Upcoming Events

January 2014

Press

    Launch Pad

    The Silicon Valley Space Center Accelerator Program “LaunchPad” is advising, mentoring, and co-founding new space start-ups.
    We focus on:


    TECH DEVELOPMENT

    Consultations with new space companies and entrepreneurs on developing their technologies.

    BUSINESS STRUCTURES

    Setting up company structure tailored for space related ventures.

    ANGEL LEVEL FUNDING

    Private angel investor meetings.


    Together we translate your passion into a business

    • Develop your product to address market demands
    • Set realistic goals and expectations
    • Test business plan assumptions
    We will help you set realistic expectations for building a company stemming from our collected industry and incorporation experience. Basically we'll lend you our perspective on whether your business idea and future vision makes sense in the current market, and suggest any changes to the idea or to your expectations - helping you create a successful outlook.

    Products Development

    • How do you build a prototype?
    • What's the most effective path from idea to offering?
    • What should comprise a minimum viable product?
    We can help you plan and start building your offering as we have extensive hands on knowledge of how you turn your idea into a product, both regarding manufacturing and making effective product development plans. It's crucial to use maximize your efficiency in getting a product to market, and there are a ton of pot-holes on the road that we can help you avoid.

    Customer Development

    • How do you attract the first customers and partners to your vision?
    • How do you avoid bias in getting useful customer feedback?
    • How do you effectively use feedback to better your product?
    Don't spend 3 months developing a product nobody wants - build your product around your customer. Customer Development is a key because it opens the door to rapid product improvement, without wasting time and effort developing something nobody will buy. The first step is exploration, which is focused on determining whether there is a problem worth solving in the first place. The only way to answer that question is to ask or analyse your prospective customers. But how and when do you conduct these interviews? How do you get actionable insights out of them? People lack the capacity to accurately predict their own behavior in hypothetical situations.

    Legal

    • How to incorporate in investor friendly ways
    • How do you avoid common legal mistakes?
    • What about NDAs?
    Especially if starting your first business, incorporation can be a major headache, luckily we know how to do it right in terms of not wasting time or money on incorporation whilst insuring that your new business is friendly to investors in the space industry. Revenues, Costs and Profits What does it cost to build your product or service? How much will you charge? Can you expect a profit? Do you have a financial model planned out to pay investors?

    Cofounders & Hiring

    What talent do you need in the beginning to be successful? How do you recruit the first team members with extremely limited resources? How do you set expectations, measure results and remove or fire under-performing resources? Do you need a co-founder?
    What are tips and tricks to present your business? How do you craft a successful media release? What are effective tactics to get social media, the blogosphere and traditional media to take notice? What are common media mistakes for new companies? How do you portray yourself and your business to the world?  How do you involve your customers and partners in your success?

    30 seconds is all it takes

    Learn how to do a 30 second, Two Minute and Five Minute Pitch. How NOT to do a slide deck. When is it realistic to raise capital for a brand new company? Mentor Review A selected mentor will review your business, and provide blunt feed back on improvements. How should you calculate the amount of money to raise? How should you define the use use of proceeds? What materials are required to fund raise? What do investors expect from the company? What are typical investment structures and deal terms for seed-stage financing? Identify a list of potential investors, and prepare to meet them.

    About

    Silicon Valley Space Center provides business acceleration, strategic direction and angel level funding for startup companies within the growing NewSpace industry in Silicon Valley. We assist start-up and early-stage companies with the commercialization of their innovative products or services. We regularly host events and workshops to bring together the vast array of entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, and investors who share a passion for shaping the future of space exploration.


    Dr. Sean Casey Founder and Managing Director

    Dr. Sean Casey is Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Silicon Valley Space Center, a business accelerator for NewSpace entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. He is a member of the Suborbital Applications Researchers Group of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and has over two decades of experience as an airborne astronomer. Dr. Casey’s work has been recognized as an example of NASA’s goal for “more efficient and cost effective methodologies to instrument design and construction…”. read more

    Dr. Periklis Papadopoulos Founder

    Professor Papadopoulos is the Aerospace Program Coordinator and the Director/Founder of the Center of Excellence for Space Transportation and Exploration at San Jose State University (SJSU). At SJSU, he directs the microsatellite and CubeSat program. He is the author or co-author of 58 research publications in aerothermodynamics and computational fluid dynamics and has performed de-orbit trajectory, CFD and systems level analysis for the Mars Science Laboratory.

    William Willoughby Chief Operations Officer

    William Willoughby has more than 44 years of commercial, military and general aviation maintenance experience including station operations, airframe and engine heavy depot maintenance and overhaul, flight line maintenance and component back shops. Positions included chief operations officer, director of maintenance, aircraft maintenance manager, station manager, senior engineering supervisor, consultant, team leader, aviation maintenance instructor and supervisor.read more


    Lee Colin Chief Business Development Officer

    Lee enjoys an extensive business development background. He has developed networking skills through top level participation in the following series of successful start-ups: GREEN Vehicles Inc, The Salinas Action Group for the Environment (SAGE), The Alternatives to Violence Program (ATV), Sacred Body Sacred Ways (Wellness Center), Century 21 Showcase Realty and Roberta Enterprises (Temporary and Permanent Employment Agencies). Lee is intimately involved in the popular The Silicon Valley Space Center read more

    Traci Parker Director, Strategic Relations

    An adventure seeking futurist, facilitator of change, and connector of people and ideas. She is a Registered Nurse, with over 20 years experience in Health Care Operations and Performance Improvement consulting. Her passion for Regenerative Medicine, Nanotechnology and Space lead her to Silicon Valley, where she now co-organizes the Health Extension Salon, in addition to serving as DIrector of Strategic Relations for Silicon Valley Space Center. Traci aims to build partnerships and environments that allow for creativity, intellect, and inspiration to emerge so we may solve tomorrow’s problems today.

    Get in Touch

    Contact info

     PO Box 391562, Mountain View, CA 94039
     505-690-1295
      newspace@siliconvalleyspacecenter.org

    Elsewhere

    We'll post our latest news updates on Facebook, you can also see our linkedin profile below.

    The first Space Hacker Workshop for Suborbital Experiments, presented by Citizens in Space and the Silicon Valley Space Center, was a stunning success. Citizensinspace.org
    © 2013, Silicon Valley Space Center