Valley of Depth The Venture Studio, with Leon Alkalai (Mandala Space Ventures)
Today’s Pathfinder episode features Leon Alkalai, former Technical Fellow of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and now the founder of Mandala Space Ventures. Having spent 32 years at JPL, we dive into his leadership roles for the GRAIL mission in 2007, which mapped the Moon's gravitational field and the Insight Lander in 2012, a first of its kind mission aimed at exploring Mars' deep interior. Leon now runs Mandala, a combination of space venture studio meets venture fund.
In addition to all this, Mo and Leon discuss:
- The history of NASA JPL
- Commercializing JPL technologies
- The venture studio approach to space
And much more…
This episode is brought to you by SpiderOak, a US-based software company that builds space cybersecurity products and solutions for civilian, military, and commercial space operations. Learn more at https://spideroak.com/
• Chapters •
00:00 - Intro & SpiderOak
01:20 - Leon's PhD
01:49 - How did Leon end up at JPL
04:08 - Freshly minted PhD. What's next?
07:55 - JPL & NASA
11:51 - Missions at JPL Leon is most proud of
17:34 - Recovering the gravity of the Moon
21:39 - SpiderOak Ad
27:52 - Mandala Space Ventures
32:08 - The venture studio model
35:15 - Most value added to businesses
37:13 - How to view the industry
39:48 - What you look for in a company and what are some red flags?
41:21 - How does Leon build a team
43:59 - Technology that excites Leon
48:42 - A Starship future
• Show notes •
Mandala's website — https://mandalaspaceventures.com/
Leon's socials — https://twitter.com/DrLeonAlkalai
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 15,000+ 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 three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)