Airbus Rejected Him, Then Became His First Major Customer | Marco Witzmann @ Valispace

Marco is the founder of Valispace, that transformed how space, automotive, and defence industries collaborate on complex hardware development. Starting from his frustration with Excel spreadsheets while building Europe's largest satellite program, he created the "GitHub for hardware" that grew from a weekend hackathon to serving over 1,000 engineers before being acquired even before reaching Series A. His journey represents one of the few success stories in the European space industry.In this episode of Rockets & Radars, Marco reveals the rollercoaster behind his success - from being rejected by an Airbus executive at a pitch competition (who later became his first major customer), assembling a distributed founding team across three countries, and securing funding against all odds.Want to get hired at Valispace? https://tally.so/r/mez2X0-----------------------------------------------Chapters:(00:00) - Introduction(01:30) - What is ValiSpace: "GitHub for hardware"(03:24) - The problem: 300,000 documents describing one spacecraft(07:16) - The startup weekend that sparked Valispace(10:43) - From rejection to validation: The Airbus story(16:42) - From nights and weekends to full-time founders(18:30) - Landing the first customer through serendipity(25:19) - Securing investment from High-Tech Gründerfonds(28:49) - Building the team: How to find your "raw diamonds"(31:56) - Expanding beyond space into automotive (BMW as customer)(35:50) - The art of enterprise vs. startup sales(42:09) - Product development philosophy: Strong opinions, loosely held(44:35) - Embracing AI with ValiAssistant(50:30) - The acquisition journey with Altium(57:20) - Life after founding: Reflections on the entrepreneurial toll(01:00:00) - Advice for founders in their darkest moments(01:03:17) - Quickfire questions-----------------------------------------------Takeaways:1) Start with a Real Problem You've Experienced Firsthand- Marco identified inefficient engineering practices while working on Europe's largest satellite program at OHB2) Create Opportunities to Get Lucky- "You cannot know what comes, you can only create chances to get lucky"3) The Power of Strong Opinions, Loosely Held- "We'll never build a requirements management system" → They ended up building one- Be willing to change direction based on customer needs while maintaining core vision4) Finding Co-Founders and Early Team- "We had to find people who were like raw diamonds... who would not have an easy way of getting into a normal well-paid job, but who would be amazing at what they were doing"- Focus on growth potential: "Do we have the feeling that this is a person that, given six months, will be doing amazing things?"5) Breaking the Funding Deadlock- The paradox: Customers want to see a product before paying; investors want to see paying customers before investing- Use friends and family funding as a bridge to go full-time and develop something substantial enough to attract first real customers6) Managing Fundraising at Different Stages- "When you understood how to raise one round, the learning very soon becomes useless because the next round is raised very differently"- First round: storytelling and vision, Later rounds: growth metrics, retention, customer acquisition costs7) The Importance of Support Systems During Low Points- Have people who truly understand what you're going through—in Marco's case, his wife and co-founder- "If you go to someone else and they have no idea what it is like to build a startup, they will not understand any of the things that are bugging you"8) Finding the Right Strategic Partners- Acquisition wasn't initially on their radar but emerged from partnership discussions- Identify companies with aligned visions where you can become "an integral part of accelerating the future"