Today’s Pathfinder episode features Chris Celtruda, CEO of Valence Surface Technologies and Operating Executive at ATL Partners. With over 30 years of leadership experience, Chris offers a masterclass on scaling aerospace & defense businesses and implementing successful management styles.
In addition, Mo and Chris chat:
- Chris’ experience building multiple A&D businesses
- ATL Partners’ new focus on space
- The current investment landscape
- Raising capital in today’s market
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 Ad
02:10 – How did you get into the space industry?
04:48 – Has the industry changed in El Segundo, CA?
06:30 – What is ATL?
10:10 – What made ATL focus on space?
11:42 – How is ATL different?
13:42 – Chris’s management style
17:14 – Selling your vision to an investor
20:32 – Advice for new founders
25:18 – Investing strategies
34:13 – Launch market
37:08 – Is satellite broadband a viable business model?
41:14 – Public space stocks
45:46 – M&A outlook
47:46 – IPO outlook
48:58 – What technology excites you and how would you invest your capital today?
• Show notes •
ATL’s website — https://www.atlpartners.com/
Valence’s socials — https://twitter.com/ValenceST
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/)