Dead Satellites Are Worth Billions. This Solo Founder Figured Out How to Save Them.

Amin Chabi (founder of Lúnasa Space) didn't set out to build a company. He graduated with a master's in space and astronautics, COVID hit, nobody was hiring — and starting alone was the only option left. What he stumbled into was one of the most overlooked crises in space: thousands of dead satellites cluttering orbit, threatening the GPS, banking, internet and telecom infrastructure the entire modern world depends on.In this episode, Amin shares how Lunasa went from a blank incorporation form to a full acquisition by Infinite Orbit in just five years, what it actually takes to build rendezvous and docking technology that enables satellites to be serviced in orbit, and the exact blueprint he'd follow to make a European space startup acquirable as fast as possible.Get in touch with Amin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/aminchabi/-----------------------------------------------Chapters:(00:00) Introduction(01:34) Who Is the Founder and What Does Lunasa Space Do(04:18) The Space Fan Who Dropped Out at 16 to Support His Family(08:33) How COVID Killed His Job Hunt and Forced Him to Start a Company(17:09) Surviving the First Months With No Funding and No Safety Net(20:00) Why Storytelling and Marketing Matter More Than Engineers Think(26:22) How He Hired a Full Team Using LinkedIn Cold Messages(29:13) Landing the First Public Partnership and Getting on the Radar(38:24) The Right Way to Think About Fundraising in Deep Tech(41:32) Getting the R&D Grant That Broke the Chicken-and-Egg Problem(46:12) Building the Full Tech Stack In-House From Scratch(01:12:07) The Acquisition by Infinite Orbits and Why He Said Yes(01:19:00) What Actually Made Lúnasa Acquirable(01:24:30) Post-Acquisition Integration - What Happens Now(01:27:58) Quick Fire Round and Final Advice for Founders-----------------------------------------------You will learn:- How Amin got his first £10,000- Why space is one of the most underrated industries when it comes to marketing, and what Amin did differently- Why he deliberately avoided raising too much private capital- How he built his entire network from scratch as a solo founder who knew nobody in the industry- Why in-orbit manufacturing is the most overrated bet in space right now- What Europe gets catastrophically wrong about building space companies- What Infinite Orbits actually saw in Lúnasa that made them want to buy it- The exact blueprint Amin would follow to make a European space startup acquirable as fast as possible