated. And we work within a very talented engineering team that build race cars, very safe cars. They race all over the world, but I'll never forget the first test and, , my brother, , I have a twin brother and we're both the founders and basically rock, paper, scissor, who gets to go drive it.

And I won, so I was going to go drive it first, but it's a very, scary day. You know, I hugged my wife and I said, okay, I'm going to test this thing, like, hope to see you later, it's very cool to be part of a small team. And, you run these, these tests and of course you use best practices, but inevitably , you learn so much from physical testing where the weak points are, what are the characteristics that we like?

What are the characteristics we don't like? And then for us particular, because we are such a. nostalgic product offering. , I'm fairly young, I guess, in the automotive space. So we bring in guys that are from that period that we love for so they would have raced 

 in the 70s and we bring in those older drivers because they know those cars.

They've experienced it. They lived it. And we we effectively tell them like, hey, Can you just confirm like we're on the right path like this is what it felt like back in the day like, you know, that excitement that pure driving joy that doesn't exist today. And so that's that's vital for us.

 It's really cool to see these guys. smiles on their faces as yeah, the memories get rekindled. Cool. 

Jeanne Gray: Oh, I imagine you have built quite a fan base already based upon, it's just an exciting product that, you know, naturally gathers in people's excitement. 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah. can't say no if someone invites you to go drive, ?

I mean, who's going to say no, right?

Jeanne Gray: So, so looking back cause you go from the prototype and now you're moving into, it's a, it's a, a limited custom production vehicle. You've described it to me is, so you're now in that mode of moving from prototype into your first actual vehicles for your customers. So what has been your biggest challenge in making the pivot from prototype to production?

Nikita Bridan: . Great question. You know, a prototype , it's obviously one off. So it's difficult from that point of view where each piece is custom, but. Each piece is custom. So you, you, you can just do whatever you want. You know, cost is not really a thing. Engineering isn't really a thing.

You just, make it and you make it work. When you start getting into production with 25 units, we're stuck in this little bit of a limbo area where it's not mass production where costs come down, but it's also, you know, Mass production considerations because you're making more than one and so it's this very awkward area that we're in It's it's wonderful because again, you can do things that are very unique because costs and and our client You know, they don't really care about the cost.

It's more about the the spirit the The passion of it the art of it. The biggest challenge by far in terms of the actual project is the carbon fiber tub. So the original prototype was a tube frame. So basically metal tubes welded together. The new car is a carbon fiber monocoque. So basically you have the passenger safety cell.

 it's blowingly Difficult to get all the engineering, everybody to buy off and everybody to be happy because with metal you can always weld something on, you can drill, you can tap, you can modify it. With carbon fiber you can't really modify it. And so everything has to be perfect before you make the first one.

And that's really difficult. And it's a huge jigsaw puzzle that needs to be put together. And so that is the bane of my existence.

Jeanne Gray: When you laid out the road ahead, no, I'm sorry, no pun intended. Did you identify such as what you just described as various junctures where you knew you had not yet figured out how to move past a particular part of the car and you knew something was coming down the road of we've gone so far, but now we're up to a.

A big challenge. Did you anticipate that over a timeline? 

Nikita Bridan: I mean, I, I feel like that's every day, to be honest. 

Jeanne Gray: That's not, that's not a, that's not a fair answer. 

Nikita Bridan: Yes. So, you know, I think the, the project has had a very. Slippery slope of constant sort of innovation and constantly pushing to do more. We've been very lucky with sort of having the investment on board that time hasn't been super sensitive for us and the product that we're making isn't super sensitive.

So we've had the ability to, , see an opportunity and sort of go chase it. And potentially not knowing how to get there. Especially for example with our Evie powertrain swapping, that was sort of a, it was a pipe dream at the start and we really needed to find the right partners, the right technology, the right supply chain to sort of make that happen.

And I would say over a period of two years went from a fuzzy dream into like a reality to where, okay, this is actually makes a lot of sense and we can do it. But those two years are very uncomfortable, right? Because you're saying you're making this product and you have basically no idea how you're going to do it.

So yeah, it's, it's fun. 

Jeanne Gray: You had a little idea about how to do it. 

Nikita Bridan: Yes. 

Jeanne Gray: So, but you got, you've got some great intellectual property then. 

Nikita Bridan: We do. Yeah. , we've got it on, some of the, technology side and obviously on the chassis side in terms of, , sort of some elements of the modularity, some elements of the technology integration and some on the Things that create a unique experience.  

Jeanne Gray: The vision you have, you were explaining at the beginning is to eventually produce cars in greater numbers. So a couple of questions on that and looking at prior models of other startups, if you start doing a mass production, are the people who bought the original 25. Really buying into some sort of I don't know what the word is that they, they own an original it's sort of when 20 years later with the, the Apple Mac, they went out and then Pete found out that people had about, you know, only the original five or six.

Mac computer. And I imagine some of the people who would buy the first 25 would love to see the car go into mass production and end up being one of the original buyers. Is that a way of thinking? 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah, a little bit, a little bit, certainly. You know, from the very start we wanted to create cars that are Timeless.

And that's part of why we have our powertrain strategy. , it's a much more architectural approach to the cars, for example, like if your roof goes bad on your house, you don't, throw away the house, right? You just fix the roof. But with cars, you know, they're very much disposable these days.

So yeah, these first 25 cars, very much the idea is that they will be these sort of forever cars, these timeless cars. And they'll be very special. The cars that will come later, sort of the mass produced cars. And when we say mass production, it's still only going to be 300 cars a year. Like that's our, that's our, 

Jeanne Gray: so 

Nikita Bridan: it's not a huge amount.

It's still going to be very, very limited and they will be an order of magnitude cheaper. Almost let's say take a zero off. So it will be a very different product. It'll be a similar sort of ethos approach. And I think a similar buyer, but maybe one who doesn't have as deep a pocket and isn't so worried about, , the ultimate in exclusivity, the ultimate in technology.

So it's a little bit simplified and dumbed down, let's say.

Jeanne Gray: Well, those cars then. Be in a very specific niche market that , you know, then who your future competitors will be. Cause there are really high end cars already out there. Are you going to be. In a small group of competitors, or are you still going to be sort of in a totally distinct area? 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah.

You know, I think it's, there certainly would be, I guess, a few competitors. , it's a very small market. It's a big market. There's a big demand for it, but currently the offerings are very small. You know, there's very few cars that are so singularly focused on just pure driving joy, and none of them come from any OEMs.

, all the competitors are also very small boutique companies, and I don't see them really as competitors. I see them more as people enabling a market. Right. And so if we all build good product, that marketplace will grow. And so , wouldn't say that we're competitive with them or we want to like beat them on any stat or anything.

We want them to succeed and to spread the message of, what it is that we're building. So I think that's, kind of our, viewpoint on it. . we're less focused on competitors, more about just building the community and everything. 

Jeanne Gray: And the 25 cars that are coming out, I understand that they're not all coming out at one time.

There is a certain element of customization of each car. So how would you describe the rollout of the 25 cars? If I'm interested in buying the vehicle now and then there are five other people, am I on a waiting list? Do you have a schedule that? I can be brought into the shop and begin the process.

Nikita Bridan: Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, generally in this sort of exclusive car space you place small deposit, well, a large deposit depending on your outlook to secure basically your allocation, your build slot. And then after that, depending on where you are in line, it could be a wait of, you know, 24 months until you get the car.

And as the car is being built, We work with basically a CMF team, color material team, a CG team, visualization team, and then we have a VR experience where you can basically put on a VR headset, sit in the car you can sit in the interior, and everything is customizable, right? So colors, materials, finishes to the point of like, you want with it.

You know, if a customer wants to do a custom wheel set, we could do that. Or a custom, , rear body work if they really want to spend. Extra money to do that. It's obviously extremely expensive. But it is something that's very attractive to people because then they can genuinely say, I have a one of one which is, , I think that's where the marketplace is going.

Certainly we see more of a coach building direction developing over time. And that's kind of been our, our strategy with developing the platform and the power agnostic thing. So that's something we'll. Will increasingly offer to people, but first we got to get through these first 25. 

Jeanne Gray: So you, you mentioned you , an initial backer, an angel investor.

So as you go into the production mode are you bringing in more funding to get through the next couple of years? 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah, we'll be, raising another round shortly. And what that does is basically gets us, the ability to bring in a little bit more supply chain in house which gives us basically better control, better timing, and then it allows us to start developing the next sort of products.

So that's really important so that, , we're ready to go for the, for the next round and allows us to invest in future technologies and stuff like that, that we see. That need to be sort of implemented in our, in our future strategy. 

Jeanne Gray: Is it easy, or can I assume that , if the round is comprised mostly of high net worth individuals, is each one getting a car or they're just simply investing the company?

Nikita Bridan: There's yeah, there's different ways , to invest. We do have sort of 11 maniacs that get a little bit of equity in the. car company as well as a car. So that is certainly one way. And as you're alluding to, of course you know, that's the nice part of where we operate. People that buy these cars also are very interested in.

You know, investing and supporting the car company that they're buying. They want it to be around for a long time. And yeah, so that's good. It's convenient. 

Jeanne Gray: So let's just touch a little bit on the fact that you're working with your brother, which I just learned is your twin brother. So is it a good working relationship?

How would you describe it? 

Nikita Bridan: Yeah, I mean, we've been sort of, you know, working together for, yeah, what, 30, 37 years now. So we certainly know the ins and outs of it. I think we work really really well together. There's The added benefit of very unfiltered relationship, obviously, when you've been together for so long and a strong belief that whenever you say something, it's, really to make things better and not to just offend someone.  

Of course, we don't always see eye to eye. But we do know that when we both see eye to eye, that's the right answer. And so we're very patient until we do see things. . Eye to eye. We've got two very different backgrounds. He's got much more of a production background and my background is a little bit more on advanced strategy , for the OEMs, I guess.

And so we do things a little bit differently. We have slightly different skill sets. But again, we know that when we congregate on one answer, that that's the right answer. So it just sometimes takes some hair pulling to get there. 

Jeanne Gray: Would you describe your personalities as similar or different? Because I happen to have friends who are twins and they're identical twins, but surprisingly their personalities are so different.

Nikita Bridan: Jeez. I think, you know, I think our personalities are similar, but we have different. Weeks when , they don't align necessarily. So some, some weeks he's grumpier, some weeks I'm grumpier. So I think we have a similar personality, but the calendar doesn't match. 

Jeanne Gray: That's a good way of putting it. So looking forward, a lot of it is about company culture.

And you've already built a team. You've already got investors behind you. How do you think about company culture as you're going to have to bring more people on and navigate the next, 12 to 24 months? 

Nikita Bridan: Wow. That is, that is a brutal question because it is so difficult. Yes. This is the one question I actually ask all entrepreneurs or business owners are successful guys in the industry.

This is how do you hire? You know, how do you build that culture? And I've heard the most crazy, profound ways of doing it. But ultimately never one that's foolproof. Anyone that we work with, , we're very lucky that the people we work with now are, all amazing, but they've been vetted through, you know, four years of basically relationships and prior work and small jobs.

And we built into this. Really tightly knit family as we grow. The culture is very important. We're, we're very much a culture brand and a community brand. And as much as we are outward facing internally, we're very like closed off and protective of that culture. So yeah, hiring has been difficult.

We, Right now, our process is basically not a trial but we like to kind of work slowly with people, see how it fits, and then we're very patient on the education side we try to instill our values, describe what our values are, and give people a shot to adapt or to improve. Um,, if they want to resist, give us a reason why they want to resist.

Right. Because not everything we do is perfect and we understand that. So it's a very patient process, but then is a point where we just have to be hardcore and be like, okay, it's a fit. It's not a fit. And that's where, you know, on the human side it's difficult, but on the business side, that's kind of what a CEO founder has to do.

But yeah, that's the least favorite part of doing this. It's just, yeah. 

Jeanne Gray: Yeah, it's hard decisions. So on the strategy of that, like for instance, on the marketing side and preparing all of the material, is that something that in the short term you would outsource or you already envision your executive team filling out with like CMO you know, that adds to, , a fuller perspective on the leadership.

Nikita Bridan: Yeah, I mean, currently my brother and I set the direction. I get some help and assistance , from my wife who does work in marketing. And we've got a few other people that are sort of, you know, as any startup, you're, you're very multifaceted. So currently that's, that's how we operate. We've interviewed and talked to a few marketing people.

It's never worked out because it always feels inauthentic and it's, it's been very difficult to find the right. rebellious qualities in a lot of these people that have, you know, sort of grown up in the corporate system where being a rebel is not necessarily endorsed or that's not how you climb the corporate ladder, right?

It's very, very rare. There are a few people that I've spoken to that I think that could be a good fit. But they're so high ranking and very successful and there's no way they would ever join our tiny little startup currently. So Yeah, 

Jeanne Gray: well, was it fair to say that whoever's interviewing is dealing with two mavericks who happen to also be twins?

Is that, is that part of the challenge? 

Nikita Bridan: I guess it is. But, you know, I think what we're trying to do is, is very much disrupt , the normal world. way of telling automotive stories and automotive brands. And, and, you know, throughout history, there, there's been very few brands that have focused so much on storytelling and building a brand that way.

As opposed to, okay, we came out with a new electric motor. This is our brand. We're a high technology brand. We're very much about this, like mysterious, this lore little bit of magic, and it's very difficult, I think, for people to grasp that or to sort of really articulate it, it it's. Yeah, I don't know.

It's like, I don't know. It's more Hollywood than it is a 

Jeanne Gray: little bit of Chemistry going on there and you're adding another element into the chemistry for sure whenever you're bringing someone of Substance into the company. So I guess you can wrap within you Two, three, four years down the road. Cause now I've learned that you, you know, project to do about 300 vehicles a year.

So how do you vision yourselves in, in the three or five year period when you're now putting out 300 cars a year, same car every year, new versions of the same car, broadening customer base? 

Jeanne Gray: How do you see that? 

Nikita Bridan: Obviously, when we do scale to the 300 cars there'll be a quite a big division, let's say, between our halo products, which is kind of what HF 11 is that will continue.

And that will get diversified as well through different product and including coach building. And then the other more affordable car, which will be 300 a year. That will be, like a four year program and then it'll get refreshed or redesigned and kind of, you know, keep it relatively fresh that way.

Building 300 cars is really hard. So that, , that is something that , will take, a big team building exercise in terms of getting the right people involved the distribution of that, and then ultimately growing much more global will be kind of the big challenges so that's, kind of what we're going to be looking at and then I think hopefully we'll be able to tell more together.

More stories , in our way and create, you know, new experiences for the clients new experiences for The people that own the cars and new ways of building community. I think that's our big thing right now is to build. Our community and then spread that like a virus around the world.

, that's the goal. 

Jeanne Gray: Well, that sounds like a great story, Nikita. And I've enjoyed speaking with you today and excited for you in taking on such an ambitious entrepreneurial endeavor and the added complexity we'll say of a twin brother. So thank you for being a guest sharing your story.

And I'm looking forward , to more stories in the future. 

Nikita Bridan: Awesome. Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's been an absolute pleasure.

Jeanne Gray: You have been listening to the podcast series, Experienced Voices. To hear more and subscribe, visit AmericanEntrepreneurship. com forward slash podcast, where you will also find a form for listener feedback.