Grand Design, with Ian Cinnamon (Apex)

Fresh off of a $95M Series B funding round, this week we bring back Ian Cinnamon, CEO of Apex, on to the show. Ian, along with his co-founder Max Benassi, started Apex to address the bottleneck in satellite bus manufacturing. Apex is revolutionizing the small satellite bus market with its productized approach and rapid manufacturing capabilities. Our conversation explores Ian’s journey from concept to scaling production, including:The Series B funding round and its implicationsApex's mission to become the leading supplier of satellite busesChallenges and strategies in scaling productionImportance of maintaining a product-focused modelInsights into the evolving satellite bus marketThe future vision for ApexAnd much more... • Chapters •00:00 - Intro & 100th episode!02:42 - Apex origin story03:59 - Changes between funding rounds05:12 - Key factors in raising $95m06:40 - Financing needs of Apex07:35 - Current fundraising environment09:07 - Market opportunity of satellite buses10:55 - Is there serious demand for buses if you take out Starlink?16:05 - Winning niche for contracts17:53 - How Apex separates itself from competitors19:27 - SpaceX's bus building capabilities21:04 - Plans beyond LEO22:06 - Apex naming scheme23:49 - Mission 128:23 - First expectations for Mission 130:10 - Mission 1 timeline32:24 - Combatting the unreliability of the current state of launch37:03 - Balancing Apex's needs and the government's40:42 - Impending government contract win?41:53 - Why Apex built an e-commerce workflow44:22 - Scaling48:09 - Team size and expansion goals at Apex49:34 - What kind of capital would Apex need to be self-sustainable51:56 - Advice for prospective founders53:15 - Long-term vision, 10 years out55:53 - Who is playing Ian in the movie about Apex? • Show notes •Apex’s website — https://www.apexspace.com/Apex’s socials — https://twitter.com/ApexSpacecraftIan’s socials — https://twitter.com/IanCinnamonMo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislamPayload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspacePathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspacePathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes • About us •Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 19,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world.Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers. Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing five media properties across multiple platforms:1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com)3) Polaris, our weekly policy briefing, publishes weekly on Tuesdays4) Payload Research, our weekly research and analysis piece,  comes out on WednesdaysYou can sign up for all of our publications here: https://payloadspace.com/subscribe/