Ep 20 - Jonathan Lacoste - From Founder to Investor in the Space Industry, Making Space Un-Sexy & Building in Public

Jonathan Lacoste is an Investor at Space.VC, a Venture Capital firm he started in 2021 after having founded & sold Jebbit (a company focused on aggregating & analyzing user data online for businesses for advertising).

We talk about how his experience at Jebbit translates to the Earth Observation industry, why he moved from founding to investing and the learning-in-public approach he's taking. 

—

Episode Sponsors:

• Radiant Earth Foundation: Apply for the 2022 Radiant MLHub Impact Award for agriculture-related applications for Africa - with a $5,000 cash prize.
• Element84
  • Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast

—

About Jonathan:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Space.VC

Shownotes:

• Tomorrow.io
• “Why I’m starting a space fund”: Jonathan’s blog post on his decision to start Space.VC
• Pixxel
• Previous episode with Jeff Crusey, another Venture Capitalist in the space industry
• Settlers of Catan
• Books & Podcast recommendations:
  • All In Podcast
  • Acquired Podcast
  • Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success by Shane Snow
  • When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Choices Today by Harvey Cox

Timestamps:

• 00:00 - Introduction
• 02:45 - Episode starts, Jonathan presents himself
• 05:25 - Jonathan’s first experience: 10 years of Jebbit
• 08:50 - Finding a problem in the industry
• 12:10- Coming to a problem with a Beginner’s Mind
• 14:45 - Keeping a Beginner’s Mindset
• 16:50 - Choosing what to do after Jebbit
• 22:10 - Transferable & valuable skills
• 25:20- The space industry is 1st time founders
• 28:20 - Attracting more founders from outside the space industry
• 31:50 - Making space un-sexy
• 38:15 - How companies market themselves (and to whom)
• 40:55 - Creating a VC fund instead of starting a new company
• 44:00 - Continuing to learn
• 46:25 - Building in public
• 51:50 - Keeping up with new companies & Networking
• 56:25 - Deciding who to invest in
• 59:45 - Why Jonathan decided to invest in Pixxel
• 1:03:45 - Software vs Hardware companies
• 1:08:00 - Disagreeing with respect
• 1:13:35 - Jonathan’s take on the wave of companies going public
• 1:19:35 - Dealing with impostor syndrome
• 1:24:56 - Being wrong
• 1:29:30 - Settlers of Catan
• 1:32:00 - Books & Podcast recommendations

Feel free to reach out!

• My Twitter
• For news about the podcast
• Website