Today’s guest is someone I first came across on the Irish People in VC list—and I’m really glad I reached out. Because it turns out Maureen Haverty has one of the most fascinating jobs you can imagine: helping build the future of space. As a Principal at Seraphim Space, the world’s leading space-focused VC firm, she invests globally in technologies pushing the boundaries of what’s possible —and shaping the future of space startup investment.
Maureen began her career in nuclear engineering, earning a PhD from the University of Manchester before making the leap into startups. At Apollo Fusion, she survived a hard pivot into space, ultimately becoming COO and steering the company through a $150M acquisition by Astra. That experience—what she calls a startup “baptism by fire”—now informs how she backs early-stage founders as both investor and board director. Her insights have been featured in The Times, and she’ll soon take the stage at Web Summit to speak on “Space as a Strategic Frontier.”
Key Takeaways
- “Build just enough”: Space startups win by testing early and often, not waiting for perfection.
- Kill fewer dreams: Rigor matters—but so does nurturing half-formed ideas.
- Get to space ASAP: In-orbit validation creates trust and unlocks massive growth.
- From Gantt charts to fast loops: High-performing teams test weekly, not quarterly.
- Customer conversations still matter: Even in space, talking to users beats assumptions.
Additional Insights
- Why VC funding in space is shifting toward earlier MVPs.
- The hidden costs of acquisition for startup culture and speed.
- How Starship may reshape what's possible—size, cost, and assembly in orbit.
- The role of government contracts in fostering a competitive space ecosystem.
Episode Highlights
00:00 – Episode Recap
Maureen Haverty shares how balancing rigor with creativity helped her evolve from nuclear engineer to space startup COO to VC. The key? Learning when to test, when to build, and when to let wild ideas breathe.
01:35 – Guest Introduction: Maureen Haverty
Barry introduces Maureen Haverty, Principal at Seraphim Space and advocate for grounded rigor in an industry literally aiming for the stars.
03:35 – Learning When Not to Kill Ideas
Maureen reflects on being labeled a “dream killer” and how she transformed that mindset to foster innovation with constructive rigor.
07:34 – Applying Rigor Without Stifling Innovation
How Apollo used just-enough testing, internal prototyping, and diverse team strengths to build better, faster.
13:54 – Rethinking MVPs in Space Startups
Why even space companies now push to generate early revenue and test hardware pre-launch.
18:19 – Customers Want Something They Can See
Building a physical, testable product—even a crude one—outperforms pitch decks every time.
20:32 – The $70M Lesson of In-Space Testing
How one flight test flipped customer hesitation into a flood of contracts.
26:12 – Surviving the Shift from Prototype to Production
The real scaling challenge: maintaining culture and customer trust while redesigning for scale.
30:15 – The Hidden Power of Primes and Policy
Why space remains deeply shaped by government buyers—and how that’s changing with new VC-backed players.
35:33 – Starship and the Future of Space
Maureen shares what could shift when larger payloads, faster launch cadences, and orbital assembly become possible.
39:25 – Closing Reflections
Space is finally catching up to the urgency of its people. In an industry where “yesterday” is always the best time to start, speed is the differentiator.
FAQs
- What is Maureen Haverty known for?
- Maureen Haverty is a Principal at Seraphim Space, the world’s leading venture capital firm focused on space technology. She’s also known for her leadership at Apollo Fusion, where she helped scale the company to a $150M acquisition by Astra.
- What does Seraphim Space invest in?
- Seraphim Space invests in early-stage space technology startups globally, backing innovations in satellites, launch systems, in-orbit services, and deep tech infrastructure critical to the future of space exploration.
- What did Maureen Haverty learn from her time at Apollo Fusion?
- Maureen learned the importance of balancing rigor with experimentation. Her experience taught her to support bold ideas without stifling them and to build “just enough” before validating with customers—especially critical in high-stakes industries like space hardware.
- How do space startups approach product testing and market validation?
- Unlike SaaS startups, space companies face high costs and long timelines. The most successful ones focus on testing early and often, getting hardware into orbit quickly, and talking to customers well before finalizing product designs.
- Why is in-space testing so important for space companies?
- Even with rigorous ground-based testing standards, nothing builds customer confidence like real in-orbit validation. Maureen shares how one space test led to $70M in contracts within weeks—proving that live demonstrations are a major unlock for credibility and growth.
- What trends are shaping the future of the space industry?
- Maureen highlights the shift toward faster iteration, more venture-backed growth (vs. acquisition), and the game-changing potential of SpaceX’s Starship, which could enable larger structures, faster launch cycles, and more ambitious projects in orbit.