Space as a Service, with Joel Spark

In today’s episode, we welcome on Joel Spark, cofounder and chief satellite architect at Spire. The “space-to-cloud” data and analytics provider flys a proprietary constellation of 100+ nanosatellites to collect and analyze data from Earth. The data spans weather forecasting, maritime domain awareness, aviation, and more. Spire is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and currently has a market cap of ~$150M. 

Today’s episode is brought to you by Kepler Communications, a company bringing the internet to space. 

A sneak peek 

The back half of our conversation focuses on Spire’s “Space Services” play, and the concept of space-as-a-service. Before that, though, we explore Joel’s journey into the industry and how he was “spacepilled,” and unpack the mind-blowing fact that Spire began as a KickStarter crowdfunding campaign. 

Here’s what else you can expect in Pathfinder #0037: 

• The 80/20 principle of building complex hardware systems
• The primacy of vertical integration and agile development
• Spire’s Scottish roots and nanosat factory in Glasgow, Scotland
• AIS, ADS-B, and identifying planes and ships at scale
• Why pulling analytics and insights from that data is often more important than the data itself: “Where is the ship going?” “Is the plane flying off course?”)
• Applying the tech platform analogy to Spire Space Services
• Our Max Q questions: What happens if a customer goes belly up? How big is the market, really, for hosted payloads?

…there’s a whole lot more where that came from! After tuning in Pathfinder #0037, we’re confident you’ll come away with a comprehensive understanding of technical tailwinds, operational ethos, and management philosophy that drive Spire. 

• Chapters •

00:01—Intro

01:32—Sponsor

02:09—Guest Intro

03:43—How Joel was spacepilled…

05:07—Spire's origins as a Kickstarter campaign 

09:19—Reliability, uptime, and the 80/20 principle of being 

12:04—How many satellites does Spire currently operate in space today?

16:56—Agile development, vertical integration, operational tempo, and company culture

18:55—AIS and ADS-B definitions 

21:25—Can global identification of planes and ships only be done at scale from space? 

23:33—Ukraine airspace closing + visuals of airspace data

24:11—Are services like that Elon Jet tracker using Spire data? 

26:56—Kepler Ad Break

27:45—Spire as a “space to cloud” analytics provider

30:25—How does Earth intelligence fit into all of this?

33:01—The business model of “space as a service”

37:10—Conceptualizing Spire as a tech platform

40:32—What are your customers doing in space?

43:48—Customers looking to launch constellations

46:11—What happens if a Space Services customer goes belly up? 

47:10—Do you and the team pay attention to your stock prices every day or phase it out?

49:37—What’s the TAM of people, theoretically, of people trying to fly payloads on satellites? 

52:42—Anything else before lightning round?

54:07—Rapid fire questions + close of show 

• Show notes •

Spire — https://spire.com/

Spire Twitter — https://twitter.com/spireglobal

Recent earnings — https://payloadspace.com/spire-q4-2022/

Space Services — https://payloadspace.com/spire-q4-2022/

ADS-B data in leadup to Russia's invasion of Ukraine — https://payloadspace.com/six-months-ukraine-war/

Ryan's socials — https://twitter.com/Ryandoofy / https://www.linkedin.com/in/rfduffy/

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_uY3GaNf67hP-i6TRWF2n06xMv1kdkZ6

Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes