Upcoming Events

July 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. Join SVSC and become part of this group on the forefront of NewSpace in Silicon Valley.


    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.

    Lee Colin Executive VP/Business Development

    Lee enjoys an extensive business development background. He is intimately involved in the leadership of the popular The Silicon Valley Space Center (start-up incubator) and the Final Frontier LLC which provides marketing for New Space clients. Along with Dr. Casey he is charged with launching the IDEAS Project (Innovative Design Environment for Air and Space) to provide the ideal home for space and aeronautics companies in California in three locations. read more
     

    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

    Dr. Eric Morano Principal Advisor

    Dr. Eric Morano is a Principal Advisor to the Silicon Valley Space Center where he provides management advice about the current and future direction of the center including its incubator efforts. He has over 20 years of experience and held multiple positions in science, aerospace engineering and management, and business development. At Caltech he was a Senior Research Fellow and a co-founder of the Virtual shock physics Test Facility for the DoE ASCI program. read more

    Membership

    Join the Silicon Valley Space Center (SVSC) and become an integral part of a unique and proactive coworking group at the forefront of the growing NewSpace industry in the Silicon Valley. SVSC members are innovative forward-leaning, advanced thinking engineers, scientists, hackers, technologists, business developers, spacers, and others driven to encourage the growth of NewSpace startups. You do not need a membership to attend an SVSC meetup, or to pitch a business or technology to us. However, if you find yourself attending meetings frequently and partaking in the communal snacks, please become a member. Membership dues go toward keeping our brains fueled and events happening. Members now receive copies of The Lurio Report, updates from the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and other sources as SVSC is able to provide them. SVSC offers three levels of regular membership: Individual, Student, and Corporate. In addition, there are Silver and Gold levels of sponsorship. These are briefly summarized below, and described in further detail in the SVSC Membership Levels table (PDF).

    Types of Membership

    All members receive:
    • discounted registration to SVSC-sponsored workshops, hackathons, and other events.
    • updates from the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
    • monthly news from SVSC on trends, technology, and resources.
    Individual, $250/year Individual membership is for those that would like to lend their skills to the SVSC, accelerate commercial space startups, and take part in the meetings and events. In addition to CSF and SVSC updates, individual members receive copies of The Lurio Report ($150 value), and a one-year subscription to NewSpace Global market data service on the commercial space sector ($395 value). Corporate, $750/year Like Individual members, corporate members have access to CSF and SVSC updates, and The Lurio report. Corporate members can designate two persons to access the NewSpace Global service. In addition, a limited number of free tickets are available for VLAB, the Bay area chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum. Corporate members also can have their business plan and related materials reviewed by SVSC mentors. Student, $50/year In addition to CSF and SVSC updates, Student members gain special student access to the NewSpace Global market data service. To qualify, students must be enrolled full-time, and have a valid student e-mail address. Silver Sponsor, $2500/year Intended for more established ventures, Silver Sponsors expand on the Corporate member benefits, including additional seats into the NewSpace Global data service. They are featured on the SVSC website, and have an annual opportunity to showcase their work at SVSC and affiliated events. See the SVSC Membership Levels table (PDF) for details. Gold Sponsor, $5000/year Like Silver Sponsors, this is intended for more established ventures, but has certain expanded benefits. They are featured on the SVSC website, and have an annual opportunity to showcase their work at SVSC and affiliated events. See the SVSC Membership Levels table (PDF) for details.

    Join SVSC

    Individuals, Students, and Corporate members may join using the Subscribe button below. This will take you to a PayPal-generated page, where you can pay with either your PayPal account or a major credit card. Silver and Gold Sponsors should contact Lee Colin, SVSC Business Development Director at lee.colin @ siliconvalleyspacecenter.com.
    Payment options

    Get in Touch

    Contact info

      3295 Scott Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95054

     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

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