[ExI] Kickstarter (was Re: RES: Written for another list)

[Adrian Tymes]

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 11:57 PM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 02, 2012 at 04:49:42PM -0600, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>> Kickstarter would almost certainly get you enough money to determine
>> if there is an error in the math. And if there isn't, and you can
>> prove it with current technology, you won't be able to beat off the
>> venture capitalists that will be beating down your door.
>
> Are we even living in the same universe? Your prototype would
> take two-digit MW radiant output, and an array of optics
> to track. If you're really frugal, a few 100 MUSD
> should do. And then you'll get a toy that makes it
> maybe 10 km high.

Scale it down to somewhere in the KWs, and use existing
tracking services rather than building your own.

Seriously, this kind of "you must build your own and you
must build it big" mentality is what's kept the cost for most
space projects astronomical.  That needs to end.  Sure,
it's less efficient - possibly far less - to do it at smaller
scales, but it's also cheap enough that you can demonstrate
that you know what you're doing, which is almost a requirement
for attracting the funding to do it at full scale.

> And of course the next step would involve a maglev
> track, and 1-2 orders of magnitude more power.
> Notice that you're competing with all the launch systems
> in the world, which have started getting mightily
> cheap lately.

DO NOT try to develop your own launch system if you can
avoid it!  And you can avoid it, for the early stages: until
you have some sats up, your development effort is all about
the satellites instead.

>> The key for that first round (in addition to proving the concept in
>> more concrete terms) is to fill out an executive suite with key
>> players that have previous experience (and success) with making money
>> for venture capitalists. The due diligence of a venture capitalist is
>
> Have you noticed that SpaceX is not run by VCs?

The guy who is running it knows a thing or two about due
diligence, and had had previous experience making money
developing technology.

>> Don't be an idealist, hire people with a history of successfully
>> dealing with venture before. Preferably in the energy arena. Look for
>> a venture fund that is focused on energy, preferably green energy (if
>> such a fund exists), then look for the big successes in their
>> collection of companies, and send a professional head hunter after the
>> executives in those companies. Be very aggressive in hiring those
>> people, and if you succeed in hiring someone that the venture people
>> have made money off of before, then you're in!
>
> In aerospace, worst advice ever.

It may be better to hire for aerospace experience rather than
green energy experience.  Other than that, the advice
generally applies.

>> Don't try to be the president of this company yourself. You just be
>> the technology guy. Stay humble, the VCs like that.
>
> Sorry, but you're out to lunch. Way powerful stuff you've been smoking.

It's called "real life" and "experience".  Kelly's advice sounds
mostly correct to me.