BTU #450 - Satellite Startup to $500M Acquisition by Google (John Fenwick)
“I do feel like we had 6 or 7 'bet the company decisions' all strung together. It felt like I was in Vegas, going to the roulette wheel and just betting on red - over and over again - and depending on each one of those to be right. Startups are a lot about timing. If we had tried to start [Skybox Imaging] two years earlier, the technologies wouldn't have existed for us to be able to build and point a spacecraft to take a pretty enough picture. If we had come along two or three years later, someone else would have already done this. It's just to be in that sweet spot, to thread the needle, I just realize that we just happened to be the right people, telling the right story at the right time."– John Fenwick
John Fenwick is a Director at Apple, after serving as Head of Spacecraft Operations at Google. He started out at the Air Force Academy, after which he served for 8 years in the Air Force as a Physicist & Space Acquisitions Officer. He holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from MIT and an MBA from Stanford Business School. After business school, John co-founded Skybox Imaging and served as their Vice President of Flight Programs. Skybox provides commercial, high-resolution satellite imagery and high-definition video and analytics services. Skybox raised over $91M in funding prior to being acquired by Google for $500M, as reported by the WSJ. Skybox is now known as Terra Bella within Google.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
Starting a company and thinking it was only a class project
How to find co-founders who will complement and challenge your own approach to work
Advice on raising venture capital from top investors
Advice on going through an acquisition process
The ways in which a military background is both advantageous and challenging for entrepreneurship
And much, much more…
Links
John's company, Skybox Imaging, is now known as Terra Bella: https://terrabella.google.com/
John's investors included:
Show Notes
2:23 - John's background
4:10 - Johns journey in the Air Force and his decision to leave
7:35 - How to consider an MBA if you're a veteran pursuing entrepreneurship
8:53 - John's advice to those considering applying to business school
10:03 - How John went about finding his co-founders
11:32 - An overview of Skybox Imaging
13:45 - Advice to veterans in seeking a co-founder for your startup
17:52 - Out of a classroom, how John started his first company, Skybox Imaging
19:17 - Advice for those seeking to raise venture capital
21:12 - What the fundraising process was like... and what it felt like to raise his first $3M
22:57 - Day-to-day life in an early stage startup
24:03 - How a military background can help in starting a company, and how it might hold you back
28:29 - After raising funding, the next milestone in John's startup journey
31:03 - Launching their first satellite
35:40 - The acquisition process with Google
38:43 - Advice on managing an acquisition process and how to be successful
40:58 - Habits to break as you depart from the military
42:23 - Indications that a veteran may be well suited for entrepreneurship, and indications that it may not be right for you
44:37 - John's final words of wisdom