Ep 123: The New Space Age with Palantir Alum & Apex Space CEO Ian Cinnamon

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Aug 13, 2025

This week, Ian Cinnamon, co-founder and CEO of Apex Space and former Palantir alum, shares his insights on the booming space economy. He discusses the shift from expensive satellites to more innovative, attritable platforms. Ian dives into his entrepreneurial journey, including the influence of cognitive science on product development. He also tackles challenges in space engineering and reveals how SpaceX transformed the industry. The discussion further explores the implications of the Golden Dome defense system and thrilling prospects like asteroid mining.

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ADVICE

Design Platforms, Not One‑Off Solutions

Build a reusable platform, not bespoke solutions, to achieve true scale.
Design once and reapply broadly to unlock repeatable, high‑growth product economics.

ADVICE

Win Government Deals By Aligning All Five Elements

Embed deeply with government customers and align contracting, budget, and end users before scaling.
Secure the right contract vehicle, advocates, and user buy‑in to avoid the 'valley of death.'

ANECDOTE

House Lost In Wildfire, A Wake‑Up Call

Ian and his family fled their home during a sudden wildfire and lost their neighborhood to flames.
The experience highlighted infrastructure failures like empty fire hydrants and reinforced his drive to help fix civic problems later.

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Reusable rockets, new economics, and surging investment are quickly making space one of the most promising areas for growth and innovation. Like other areas of defense, we're in a transition from billion-dollar, exquisite satellites to the proliferation of attritable platforms. What are the new markets and opportunities this creates? How will the Golden Dome impact the space race and competition with China? And what exciting possibilities, like asteroid mining, are in our future?

This week we talk all things space with Ian Cinnamon, co-founder and CEO of Apex Space, a satellite platform company. A graduate of MIT and Stanford Business School, Ian first launched a startup incubator, Superlabs, with Mark Pincus before founding Synapse, a computer vision company later acquired by Palantir. There, Ian worked on key initiatives like Project Maven before leaving to build Apex, and bring speed and efficiency to satellite platform manufacturing.

We begin with Ian's entrepreneurial journey and how his research at MIT informed the creation of Synapse. A top talent at Palantir, he reveals what it was like working on Project Maven — and the protesters that inspired him — plus the "light bulb moment" that led him to launch Apex. Next, we dive into the space boom and how SpaceX upended the entire way we think about, and build, for space. Learn about the unique challenges of engineering for space, why Apex is moving toward full vertical integration, and how it plans to meet skyrocketing demand for more launches. We also discuss President Trump's ambitious Golden Dome project, new possibilities for space-based interceptors, and China's plans to overtake U.S. supremacy in space. Finally, we conclude with Ian's most exciting innovations beyond Earth, and why asteroid mining isn't as far-fetched as you might think.

00:00 Episode intro

02:09 MIT, cognitive science & building Synapse

06:17 Palantir, Project Maven, and protestors

8:53 Ian's "light bulb moment" for building Apex

15:23 The space boom & new possibilities

21:30 Engineering for space and lessons from SpaceX

27:50 China's ambitious space plans

30:19 Golden Dome & space-based interceptors

36:00 Understanding orbit altitudes for satellites

40:00 Is China trying to steal your IP?

44:13 Asteroid mining and new possibilities beyond Earth

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