EPISODE SUMMARY
Our guest today is Ian Cinnamon, CEO of Apex brought back for a second time and for Pathfinder’s 100th episode! Apex is revolutionizing the small satellite bus market with its productized approach and rapid manufacturing capabilities.
EPISODE NOTES
Fresh off of a $95M Series B funding round, this week we bring back Ian Cinnamon, CEO of Apex, on to the show. Ian, along with his co-founder Max Benassi, started Apex to address the bottleneck in satellite bus manufacturing. Apex is revolutionizing the small satellite bus market with its productized approach and rapid manufacturing capabilities.
Our conversation explores Ian’s journey from concept to scaling production, including:
- The Series B funding round and its implications
- Apex’s mission to become the leading supplier of satellite buses
- Challenges and strategies in scaling production
- Importance of maintaining a product-focused model
- Insights into the evolving satellite bus market
- The future vision for Apex
And much more…
• Chapters •
00:00 – Intro & 100th episode!
02:42 – Apex origin story
03:59 – Changes between funding rounds
05:12 – Key factors in raising $95m
06:40 – Financing needs of Apex
07:35 – Current fundraising environment
09:07 – Market opportunity of satellite buses
10:55 – Is there serious demand for buses if you take out Starlink?
16:05 – Winning niche for contracts
17:53 – How Apex separates itself from competitors
19:27 – SpaceX’s bus building capabilities
21:04 – Plans beyond LEO
22:06 – Apex naming scheme
23:49 – Mission 1
28:23 – First expectations for Mission 1
30:10 – Mission 1 timeline
32:24 – Combatting the unreliability of the current state of launch
37:03 – Balancing Apex’s needs and the government’s
40:42 – Impending government contract win?
41:53 – Why Apex built an e-commerce workflow
44:22 – Scaling
48:09 – Team size and expansion goals at Apex
49:34 – What kind of capital would Apex need to be self-sustainable
51:56 – Advice for prospective founders
53:15 – Long-term vision, 10 years out
55:53 – Who is playing Ian in the movie about Apex?
• Show notes •
Apex’s website — https://www.apexspace.com/
Apex’s socials — https://twitter.com/ApexSpacecraft
Ian’s socials — https://twitter.com/IanCinnamon
Mo’s socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam
Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace
Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace
Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes
• About us •
Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 19,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world.
Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers. Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing five media properties across multiple platforms:
1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern
2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com)
3) Polaris, our weekly policy briefing, publishes weekly on Tuesdays
4) Payload Research, our weekly research and analysis piece, comes out on Wednesdays
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