Entrepreneurs Go Head-to-Head at Startup Space Pitch Contest

A spread of entrepreneurs ranging from experienced engineers to young college students took the stage at SATELLITE 2017’s new Unveiled Theater, hoping to clinch the grand prize at the Startup Space 2017 Entrepreneur Pitch Contest.

Ragnarok Industries

Luigi Balarinni, CEO and founder of Ragnarok, has some fairly ambitious goals: he is looking to compete with some of the biggest global satellite operators in his pursuit to bring connectivity to the North Pole. “There is a gap of coverage from the North pole down to 67 degrees,” Balarinni explained. Millions of passengers are flying over this “donut”-shaped region with no internet, as well as “ships involved in oil, gas and mining,” he added. Balarinni’s solution to this problem is centered around a future constellation of cubesats that could provide connectivity at “60 megabits per second using Ku-band,” and that’s just on the low end, he said.

According to Balarinni, Ragnarok boasts two industry firsts. The company is pushing to be the first to deploy cubesats with both internal and external radiation-hardened components, and the first to leave LEO to offer this kind of connectivity service. Balarinni sees that as Ragnarok’s primary competitive advantage, as well as its niche position as a polar internet provider.

Despite stealing market share from some larger satellite operators, Balarinni believes that the company’s comparatively lower capital expenses will help it break even by the fourth or fifth year — if Ragnarok can reach its funding goal of $1.75 million to complete development of its avionics, launch demo flights to test connectivity, and obtain Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for its four cubesats.

Balarinni and his Ragnarok team were also one of five finalists for NASA’s Cube Quest Challenge.

RBC Signals

RBC Signals CEO Christopher Richins also hopes to tackle the issue of connectivity, but with a focus on real-time data collection from LEO. “All of the value that is generated in space today is because of data being transmitted from space to the ground,” he said. Most satellites that will orbit in the next 10 years will reside in LEO, which presents a significant communication challenge as those satellites are “in view of one spot on the Earth for maybe 10 minutes at a time.” As a result, it’s nearly impossible to receive data in real time from a single ground station and also leads to low utilization of pricey assets, Richins said.

Richins’ solution, as he puts it, is to offer infrastructure as a service. “In order to receive my data in near real-time, you need to have a global network of ground infrastructure. Ground stations are an expensive distraction for space companies to build themselves. We provide the excess capacity of our global network of partner stations as a service,” he said.

Richins and his team started the company in June 2015 before launching an initial product with 15 or so partners in February 2016. RBC Signals then signed its first revenue-generating contracts in September and closed a $1.5 million seed financing round in February of this year. With a sales pipeline of 90-plus companies, Richins is optimistic about the future of RBC Signals as it expands its list of ground network partners.

“Our best customers are Earth Observation (EO) companies taking optical pictures or with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) — anything that’s generating large amounts of data in space,” Richins said. “We can safely serve all the demand in the market today, and we can build additional ground stations faster than companies can build and launch satellites.”

Richins hopes to raise another $3 million to expand RBC Signal’s ground infrastructure and to reach cash flow positive.

Xtronaut

Michael Lyon’s company Xtronaut is a bit of a divergence from the tech-heavy competition. Lyon, who daylights as a lawyer, is very interested in education, and his business mission is to “develop profitable products that encourage the next generation to pursue careers in STEM.” Xtronaut is essentially where education meets entertainment, as the company produces a variety of games, workbooks and programs designed to inspire kids’ interest in space-related science.

The company’s eponymous board game launched after a successful Kickstarter and went on to win the Good Housekeeping 2016 Board Game award. The game is designed for players aged 7 and up, and its objective is to develop space missions and rocket systems to explore the solar system. Lyon made a point to emphasize that none of the company’s products are science fiction. “What we do is all based on real science,” he said. “All of our programs include workbooks and instructional guides to connect fun and education together.”

Xtronaut also created a STEM-based education program for schools that saw successful testing in the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Furthermore, the company is developing a traveling exhibit in partnership with Gallagher & Associates, a museum planning and design firm, hoping to bring science education to more rural areas in the United States. “We have access to the best private meteorite collection, including one worth about $8 million,” he said.

So far, Lyon says Xtronaut has seen solid positive feedback from customers and believes the board game market is in the midst of a renaissance. The company is set to release its next board game titled Constellations near the end of this month, and another called Downlink in June. Ultimately, Lyon’s goal is to release two to three games per year over the next four years. VS