Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Asteroid Mining to Orbital Gas Stations: How Megan Crawford Built Space Fund's Infrastructure Empire

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Asteroid Mining to Orbital Gas Stations: How Megan Crawford Built Space Fund's Infrastructure Empire · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:12
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
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and today's guest is Megan Crawford, Co founder and
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managing partner at Space Fund. They are a venture capital firm
0:25
that invests in emerging space startups, fueling innovation in
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the growing commercial space industry.
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With Megan's guidance, Space Fund provides entrepreneurs the
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resources and support they need to create groundbreaking
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technologies and expand humanity's presence beyond
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Earth. Megan is more than just an
0:45
investor. She's an entrepreneur, business
0:47
educator, and a leading advocate for women in space.
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She Co founded the world's longest running space business
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plan competition, helping countless startups secure
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funding and mentorship. Her background includes coaching
1:02
hundreds of early stage space ventures and serving in multiple
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executive roles before launching Space Fund.
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Megan also holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship
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from Rice University, reflecting her commitment to both education
1:18
and industry advancement. She believes deeply in the power
1:22
of free enterprise to drive us toward a multi planetary future.
1:28
And she hosts her own podcast, the Mission Eve Podcast, which
1:32
you should definitely check out. Now before we get into all that
1:35
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Add Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:08
today, the Managing Partner of Space Fund, Megan Crawford.
2:12
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:15
Very happy to be here, Anthony. OK, so Megan, looking back over
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your long and illustrious career, lots of stops along the
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way, when did you first get bit by the space bug?
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I've always had it as long as I can remember.
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My mom likes to tell a story about 3 year old Megan throwing
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an absolute temper tantrum because my Barbie didn't fit in
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my space shuttle and I was extremely offended by this to
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the point where my mom had to stop everything and take me to
2:45
the toy store to find me a a toy doll that would fit inside the
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space shuttle. So as long as I can remember,
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I've had the space bug. That's hysterical.
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I mean, is there a more fitting story than you as a child being
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upset that your Barbie doll didn't fit into the space
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shuttle? My mom tells that at every
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dinner. So I mean, that should be part
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of like the the pitch deck for a space fund, right?
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Like it'll. It'll be it'll be part of my
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memoirs for sure. OK.
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OK. So as I mentioned, lots of, you
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know, stops in your career along the way, many of them, certainly
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not all of them related to space.
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As you look back, what was the most formidable stop for you?
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So I'd say there were two. This will be another chapter in
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my memoirs. I'm calling it A Tale of two
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Counsellors. I had decided very early on that
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I was going to go to the Air Force Academy, become a fighter
3:40
pilot, and then fly the shuttle. That was the life path I had
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been working towards since I was a young child.
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My high school guidance counsellor had the unfortunate
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job of telling me that at that time, women couldn't have combat
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roles in the military. I was never going to be a
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fighter pilot. And so I had to completely
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reassess my life plan. I'd always been fascinated by
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entrepreneurship, having seen my dad be a successful
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entrepreneur. So I went and did my undergrad
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and my masters in in business. And when I was doing my MBA in
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finance and entrepreneurship, I had another great counselor who
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when I explained to her the type of jobs I was going after, she
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said, Megan, I'm bored just listening to you talk about
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that. How bored are you going to be if
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you go get one of these jobs, right?
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And she said, you know, what's your passion?
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What are you, what are you really interested in?
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I said, well, it's always been space, but I'm never going to
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fly the space shuttle because I can't be a fighter pilot.
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So. So.
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Hang on, I need, I need to interrupt for just a second
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because I want to understand this.
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Was it a prerequisite to be a fighter pilot in order to be
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able to qualify for the Space Shuttle program?
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To be a pilot of the space shuttle program, yes.
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Now it it. That changed in later years, but
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at the time when I was making these life decisions in the
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1980s, that was kind of a default requirement.
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In order to be the pilot of the Space Shuttle, you have to have
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been a pilot of some, some pretty.
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So you could have been an astronaut and have been on a
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shuttle, but you could not have been a pilot.
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Right. And having grown up with a
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grandfather who was an Air Force Colonel who had been a pilot, I
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always thought that's the way I wanted to go, right?
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And so as I'm sitting in my MBA career counselor's office and
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she's encouraging me to follow my passion for space, she said
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to me straight up, she said, Megan, you're getting a master's
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in business. Aren't there businesses that do
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things in space? And it was just this mind
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blowing moment. I had never thought about that.
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She helped me get a scholarship to go to my very first space
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conference, space business conference.
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She also helped me apply for an internship at NASA's technology
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transfer office, which which I did receive.
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And that's what really kick started my career, was working
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inside of NASA and seeing how that technology was being rolled
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out into the entrepreneurial world.
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Oh, interesting. So it's this one meeting with
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your, your counselor who's like, you could still be involved with
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all these different space programs without actually having
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to fly into space. Light bulb moment.
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And you're like, oh, now I've got some new ideas.
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Exactly. And it was.
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It was perfect timing too. When I was working at NASA's
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tech transfer office, SpaceX was still blowing up rockets.
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They hadn't launched a successful 1 yet.
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So I got to see the beginning of what we now call new space, or
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some people refer to as the commercial space ecosystem.
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I got to see it from its infancy and really be a part of it as it
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grew over the last nearly 20 years.
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Say more about new space. This is a new term for me.
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New space, commercial space. This is a a different view on
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what outer space can be. So commercial space really
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refers to anything that's not government or civil or not not
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military or civil. Anything that's not government
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is commercial. So that would include your
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Boeings and your Lockheeds and your Northrops of the world.
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The differentiation for new space is that kind of startup
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ecosystem that Silicon Valley move fast and break things
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ethos, which stands in stark contrast to the way the
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aerospace primes do business. This cost plus contracting where
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everything's over budget and, and never shows up on time.
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And so that was the shift that was going on very early in my
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career was this idea that you didn't have to be a billion
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dollar, 60 year old aerospace prime to compete for these
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contracts or to build technologies that were valuable
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in the ecosystem. And, and that's what really got
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me fascinated as somebody who was fascinated in
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entrepreneurship and, and finance based on my degrees and,
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and background, that's where I really got the bug that that
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there was now this capability to actually create businesses in
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the space ecosystem without needing, you know, huge billion
8:04
dollar government subsidized budgets to do so.
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So is the goal then, even in this new commercial space to
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still compete for government contracts?
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Like, is that how the space vouchers ultimately become
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profitable or are there other paths that ventures are taking?
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There's a combination, right? In the Department of Defense,
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they use the word resiliency quite frequently.
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And so I use this with my startup CE OS as well.
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You have to have a resilient customer set.
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And yes, the US government is likely to be a big part of that.
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In fact, the US government contributes about 30% of the
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dollars that we see in the global space economy can be
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tracked back to the US government.
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So you can't ignore the world's largest space customer and
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they're a great source of non dilutive grant funding,
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especially during that R&D stage for these early start-ups.
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But as they grow, we like to see that switch for, you know, a
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little less dependence on the US government and more interaction
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with the commercial customer, that which is, which is growing
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really rapidly at this time, even as space and defense
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budgets are increasing, they're not increasing at anywhere close
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to the rate we see commercial activity increasing.
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So when I think of, you know, it's an astounding stat, U.S.
9:27
government provides 30% of all dollars, you know, involved in
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sort of the global space world. It makes me think, OK, U.S.
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government, it must be defense related spending that they're
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doing. Am I right?
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Are there non sort of defense categories of things that the US
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government is spending on? So within the US government, we
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chunk this up into two parts. Usually it's the Department of
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Defense, so Air Force, Space Force, intelligence community,
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all of that. And then the other side of it is
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civil, which is NASA effectively.
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And so that's where you get the kind of the two buckets of of
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interaction with the new space community.
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And sorry, lots of newbie questions, but I think that's
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going to be certainly a chunk of our audience.
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So what kinds of things is NASA hiring commercial companies to
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do that NASA can't or won't do itself?
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So over the last decade plus, there's been a big push for NASA
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to move away from cost plus contracting with the same old
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usual primes and really start competing these contracts and
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allowing more of these commercial companies to
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participate for a firm fixed price contract with a firm
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delivery date. And it turns out the startup
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mentality is much better at delivering that than kind of the
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traditional aerospace mentality. And so when you look at, for
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example, NASA's CLIPS program, this is one of my favorite
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examples. CLIPS stands for the Commercial
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Lunar Payload System. All of the companies that are
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currently landing private lunar Landers on the moon, these are
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for the most part startup companies, companies that didn't
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exist 10/15/20 years ago that are now building lunar Landers
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that are actually going to the moon.
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That's something that 20 years ago was absolutely unheard of in
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this industry. And so when we look at the
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successors to the International Space Station, these are all
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commercial companies, all start-ups, all less than 10
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years old that are competing for these contracts with NASA right
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now to build the next generation of of space stations.
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So there's a lot of activity going on here with these
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commercial start up companies in NASA.
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And then some of these technologies that folks are
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working on that can, you know, be sold or licensed to NASA
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could also have commercial applications outside of
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government. Absolutely.
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So you know, we talked about the lunar Landers, that one's a
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little bit harder to put your put your finger on a market for
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that quite yet, but we do see that market coming.
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But when we talk about commercial space stations, this
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is everything from private astronauts, So what some people
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refer to as tourism, to experimentation and to most
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importantly, actual manufacturing on orbit.
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Right now, the International Space Station is a national lab.
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It's great for doing experimentation, but there's no
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room or workforce or impotence to do actual manufacturing.
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So all these experiments that have been being done for the
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last 20 or 30 years that are showing amazing results for
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pharmaceuticals, for growing human tissue, for creating the
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absolute most efficient fiber optic cables, all of those
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advances on the ISS can't be turned into profitable
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businesses until you have the manufacturing capabilities
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aboard the private space stations.
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And what are the advantages to manufacturing in space?
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Why is it better to grow human tissue there to create fiber
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optic cables? Is it the lack of gravity or
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what's going on? It is the lack of gravity and
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kind of the one scientific thread that unites most of the
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things I've just mentioned is that crystals form differently
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in a low gravity environment. So crystals of proteins in human
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tissue or biologics or pharmaceuticals, the crystals
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inside a fiber optic cable, the crystals inside a computer chip,
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they form in perfect symmetry and in perfect lines without
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gravity affecting the way these crystals grow or cool depending,
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depending on the manufacturing process.
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So you get much more efficiency, much more repeatability, much
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more security of the outcome. So when you're talking about
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pharmaceuticals or or growing a human organ, these little
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differences make a huge difference in the final outcome
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of the product. So a human organ grown here on
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planet Earth versus up in orbit somewhere, the one that's
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created up in orbit is going to have a higher likelihood of not
14:24
being rejected, of being healthy tissue, of ensuring that it's
14:30
providing the proper function to its.
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And so far, so far on orbit on the ISS, they've already grown a
14:37
human retina, a human meniscus, human heart tissue.
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This has all been proven to be able to be done on the ISS.
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It's difficult or nearly impossible to even do it here on
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Earth. And so especially human heart
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tissue becomes very difficult. You have to put a scaffolding on
14:54
the inside to grow the heart around.
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And then how do you remove the scaffolding once the heart's
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fully grown? And it just logistically, it
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becomes nearly impossible. And they've already started
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perfecting this process on orbit as we speak.
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Wow, I want to hear more about all this, but I first want to
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take a step back and hear how your idea to start Space Fund
15:17
even came about. Obviously, space is in your
15:19
blood. It was something that, you know,
15:21
you had a passion for, you know, since you were a young girl.
15:24
But how did the idea to actually form this fund that focused
15:28
exclusively on space come about? So I'm an an exited space
15:33
founder myself. I built and sold a space startup
15:36
company and made a lot of friends who were building their
15:39
own space companies. Of course, as as you do and
15:43
across the ecosystem. The biggest pain point was a
15:48
lack of intelligent funding. Most of the Silicon Valley VC's
15:54
are so used to software as a service, they wouldn't touch
15:57
hardware, much less hardware, in a market they didn't understand.
16:01
And then as you started to look out into the wider VC ecosystem,
16:06
there were some hardware VC's, but again, they didn't
16:09
understand the space market. So when other people see a
16:12
problem, I see a potential solution.
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I said yes, this is an opportunity.
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This is something that is desperately needed in this
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industry at this time. And as a successful space
16:24
founder myself, I have a very unique skill set that could be
16:27
brought to bear to help LP's create a diversified portfolio
16:32
of well, diligence companies, but also to help these startup
16:36
companies who I feel a lot of camaraderie with by having that
16:42
intelligent investor who understands their market, who
16:44
understands their customers, who can make the right connections
16:47
for them, who can sit on the board of directors and, and
16:49
offer operational guidance. Having been there and done that
16:53
before myself, I like to say been there, done that, have the
16:56
scars to prove it right. But I want you to learn from my
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mistakes the easy way, not the hard way.
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And so, so that's why I decided to, to to start Space Fund in
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2018. We got our first fund up and
17:09
running in 2019 and we're currently working on our third
17:13
fund. We've made 21 investments, the
17:16
cross funds 1 and 2. And so we're 21 portfolio
17:20
companies. Some of those companies received
17:22
multiple investments. And so that again adds to that
17:26
breadth and depth of not just my expertise and diligence ING and
17:31
helping with the operations, but also providing that portfolio
17:35
effect where these companies can work together to provide
17:38
complete solutions out into the marketplace.
17:41
So it's been a very fun, very wild ride, but one that I'm very
17:47
happy that I took the plunge to to do.
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So I think space investments, I think a few things.
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I think probably even higher risk than a traditional company.
17:59
I think if it works, even bigger payoff and I think probably a
18:05
longer road to pay off. Am I right or wrong on any of
18:09
those? So when we first founded Space
18:12
Fund, every investor we spoke to said space companies take too
18:16
much money and take too too long.
18:18
They're not going to fit into a venture portfolio.
18:20
That's what everybody's assumption was.
18:23
And so we did a lot of primary research because data didn't
18:26
exist on this yet, because we were kind of the first ones
18:29
doing this and thinking about it.
18:30
And back in 2018 when we did the research, space company average
18:36
age and exit was seven years, which turns out fits perfectly
18:40
into a 10 year venture timeline with a three-year investment
18:44
window at the beginning to the point where I couldn't have
18:47
created better results if I had tried.
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But that was what the data told me.
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And then as far as the amount of money it takes to get one of
18:55
these up and running, if you're thinking about this world from
18:59
the old space perspective, and apologies to my friends at
19:02
Boeing and Lockheed, they hate it when I call them old space.
19:05
But traditional aerospace, if you look at things from a
19:08
traditional aerospace perspective, yes, these budgets
19:11
are huge, but that's what makes new space so innovative is the
19:14
ability to use commercial off the shelf parts, the ability to
19:20
throw a hundred birds up in the air instead of 1 bespoke over
19:24
engineered billion dollar satellite.
19:27
If you send 100, $100,000 satellites, your budget is still
19:32
a fraction of what it would be and you can tolerate some
19:35
failure. If ten of them fail, you've
19:36
still got 90 birds up, right? So it's just this completely
19:40
different way of doing business that does now all the sudden fit
19:44
into venture capital timelines and investment amounts in a way
19:48
that most people out there are unaware of.
19:51
And then as far as the higher upside potential, yes, I think
19:55
that is correct. And then as far as the risk is
19:59
concerned, that's where having a professional help you with this
20:03
becomes so important because that due diligence can can be
20:07
really, really valuable. For example, most venture
20:10
capitalists expect a 90% failure rate by year seven of their
20:15
fund. Our Fund 1 is coming up on Year
20:18
7 pretty quickly here and we still have 100% of our companies
20:22
are alive and most of them are thriving.
20:25
Wait, wait, wait. I want to make sure that I, I
20:26
heard this right because it, I, I think I must have heard it
20:29
wrong because it seems unbelievable.
20:30
You're saying in most investment scenarios that within seven
20:35
years they expect 90% of the companies to have already gone
20:39
under. You're at the seven-year point.
20:41
You're saying that not a single one of your companies has gone
20:45
under. They're they're all still
20:47
viable. That's correct.
20:49
And that's a traditional venture capital model to expect 90%
20:52
failure rate by year 7. We are currently at a 0% failure
20:57
rate approach. How many?
20:58
How many companies have been with you that long?
21:00
14. Wow, OK, What are you guys doing
21:04
differently? It's.
21:05
The due diligence and the operational control.
21:09
So and, and really knowing the market that we're getting into
21:12
and having very targeted thesis about what we invest in, and
21:16
then finding the best entrepreneurs in the world who
21:19
are solving specific problems and then taking a board seat to
21:23
shepherd them through all the the hiccups and the problems
21:26
they're invariably going to going to have as they go through
21:30
this. So say a bit more about what the
21:32
investment thesis looks like. So the investment thesis is
21:37
predominantly what we call space infrastructure.
21:40
So most people look at this industry from the outside and
21:43
they see launch. Most people have heard of
21:45
SpaceX. Most people will have maybe even
21:47
heard of Rocket Lab. Most people have not heard of
21:51
the 180 plus other rocket companies that are coming down
21:54
the Pike trying to compete for this market.
21:57
But if you look at that strategically and you say, OK,
22:01
you know, the richest man in the world thinks this is the next
22:04
big thing. There's 180 plus other companies
22:07
competing with him. Why?
22:11
What is being launched, what is the demand signal that's causing
22:18
180 plus companies to build launch vehicles?
22:22
And that's the part of the equation that most investors
22:24
miss. They just see the sexy launch
22:26
side of it. They don't think about what's
22:28
inside that spacecraft and and what is the business case to
22:32
send these satellites up into orbit.
22:36
And that's where we really focus is the infrastructure that's
22:40
being built in this new world. So you can think about this as
22:45
the railroads across the American West or any time
22:49
humanity has tried to conquer a new physical area.
22:54
You've got to build the infrastructure, everything from
22:56
the transportation to the communication to the rules of
22:59
the road and the laws that everybody is going to abide by.
23:03
That's where the activity is really centered right now is in
23:08
creating that off world infrastructure.
23:10
And that's where to date 76% of our portfolio has been focused.
23:16
Now as that infrastructure is coming online, as some of these
23:21
early investments that we've made are, are starting to be
23:24
successful, we expect for our funds, three, that that
23:27
infrastructure piece will go down to maybe 6065%.
23:32
And then we'll be able to invest in some of those more visionary
23:35
things that are enabled by that infrastructure such as lunar
23:40
business plans or asteroid mining business plans or the
23:44
people who will be doing the manufacturing on those
23:47
commercial space stations I spoke about as those commercial
23:50
space stations are set to come online in 20/26/2020.
23:53
Seven, who are their customers? Who are the people who are
23:56
innovating in pharmaceutical or human organs or fiber optics or
24:00
computer chips? And so this is a really exciting
24:04
time for me having been so focused on building the
24:07
infrastructure, to now be able to start thinking about how we
24:11
capitalize on that infrastructure.
24:14
So I really appreciate the example of, you know, like
24:16
railroads is, you know, we're expanding westward and the the
24:20
benefit of having those and lots of money to be made and
24:25
investing in that physical infrastructure.
24:26
Give me an idea of what infrastructure looks like when
24:29
we're talking about space. So when you build the railroad,
24:33
you also have to build the Telegraph lines that typically
24:36
go along the railroad, right? OK.
24:38
So physical transportation infrastructure launches, The
24:41
first piece of it launch gets satellites into low Earth orbit,
24:45
but then they have to move around while they're in orbit.
24:48
And then if you want to go anywhere further than low Earth
24:50
orbit, you've got a whole different set of of technology
24:55
problems for the transportation side.
24:58
Now, once the satellites are on orbit, how are they going to
25:01
communicate with each other and communicate with the ground?
25:03
That's the Telegraph example. You have to have the
25:05
communications infrastructure. Now, here's another piece that
25:09
most people don't know. Satellites are launched with all
25:13
of the fuel they're ever going to have on board.
25:16
Imagine if you bought your car and it came with one tank of
25:19
gas. How useful would that be to you?
25:22
So creating on orbit refueling capabilities and on orbit gas
25:26
stations, that's been a big part of the infrastructure push.
25:30
Now you have an on orbit gas station.
25:33
How do you connect to it? How do you rendezvous with it?
25:36
So solving all of these logistics problems to set up
25:40
this working infrastructure has really been our focus as of as
25:45
of the last 6-7 years. So let's use the the satellite
25:48
example as me average Joe living on Earth, not really thinking
25:52
much about space. I think you send a satellite up
25:55
there, it goes into orbit and it's just spinning around on its
25:59
own. This has been going on for a
26:01
long time, like up until now. How are how would these things
26:06
continue to be powered without some kind of a refueling
26:09
situation existing? So most satellites in low Earth
26:12
orbit have a two to five year lifetime before the
26:16
gravitational pull of the Earth and the the the drag of the
26:22
atmosphere because there is still atmosphere, it's very
26:25
thin, but there is still atmosphere in low low Earth
26:28
orbit. So gravity and atmospheric drag
26:31
pull these satellites back down to Earth and they burn up in the
26:34
atmosphere within a two to five year time frame.
26:37
So if you're sending $1,000,000 assets into orbit and they have
26:41
this two year lifetime, what would be the value, You know,
26:46
what would be the price you would pay to extend it another
26:48
two years? Well, some function of the
26:51
replacement cost of that asset because usually these assets are
26:54
still working perfectly by the time they're deorbited.
26:58
And so that's the whole point of being able to refuel them on
27:01
orbit. So the primary issue why they
27:03
only have a two to five year life cycle is because they run
27:05
out of fuel and they can't keep themselves in orbit and and they
27:10
get pulled. Fascinating.
27:12
And so are there companies now like are there satellites now
27:17
that can be refueled in orbit today?
27:20
There are. And so I will brag on portfolio
27:24
company orbit fab here for a moment.
27:26
As they were trying to solve this fuel depot's on orbit
27:29
problem, they realized that none of the satellites had a gas cap.
27:33
So how do you refuel a tank when there's no gas cap?
27:36
So they invented the gas cap and started selling that into the
27:39
market, even as their first fuel depot isn't set to go up until
27:43
next year. So they're kind of future
27:45
proofing their market for themselves by selling, by being
27:48
the first ones to sell the gas cap.
27:50
OK. So there's some satellites that
27:51
are getting launched with the gas cap.
27:53
And then sometime, this is kind of May of 2025, sometime in 26
27:59
maybe we'll actually see some satellites get refueled for the
28:03
first time in space. The first customer is ADOD
28:07
customer and the demo will be completed hopefully in 2026
28:11
sometime, yeah. Fascinating.
28:14
And I don't know, can you say more about how you're actually
28:17
going to flying around out there in space, how you're going to,
28:20
you know, dock with one of these small things and make this
28:23
happen? So in this industry, we call
28:26
that R POD, which stands for rendezvous proximity operations
28:30
and docking. And this is as much a software
28:34
problem as it is a hardware problem.
28:36
So if you think about the gas cap I mentioned, it does have a
28:40
docking mechanism as part of the gas cap.
28:43
But how do you get to spacecraft that are both moving at
28:47
thousands of miles an hour to not bump into each other and
28:51
cause a catastrophic failure with a fuel tank, right.
28:55
So, so that does become very, very precise.
29:00
And this requires very advanced AI software in order to do this
29:04
without a human in the loop. And that's necessary because
29:07
communications time to the ground is still, even though
29:11
it's seconds, it's not the milliseconds needed to make
29:16
those very precise timing calculations when you're trying
29:20
to dock 2 objects that are moving so, so quickly.
29:23
So this is something that maybe couldn't have been possible 10
29:27
years ago without the advent of AI.
29:30
Wow, this is wild. A couple other things you said
29:34
that to me are even more wild, and we touched on one of them
29:38
earlier, which is this idea of manufacturing in space.
29:42
So you get the Space International Space Station up
29:45
there. Now people have been able to do
29:47
research on there, right? They've tested growing, you
29:50
know, different human body parts, and they're finding that
29:53
it works way better than it does here on the ground.
29:55
That's just one example. What would it look like?
29:59
What is the physical footprint of an actual manufacturing
30:03
facility that could be growing organs at scale look like in
30:08
space? So this is another interesting
30:12
innovation that we have been following very closely, have
30:16
multiple investments in. If you think about a space
30:20
station, you know, most people have a, an image in their mind's
30:23
eye of, of what the International Space Station
30:26
looks like. It's this big long tube, right
30:28
with a with a couple tubes sticking off of.
30:30
It that's what I think, OK. So that that's the spine of a
30:37
space station. That's where all of your life
30:40
support and your electronics and your communications and your,
30:44
your, excuse me, your solar panels, but what can then be
30:49
added to that spine are these large inflatable structures.
30:54
They don't need the electronics. They don't need to have this
30:57
hard rigid outside. You can add inflatable
31:01
structures that give you huge amounts of habitable volume that
31:06
are connected to that spine. And so that's where we're seeing
31:10
a lot of really interesting innovations right now.
31:13
There's actually two of these inflatable habitats already on
31:16
orbit. 1 is a free flyer. One is attached to the
31:20
International Space Station. So we know this technology
31:23
works. Now it's just a matter of
31:25
scaling it to meet that demand for growing human organs, or
31:28
creating pharmaceuticals or or creating optical fibers on
31:33
orbit. So inflatables, I'm thinking of
31:37
like a a giant bounce house. Yeah, right.
31:40
A. Little bit more rigid than that,
31:42
a little bit more radiation proof, but effectively, yes,
31:45
yeah. So it it gets launched up into
31:47
space sort of in the deflated form.
31:49
So it's not taking up as much room.
31:51
It's, you know, kind of cheaper payload to send up.
31:55
And then when it gets up there, there's a mechanism in which
31:57
that it can inflate and there's equipment that can be moved into
32:02
it. And this can serve as sort of
32:04
the manufacturing facility so that it's a lot cheaper to get
32:07
it into space and then it it it'll work just as well as a
32:10
rigid structure. Correct, correct.
32:14
So there's really amazing innovations going on in this
32:18
right now. We refer to this in the industry
32:20
as habitable volume. And then the other part of the
32:24
manufacturing is that when you're talking about human
32:27
organs and pharmaceuticals, you want that to be done in a
32:31
habitable environment, right? With humidity control, HVAC, all
32:36
the rest. But when you're talking about
32:38
manufacturing fiber optic cables or computer chips, those can be
32:43
completely automated processes done on their own spacecraft,
32:48
not requiring the intervention of humans, not requiring climate
32:52
control. And so then there's this, this
32:54
kind of whole other set of manufacturing capabilities that
32:58
can be happening on the outside of the space stations.
33:02
What port codes do you have that are involved in this space?
33:06
So we're investors in Axiom, They are building the commercial
33:09
successor to the ISS. We're also investors in Voyager.
33:13
There they have a collaboration with several other firms for
33:17
what they're calling Star Lab, which would be another space
33:19
station. And then we're investors in Max
33:22
Space. They're the inflatable space
33:24
station, you know, inflatable habitable volume company.
33:28
We also have an investment in a company called Space Forge,
33:32
which will be launching their Forge Star One in the next few
33:36
months actually to do the test computer chip manufacturing on
33:41
orbit with no human intervention in a completely automated
33:45
enclosed satellite. Wow.
33:50
OK, so I'm trying to wrap my head around this.
33:52
You send up this, you know, this reinforced bounce house to for
34:00
for manufacturing. You got to put it in ways that
34:03
my my brain can understand. And but then there's there's
34:07
still this like highly automated robotic equipment that needs to
34:10
go inside of that. And so that's probably a more
34:13
expensive payload to come up 'cause that's taking up some
34:16
some it. Depends on the manufacturing.
34:18
So if we're talking computer chips and fiber optics that can
34:22
be completely automated, you don't need a human in the loop
34:25
to do that. So those can happen, like I
34:27
said, outside the space station, either attached outside or as a
34:31
free flyer. But when you're talking about
34:33
growing human organs, doing pharmaceuticals, you do want a
34:36
human, you want an actual professional astronaut there,
34:40
making sure that that process is being managed appropriately.
34:43
And so those things will all probably happen inside that
34:47
habitable volume, even as some of these other processes get
34:51
automated and happen outside the habitable volume.
34:55
And so when you have these inhabitable volumes, somebody
35:01
has to go in there initially to set up the equipment though,
35:04
right. So it's initially it'll be
35:06
habitable. It'll be launched from the
35:08
ground with all of the processes and robotics and launched as a
35:12
separate payload. And so and then it will have to
35:15
re enter and then be caught by humans who will then take the
35:20
payload out and check its, you know, check how how well
35:25
everything's been been manufactured on orbit.
35:28
OK. How far out are we from actual
35:31
production in in one of these kinds of environments?
35:34
So for the computer chip production on orbit, the test
35:37
vehicle will launch in the next, let's call it six months and
35:41
then we'll have we'll we'll know from there what the timeline is
35:45
to actually get to full rate production based on how that
35:47
first Test does. And specifically with computer
35:51
chips, we talked about why organs are are better.
35:53
They, they just the, the crystal structure is, is better and it's
35:57
easier to grow. But but what about computer
36:00
chips? What's the advantage of those in
36:03
space? What?
36:04
What are we hoping to get that we wouldn't be able to get here
36:06
on the ground? It's predominantly the silicon
36:08
wafers on which the computer chip sets.
36:12
Those silicon wafers conduct the electricity that make the
36:16
computer chip effective. The more precise those
36:21
individual. And now we're not talking about
36:24
molecules, we're talking about atoms.
36:27
The more precise those atoms are lined up, the more efficient the
36:32
eventual computer chip becomes. So when you're manufacturing
36:37
those silicon wafers here on Earth, they already do that do
36:40
this in a vacuum in a near 0° Kelvin environment.
36:46
Well, that's the natural environment of space.
36:49
Plus we get the benefit of low gravity.
36:52
So it seems like a no brainer for for that industry
36:55
specifically. And I'm going to guess the idea
36:59
would be to tackle like high end like supercomputer chips
37:03
initially? Right.
37:04
And with today's demand for those high end chips for AI,
37:08
this cannot come fast enough. Fascinating.
37:11
OK, the other thing you said that kind of blew my mind seems
37:15
a little bit more like sci-fi is asteroid.
37:20
What did you say? Mining.
37:22
Asteroid mining? Yep.
37:23
Now I don't think that's quite viable yet.
37:26
It might not be a fit for our fund three, if I'm being honest,
37:29
but I am starting to look at it. Maybe it'll be a fund for play.
37:35
But what most people don't realize about asteroid mining,
37:38
the headlines in the news are always like, oh, rare earth
37:41
metals or an asteroid full of gold.
37:45
That's not really the play. The amount of cost and time it
37:49
would take to go capture these rare earth elements.
37:55
In order to pay for that mission, you would have to bring
37:58
so much of that rare earth material back that it would no
38:02
longer be rare earth material and so you would crash the
38:07
market for it. OK, so the economics just don't
38:11
close on rare earth metal mining on orbit.
38:16
But what does close is once you have an ecosystem, now where you
38:20
have fuel depots on orbit, most near earth asteroids are
38:25
effectively floating snowballs covered in white water ice.
38:31
Water ice is hydrogen and oxygen, which is rocket fuel.
38:36
So now you can imagine an entirely in space ecosystem
38:40
where water, water ice is harvested from the asteroids,
38:44
processed in route back to the fuel depots in low Earth orbit.
38:49
That fuel is then sold to the fuel depot.
38:52
Fuel depot then resells it to a satellite company who goes about
38:55
their business. And now you're not having to
38:57
launch fuel to orbit anymore. And to me, that's the
39:01
interesting business case about asteroid money.
39:04
So in order for that to be possible, there has to be an
39:07
asteroid passing by in somewhat close proximity, right?
39:12
Most people don't realize that there is a whole group of what
39:16
we call NE as or near Earth asteroids that are effectively
39:21
in a trailing orbit to the Earth.
39:25
So they're captured in Earth's gravity well and they kind of
39:28
follow us on our orbit around the sun.
39:32
And so you can basically as a spacecraft, imagine you're on
39:37
Earth, take a rocket launch up, kind of just hang out there,
39:41
wait for the Earth to move on and the asteroids to come along
39:44
right behind it. Mind the asteroid, hop off, wait
39:49
for the asteroids to move along and the Earth to come back
39:52
around and and rendezvous with your low Earth orbit fuel depot
39:56
there. And so, energetically, these
39:59
asteroids are easier to reach than our Moon.
40:03
That's fascinating. What do you think is a realistic
40:07
scenario for when this might be viable?
40:10
So as of yet, I haven't a lot of people have spent a lot of time
40:14
trying to solve the technical challenges, which is great, that
40:16
needs to happen. But I have yet to find a startup
40:21
company that understands the economics of this.
40:24
And so if anybody out there is listening and wants to put
40:27
together a viable, economically feasible business plan for me, I
40:31
can introduce you to some folks who understand how to solve the
40:34
technical issues. Fascinating.
40:37
OK, Megan, the matchmaker. I like it.
40:41
Can you say more about the the fund three?
40:45
I don't know are you, can you talk about who, who you're
40:47
looking for, what you're looking for here?
40:50
Yep. So again, that infrastructure
40:51
piece is is going to be a big part of our investment thesis
40:55
for for some years to come. So I like to say anything that
40:59
can help companies get to orbit faster, stay on orbit longer or
41:05
make more money by being on orbit.
41:08
I want to hear, I want to hear about it.
41:10
OK. And then if you have some sort
41:13
of innovative plan for lunar, for geosynchronous or or medium
41:19
Earth orbit, which are areas that the new space economy is
41:23
just now starting to tackle as far as from a physical distance
41:27
perspective, that's something I'm very interested in hearing
41:31
about and manufacturing on orbit, who are the customers of
41:35
my space stations that are that are already in the portfolio.
41:39
It's another area I'm very interested in.
41:42
And then one area of this that a lot of people seem to miss is
41:46
what I like to call a human future.
41:49
So the reality is the only reason we send things to space
41:53
is to make life better for those of us here on Earth.
41:57
So I'm very interested in innovations that can help humans
42:01
on Earth communicate with each other more, be more educated,
42:06
understand our planet and our changing climate better.
42:10
Anything around that being a kind of using space data to make
42:14
life better here on Earth? Talk about women in space.
42:21
This was obviously a a big thing for you growing up.
42:25
There were some barriers to what your initial plan were.
42:30
How much does this factor into your work now?
42:33
A lot. So like with any ecosystem where
42:39
it tends to be male dominated, a lot of this is about just, you
42:42
know, having a good set of friends and mentors and, and
42:46
people that you can talk to. But there's, there's a couple
42:49
of, you know, there's been a couple of hurdles for me.
42:53
I, I'm, I'm a finance professional.
42:55
Technically, that's what I do. It might be, you know, the sexy
42:58
space version of finance, but I'm still a finance
43:00
professional. That's predominantly a male
43:03
industry, always has been. But the space industry is even
43:07
worse. Currently, only 25% of the
43:10
industry is female, and only 11% of the people who have been to
43:14
space have been women. And so when I talk about, you
43:19
know, a future of making humanity multiplanetary, you're
43:23
going to need 51% women for biological reasons if nothing
43:27
else, right? So how do we get from 11% to
43:31
51%? And for me, that's about not
43:36
just education, but about visual storytelling, right?
43:41
About showing girls and women what it looks like to be a woman
43:46
in the space industry and how many different paths there are
43:50
and letting these, these women and young girls literally see
43:54
themselves in an industry that they aspire to be a part of.
43:59
And and that's something that I didn't see much of as a kid.
44:02
And so if that's something that I can give back to to the world
44:05
to get to that 51% women on orbit, I will be very pleased
44:10
that I made a contribution there.
44:11
Why specifically 51 and not 50%? That's just the biology of it
44:16
you need just because men tend to die younger and for stupider
44:20
reasons, so you need a few more women than you do men.
44:28
I'd argue with you, but I I don't think I could put up a
44:30
good case for it. So we'll, we'll move on.
44:35
How about being a mom and doing all of the wonderful giant huge
44:42
projects that you're doing? How do you find a balance
44:45
between sort of these two sides of your life?
44:49
Yeah, that's, that's been a challenge being a being a single
44:51
mom most of my life, my children have generally been been very
44:55
supportive with the one rule that we don't talk about mom
45:00
stupid space stuff over dinner. So they're probably the two
45:05
people on the planet that are the least interested in the
45:09
really cool stuff that I do every day for work, just because
45:13
they've grown up with it and they've heard about it their
45:14
whole lives. But I do think in the long run,
45:17
that's made them more resilient and more successful.
45:21
They're they're both adults now, 21 and, and 24 years old.
45:25
And so, you know, there were obviously a lot of really hard
45:28
nights and a lot of really difficult moments trying to
45:32
decide, you know, whether to to go to a business event or stay
45:35
home with a sick child. Kind of the same decisions that
45:38
every parent has to make, whether they're single or in a
45:41
partnership. And I will say that the really
45:44
the only way that I got through it all was, was by being able to
45:47
rely on on a family and friends group that were extremely
45:51
supportive, not just of helping me raise my children, but of
45:54
helping me be successful in in my career as well.
45:58
And you know, I like to tell people that family isn't
46:03
necessarily who you were born with.
46:05
You can create that family to to help you.
46:08
It takes a village to raise a child and nobody can do it on
46:11
their own. So if you're, if you are not
46:13
blessed enough to be close to your family, you know, you're
46:16
separated by distance because of your career, build that family
46:20
in your new home and you'll find that there are many, many other
46:25
parents who are going through the same struggles as you.
46:28
And so just don't be afraid to open up and, and let new people
46:31
into your circle and, and ask for help when you need it.
46:34
Sometimes that's the hardest part, especially when there's an
46:38
outside kind of persona of you with being very successful to
46:42
show weakness and ask for help can be very difficult for
46:46
people. But it's also, you know, once
46:48
you kind of take that leap, it can be very rewarding.
46:52
As much as you like helping other people, I like to say
46:55
other people like helping you. So don't forget to ask for help.
47:00
I think it's great advice. Do you have any suggestions on
47:03
how to sort of take that first difficult step?
47:07
You know, it just, it's just about trying to come out of your
47:09
shell, you know, and that can be really hard for some people.
47:12
I know. And there's, there's dozens of
47:15
support groups. You'll find churches to be
47:17
extremely helpful and a great place to start where there's
47:20
typically no judgement or religious facilities of any
47:23
kind. So depending on on regardless of
47:26
your religious background, I come from a Catholic background
47:29
and you know, I know my church will help anybody.
47:31
It doesn't matter, right? They're just there to help
47:33
legitimately. And so, and you know, I'd also
47:37
say talk to your kids teachers, whether those preschool teachers
47:41
are K through 12, They will know of the resources and the places
47:45
to go to to get the help you need.
47:47
And I've even had in, in my past, some of my, some of my
47:51
kids teachers offer to babysit because I couldn't find a
47:55
babysitter. So, you know, start with the
47:57
local resources that you have, the teachers, the the religious
48:00
facilities and work your way out from there.
48:03
They'll help you find what you need.
48:05
You know, since we're kind of going in this direction anyways,
48:07
Megan, I would like to ask what is traditionally my favorite
48:10
question. I'd love to hear about a serious
48:13
challenge that you've overcome. How'd you get through it?
48:16
What did you learn? My biggest challenge so far,
48:20
really from a career perspective, I would say being a
48:22
mom is the biggest challenge. So if but if we're not
48:27
considering that, the biggest career challenge that I faced
48:30
was starting my fund one, trying to create a venture capital firm
48:35
in an industry which most people didn't know existed, where
48:39
venture capital had not existed before, was a very tall and
48:48
steep hill climb. And I came out of the gate with
48:52
this great idea for the space venture capital fund.
48:55
And I'm going to go raise $100 million.
48:58
People are just going to open their pockets, give me all their
49:00
money and let me just, you know, go shopping for space companies
49:03
forever, right? That's obviously not the way it
49:06
worked out. And so I at one point had to
49:11
kind of admit defeat and realized I was never going to
49:16
raise $100 million first fund, not when there were too many
49:20
things working against me. I was a brand new manager.
49:23
I was a woman who still looked a little too young to know what I
49:27
was talking about. And it was a it was a completely
49:32
new sector for venture capital to exist in.
49:35
And so I had to really rein in my own expectations and decided
49:40
I'm going to do what I would do if I was a space startup
49:43
company. I'm going to raise a friends and
49:46
family round. I'm going to call up everybody I
49:48
know. I'm going to stop talking to
49:50
these institutional investors who have never heard of what I'm
49:53
trying to talk about. I'm going to call up the people
49:55
I know, people who have seen me be successful, the people who
49:58
know my personal track record. And I'm going to go out and
50:02
raise $1,000,000 to do a proof of concept fund.
50:06
And this included, yes, me calling my dad and saying,
50:09
daddy, if you don't believe in me, who will, you know?
50:13
And so. That was the pitch.
50:15
Yeah, that was the. Was that the first slide?
50:17
Yeah, yeah, that was the pitch to my dad for sure.
50:21
And luckily I was able to do that based on that personal
50:24
trust, you know, and really kind of taking that different
50:27
perspective of saying, no, I'm just going to raise a friends
50:29
and family realms, I'm going to prove the concept and then
50:33
fundraising for fun too will be a lot easier.
50:35
And it was and fund two, we went out, went out and raised 20
50:38
million. It was still hard.
50:40
It was still definitely hard. But we had the success from fund
50:45
one to build on. And now I'm finally raising that
50:48
$100 million fund with fund 367 years later now.
50:52
It was A, and it's been a hard journey to get here and, and I
50:55
think that I fingers crossed will be successful with that
50:58
$100 million raise now. But you know, as is often the
51:03
case with people in this industry, I didn't have some
51:06
stars in my eyes. And I had to completely readjust
51:10
my, my business plan, my game plan for how to reach that end
51:15
goal that I was looking for. So it's taken a lot longer than
51:19
I would have liked, but I've learned so many valuable lessons
51:23
along the way. I can look back on it now and
51:25
honestly say I I wouldn't have wanted it to go anywhere else if
51:28
somebody had just thrown $100 million at me seven years ago.
51:31
I wouldn't have known what to do with it, at least not as well as
51:34
as I do now, right? And so sometimes, you know, as
51:39
they say, life gives you lemonade or when God closes a
51:42
door, he opens a window, right? I think that was kind of the
51:45
most valuable lesson from that, from from that time that life
51:49
kind of smacked me down and laughed at me.
51:51
Oh, $100 million fund one kid. Ha ha ha ha, you know so.
51:56
But here we are. So you've mentioned your track
52:01
record and earlier in the interview you mentioned that you
52:05
had been you, you had your own space business, that you had a
52:08
successful exit farm. What was that?
52:10
It was actually an asteroid mining company.
52:13
No, it was not. It absolutely was you're.
52:15
Pulling my leg. It was called deep space, Deep
52:18
space industries. We never mind an asteroid, OK,
52:23
but we built a novel propulsion technology that could operate
52:28
off of The Dirty water we were planning to collect from the
52:31
asteroids. That propulsion system was
52:34
valuable enough to sell the whole company for.
52:38
Wow. And it's being used today.
52:41
Yeah, the company who purchased it, Yeah, but.
52:43
They're they're utilizing. The debt, yeah.
52:45
OK. So when you go out there and
52:48
you're trying to raise that first $100 million fund, as you
52:51
said, you had stars in your eyes.
52:54
You kept running into brick walls.
52:56
Nobody's hearing it. You're you're a woman.
52:59
You're, you're young and it's space, right?
53:04
Like all these things are sort of working against you.
53:07
Was there at any point where part of you was like, the heck
53:11
with this, like this, this isn't going to work.
53:14
I should just go, you know, find another job.
53:16
I'm I'm smart. I can be useful somewhere else.
53:20
Yes, that did cross my mind quite a bit.
53:23
And I, I did have other work. I was consulting, I was doing
53:27
other things on the side. And there, there were plenty of
53:30
days where it's like, no, this consulting client is worth much
53:33
more to me in the near term than anything I could do for space
53:37
fund would be in the long term. And, and you definitely have
53:39
those doubts and have those moments.
53:42
But then SpaceX would launch, launch again, or I would get a
53:46
pitch from another startup company that I was fascinated by
53:50
and there was always something that drug me back into it.
53:53
And and so here we are today. And so you mentioned that you
54:00
wouldn't have wanted it any other way because along the way
54:03
you learned some really valuable lessons that's made you better
54:07
suited to kind of handle the funds that you do have control
54:11
of today. Can you give a a specific,
54:13
concrete example of something that you wouldn't have learned
54:17
if folks had just kind of thrown you money that first time
54:19
around? So this is, you know, there's
54:23
been some really important lessons learned about technical
54:28
founders. Technical founders may be
54:31
brilliant rocket scientists and engineers.
54:33
In the case of what I do, they're likely not the best
54:37
person to be CEO of rapidly growing company, OK.
54:43
And I think a lot of people know that.
54:44
A lot of VCs know that after having seen that argument happen
54:50
with CEOs and founders many, many Times Now I talk to them
54:55
beforehand and say, OK, in the two to three-year time frame,
54:58
we're going to replace you with ACEO.
55:00
So you don't have to do the accounting, you don't have to do
55:02
the hiring, you don't have to do the marketing.
55:05
OK, I'm going to take that all off your plate and let you go
55:08
play with your cool space toy as soon as the company is ready and
55:13
talk and having those conversations with founders
55:15
ahead of time. Now it's not a surprise.
55:17
Now they know they that it's coming.
55:19
They see it as a relief and they don't feel like their baby's
55:22
being stolen from them, right. And so those are, that's just
55:25
one example of many of lessons learned over time that you start
55:30
at the beginning with these things upfront.
55:33
For instance, when we first did our fund one, our reporting
55:38
cycle was a yearly reporting cycle.
55:40
So we didn't have 1/4 quarterly reporting requirement for our
55:44
portfolio companies. Turns out a lot can go wrong in
55:48
1/4 and if you're not minding the store and getting a
55:53
quarterly update, things can be happening and going wrong.
55:57
But we could have had time to fix and didn't find out about
56:00
until after the fact. So now we have a quarterly
56:02
reporting requirement for each of our portfolio companies just
56:06
to make sure we can help prevent problems before they before they
56:09
turn too big. So you know, there's just
56:12
probably a dozen more lessons like that that we've learned
56:15
just from actually running operating a venture capital fund
56:19
and having 21 companies in the portfolio and, and seeing the
56:23
things that happen time and time again.
56:26
And how do we prevent them from becoming issues on the front
56:31
end? I really liked what you said
56:33
there about because it's all about in terms of, you know,
56:36
getting folks ready to to say that, hey, in a few years you're
56:39
not going to be the CEO anymore. Having that conversation up
56:44
front and presenting it in a way as to where it's a benefit to
56:48
them. And I have to worry about all
56:50
this other stuff over here that you don't like doing anyways and
56:53
it's going to free you up to do more of this.
56:56
That way when the time comes to make that transition, they don't
57:00
look at it as a bad thing. They don't look at it as I'm
57:02
being, you know, you know, smacked on the hand with the
57:05
ruler. They're like, oh finally, yeah,
57:08
this is the the moment we've all been working towards.
57:10
Exactly. And I've, I've had CEOs call me
57:12
up and say, is it time yet? I'm really done with all this
57:16
accounting. Can we at least get a CFO, if
57:18
not a new CEO? You know, because they know that
57:21
option's available and they know they can be honest with me about
57:23
that, you know, So it makes a big difference.
57:26
And So what does that sort of, I mean are you involved in sort of
57:30
the day-to-day operations of any of your port codes or is it more
57:33
like those kind of quarterly check insurance?
57:36
It depends on the company and what they need and what sort of
57:39
growth stage they are. I frequently come in and for a
57:43
time during either a pivot or preparing for a new funding
57:47
round, I'll act as a fractional CFO.
57:50
For instance, just to, you know, investor proof the company
57:55
against, you know, future new investors coming in or take a,
57:59
you know, a more operational role in a company that's growing
58:02
very rapidly, or take a board director position to offer
58:06
little bits and pieces as needed.
58:09
In my former life, I did a lot of marketing and, and PR work.
58:12
That was most of the consulting I did while I was setting up
58:15
space fund was in the on the marketing and PR side.
58:18
So we recently had a company that was preparing for an IPO
58:21
and I came in as effectively their outside marketing
58:24
consultant to help them prepare for that.
58:26
And so it's just kind of catches as as you can like what do you
58:31
need right now? How can I be, you know?
58:35
What tool do I have in my tool set that can help you be
58:38
successful? So finance, marketing, is there
58:41
anything you don't do? I try not to do the accounting.
58:45
Nobody likes accounting, right? No offense to all the
58:47
accountants out there in the world, but I try and stay away
58:51
from legal and policy. That's not my error.
58:53
OK, fair enough. Tell us about your podcast.
58:57
So the Mission Eve podcast was started to help, as I mentioned
59:01
earlier, close this gap between 11% of the people who've been to
59:04
orbit and the 51% we need for humanity to really be multi
59:08
planetary. And so I interview women who,
59:13
you know, work in the space sector in some way.
59:15
And this can be everything from college professors to HR
59:19
professionals to finance professionals, to engineers and
59:22
rocket scientists or astronauts and people who have worked at
59:26
NASA, people who have worked at the big aerospace companies and
59:28
people who work for startups. One of the most interesting ones
59:33
was a woman who talked about her journey going from a yoga
59:36
instructor to the Co founder and CEO of a space startup.
59:40
And that was a fascinating story.
59:43
But the purpose again, is, is to get women both the visual and
59:47
audio aspects of what life is really like as a woman in the
59:51
space industry and where they can fit in.
59:54
Most people don't realize that whatever skill sets they're
59:57
being paid for today, whatever is valuable out there in the
1:00:01
market, we need that skill set in the space industry.
1:00:04
This is an industry just like any other.
1:00:07
And like I said, whether that's HR or finance or operations or
1:00:12
legal and policy, we, we need space lawyers just like any
1:00:16
industry needs lawyers, right? So so come take a look, find a
1:00:20
job for you. You've used the term
1:00:23
interplanetary multiple times. You've also talked about, you
1:00:26
know, wanting to sort of take the tech from space and, you
1:00:30
know, make life better here on Earth.
1:00:33
What does the the term interplanetary mean to you and
1:00:37
how do you kind of really push towards that in our lifetimes?
1:00:42
So, you know, I like to say it's not just about the globe
1:00:46
anymore, it's about the Galaxy, right?
1:00:49
The the sphere of humanity's economic influence has already
1:00:54
gone beyond our home world. And that to me is something that
1:00:59
I think is an absolutely fascinating thing to watch in
1:01:03
real time. A couple of months ago, Austin
1:01:07
based company Firefly Aerospace landed a private lunar Lander on
1:01:12
the moon. Completed their entire 14 day
1:01:16
mission with 100% success rate. To me, that was the moment that
1:01:23
humanity's economic sphere became interplanetary.
1:01:28
That was a successful paid for economic success on another
1:01:35
planetary body. Again, phenomenal time to be
1:01:39
alive to watch this unfolding in front of our eyes.
1:01:43
And Elon talks a lot about Mars. I think that's great.
1:01:47
Next step, I don't think humans will ever live on Venus.
1:01:52
It's a little harsh environment, but maybe around Venus, right?
1:01:55
Maybe some cloud hoppers in the Venus atmosphere.
1:01:59
And then if you look at some of the moons of Jupiter, for
1:02:03
instance, may have liquid water on them.
1:02:06
They may have life. They may have habitable zones.
1:02:09
We don't know yet. Until we get out there, we don't
1:02:12
know. You know, one of the other
1:02:14
things I like to say is that this is the only investment
1:02:17
sector that has truly unlimited upside potential.
1:02:22
There are unlimited resources, unlimited free energy from the
1:02:26
sun, and unlimited physical space.
1:02:31
There's not a single other industry on Earth that is not
1:02:35
limited by real estate, energy and resources.
1:02:40
It's wild. Megan, before I move into my
1:02:45
actually, let's make this part of my last question because I
1:02:48
think I need to sort of change up the last question that I
1:02:50
asked for you. Before I do that, I want to do 2
1:02:54
things. First of all, I want to invite
1:02:55
all listeners. Go ahead and hit the follow
1:02:57
button on your favorite podcast app.
1:02:58
You want to get more great interviews like we've had today
1:03:01
with Megan Crawford from Space Fun.
1:03:03
I also want to let people know the best way to get in touch
1:03:06
with you. They're a woman that wants to
1:03:08
get involved in space. They're an investor.
1:03:10
They're a potential portco. You just find your story
1:03:13
fascinating. What's the best way to track you
1:03:15
down? Great question.
1:03:17
So I like to say, you know, we were first to the game because I
1:03:20
own the URL spacefund.com, not.spaceor.ai.theactual.com.
1:03:28
So they're very easy to find me at spacefund.com if you submit
1:03:33
an e-mail inquiry inquiry that goes directly into my inbox.
1:03:36
There's also two tabs on that website, one for investors and
1:03:41
one for potential portfolio companies with specific forms
1:03:45
for for those two types. And I highly encourage,
1:03:49
especially entrepreneurs to fill out that form on the, you know,
1:03:54
submit your company for consideration page because I
1:03:58
think that helps them a lot of them even understand what they
1:04:02
information they need in order to talk to an investor.
1:04:05
And it also helps get them into my automated deal flow pipeline,
1:04:09
which gives them a much higher chance of successfully getting
1:04:12
getting an actual time to talk to myself and my colleagues.
1:04:16
So yeah, spacefund.com and self select from there if you want to
1:04:21
just do a general inquiry or an investor specific or company
1:04:25
specific inquiry. Good stuff.
1:04:28
Yeah. And I like how you said that
1:04:29
where, you know, for folks that maybe are looking for an
1:04:32
investment, you've got sort of a process you can take them
1:04:35
through, put some, you're setting them up for success.
1:04:37
You're you're kind of helping them take some of those early
1:04:40
steps so that they've got a better chance of finding that
1:04:43
funding when they're ready. Exactly.
1:04:45
Exactly the the last question I typically like to ask is
1:04:48
something along the lines of, you know, what exciting changes
1:04:51
do you see coming to your industry in the next two to
1:04:53
three years? But I, I think that could be a,
1:04:56
a whole, a podcast in itself. I don't know.
1:04:59
Maybe with the last question, how I might make this a little
1:05:02
bit different is, is there one of your port codes we haven't
1:05:05
talked about that you're particularly excited about you
1:05:09
want to give voice to? So like any good mom, I love
1:05:13
them all the same. I don't have any favourites, but
1:05:18
there are the list. The full list of all 21
1:05:20
companies is on the website thesameurlspacefund.com with
1:05:24
links to off to all their websites.
1:05:26
If you want to go do some more investigation about, about
1:05:29
what's going on in this industry, everything from, you
1:05:33
know, laser based communications, optical
1:05:35
communications with their company Skyloom, our company
1:05:38
Nebula Compute that's doing on orbit data centers, you know,
1:05:42
and, and I'm sure there's there's a dozen more that I
1:05:45
haven't even mentioned that are doing just as exciting things.
1:05:48
And I encourage everyone to go take a look.
1:05:51
On Orbit data center, is that what you said?
1:05:53
Yes, that's what it sounds like. Like rather than, you know, me
1:05:57
connecting to a web server, you know, in the cloud here on
1:06:01
Earth, I literally going into the cloud to access that data.
1:06:05
Well, first of all, it's more secure if you do want to upload
1:06:07
your terrestrial data to to space.
1:06:10
But think about all those 10s of thousands of satellites orbiting
1:06:15
in low Earth orbit. They're all collecting data.
1:06:17
What are they doing with it? It's much easier to send it to a
1:06:21
data center that's in their same orbit than it is to trying to
1:06:24
connect with the ground station here on Earth.
1:06:27
So in space data Centers for in space data.
1:06:31
So it's less about me connecting to it, it's more about the
1:06:35
satellites that are already up in space connecting to it,
1:06:38
offloading some other data and then our our folks on the ground
1:06:42
then pulling it from the data centers that they can use it.
1:06:46
The data can be processed and stored on orbit and then only
1:06:50
the insights, the usable, sellable, valuable data can be
1:06:54
downlinked. And so my favorite example here
1:06:58
is the Malaysian Airlines flight that disappeared.
1:07:01
We know for a fact there were dozens if not hundreds of images
1:07:05
taken of that that aircraft across it's flight path flat,
1:07:09
excuse me, flight path. However, those satellites are
1:07:13
all programmed to automatically delete pictures over the open
1:07:16
ocean because nobody pays for those pictures and they have on
1:07:21
board storage constraints and on board data processing
1:07:25
constraints. So those images that could have
1:07:28
told us everything we needed to know about that missing flight
1:07:32
were automatically deleted because of problems with storage
1:07:36
that. So you know that that's just one
1:07:38
kind of day-to-day example of why having this storage
1:07:43
capability on orbit could be so valuable, because those images
1:07:46
that aren't immediately, immediately sellable could be
1:07:49
stored on orbit because maybe they will be useful at some
1:07:52
later date. Fascinating.
1:07:56
Megan, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing
1:07:58
both your time and your story with us today.
1:08:01
I really appreciate it. Well, you're very welcome,
1:08:03
Anthony. This has been a good time.
1:08:05
I appreciate the kind of fun, conversational nature of the
1:08:08
podcast. So you're doing a great job.
1:08:09
I really appreciate you having me on.
1:08:11
Thanks for the kind words, folks.
1:08:13
That's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:08:16
Thanks for learning with us today.