#140 Big Oil Bogeyman, Watching Your Satellites Launch, Biz Model First, & More w/ Dan Katz (Orbital Sidekick)

🌎 Welcome back to the CleanTechies PodLetter, founder edition.

Today, we are talking to Dan Katz of Orbital Sidekick.

In this episode, you will find:

* How Dan and his co-founder, Tushar decided to build a satellite company to help stop climate change.

* Learn how they started with a business model first, found PMF, built an MVP, went to market, and raised their funding.

* Dan’s advice on talent and the speed of hiring.

📺 Watch on YouTube🍎 Apple Podcasts 🎧 Spotify🗣️ Join the Slack Channel

The Guest: Dan Katz

* Dan started his career in the aerospace industry building satellites for other organizations.

* In the wake of the frothy space exploration market, Dan and his colleague believed they could also build a company in this space. This paired with their realization that the ocean was boiling, led them to focus on catching methane leaks. So they started Orbital Sidekick in Dan’s garage.

* Today they have several satellites in the air and paying customers.

The Company: Orbital Sidekick

Climate Data, Monitoring, Minerals, Hardware

One-liner: Persistent, global monitoring to identify and stop GHG emissions.

Orbital Sidekick, builds and launches hyperspectral satellites that have a variety of climate uses. A hyperspectral satellite is able to see in much greater detail and different reflections of light to use it to identify more than just objects.

Their first usecase, which Dan explains the rationale for in the episode, is to monitor pipelines to idenitfy methane leaks.

In the future, they hope to identify geographies with critical minerals beneath the surface.

Enjoying the CleanTechies PodLetter? Please show your support by subscribing!

📝 Show Notes:

Topics

* 2:00 Intro to Dan

* 5:45 How to Identify Subsurface Minerals

* 12:00 Why he Became an Entrepreneur

* 19:00 PMF & MVP

* 22:00 GTM & Raising

* 26:00 Watching Their Launch

* 31:15 Challenges

* 35:34 Talent

* 39:00 Take the Leap

Links

* Connect with Dan | Orbital Sidekick

* Connect with Somil | Connect with Silas

* For all your Climate, Renewables, and Sustainability recruitment needs, check out our sponsor NextWave Partners.

* This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.

🗓️ Upcoming Events

UPDATE! 🚨 Reminder 🔔 that we have another CleanTechies in-person networking event on December 15th!! (The date changed)

Reach out to Somil or Silas on LinkedIn to be included and receive details on the location.

🚨🚨🚨 Attention Hiring Managers!!! Are you struggling to find qualified candidates? Maybe getting candidates but can’t bring them across the line consistently? Or not getting sufficient applicants? — Reach out to our sponsors NextWave Partners today to help solve that for you.

NextWave Partners is a leading Global Renewables, Climate, & Sustainability recruitment consultancy solely focused on these impact areas. They are also B-Corp Certified.

Reach out to them today to help you solve your hiring challenges and get you one step closer to making an impact.

🙏🏽 Thanks for tuning in and see you all next episode!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cleantechies.substack.com/subscribe