Why I Had to Go to the North Pole to Build My First Satellite

<p>Rafel Jorda Siquier, an aerospace engineer from Mallorca, founded Open Cosmos in 2015. When they landed their first satellite contract, every university—including his own—refused to give them clean room access. So they went to the Arctic Circle to assemble their first satellite. Today, Open Cosmos has secured over €120 million in contracts in the last year alone, building satellites faster and cheaper than the industry thought possible—while actually turning a profit.</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, Rafael shares the unfiltered reality of building Europe&#39;s fastest-growing space company: how launching stratospheric balloons as a student led to an internship that showed him starting a space company was actually possible, why he walked away from a dream job at Airbus—Europe&#39;s largest aerospace company—to chase a purpose he couldn&#39;t ignore, and why Open Cosmos is now pushing AI capabilities directly into orbit.</p><p><br></p><p>-----------------------------------------------</p><p><br></p><p>Chapters:</p><p>(00:00) Introduction</p><p>(02:22) From Stratospheric Balloons to Life Purpose</p><p>(09:55) &quot;Is That Even Possible?&quot; - Leaving Airbus at 25</p><p>(17:06) Why I Chose Europe Over the US</p><p>(21:11) How to Land Your First Contract in 3 Months</p><p>(25:58) Convincing My CTO to Quit His Dream Job</p><p>(28:53) Why We Assembled our First Satellite near the North Pole</p><p>(43:40) Start Where You Have the Edge, Not Where VCs Tell You</p><p>(46:40) How to Kill a Product That Doesn&#39;t Sell</p><p>(48:28) COVID Hit. Everything Broke at Once.</p><p>(53:21) How We Became Profitable During a Pandemic</p><p>(55:04) How to Build Investor Trust</p><p>(57:01) Companies Exist to Solve Problems, Not Raise Money</p><p>(01:00:50) Get Traction, Sell, Then Raise</p><p>(01:10:34) Advice to Young Founders</p><p><br></p><p>-----------------------------------------------</p><p><br></p><p>1) Naivety is your most powerful weapon as a founder - don&#39;t lose it: &quot;Naivety is essential as a founder because few things are so empowering as naivety to take that first step.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>2) Companies exist to solve problems and earn money - not to raise it: &quot;Companies are not out there to raise money. Companies should be out there to solve problems and to earn money on the back of solving those problems.&quot; Open Cosmos bootstrapped their first satellite and only raised when they needed to scale into a new product line.</p><p><br></p><p