#47: Democratising Earth Observation with James Slifierz, SkyWatch

Today, I am speaking with James Slifierz, from SkyWatch. For those who don't know, SkyWatch is a Canadian startup that aims to remove the barriers to accessing commercial satellite imagery, through two offerings - one called EarthCache that is a one-stop shop to acquire commercial satellite data and the other called TerraStream that provides an ideal way for satellite operators to go-to-market with their data.

SkyWatch is one of my favourite EO companies. I have been following SkyWatch for years and I am a big proponent of what they are aiming to achieve in the market. I think James has a very fascinating, yet concrete vision both for his company and the EO industry. So, I had him on the podcast to talk about all things SkyWatch and EO.

In this episode, James and I discuss the origins of SkyWatch, their attempt to build an API for commercial satellite data, surprising learnings acquired over the years, the state of EO and whether we need more data, the significance of the distribution layer and more.

This was one of my favourite conversations on the podcast - we touched on a number of topics and if you are an enthusiast of EO like we both are, you will enjoy this episode. 

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01:31: James’ background and the origins of SkyWatch

13:57: Partnering with satellite data providers

16:57: The most surprising learnings from building EarthCache, an API for satellite imagery

23:46: The market intelligence acquired by SkyWatch

32:48: TerraStream: SkyWatch’s product aimed at EO satellite operators

45:16: The lack of focus on the data distribution layer in EO

49:47: Too much EO data or do we need more data?

53:15: The advisory service layer and how SkyWatch fits into this thesis

58:50: James’ controversial take on the state of EO and what can we do better

01:02:30: Wrap-up