The Crafty Space Interviews: “Launching a Space Start-up” — Founder of Craft Prospect: Steve Greenland.

Space has always been one of the greatest sources of wonder and curiosity for human beings. The recent SpaceX launches have sparked imaginations and reignited interest in space flight. But this is only a small part of the modern space industry. Space start-ups across the planet are paving the way forward with the development of low-cost satellites and launch services and innovative use of satellite data.

According to this article on Fast Company, “data from consulting firm Bryce Space and Technology, between 2012 and 2016 shows that approximately $7.6 billion was invested in space startups. According to a recent report from investment firm Space Angels, investors poured a record $3.9 billion into commercial space companies in 2017, a year that included 51 government launches and 37 commercial launches. Over the last eight years, investors and founders have made $25 billion in exits following acquisitions and public offerings, said Space Angels, which counts 303 companies in the space sector globally.”

The increasing affordability and feasibility of space missions are due to many factors such as the miniaturization of electronics, the development of stronger and lighter materials, better engineering, and new standards that make it easier to build mini-satellites and send them up as hitchhikers on a larger launch. For example, a CubeSat weighs around two pounds, is about the size of a fist, can be stacked with other CubeSats for launch and costs less than £100,000 to build.

Among this milieu, Craft Prospect, a space-engineering start-up based in Glasgow, the CubeSat capital of the UK and Europe, and where I currently work, has taken big strides in using CubeSats to onboard and demonstrate new technologies in space. The company, currently in its third year, is already leading its very own mission. ROKS is a proof-of-concept CubeSat mission carrying various technical payloads onboard, including a neural network-powered cloud detection payload, the Forwards Looking Imager (FLI). The FLI enables more efficient usage of ROKS’ Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) payload, which aims to provide secure keys to ground stations to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of next-generation quantum-based cybersecurity services.

What sets Craft Prospect apart is the passion and dedication seen in its small, yet diverse team. They seek out and adopt new technologies and almost effortlessly combine various cutting edge sectors together — such as artificial intelligence, quantum physics and space, the three most mysterious and interesting topics in the whole universe today!

Today, I caught up with its founder and managing director; and CubeSat pioneer, Steve Greenland (incidentally the lead for UKube1 — UK’s first CubeSat mission and Scotland’s first-ever satellite mission) for an honest chat about the challenges and joys of building a space start-up like Craft Prospect, lessons learnt, leadership during the lockdown, plans ahead when the world starts slowly reopening and inspiration for future start-up founders.

1. What was the main motivation behind starting Craft Prospect?

I have been involved in the space sector for 10 years. Seeing CubeSats grow from only one or two in number and being used only for hands-on training through to interesting technology and now fully-fledged service demonstration and delivery was a real discovery route. I felt that there were new technologies and applications that could overcome typical sticking points for small satellite deployment and enable new opportunities.

2. Tell us a little bit about your background and your story. How long have you been in the space sector?

I have been in the space sector for a long time. I was fortunate enough to secure a post-graduate position at the University of Tokyo in 2008, one of the first universities developing CubeSats in the world. It was a fantastic and eye-opening experience, seeing the passion, dedication and commitment from the staff and students in delivering their projects. I learned a lot, and came back to the UK with the desire to have a similar impact and was able to do so as a Knowledge Transfer Partner between the University of Strathclyde and Clyde Space Ltd, leading the development of their first CubeSats.

3. What kind of solutions does Craft Prospect provide?

Craft Prospect delivers Smart Secure Space. We operate in three verticals within the industry. First of all, we provide mission architecture services for small satellites. Secondly, we develop and enable new technologies using smarter AI, which greatly maximises the returns on using these satellites. Finally, we invest and aim to lead in novel mission applications, in particular the use of quantum technology for new cyber-secure telecoms.

4. In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by the space industry today?

The biggest challenge is in the move from demonstrating a concept to the actual delivery, be that for satellites themselves or for new applications in the downstream. The scale-up in operational costs is a real barrier. This is where we target our AI-enabled responsive operation products and services to reduce the overall operational cost and increase the mission return per unit spend.

5. What are the most exciting new horizons for the space industry today?

CubeSats rose to prominence as a result of capability enabled by the huge investments in miniaturised microelectronics for mobile telephones. I find that the most exciting opportunities for us, are in areas at a similar level of emergence including consumer-driven AI, second-generation quantum technology, and personalised healthcare. All these areas are much larger than space by itself and will produce technologies that can be ruggedized for space applications, especially using low cost smaller systems.

Wider than just small satellites, watching the post-space agency exploration programs in the US and elsewhere is very inspiring and something I would hope Craft Prospect can contribute to in the future as our capabilities grow.

6. Where do you see Craft Prospect playing a key part in the future of the space industry?

I would like to see Craft Prospect continue pulling through new technologies enabling new propositions to emerge. Having doubled in size and income year on year, our capabilities are growing all the time allowing us to access new opportunities which, just 6 months ago, were out of reach. I would like to see the company go global, with our architects and studios offering solutions.

7. How do you envisage the future of human space exploration?

I hope we are living in a new age of space exploration, with the billion-dollar companies and entrepreneurs forging an interesting path. In the future, I would want Craft Prospect to play a role in these exciting programs. I think, in the UK, we can take a more nuanced path, playing a leading role in emerging areas by building on our space heritage, particularly in small satellites.

8. Moving on to the start-up world, what would you say are the three more important things you have to keep in mind when starting a company?

Stay alert for opportunities, use your networks, don’t be greedy and focus on the long term. Try to break the problem of a longer-term vision up into smaller steps so that a sustainable proposition can be built that adds value to your customers from the outset and that can then scale.

9. Would you say these have changed in the current COVID situation?

I think pursuing opportunities with passion remains undiluted. All change results in a shifting of opportunity though, and I expect COVID will shift us where these opportunities lie.

10. If you were to describe the company culture in three words, what would they be?

Our company culture is quite clear. We pride ourselves on challenging without overworking; giving engineers space and authority to shape their own paths to grow, and rewarding these achievements.

“So, people first, excellence second, and agility or the ability to respond to challenges effectively third.”

11. What does a typical work week look like for a start-up founder like you in the current work-from-home scenario?

The lockdown weeks have been very varied to date, but in general have always included a fair amount of effort dedicated to ensuring that the business has been able to continue to operate at the highest productivity it can over this period, and planning for future impacts and responses.

Every day I prepare a short summary for what’s happening in the businesses based on what the WHO team is reporting (we work closely with our social enterprise Omanos Analytics). I believe at the moment we have to pay more attention to how we communicate, and we’ve certainly improved our practices and learned from this new environment.

Particular challenges over this time have been around onboarding three new starts in April, getting the right equipment to team members and thinking up steps the company can take to improve processes to enable everyone to work as effectively as possible, and re-forecasting work as a result of knock-on impacts such as delayed payments and supply chain failures. Fortunately, our incredible team has done a great job getting stuck in and doing everything they can on the technical front to keep us moving forward.

12. What steps did you have to take to enable a smooth transition of your company and employees into the lockdown phase?

We became aware of the threat posed by COVID to the business in late February, and soon after began putting in place a response plan. This included tightening up our health and safety practices, ensuring the team had the right equipment and prepared for telecon working; and moving test set-ups into the homes of engineers. We revisited how we would communicate, introducing a 10-minute remote scrum including company-wide daily news report, generated by everyone and specific daily tasking. By the time the lockdown was announced most of the team had already been remote working for a week and so the transition went well on the whole. Preparedness definitely played off for us.

13. How do you keep yourself updated with the latest in your industry?

I speak to colleagues across the industry regularly. I think the UKSpace industry website working with UKSA and others, has been a fantastic source for information on the current situation and for communicating with the government. Beyond COVID, my biggest source of information are conferences and networking, and so now that movement is restricted there are increasing numbers of formal and informal events online. Learning from this, we also planned and successfully hosted our own webinar on space quantum technologies with experts from around the world!

14. Before founding Craft Prospect, what would you say were the biggest lessons you learnt, which were pivotal in your start-up journey?

If you want to achieve something you consider important, there will always be moments where you have a choice to commit fully and absolutely. It can be hard going for a time, but the returns are fantastic, and afterwards you will have gained momentum to address the next challenge. This is key.

15. What are you currently reading? And what are some of your all-time favourite books?

I am currently re-reading a few books during the lockdown, for example, the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, and books from Iain M Banks’ Culture series. My favourite all-time book is Catch-22, which was the first book that made me laugh out loud while reading.

16. Do you have any ethical concerns regarding the future of space exploration?

No more so than other fields. I think we have a responsibility to consider the environmental and social impact of all our actions, whichever field we are in. Space represents one of the biggest challenges for humankind and has fantastic potential to bring out the best in people. We can and should explore space using best and ethical practices.

17. How do you think we should go about mitigating those concerns?

Standards and regulation where necessary, but by businesses leading the change being open and engaging in dialogue to understand differing perspectives and being responsive to criticism.

18. What kind of capacity does the space industry have to help in pandemic responses, or more specifically, how can we use space to shape our response to the current COVID crisis?

I have heard many innovations proposed by business leaders in using space to support the current situation, many now under active development. As critical infrastructure, space systems have unique attributes such as being remote by design enabling global observations and telecoms, as well as having access to and experience of technologies which can be re-tasked to other challenging environments like hospitals. Space can definitely play a pivotal role in augmenting ground-based intelligence (access to health, education, information, internet and so on) and actions — which it is already doing and will continue to do so.

19. How can companies like yours, i.e Craft Prospect, help shape solutions in the current crisis?

Craft Prospect is currently not well-positioned to shape immediate solutions for the current crisis though we do have ideas in development for longer-term actions; I therefore think encouraging the team to use their skills to help their local communities is a great way forward. For myself, I am happy to apply my skills learnt by running a business to a local charity that delivers hundreds of meals to those in need at this time. Many of our team members are involved similarly.

20. Do you have a go-to for your daily dose of motivation?

Ah, motivation! — I tend to mix things up. I will get up early to go on a long cycle someday, or else take a woodland walk in the late afternoon lull. I think motivation can be difficult, so trying not to be too hard on yourself for any particular moment of effort, but instead working to your own rhythm, setting clear goals for a day and working towards them is my recommended way to go forward.

21. What was one of the biggest challenges you faced in the process of founding and growing a space start-up?

Taking the initial leap living on a credit card for six months, moving from a secure job and status to risk it, especially with family, so not wanting to let them down or affect their own standard of living -was definitely a huge challenge. Beyond that, becoming comfortable with the new cashflow rhythm and increased costs that each growth spurt brings was something I had to get used to, but starting was the biggest challenge by far.

22. What would you say are the most important team-building exercises an effective leader can take in crisis situations?

In my opinion, we have a try to maintain a transparent organisation that empowers engineers to act; honest and clear communication is very important to me. Exercises that facilitate communication and understanding remotely, from social through technical and corporate exchange, is vital at this time. This needs to be both formal and informal, structured and unstructured and we need to be flexible to go between them. Apart from that, we’ve also incorporated some optional weekly online training for the team, to focus on business development and sales, as coming out of the lockdown this will be one of the harder challenges for us.

23. What has been your most exciting experience or moment in the space sector?

I was the technical lead for the first Scottish satellite UKube-1, and following its growth from concept through to realisation and operations, and seeing the positive impact on all the people and businesses involved was very exciting. Being able to use that experience and applying it to Craft Prospect, and Omanos Analytics and seeing these organisations and the people behind them grow is definitely something I love.

24. Moving on from COVID 19, what do you envision would be the biggest challenges to transition back from the lockdown and how do you plan to deal with them?

The biggest threat to a company like ours is the recession that comes after any lockdown. Whilst the costs to the business in terms of drops in productivity, can be measured and mitigated to some extent with planning and support, an overall downturn of changes in the funding landscape for space in general and new companies will be the most difficult challenge this company will face. We are hoping for the best and actively working on strategies to mitigate some of them.

24. Do you have any words of advice for new space company founders?

Space is a fantastic industry to be involved with and attracts terrific talent which can be easy to become complacent with. As a knowledge-based industry, your people are vital, so I would say that, look after and develop them wherever you can.

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Sonali Mohapatra is a quantum physicist who conceptualises and develops early-stage quantum missions to be launched into space. She is also the founder of the digital magazine, “Carved Voices” and is a writer, poet, thought leader and speaker.