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I basically put my hand up and said, put me in coach and let me run this company.I can do it.It just totally makes sense with my negotiating and relationship building.
And even though I don't have a space background, I'm super enthusiastic about what's happening there and I understand how to connect the dots.So that's how I ended up heading up Spacebridge Partners.
Hi, I am Sarah Pujo, and you're listening to Your Business in Space.I connect private capital with space missions focused on exploration, science, and education.
So what that means is I help get funding for these missions that usually can get some funding because they're organized by nonprofits or universities or small civil space agencies that don't have a budget like NASA does.
And we talk to people that are wealthy, trying to get philanthropic donations for these missions, or we help the mission organizers with brand sponsorships, which will generate some revenue for them as well.
And we can also help them negotiate licensing agreements with media partners.
So if there was a company that wanted to do a documentary, for example, and they wanted access to the team, we could help them negotiate a licensing contract, which will also generate revenue for them.
I was born in Detroit, Michigan, but I grew up in Southern California and always wanted to be an astronaut.I was born the same year that Apollo landed on the moon, and I guess I was brought up in that culture.
So I always wanted to be an astronaut since I was very young, really interested in what habitats would look like off of this planet. and did every single paper I could at school growing up through high school.
And my goal was to go to college to study astronomy, then get my pilot's license, and then go work for NASA.So I ended up going to school at UC Berkeley. University of California at Berkeley and met a really good friend of mine, Guillermo Sunline.
We both bonded over the fact that we both wanted to be astronauts.
And I was studying astronomy, physics, calculus, and learned that even though I was super into science, especially growing up, and I could ace all of my labs at UC Berkeley in physics because I get how stuff works.
Don't ask me to write it down on a test.So had to switch majors and ended up graduating with a bachelor's degree in rhetoric, which NASA did not need at that time, back in the late 80s, early 90s.
So I ended up getting a temp job at a company that was the first company to do licensed calendars, wall calendars.So before they started, everybody had
kitties and puppies and castles and gardens and countryside things like that but nobody actually had a licensed calendar so we did a line of Nike calendars we did a line of supermodel calendars which this is obviously dating me we did calendars based on television shows and movies and so I sort of fell into this consumer products role where I worked with licensing and sales teams to get the rights to use
intellectual property on products.And then I helped sell them into places like Walmart and Target and Asda and Tesco.
And I sold these products to chain stores all over the world and ended up kind of getting sidetracked for 30 years doing this, but really enjoyed it.
I enjoyed working in a global economy and negotiating global licensing contracts with people like Disney and Warner Brothers, but always kind of regretted not getting into the space sector.
Meanwhile, Guillermo and I kept in touch, and he ended up going into the space sector about 20 years ago, a little over 20 years ago.And we've kept in touch over the years, and we get together whenever we were in the same place at the same time.
And about three years ago, I called him saying, I am living vicariously through your LinkedIn posts, and I really wish I had gone into the space sector, because that's what really excites me.And he said, now's the time.
And we chatted for like three hours about what I could do, what kind of role I would fit into.He gave me lots of advice about what trade shows I should go to or conferences.
And so I just started using all of my vacation time going to every space conference that I could.I went to my first one was actually in Luxembourg and I had never been to Luxembourg before, but it was very exciting to start meeting people.
And I just started connecting and networking.And pretty soon I was introducing Guillermo to people that he had never met before.So I thought, all right, Time to take the leap.
So a couple of years ago, I left my job and went full time into the space sector.Still not quite sure where I wanted to end up and what my role would look like.
And Guillermo, who's a serial entrepreneur, has had this idea for Space Bridge Partners because he had a mission that he wanted to get to Venus. and had shopped it around to the major launch partners and other big industry players.
And they all said, this is an awesome idea.How much money have you raised?And he said, well, we were sort of hoping that you would help us out by donating a launch slot, things like that.So they said, come back when you have money.
So he did some research. and figured out that there really wasn't a company that would help mission organizers get off the ground when they had a mission that was not centered around something that could be commercialized.
So basically, there was no return on investment or ROI.And he thought this is a huge gap that needs to be filled, especially when universities and nonprofits are doing all this incredible science that could be used on Earth.
So that's where this idea was born.But since he is too busy working on all these other companies.He I basically put my hand up and said, put me in coach and let me run this company, I can do it.
It just totally makes sense with my negotiating and relationship building.And even though I don't have a space background, I'm super enthusiastic about what's happening there.And I understand how to connect the dots.
So that's how I ended up heading up spacebridge partners. I think the most exciting thing about the space sector to me is that there are so many companies and so many jobs that need help from quote unquote outsiders.
And now I don't like to use that word because I feel like there is no such thing as a space outsider.We need every single kind of job in the sector right now.And we will need every kind of job when we finally leave this planet. We need architects.
We need people involved in the legal system.We need people involved in, you know, chefs, cooks, janitorial services.I mean, every single job on the planet is going to need to be a job in space.And some of them need to be jobs right now.
There are so many companies out there, too.Everyone, immediately when I tell them I've shifted into the space sector, says, oh, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos.Well, yes.And they're doing some great things.But there are hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of companies also adjacent, space adjacent and in the space sector that need outside input.
And again, I hate to use that word outside, but here's an example when you're designing a space capsule that's going to carry humans to the moon or just to orbit the planet. What does that look like?
And scientists have been developing those for many, many years.And that means that some simple human necessities become harder and harder to do in space because the scientists are trying to get science to happen.
And they forget that it's really uncomfortable to sit in this position for many hours, or it's really hard to reach this knob if you have to work at a station over here, but that knob over there to control something. is what needs to happen quickly.
So there's a lot of people involved in what space habitats look like, what spacecraft habitats or off-world habitats look like.What excites me a lot about the sector is that every conference that I've been to is full of optimists.
It's becoming more and more apparent that people that are new to the industry are in the sector as well.And it's a super welcoming sector because it's so exciting.We're talking about the future.We're developing the future.
We're innovating the future.So people think they can't get involved because they don't have a lot of money.And that's not true at all.It's everybody's welcome.You just have to find where you fit.
There are tons of resources online where you can look up space conferences, and some of them are even free.I would suggest looking up conferences and see what they're all about, and go to the ones that interest you.
And if there's no budget concerns at all, you can fly all over the globe.There's literally a space conference happening, I think, every day, but for sure every week, somewhere on the planet. So there's plenty of places you can go.
So the first thing that I would do is go to a conference and just start introducing yourself to people.The second thing I would do is look at your network.
You'd be surprised how many people that you might know are actually already in the space sector or helping the space sector or space adjacent.So check that out as well and just start asking friends.
And when you discover other interested people, usually they're like, oh, you know what?You should talk to so-and-so.That's kind of the way I built my network out too.
Dove into my linkedin network i again started going to conferences some of them were super expensive and i just cash in all my airline miles some of them were free and i had just as much success with the networking and the relationship building from the free conferences as i did with the ones that were really expensive to attend so.
I would say go where your heart takes you.If you're interested in satellites, there's plenty of those conferences.If you're interested in human spaceflight, there's plenty of those conferences.
And you'll find your way through it once you start meeting people and discovering all the things that there are involved in the space sector. Right now I'm focused on building out our team since we're still only nine months old.
So bringing on team members in a lot of different fields.We're also looking at building, we're also building out our global network of potential funders.
As soon as we announced that we existed, we got lots of mission organizers reaching out to us, which is really exciting.So we have a great portfolio of missions so far that have lots of different budgetary needs.
They have lots of different timelines and they're focused on lots of different science.So now we're working on building out our funder network. in terms of brands, media partners, and wealthy people.
I am Sarah Pujo, and you've been listening to Your Business in Space.All the ways to connect with me are in the links in the show notes.To discover more, head to interastra.space.
Your Business in Space is brought to you by the InterAstra Institute.New episodes are available on Spotify, Apple Music, and most everywhere podcasts are found.To be the first to know when the next episode drops, head over to interastra.space.
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