Space Business Podcast #106 - Karan Kunjur, K2 Space: Big Satellites

Big satellites, REALLY big satellites – for the age of Starship. That is what our guest company this week is working on – K2 Space from Long Beach, CA - and they just raised an $8.5MM seed round. I talk to their co-founder Karan Kunjur about their satellite platform, its potential use cases, and much more. Enjoy! JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/ Follow us: Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/ Instagram -  www.instagram.com/raphael_space/ Learn more about space & the space economy: Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy There is now a certificate for those wanting to enter the space sector: https://www.spacecertificate.com The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics. Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast Timestamps 0:00 Intro 2:08 Elevator pitch 2:48 K2's satellite platforms 5:05 Testing large satellites 6:14 Tech challenges  8:35 Operational orbit 10:10 Space debris 12:00 Origin story of K2 14:56 Use cases 18:19 Fitting in with emerging trends 22:41 Proving your use cases and building the market 24:49 Vertical integration 27:03 Propulsion 29:26 Business model 30:51 Timeline 32:32 Hosting 34:00 Vision 37:05 Future of the satellite industry 39:25 Advice for joining the space sector 41:25 What else is interesting in the space sector? 43:04 Sci-Fi