To the Moon and Beyond, Earthlings. 🛸
Day 1 of LBC's Space Tech Expo USA featured innovators and operators sharing their insights about the investible commercial importance of the moon. The lunar economy can be thought of in three parts: 1) On the moon, 2) Around the moon, and 3) Between Earth and the moon.
The moon is a critical link in the Space supply chain. It is relatively close and has resources that are valuable in Space and on Earth. In Space, the moon’s water can be used as fuel as well as subsistence for human life. Not having to go back to Earth for this critical resource will save a ton of money and extend the life of Space missions.
There is also Helium-3. This is valuable stuff for Space and Earth priorities. It can be used for nuclear fusion to power Space mobility and manufacturing. It currently goes for $4 billion per ton.
💥 Spacebound 🚀
There are investible opportunities in Spacetech for capital allocators with shorter term horizons and lower risk profiles as well as those prepared for multi-year deep tech product development. 🛰🛫🗺
Spacetech commercial market opportunities outsize the traditional government based markets with the added benefit of qualifying for dual use and associated grants and multi-year government contracts. There are software and platform solutions as well as hardtech solutions.
THIS IS COMUNIDAD: LATINX INNOVATORS AND CAPITAL PROVIDERS.
I met with four promising LatinX founders as part of the Latino Business Action Network’s (LBAN) capital provider matching session at Stanford University last month.
LBAN’s mission is to grow the American economy by empowering Latino entrepreneurship across the US. 1,271 talented people have graduated from its selective inaugural accelerator and 17 business scaling programs. LBAN has a strong and growing network of capital providers, corporate partners, educators, and ecosystem builders. I love being a part of this incredible community.
Climate Impact + Circular Economy = Evolectric
Yup, they let me drive their truck. Long Beach, California based Evolectric enables and advances the electrification of existing fleets of vehicles through scalable software and hardware solutions. Co-Founders Bill Beverley and Jakson Alvarez have a vision that addresses currently unmet needs of small and medium enterprises which account for 50% of all commercial fleets and over 80% of all commercial fleet owners. They are incentivized by regulation (Inflation Reduction Act of August 2022) and economics to transition to green fleets. Evolectric ensures that this transition is timely, affordable, and does not run counter to its climate impact mission. This is where the circular economy comes in.
To reduce, reuse, recycle, and save clients money, Evolectric extends the life of existing physical assets an estimated 10-15 years.
Female Founders: We are just getting started.
Columbia female founders and friends gathered as a group by the beach to get to know each other and offer support in their startup journeys.
We thank Sophie Nazerian of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Lisa Smith of Columbia Venture Community (CVC- Project 2.8), and the Long Beach Accelerator (LBA) for co-sponsoring the event in Long Beach, California.
We welcomed a dynamic group of founders including my Columbia Hacking4Humanity student founders, Samantha Arthur and Krystal Eimunjeze, who provided logistical support for the gathering.