Here's a 15 minute deep dive on the El Segundo Hard Tech scene.
Tons of new founders have started companies in the area recently and there are 3 key reasons why:
- History: Tons of defense contractors have offices there and SpaceX was founded there.
- Infrastructure: It's right next to LAX and buildings are designed with manufacturing requirements in mind.
- Community: Everyone knows each other and shares equipment and connections openly.
Love seeing this pop up in southern California!
American hardware innovation is making a comeback, and it's happening in Elsa Gundo. When I grew up in LA, Elsa Gundo was just the place you went to go to catch a flight at LAX, but now it's the place you go. If you're a founder of a hard tech company. The list of companies that were started in El Segundo is crazy. You've got SpaceX, Radiant Nuclear, Varda Industries, AB L, Space Systems, and if you zoom out a bit, you'll find Amberol, Hadrian, Rocket Lab, Relativity and Impulse Space. Tons of companies staffed by engineers who love solving hard problems and working on. Projects that won't pay off for decades. So let's talk about the history of hard tech and why so many founders are moving to El Segundo right now. A few weeks ago, I decided to take a trip out to the Salton Sea with a guy named Augustus Jerico. He's building a company that's trying to commercialize technology to control the weather. The Salton Sea used to be a resort destination, but has completely dried up and left the area devastated. It's a perfect example of something we could have avoided if we had more control over the weather. While we were there, we talked about China's weather modification investments. They're doing something called the Green Wall of China Project. Not only do they have the most large scale and technologically impressive cloud seeding operations in the world for supplementing the hydroelectric dams on the Yangtze River and the agricultural production on the Yangzi River, but they're also trying to terraform the entire Gobi Desert. We also talked about his company, Rainmaker. We're going to make it rain over farms. I think that in the next 12 months by servicing farms potentially in California, probably in Idaho, and we talked about his religious beliefs. God gave man dominion over the earth this season, the skies. Right. And so we've done pretty decent at taking dominion over the land. We have no control over the sea. We have no control over the sky. Right now I think that the onus is on everybody to bring about a world that's closer to paradise than when we were born in it. We have to try to build it. We also ranked all of his favorite energy drinks. STR is truly unrivaled. God tier, TRF tear is like you should never consume it under any circumstances. Sure. Water. Sewer. Water. So it's not as simple as Red Bull light blue can. A solid B tier. A dark blue can is a C tier then all like the varied flavors. D tier beverage D tier Yeah do you go with the 8 oz can or the big boy? The more sophisticated drinker does an 8 oz can try to stick to the 8 oz can monster. I think that the white 0 Ultra that is an S to your beverage green marking black can AT your beverage rock star. F Tier Garbage. Bad flavor. Bad sensation. Horrific memories. 5 hour energy that is interesting to see to your beverage. Bang. Not a good flavor profile. Those are DTR. Peter. Those are very bad beverages in my. Augustus has gotten to know pretty much everyone who's building hard tech and Elsa Gundo, so I called him up and asked him to give me a tour. But before we dig into the companies building in the area, let's talk about the history here. The town is tiny, just 5 1/2 square miles. Only 17,000 people live there. But a culture of building massive things in the physical world is in the water, literally. The town is right next to the huge Hyperion sewage treatment plant. It's also flanked by the LAX airport and the Chevron oil refinery. We're actually at the El Segundo refinery, which is. Don't buy Chevron. El Segundo gets his name from this refinery, Chevron. They actually set up this entire city as a refinery. It was their second refinery and so they called it El Segundo the 2nd. And now the whole city is named after this refinery. El Segundo has a really, really interesting history where obviously they started refining oil decades ago back in like the 40s and 50s. I think later in the 60s and 70s, eighties defense tech companies started moving in. Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman. All have offices there. So does the aerospace corporation, Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings. And the Los Angeles Air Force Base is there too. So it's become like a hub for building missiles, building weapons, building planes, a lot of really interesting companies here. SpaceX opened an office at 1310 E Grand Ave. in 2003, and today the building is occupied by a BL, Space Systems. I talked to Scott Nolan, an early SpaceX employee and current partner at Founders Fund, about this a few weeks ago. It's like one of the most underappreciated towns in LA. Think. The little community that's its own bubble, next to the refinery and next to LAX. And Ashley Vance, the first author to write a book about Elon Musk, was blown away when he toured SpaceX for the first time. I thought it would be like one rocket and this little rinky **** factory and people were not manufacturing stuff in the US. They definitely weren't making stuff in California. And so anyway, I walked in and there was just like thousands of people throwing massive amounts of energy to many rocket bodies on the floor. And so I just got super into it. All this talent has led to a culture of building hard tech in the area. Lots of defense companies have moved in, but also entrepreneurs working on energy manufacturing and anything else that requires rolling up your sleeves. The culture is really different from any other city. The anonymous poster praying for exits described it to me this way. I would encourage anybody who has the opportunity to go to El Segundo to go check it out. It is this combination of young kids, high levels of caffeine, nicotine, intense gym culture. And so I think the culture is like, you know, 1/3 deeply patriotic, 1/3 like semi unhinged and then one third like extremely hard pushing towards things that might not seem obvious to other people. So I had to go see it in person. First up was checking in with Augustus at Rainmaker. He gave me an update on his plan to control the weather and introduced me to some founders who were staying in the area. This is silver iodide. OK, so it's the traditional glycogenic seeding agent used. I wouldn't recommend eating it. It can in sufficient quantities turn your skin permanently blue. Part of why we're doing all of this ice nucleation agent experimentation in R&D is because we want to shift one the cost profile of nucleation agents down. This is silver. It's expensive and then also to make it more. Go friendly, make it usable across different temperature. The simplest way that we can test nucleation is with just like this car chest freezer in here. So this is 3D printed. We'll have an array of Q vets in here. This is temperature controlled and cooling rate controlled so we can go down from 0 C to -20 and then the the clever way we test performance of nucleation agents is with this silicone oil. It is more dense than ice, but it is less. Dense than water. And so you put a droplet of water with the ice nucleation agent in it, so like silver iodide. And then when that freezes, the droplet floats to the top. So you can do extremely high throughput identification of how long it takes for a droplet to freeze with a given Iona within it. Elsa Gundo has Hadrian right up the road, has the legacy of Spacex's original headquarters, the Bay Area. It has a lot of perks. It's beautiful. They've created a lot of value, but also like this sort of profile of the antisocial. Hunchback software engineer Starting a company is not cool enough to revive American manufacturing. And like deep innovation, we want to attract all of those teenagers and college graduates and other folks to come. Perhaps, like, even convert into this mode of cool engineering, and part of that is conferring social status onto it. So we do a lot of nagging of software and finance and law. Gundo is not zoned for software companies. But yeah, Then I talked with Isaiah Taylor, the founder of Velara Tonics. He wants to use nuclear power to pull oil out of thin air. It sounds crazy, but the plan is basically to synthesize gasoline from the atmosphere directly. So you can kind of think of it as using hydrocarbons as a battery for nuclear energy. Or as the transportation rail, one of the biggest problems with nuclear is that it's always done creating electricity. And if you're creating electricity you're basically transferring it to a local like city center which means that nuclear and cities are always near each other, always Co located. And that means that there's a huge regulatory burden on nuclear basically anywhere it's deployed. Then we drove over to Pico Grid. They're building a software platform to help different pieces of military equipment talk to each other. They have two different hardware products to help power cameras and sensors and then connect them to the Internet. Notably, we build a platform for autonomous systems, helping support the ISR, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance systems in the field with everything where the information needs to go, whether those are other unmanned systems, command control interfaces, different software systems, analytics tools. So this is one of the hardware systems we build and kind of our flagship product called Lander. For the first time in decades, we're seeing the DoD by real technology from smaller players and that's a real fundamental phase shift that's enabling companies like this, companies like like you see in this area. To actually hit scale, hit those first contracts and then started playing in the field. I think we saw the downside of what happens when you roll up the entire industry into a an oligopoly, essentially that controls most contracts, controls most technologies. There isn't much incentive to really push the boundary. There isn't much incentive to really innovate beyond what exists today. What is the next couple of years look like here? Are you going to graduate from the Gundo and move somewhere else or. Well, no. I mean, I think this is a really good space and the reason why I stayed here and didn't go back to the way it was because of the community that was here. Yeah. And I didn't realize this was here before I moved down. I I think a lot of it's credit to SpaceX on the broader aerospace community that's that's down here and kind of brought a lot of talent and just excitement for this kind of technology that I didn't find of the day. Of course it's there in some in some sense, but it's not the same density as it is here. I was just really drawn to that and it just felt like the better place to build this company. Specifically after Pico Grid, we went to talk to Cameron Schiller about his company, Range View, which is focused on making parts for aerospace and defense companies. They 3D print a custom ceramic composite and then pour molten metal into it to make the final part. Big example of one of the smaller molds that we're printing right now. You can see all the information on it, right? What logic came from, what order it's going to, And this has negative cavities on the inside, which filled with molten metal. There's a lot of complicated material science that we've spent the last few months nailing down. Range view represents more than anything, a new mentality and a new energy in the world. An energy that says I will not take what is happening in the country right now and I will work on the problems that matter. I wanna tell you about this alleyway that that we sit in right now. So Smokey Hollow, which is the the real heart of the industrial happenings and also Segundo right now has a massive aerospace history. This was built for manufacturing the space shuttle. The space shuttle was happening just South of this and we needed machine shops for it. Smokey Hollow, before EPA was a thing. It was pretty smoky here. And so all of these brick buildings, this, that, this, this one, all of here, they all have the right power requirements. They all have the right loading docks. Everything that you would need is a startup to like. Get your hands dirty on cutting metal and doing these things. It's all here. Most of it kind of turned into warehousing 10 years ago and it's seeing a resurgence now with really the last, the last year of what else you're gonna is becoming. I surveyed all of America when we left Northern California. Also going to was the spot and let's like also not beat around the Bush. 30% of it is like the SpaceX effect. And then and then that's just like started this flywheel of like Andrew being in the neighborhood and Varda and stuff and like just like one thing after another snowball. Exactly. It's awesome. Amazing. Then it was time to go fly some drones with the guys over at Neros. They've already been to Ukraine to help drone pilots improve their FPV skills and defend their territory more effectively. Soren is also one of the best drone pilots in the world. I used to be a professional drone racing pilot. I've been building high performance UAV since I was 11 years old. So it's it's just kind of been what I've been doing naturally and I realize that there's you know, tons of applications and defense for this stuff. A lot of what we're trying to do here at Neros is actually produce the components that go into these types of drones and eventually other types of smart weapons that we see to be really necessary now for a for a complete arsenal. Right now we have our, our first products just called N1 pretty simple quadcopter. We have that deployed over in Ukraine. It's being used successfully over there. This is one of the drones that we have over in Ukraine. Right now, two cameras, we have antennas in the back. These are swappable. This is a pretty standard like off the shelf drivetrain for the moment. You know this is a standard control setup for one of these FPV drones. You have, you know your goggles, your RC radio. So a lot of the stuff we we build right now is kind of based on this ethos. But to actually build defense products, you know for the DoD, there's a lot more that goes into it and there's a lot more considerations. I'm trying to make something that's very easy to pick up. For for every soldier, the goal is to make a drone that's standard issue across, you know the Army and every branch of the DoD that gives this incredible like range capability to every individual soldier. And I think that's another reason why we're very passionate about building cost effective systems because you end up with something that's so much more widely adoptable should go fly. Let's do it, let's do it. I picked because I started to see a lot of the companies that were based here, some really interesting startups. I saw the range. The guys like settled here when they got their new factory, one of the things I was looking for. Was a good hard tech community. I think it makes a huge difference being around founders who are experiencing similar things. And you know there's also such a direction towards like realness and manufacturing and really doing meaningful things here. Feels like there's a real community here. Here are the values are aligned properly and like the mayor of the town is a successful entrepreneur, he has seen combat like he. Is so aligned with what a lot of these companies are working on and many of the residents here work at some of the big defense companies or they work at the refinery. They understand the like need and value behind these kind of industrial endeavors and I think they're. Not necessarily against change, because a lot of innovation has happened here, but I think it's really important to balance that advancement, that change with kind of keeping the spirit of the town that makes it so great. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was not expecting that. That was incredible. Wrapping up a day in Elsa Gundo, or the Gundo as they call it here. Really interesting companies, tons of awesome founders building really cool technology. It's a very different culture from what you see in other cities. It's a lot of people working really hard. Hopefully a lot of these companies workout and become really big. It's awesome to see kind of the next generation coming up and and building here. Yeah, stay tuned for what's next.
I am glad to see the enthusiasm for hardware tech startups, which face a unique set of challenges. Early stage companies outsource many services to conserve cash burn cash while on the path to break even or cash positive. Venture capital investors encourage not putting investments ahead of revenues. In this spirit, strategy below for bringing products to market broken down into segments:
1. Inception to first three (3) months
2. 3 months to first six (6) months (mfg requirements)
3. 6 months to 12 months running
4. 12 months to 18 months, where:
a. Product built, tested and delivered to marketplace
b. Determine second sources for product components
c. Resolve product parts-availability issues
d. Review product logistics plan
Typically, by the time Series B startup funding occurs, many portfolio company executives (focused on the objective of bringing a manufacturing product to market) have finished most of their product prototype work and are beginning to think about product manufacturing and related production issues. More https://lnkd.in/gjngZ-5F
Amazing coverage of El Segundo! I grew up / work in the area, and it's awesome to see the South Bay become a real tech hub. You should look into other cities near El Segundo like Hawthorne, Torrance, and Long Beach that are teeming with deep tech as well.
This is great journalism. There's still many geographic advantages to Silicon Valley for hardware innovation built on top of bleeding edge lithographic techniques but it's exciting to see a new hub re-emerge down there.
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Enjoyed seeing this video of the startups happening in Gundo! Fascinating hearing about the history of the city and the excitement of these Founders working alongside one another to build out varied product and services for our today and future world!
Having worked for 13 startups, I understand the working mentality of these companies and the attraction it was for each Founder to want to move/stay there and build out!
Fascinating insights! The El Segundo Hard Tech scene is truly thriving. The rich history, strategic infrastructure, and tight-knit community make it a powerhouse for innovation. Exciting to witness this dynamic ecosystem in Southern California! 👏
John Coogan thank you for the timely, accurate and exciting depiction of another reason City of El Segundo is the Most Important 5 Square Miles in SoCal. The entrepreneurs here are making amazing innovations.
🚀 Liftoff in Texas! 🚀
TAB is thrilled to welcome the X and SpaceX headquarters to the Lone Star State! Elon Musk's announcement today that their headquarters are moving to Texas solidifies our state as a leading hub for innovation and technology and underscores our reputation as the premier state for business.
Policy matters! The decision to relocate these headquarters from California to Texas highlights the critical importance of pro-business policies. Texas' favorable regulatory environment, lower taxes, and supportive business climate were key factors in the decision.
From an economic perspective perspective, the arrival of X and SpaceX represents a significant boost to our state’s economy. The move will create numerous high-quality jobs, stimulate local businesses, and attract top-tier talent from around the globe. The economic impact will be profound, driving growth in sectors ranging from space and technology to manufacturing and R&D.
The presence of X and SpaceX will not only enhance Texas' position as a leader in the aerospace and technology industries but also foster an environment of collaboration and innovation that benefits businesses of all sizes.
Economic development is a team sport and this move is yet another example of the great work our Governor Greg Abbott, Adriana Cruz, Aaron Demerson and others have done to ensure Texas is the "Headquarters of Headquarters".
Join us in welcoming X and SpaceX to Texas and celebrating the exciting economic prospects ahead!
#TexasEconomicDevelopment#TexasBusinessNews#SpaceX#Innovation#TAB#PolicyMatters#TexasProudOffice of Texas Governor Greg AbbottTexas Economic DevelopmentTexas Economic Development CorporationGlenn HamerMassey VillarrealGabriela PerdichizziCS Freeland
We sat down with Founder + CEO, Erika Dietrick, to discuss the name “Last Rocket Home” and what it means to her and the company.
“I often get asked about the meaning behind Last Rocket Home. For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with outer space - to me, space exploration represents adventuring into a new frontier, pioneering fresh perspectives and ways of life, and pushing back our own preconceived limitations.”
As a Founder, Erika is dedicated to instilling a similar energy and innovation into her company, which aims to pave the way for a new era known as "The Future Of Work." It only makes sense that her company's vision incorporates elements reminiscent of the future, or even outer space, to signify its forward-thinking and pioneering approach.
Last Rocket Home thoughtfully and strategically helps businesses of all sizes manage, empower and retain their remote talent.
To learn more, schedule a free consultation today!
https://lnkd.in/eabGv4AU
Managing Principal @ Trigona Consulting L.L.C. | Helping global organizations achieve sustainable transformational results through effective change management and human capital solutions.
At this point only lazy does not talk about Elon Mask and his leadership style. With the latest news on the move of SpaceX HQ to Texas, talent retention and workforce planning should be on the top of his list of strategic priorities. Being such a niche market, finding and more importantly retaining top quality talent is mission critical, especially when competitors are already hounding your workforce pitching inclusive work culture and incentives. I sure hope that his plan was communicated to his personnel prior to being sent to the press, otherwise it is like finding out that you are getting divorced from your next door neighbor…
From my prospective, leaders often fail in clearly articulate the business need, urgency and benefits of the change not just from company prospective, but taking into account the impact on the key stakeholder groups as well. If he is he expecting a “lift and shift” kind of move, SpaceX would need to provide not just relocation incentives but robust relocation packages that would help with housing, jobs searches for spouses and school searches for kids, though without proper change management of this effort, it is going to turn into well publicized hot mess, though for some people there is no such a thing as bad publicity.
https://lnkd.in/eW6tZAe3
Two Nations, a Horrible Accident, and the Urgent Need to Understand the Laws of Space
Welcome to the world’s foremost training ground for saving space from disasters, disputes, and—perhaps one day—colonizers named Musk. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗯𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝘀!
Aerospace continues to expand.
Casting off the long held air of mystery and inaccessibility.
With more commercial space startups entering the market, tech giants are accelerating the software and capabilities where old space continues to play catch up.
Merging the startup tech world with space poses a lethal combination allowing larger access to skills talent across various tech industries.
Read the latest in Space Forces News 👇
#spacedefenseagency#SDA#recruitment#aerospaceindustry#hiring#talentresources
Tradecraft tips from our founder, Dolly:
Ultimately, great recruiters are super-connectors.
Sometimes that means we reach out to folks on LinkedIn and get them excited about opportunities they have never heard of.
Sometimes it means you throw a poker party and make sure two people that you think can make magic sit next to each other.
The key is being creative and thoughtful about who we bring together and how.
Brad is a former SpaceX badass turned founder; Jeremy is a former SpaceX badass looking to contribute to the climate fight.
They didn’t get the opportunity to work together at SX, but now are collaborating on Rockets for Earth. 🚀🌏
My wife jokes that I know exactly how long Pluto's orbit around the sun is, but I have no clue where the powdered sugar is in our kitchen. I am a space nerd. Pluto completes an orbit around the sun in about 248 earth years. And probably to be honest… I am still looking for the powdered sugar in our kitchen 😀.
When I learned that there is an event titled - “_Uniquely Entrepreneurial: Space & the Pacific Northwest_” I was over the Moon and back flipping with excitement! I signed up! And showed up.
Key takeaways:
* Redmond, Washington is the satellite capital of the world. Holds the record for count of satellites in orbit built here- Carol Helland
* We had a panel discussion with 4 outstanding entrepreneurs and learned about their journey and their vision for the future. Thank you:
** Miguel Ayala CEO and Co-Founder of Aphelion Aerospace.
** Melissa Roth Co-Owner and Lead Researcher at Off Planet Research
** Bill "Burners" Bruner co-founder and CEO of New Frontier Aerospace
** John Conafay US Air Force Veteran and the CEO and Co-Founder of Integrate
* The panel moderator Sean McClinton prepared high quality questions.
* We are very fortunate to have Seattle Space Week, a series events between June 8-13, 2024 organized by Space Northwest - Michael Doyle.
* I talked to countless entrepreneurs including Adi Oltean Co-Founder, Chief Engineer @ Lumen Orbit
* The MC and the photographer for the event were outstanding. Marius Marcu - well done.
The networking was great, the food and drinks were very tasty and I am looking forward to attend some of the future events.
Please check out the resources in the comments section.
#entrepreneurship#space#aerospace#redmond#engineering
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🌌 Expanding Horizons in the New Space Economy: Seeking Partnerships and Validations 🌌
🚀 As we navigate through the vibrant and uncharted territories of the New Space sector, our journey is evolving. Following our initial outreach, which ignited a spark within this passionate community, we're now embarking on a crucial phase: forging connections with key players across the spectrum of space exploration and utilization.
🛰️ Broadening Our Network: Our quest for insights and validation now takes us to the doorsteps of companies that are the backbone of space operations. We are actively seeking to engage with:
❗ Payload Delivery Services: Companies that specialize in sending satellites and other cargo from Earth to space, focusing on the logistics and management of space launches.
❗ Rocket and Missile Manufacturers: Businesses that design and produce rockets and missiles for space exploration and satellite deployment.
❗ Launch Site Operators: Entities responsible for managing spaceports and the infrastructure for launching rockets into space.
Nice to have:
❗ Satellite Operators: Organizations that own and operate satellites, handling their functions and services from orbit.
💼 A Collaborative Call to Action: We believe in the power of collaboration to overcome the unique challenges of the New Space sector. By connecting with companies and experts across these pivotal areas, we aim to gain a holistic understanding of the ecosystem and identify synergies that can propel us forward. Help us validate our ideas and concepts.
🤝 Join Our Mission: If you are part of an organization operating within these domains, or have insights that could help guide our venture towards sustainability and success, we invite you to reach out. Your knowledge, experience, and perhaps even willingness to collaborate could be the catalyst for groundbreaking advancements in space commerce.
🔗 Your partnership, insights, and mentorship are not just valuable; they are essential for navigating this ambitious journey. Let's connect and make an indelible impact on the future of space exploration and utilization.
#NewSpace#SpaceEconomy#Innovation#Partnership#Collaboration#SpaceExploration#Entrepreneurship#StartupJourney
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