You might have noticed we’ve been quiet for the first few months of 2018. If you have, we thank you for your patience and your thoughts as we’ve been jogging through our own journey as a startup organisation.
Startups are hard, especially when you’re trying to help countless other startups, who are based all around the world, and are trying to positively affect all of humanity through space technology. We frequently advise the founders and startups we work with to do what we say and not as we do!
At Moonshot we still have a long way to go, but for the first quarter of this year we undertook a massive sprint and we think it has been worth while.
Here’s what has happened since January 1:
- A new cohort of astropreneures have graduated our Gemini 2 cohort.
- We dropped the ‘X’ from our core brand.
- We created the Moonshot Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation specifically to separate our not-for-profit programs; such as the Gemini Ideator. The Moonshot Foundation will allow these valuable programs to thrive from partnerships and support that was not possible before, making it easier for us to create the lowest barrier entry into the space industry that we can.
- We have started beta testing our new Gemini Space Network, the world’s first virtual incubator, being developed for individuals looking to become involved in the international space innovation community. We’re curating this to become a community led central hub for discussing new ideas, getting community mentorship, joining interactive Q&A discussions and interviews, finding co-founders or team members, and much more.
- We have almost secured a special alliance with an international firm that will allow us to consult large corporations who will benefit from new space tech opportunities, including new supplier relationships with SMEs, startups, and universities who are within our international network.
- Startmate, Australia’s most successful tech accelerator, has joined forces with us so we can run the first business accelerator in Australia with a specific design to help space tech startups. The program is being run in July, as a part of Startmate’s existing Melbourne cohort, and will take applications from high-caliber teams from all over the world at a time where Australia has committed its self to fostering a powerful, internationally collaborative, industry-focused space agency.
- As we’re now preparing for ‘Startmate meets Moonshot’, we’ve decided to delay the third Gemini Ideator until October. Soon we will begin a more informative and structured campaign to recruit interested leaders and partners who will facilitate the local aspects of the Ideator around the world — including across Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and North America.
The Moonshot Model — An explanation
At Moonshot we do more than work with startups and help them grow. We also work with governments, universities, investors, SMEs, and large corporations (aerospace and terrestrial) as we help facilitate the growth of more productive space innovation economies around the world.
That said, the leaders of these economies are the startup founders with potential to drive new growth and change the status quo or to fill a market need which could not be addressed before.
Our primary function is to find a sustainable business model for Moonshot that can help new ideas turn into valuable solutions to problems with sustainable business models and international markets.
“Space is not about rockets, satellites, and colonising Mars. It’s the intersection of science and entrepreneurship and where they are taking humanity we search for a more abundant future.”
We start this process with our Moonshot Foundation, and the Gemini projects within, which is in line with our belief that everyone should give first, and that “a rising tide lifts all boats”.
Through the Gemini Space Network we hope to inspire individuals from around the world to learn about new opportunities to develop business models around new or existing technology that will positively impact humanity, with an understanding of where a solution might fit within a value chain.
We then want to empower local leaders and communities around the world to lead the Gemini Ideator in their cities, with a structure driven by us, so that individuals can have a sandbox to test and practice turning ideas into validated business models while building strong and balanced teams with a focus on finding early revenue channels to support growth. Successful graduates of the Gemini Ideator should be equipped with a founding team and proof for a valid business model that is convincing enough to gain entry to an early stage accelerator.
Our first accelerator, “Startmate meets Moonshot”, fits between the next two eventual programs, and will begin in July this year within the Startmate Melbourne cohort. It will be augmented with a curated space business acceleration program leveraging our international network and collective experience.
MoonshotX is our for-profit organisation that houses our series of accelerators, each designed to address the specific needs of space tech startups at different stages of their lives.
Moonshot Accelerator is designed to be very early stage, to provide good teams an opportunity to spend an intense 3 months developing their space business with a goal to reach full problem-solution fit, in preparation for raising a seed round of funding — if necessary for their continued growth.
Moonshot Hyperdrive is a post-seed stage accelerator, designed for helping space startups with product-market fit and who need fast and cheaper access to space for validating technology. We expect that teams completing this should be ready to raise a series A round.
We envision a global network of innovation hubs hosting the Moonshot Accelerator and Moonshot Hyperdrive programs, as they become a valuable mechanism to make space startups easy.
Finally, we the Moonshot Model features Moonshot Ventures, our eventual venture capital arm, will allow us to continue supporting the growth of companies as they transition from startups to scale ups and solve a their market’s problem on an international scale.
Through out partnership with Startmate, we have reached a milestone in beginning our accelerator phase. We are at T+05 and have started to travel away from the launch pad. I hope you will join us on our trajectory as we blast towards space. 🚀
