Our Rockets Run on Paraffin. Yes, Like Candles

<p>Christian Schmierer, an aerospace engineer who grew up next to Europe&#39;s largest rocket test center, co-founded HyImpulse in 2018. When every expert dismissed hybrid rockets as failed technology from the 1960s, his team did the unthinkable: they built rockets powered by paraffin—essentially candle wax.</p><p><br></p><p>Today, HyImpulse has raised over €45 million and became Germany&#39;s first privately-funded company to successfully launch a rocket—spending just €15 million to get there while competitors burned through ten times that amount.</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, Christian shares the unfiltered journey of building Europe&#39;s most unconventional launch company: how breaking world records as students made founding a company feel inevitable, why four engineers leaving stable jobs at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) turned out to be the right choice and why they had to ship their rocket halfway around the world to the Australian desert for a mission aptly named &quot;Light This Candle.</p><p><br></p><p>-----------------------------------------------</p><p><br></p><p>Chapters:</p><p>(00:00) Introduction</p><p>(02:50) From Childhood Curiosity to Student Rocket Team</p><p>(09:55) Why Hybrid Rockets? The Technology No One Believed In</p><p>(14:32) Failure at 2 Kilometers: Our First Launch Attempt</p><p>(22:49) Breaking the World Record: 32.3 Kilometers</p><p>(24:04) The 16-Month Gap: From Students to Founders</p><p>(31:23) How We Landed Our First Investor</p><p>(35:37) Scaling from 4 Founders to 50 People</p><p>(42:33) Cracking the Code: Winning EU Funding on the Third Try</p><p>(48:25) Light This Candle: Germany&#39;s First Private Rocket Launch</p><p>(51:21) How One Launch Changed Everything with Investors</p><p>(53:05) Raising €45M and Planning the Orbital Rocket</p><p>(58:21) The 10-Year Vision</p><p>(01:05:03) Advice to Space Founders</p><p><br></p><p>-----------------------------------------------</p><p><br></p><p>Takeaways:</p><p>1) Just get started - Europe rewards those who try: &quot;If you have a great idea then there is definitely room in Europe to do this and follow your dream or your idea and you just have to get started because initially there will be people who say it&#39;s impossible or no one needs it.&quot; </p><p><br></p><p>2) Learn to speak different languages to different stakeholders: &quot;The way how I explain it to a potential investor is completely different whether it&#39;s a VC or a strategic, but then if I have t