Ep 8 - Joe Morrison - Selling Satellite Imagery, Synthetic Aperture Radar & Making Predictions in Public

Joe Morrison is the VP of Commercial Product at Umbra, who builds & operates Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites. He is determined to make satellite imagery more accessible, and has shared many of his thoughts about the Earth Observation industry on this blog "A Closer Look with Joe Morrison".We talk about how buying satellite imagery is not a solved problem, how he builds a team and how Umbra is trying to change how satellite imagery is sold. Joe compares the current Earth Observation market to the railroad companies of a few hundred years ago, and we discuss making predictions in public. Joe Morrison:Twitter: https://twitter.com/mouthofmorrisonSubstack Blog: https://joemorrison.substack.com/welcomeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-morrison/Time stamps:6:30 - Episode begins, Joe presents himself8:48 - How does a people person end up in the map business?10:25 - Joe's story entering the geospatial field15:15 - People who use the word "geospatial" hate maps21:20 - Is "New Space" changing the industry?(22:25 - Audio starts degrading a bit)29:00 - Why work on the infrastructure when applications are lacking?32:20 - Why Joe joined Umbra34:25 - What if buying X were like sat imagery37:25 - Is infrastructure ever solved? (Audio is better again)40:18 - The importance of the people we work with49:05 - Space attracts people53:12 - Working with people who’ve interacted with your content & how we both create our content59:22 - Coming from a Space background1:06:10 - Fighting impostor syndrome1:10:55- A great team isn’t just great people1:17:40 - Is Umbra a data company?1:26:00 - Moving towards selling data as cheap as possible1:31:25 - Relationship between image providers and Defense & Governments1:36:10 - Umbra’s target audience1:42:58 - The technical barrier to entry and Joe’s thoughts on Analysis Ready Data1:45:40 - SAR imagery isn’t valuable in it’s own, it’s like salt (Audio quality drops again a bit)1:52:28 - Making predictions about the industry in public2:00:33 - Insanity & Obsessions (Audio quality is good again)2:08:02 - Joe’s Book RecommandationShow notes:Umbra: https://umbra.space/Azavea: https://www.azavea.com/NACIS (National American Cartographic Information Society): https://nacis.org/GIS definition, video of guy trying to explaining his job to non geo people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg4YsAjreOAMusk presenting Starship in 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Uyfqi_TE8Joe’s prediction Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/mouthofmorrison/status/1447917122772946951?s=20Book recommendation: “A river runs through it” by Norman MacleanBand recommendation: Lawrence, their latest album: Hotel TV Please feel free to reach out!My Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxLenormandReach out by email: [email protected] news about the podcast: https://twitter.com/MindsBehindMaps