Democratizing Data and Imagery
How Terminal Tech Talk Speaker Scott Larson is Using Satellites to Change How We View, Store, and Access Essential Data
“I want to be an astronaut.” That’s a career choice we hear from children the world over. And who can blame them? Gaining a new perspective thousands of miles above the earth must be an out of body experience. The final frontier beckons and pushes our imaginations to the limit and forces us to ask what is possible. In part, that’s why so many innovative entrepreneurs are drawn to space, such as Terminal Tech Talk speaker Scott Larson.
Scott may not have made it to space — or even dreamed of being an astronaut — but he’s helped people on earth experience space imagery on a whole new level. After launching his first startup in 1995, Scott co-founded UrtheCast — a leader in the New Space sector. UrtheCast, which Scott grew to over 250 employees and an IPO, created a marriage between data and photography that the world had never seen. For the first time, an individual could use satellite imagery once reserved only for governments and billion dollar corporations. From tracking the effects of global warming to the GDP of China, Scott’s images have flipped the script of access.
But his interest in space didn’t end with UrtheCast. Scott’s latest venture, Helios Wire, uses space to democratize data in a new way. Fusing satellite power with Blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT), Helios allows companies to track remote IoT devices anywhere in the world. Similar to the impact UrtheCast had on businesses across the globe, Helios is a complete game changer for industries like transportation, security/public safety, energy, mining, industrial/construction, agriculture, and more. Scott still has a long way to go, but Helios has three satellite launches planned over the next nine months.
Jumping head first into space projects has been a bumpy road, but Scott’s bias toward action has helped him overcome some impossible hurdles. Before his Tech Talk next week with Blockchain aficionado and CryptoKitties cofounder Roham Gharegozlou, Terminal had the opportunity to ask Scott about his experience creating and building UrtheCast.
Terminal: Over the years, you have brought some incredible ideas to life. UrtheCast was probably the largest undertaking — walk us through your version of the story.
Scott: UrtheCast is a great story. We were able to negotiate with Roscosmos (Russian Space Agency) the right to put two cameras on the outside of the International Space Station. The idea was that we give them the cameras, they launch the cameras to the space station, do the installation, power, and downlink. And then we split the data. They take the imagery of Russia and they give it to the Ministries of Forestry, Farming, Mapping, Coast Guard and so forth. And we would take the imagery of the rest of the world and try to sell it to people who want pictures of earth from space, and then secondly, try to stream it in near-real time over the Internet, kind of like a live-stream of Google Earth.
We were able to scale it up, take it public, raise a couple hundred million dollars, with a peak valuation of about $500 million. It was all about coming up with the right story, the team, getting some good bounces, and for sure, being as strategic and focused as we possibly could on doing the types of things that really add value to the company.
You say that you partnered with Roscosmos in such a matter-of-fact way. What’s it like to partner and negotiate with them? And how did you know that was the right path for UrtheCast? Was that in your original vision?
SL: The whole company was formed based on a potential partnership with Roscosmos and working on this project together with them. The Space Station is the most expensive thing ever built. It cost about $150 billion, so clearly, no one is trying to get a return on investment. It’s all about science, furthering humankind, exploration, and seeing what comes next. Perhaps the moon, Mars, who knows?
Things started out very formal, a little reserved, a little uncertain. But as we developed a relationship and everyone got more comfortable, I loved working with them. It was a great experience, and both sides certainly shared a common goal of seeing how we could pull this off together.
You grew UrtheCast to over 250 employees with seven different offices in under five years — What are some key takeaways on how to grow a team through that intense ramping period?
SL: That kind of scaling is hard to do and it is so easy to make mistakes, and we made plenty of them. Our attitude during that growth was that we knew we would make some mistakes, and we knew we would probably regret some of the decisions we were making, but as long as we tried to make decisions for the right reasons, even if things didn’t turn out well, at least we had a solid, logical, strategic decision making process. It is hard to expect much more than that.
We also acknowledged early on that things would be messy. It’s part of the process and sometimes part of the fun. What I think this means is if you don’t like messiness, don’t go through that type of growth. And if you don’t like startups, don’t work for one. The mindset is “the journey is part of the process, so let’s embrace it and see where this goes.”
You can hear more of Scott’s story during his Terminal Tech Talk. Sign up to attend live here. During the talk, Scott and Roham Gharegozlou discuss what employees and managers need to do to create a company environment that is set up for success. Pulling from past experiences, the conversation weaves stories of growth with advice on effective communication strategies, company culture, and how to put ideas into action. You can view the talk here.
