How do you start a space company? What 30 founders told us

Since 2019 we have published 27 interviews with 30 founders of space startups. We asked each of them how they started: where the idea came from, how they paid for the first year, how they found a team, and what was harder than they expected. Most of the interviews are from 2019, so the advice comes from founders who were a year or a few years in.

We reread all 27 and pulled out what they agreed on and where they disagreed. We also checked what happened to each company since. Every quote below is from the interviews.

Talk to the people who would pay

Eleven of the 27 interviews give the same advice. Find the people with the problem, ask them about it, and only then build. Flavia Tata Nardini started Fleet this way. She told us:

"I’ve got a methodology that I’ve always used over the years which is sitting with people and asking them “Hey, what’s your problem”."

Daniel Faber of Orbit Fab put it more strongly:

"My advice is simple: focus on your customers. Obsess about them. Learn more about what makes them successful than they know about themselves."

William Crowe of HEO Robotics said that if he started again, he would spend less time on investors early on:

"If I had my time again, I would simply keep pushing ahead with our customer plans rather than immediately put time into investor relations."

Some companies started the other way, from a technology. Cemvita Factory did, and its CEO Moji Karimi does not recommend it:

"In some ways we first had the technology and then looked for the problem it could solve. It’s much easier if you start with the problem."

Go where the industry meets

Ten founders found their idea, their co-founders or their first contacts at a conference, a course or through a cold email. Nobu Okada founded Astroscale after a debris conference:

"At the European Conference on Space Debris in April 2013, there was lots of talk on the research and concepts but nothing on the solution which I found very frustrating. So, I decided that this was something I must solve and, ten days later, I founded Astroscale."

Fleet's idea came from a conference on smart cities. Flavia Tata Nardini stood up and asked who was going to connect all the new sensors:

"I don’t remember why I stood up asking this but I recall that there were 1,000 people and a panelist responded “someone will figure it out”. So, I thought, I'm going to be the one to figure it out!"

UKAM's founder met his three co-founders on a course at the International Space University (interview). Jonathan Geifman of Helios found the field easy to get into:

"Luckily, the space resources community is small and everyone knows everyone, so I managed to quickly establish good relations with the world's top authorities in the field."

Pay for the start yourself

Twenty of the 27 interviews describe how the first year was paid for. The usual order was the founders' own money, then an accelerator or a grant, and venture money after that.

Eleven founders used their own money or worked unpaid at the start. The HOSTmi founders started small:

"In the beginning, we often met in my private apartment or we went to the library of our university. All we needed was a notebook, internet and some good coffee."

Wes Faler of Miles Space described what that feels like:

"Spending our own money is stressful, watching the bank account drain and the dreams build."

Eight companies went through an accelerator or incubator. Three of them, HOSTmi, Latitudo 40 and Space Talos, went through one of ESA's Business Incubation Centres. Six had a grant or government research money. For Helios, a grant was the moment the company became real:

"It became real only 6 months after we incorporated the company and won a government grant of $65,000 so we could start testing our concepts in the lab."

Four founders paid for the start with another business. Latitudo 40's founders used the income of their existing company. Fleet's founders ran an education startup first. Only two companies went straight to angels or venture capital: Epsilon3 and Oxford Space Systems. None of the interviews mentions SBIR, the US small business research programme.

Raise in small steps you can prove

Ten founders gave the same advice about raising money. Break the plan into steps that each prove something, and raise for the next step. Mike Lawton of Oxford Space Systems gave numbers:

"If you can show that you can achieve something credible, some tangible inflexion point, in the next six to nine months and you can achieve that for less than a million dollars, then you’ll have the ear of the investment community."

Astroscale planned to raise about every 15 months. Nobu Okada:

"The only way for Astroscale to survive is to raise money quickly and to prove yourself even quicker."

Wes Faler put it in three sentences:

"Share a big vision. Take small, loud steps towards it. Pivot with learning and opportunities."

Find revenue on Earth

Eleven founders earned early money from something other than their main space product, or told others to. Moji Karimi of Cemvita called it the most common advice space startups get:

"I’d say as you keep your eye on a space problem, make sure you identify a robust application on Earth so you can sustain your company. This seems counter-intuitive but it’s necessary."

Cemvita took that advice furthest. In August 2022 its in-space line disappeared from its website, and it now works only on Earth (Cemvita's record). Fleet launched ExoSphere, a seismic sensing product for mineral exploration, in 2022 (Fleet), and bought a seismic company in 2025 (Via Satellite). It also has a seismic payload booked on a Moon lander (Firefly).

Volodymyr Levykin of Skyrora said the side business can be worth more than the main one:

"Filling such gaps can actually turn out to be more profitable than reaching space, so always remain open to ideas."

Don't start alone

Eleven founders said a co-founder was what made it work, or told others to find one. Alexandros Christou of Space Talos:

"I cannot stress enough how much it helped to have another person to share this experience and support each other."

They met their co-founders at university, on courses, in accelerators, at earlier jobs, in a hackerspace and on LinkedIn. Cemvita's founders are siblings.

Seven of the people we interviewed named hiring as one of the hardest parts. Umair Siddiqui, CTO of Phase Four:

"Hiring is surprisingly challenging. Skills don’t necessarily translate to fit, and the people you want are usually happily employed furthering other dreams."

Expect it to take longer

Thirteen founders described the same obstacles. Hardware takes longer than investors are used to. Test facilities are expensive and hard to book. Customers want flight heritage that a new company doesn't have. Alexandros Christou of Space Talos:

"Since the sector is quite risk-averse, building credibility and business relationships was a slow process."

Nobu Okada lost Astroscale's first satellite when its rocket failed:

"Unfortunately, the launch vehicle failed, and we lost the satellite. This was a very tough lesson and I felt like I went through space’s baptism of fire."

The interviews contain 13 plans with dates. We checked each one against the company's record. Two happened on time. Orbit Fab moved water between two test beds on the ISS in June 2019, as planned (SpaceNews). AI SpaceFactory printed its test habitat for NASA's challenge in May 2019 (designboom). Three happened late. Orbit Fab's first tanker was planned for early 2020 and reached orbit in June 2021 (NASA). For four, the company shut down or left space first. The record doesn't settle the other four.

Where the advice disagrees

No market. Most founders looked for customers first. Nobu Okada was told there was no market for removing debris, and took that as a good sign:

"But when I heard there was no market, I took that as a positive – if there’s no market, then there’s no competition."

Astroscale listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in June 2024 (Astroscale). It is the only company we interviewed that has gone public. Jonathan Geifman of Helios found the same gap hard to fund:

"If I had to pinpoint one main challenge that we deal with, it’s that it is not easy to raise money for a venture that has no existing market - whether it's grant money or investors money."

Bootstrapping. STAR had never taken any investment when we spoke in 2019 (interview). Laura Crabtree planned to bootstrap Epsilon3 and stopped when she needed a team:

"Obviously, I can't hire people and not pay them, so bootstrapping went out the window as soon as we looked to add people to the team."

Big or small. José Mariano López Urdiales of Zero 2 Infinity wished he had started smaller:

"I wish someone had told me when I was starting that, even if you have a big vision, it's more effective and strategic to keep it simple and modest and less ambitious in the beginning."

Flavia Tata Nardini said the opposite:

"We always think to make it big or go home."

What happened to them

Of the 27 companies, 16 are active, 6 were acquired, 4 shut down and one went public. Their outcomes differ more than the labels suggest.

The four shutdowns are not alike. UKAM was a volunteer-run social enterprise. Marstronauts was one person's education project. Space Talos was a deep-tech startup about a year old when we spoke. It was dissolved in July 2024 without an announcement (Companies House). Zero 2 Infinity had flown its Bloostar prototype and sold balloon flights. It entered insolvency in May 2026 (Infoconcursal).

The acquisitions differ too. Precious Payload bought HOSTmi in 2022 (SpaceWatch.Global). RocketStar bought Miles Space in 2024, and Wes Faler became its chief technology officer (NASA). Phase Four was split up in 2025. Apex bought its Hall-effect thruster line (Apex) and Quantum Space bought the rest (Payload).

Two founders gave opposite first answers when we asked for advice. Flavia Tata Nardini of Fleet said "Don’t do it", then "Just joking!" Rafael Jordà-Siquier of Open Cosmos said:

"Just do it! Space is definitely opening up to entrepreneurs."

Before Open Cosmos, he worked at Zero 2 Infinity (interview). Open Cosmos closed a €300 million round in September 2026 (European Spaceflight).

Every interview is on our interviews page. If you are starting a space company, our founder toolkit lists grants, accelerators and investors.