A few remarks on Apollo Fusion:
Originally I wanted to write an article with a bombastic title “The entrepreneurial powerhouse of Apollo Fusion”. Sadly, there probably isn’t enough substance to support the title and so I go with a subtle version. Originally I had two goals — make fun of Astra and describe the remarkable team Apollo Fusion gathered over the short time of its existence so far. I will leave the first one to the investor update, will stick with two and add a few words on the culture in the company.
In my work, I’m writing long, argumentative and heavily-sources reports/memos. In contrast, this writing series is a part of my effort to write more relaxed, opinionated texts — more prompts for discussion than definitive arguments.
I looked into the story when I saw a startup getting a new advisor. Let’s leave it there. Simultaneously, when writing about Swarm’s acquisition by SpaceX, I found Benjamin Longmier, Swarm’s CTO was a cofounder of Apollo Fusion as well. Out of all people mentioned in this article, he probably spent the least time around but was highlighted in the series B press release.
Thirdly — as I spend too much time on Twitter — I found that the former VP of Engineering formerly worked at SSL, OneWeb and Airbus-OneWeb Satellites which makes up for another impressive journey in the industry.
I actually spoke with Jorge Delgado and had a very pleasant conversation about his time and culture at Apollo and the state of the industry. This way I want to very kindly thank Jorge for his time — that being said any mistakes in the article fall on my back.
Apollo Fusion was founded in 2016 by veteran serial entrepreneur Mike Cassidy after a time at the Google Search leadership team and as a project leader at Google X overseeing the Loon project. My brief incertitude* wondering if there is a darker layer under the external aura has been quickly melted away by a common sentiment that “Mike is the best boss I have ever had” with characteristics such as fast (obviously) and inclusive “Mike used to bring in the whole team to make the decision”.
My biggest question mark was whether the culture with remarkable outputs (now judging solely on the careers after AF) has been achieved by hiring the right people or training them right. I believe it was a combination of both — with a perhaps most interesting aspect of combining space heritage and unconventional experience in contrast. Some traits for hire were good questions asked, risk tolerance and openness to ideas — but an impression that space heritage was not valued would be wrong. In the end, Apollo mixed people with experience from the traditional space contractors with hires experienced from distinct angles of hardware engineering — which ensured respect for the difficulty of space but aided with the fast shipping culture resulting in a paced tempo.
Apollo actually started as a nuclear fusion company — which could be guessed from the name, but as Mike explains, the plasma physics behind Hall Thrusters and fusion reactors is quite similar. The pivot was not difficult and left two nuclear physicists on the team — Matthew Gill who continued at Astra and Maureen Haverty who, after a time at Astra, moved to join the Seraphim VC. On a blog she has written can be found a hint about Apollo (besides it is a good read). I very much like this part as it brings new people into our industry.
In a press release dated June 7th 2021** Astra announced Apollo Fusion’s acquisition — a team of 17 at the time (many of them stayed till today). Quite a lot has been written about the transaction. Winners? Perhaps Astra — which bought likely the only revenue-generating part of the company. The offering launch + propulsion makes sense to target the right orbits selected by the customers. The possible use of AF’s thrusters in the Astra’s filled constellation will likely not materialize.
Losers — I won’t be too fast pointing at Apollo. The biggest concern here is obviously the stock-based compensation, which has fallen from around 10 USD at the date of announcement to mere 60 cents a piece today. Given the last fundraising was 10M series B in 2018, altogether the deal should even out in some reasonably fair way. Astra was originally looking to acquire more companies citing attractive stock-based compensation, but those doors are obviously closed.
I came across statements that Apollo was too early on the market, but don’t think it is a fair assumption. Over its existence, the company kept winning contracts and delivering propulsion systems — even after the acquisition LeoStella and OneWeb satellites announced to purchase AF’s propulsion.
All summarized, Apollo Fusion was a typical startup with all its quirks — fast decisions, quick pivots, low-cost approach, but not at the cost of compromising space-grade hardware. The culture, the passion for leadership and craft resulted in employees on very cool journeys in the industry. From Neuralink, Astra, Seraphim — I can assure you that the story is certainly not over.
BTW, I’m a partner at Golem Ventures Space and would love to speak with pre-seed stage startups who want too achieve great things. kocian@golemventures.com
*apparently a French word as I haven’t switched my google translator, but still a very good one
** I almost made a big mistake saying it was 2022. Couldn’t imagine it happened more than a year ago. I guess it was a busy time and I am getting old.
