Choosing The Final Frontier: Launching a Rocket Company with Andy Lapsa of Stoke Space

The NFX Podcast

Today NFX Partner Morgan Beller is joined by Andy Lapsa, Co-Founder & CEO of Stoke Space Technologies, a company building reusable second-stage rockets to seamlessly Earth and orbit. Founded in 2019 and based in Renton, Washington they have been focused on the reusability aspect of rocketry to make space access more available and frequent in our future lives. Lapsa was a former employee and award-winning rocket engineer at Bezos's Blue Origin, while the rest of their team come from SpaceX and other leading aerospace companies.

"We have all the technical and economic ingredients needed to build a massive economy in space. We’re not focused on Mars or the Moon, we’re singularly focused on building a space economy that makes life better on Earth.”

Today NFX Partner Morgan Beller is joined by Andy Lapsa, Co-Founder & CEO of Stoke Space Technologies, a company building reusable second-stage rockets to seamlessly Earth and orbit. Founded in 2019 and based in Renton, Washington they have been focused on the reusability aspect of rocketry to make space access more available and frequent in our future lives. Lapsa was a former employee and award-winning rocket engineer at Bezos's Blue Origin, while the rest of their team come from SpaceX and other leading aerospace companies.

As a lead investor, Morgan uncovers how they originally met, Andy's full Founder journey, why space is such an important industry to apply talented engineers to, and his overall decision to enter one of the most complex sectors in the world of tech.

Visit their website - https://www.stoke-space.com/

(0:00) Introduction and guest Andy Lapsa's background (4:19) Reflection on the 1960s space race and its impact on today's space industry (7:23) The role of global connectivity, Earth observation, and outsourcing in space (10:16) Stoke's role in the future of affordable and easy space travel (14:38) The emerging market of small satellites and Stoke's focus (18:51) Sponsor: NFX (21:19) The potential of space manufacturing and Stoke's opportunity (25:21) The journey of building Stoke and the shift in innovation in the space industry (29:08) The impact of climate change on the space exploration industry (32:24) The existential threat and potential for collaboration in space exploration (37:18) Making space exploration accessible for all and envisioning the future consumer phase (40:22) Wrap up and closing remarks