Ask HN: Has YC funded any space-focused companies?
The only one I found is Bagaveev. What about NanoSat or other rocket propulsion companies?
Any reason why YC would not fund this domain?
Any reason why YC would not fund this domain?
If you haven't already check out Chad Rigetti's talk from last year's Startup School. Excellent perspective on the challenges and rewards of working on "hard tech"
I think the problem can be broken down into specific steps fairly easily.
Executing those steps is not easy though - it is rocket science after all.
YC doesn't seem to shy away from ideas that are really out there. I'm wondering if the lack of rocket "startups" is due to something from YC's end or if it's a matter of numbers.
That is, the number of people with skills to build a rocket ship startup is so small that there isn't a critical mass of founders starting these companies. As a result, people are not seeing enough of them to be accepted into YC.
or
Yes, they have reasons not to back them
The applications, outside of Space X (and friends), are still being figured out.
So for non-human flight, it's kind of like where drones were about 5 years ago. It is possible, it's expensive, regulations are unknown but there is a huge potential that seems to be there.
However, no one seems to be able to quantify it.
Also, the costs are quite hight, as things stand right now, to launch a satellite into orbit.
What if you could get a nanosat into the orbit you want, when you want it for about the same price?