I want to see a thousand SpaceX's. And I want to see them not take 25 years to get there. I want to see them get there in five years. There's all of this promise about the value that space can bring. How do you actually deliver that value? How do you, you know, do that for folks like us who are at Northwood Lake getting an image that we could actually reference. For others, that's the ability to connect to internet in a location they've never been able to do so before or or cellular connectivity. How do we bring the internet to space?
Yeah. We're galvanizing the momentum that time is is here and it's happening. Kind of following that same playbook that we always have is how do we introduce the next solution to solve for that?
Bridget, thanks for having us.
Thank you so much for coming. Welcome to Northwood.
No, it's great. Really where I feel like I'm like we're like right in the action.
You you literally are. Yeah.
So, when you think back to your background in the entertainment industry and now as CEO of Northwood, like what do you feel what are some skill sets or like a skill that you feel like you've brought over and it's helped you be like the CEO of this company?
I think starting something from nothing like the zero to one, I've done many times in life uh and that's very applicable to a startup, you know. Obviously no track record as an 11-year-old trying to form an entertainment career and had to go through a lot of repeated rejection with that. Uh going into my academic experience trying to, you know, gain admission into a master's program at MIT with no undergrad and no coding experience needing to like try to consume, you know, Python content, JavaScript, uh HTML in my ears, you know, visually every different uh modality for trying to, you know, bring myself up to speed and demonstrate, you know, enough competency to get into that kind of program.
Uh and then now with forming a company, just kind of needing to make myself into what I've needed to be. And for this phase of career, it's not about me. It's about this entire business and and building something, you know, bigger than myself. Uh and so that zero-to-one experience with all the different teammates that we've got to build a company with. And uh you know, seeing an idea that gains adoption and uh at this point global reach has been like really gratifying.
Was space always part of sort of like, you know, back in the back of your head, something you wanted to pursue or where did the fascination come from?
I mean, as a kid growing up in DC whose dad repeatedly took her to the Air and Space Museum, something was lodged in there for sure. Uh but honestly, no. Like for many years, that was not the thing that I was thinking about. It was really exposure through my husband, our our CTO, who had been working in the space industry, that I kind of regained awareness of the industry and then that, you know, fateful summer where we started doing the prototyping around Northwood was where I discovered the ground problem and have been locked on it ever since. And uh yeah.
Did that ground problem arise when your time I know you spent some time at the FCC Space Bureau. Like how was that part of sort of the journey and into discovering the problem that Northwood is trying to solve?
Definitely. And, you know, what the Space Bureau does for the satellite industry is regulate spectrum. And spectrum is, you know, how how we manage networking for the space industry. And so it kind of has intimately to do with what I view to be as one of the very foundational pillars of the space economy. You know, I've I've said this before. I think comes down to being able to create things that go into space, being able to put them into space, and then being able to use them once they are in space comes down to the networking that you can accomplish.
And I view networking really as the fundamental driver of value in the space economy both from a you know, data is the medium of value, but also the potential to unlock further markets.
Um so, I think FCC was definitely key to my education in that.
So, walk me through sort of the moment where you were like, okay, like we this is a you know, this is the idea we have. Like you, Griffin, Shraya, like you guys came together and formed around this like thesis. Like how did it all happen? What year was it? Talk to me about that.
We started talking about it like the three of us in 2023. And you know, Griffin had been the one who'd been building the technical prototypes. I'd been thinking more on the operational side of the business, and Shar was bringing the industry expertise having worked at as in the ground segment specifically across his career. And so, combining those two things or those three things together, we we really were recognizing the same problem that I that I mentioned that networking for the space economy is really what drives its value, and there's a significant bottleneck, and that bottleneck actually is not in space, it's actually on Earth. And so, that was something Shar experienced every day, which is why, you know, we met up for lunch one day, and he you know, immediately said he was in, no questions asked.
But that I think is what has continued to refine our approach, which is the way that you actually solve that networking problem for space is through you know, introducing a model that gets you to the scale that you need not just for one individual company or mission but for the industry overall.
Um you know, our underlying belief is that uh improving that networking performance for the space industry really looks like shared infrastructure. The reason is networking is not differentiating. It's it's it's something that every company needs but it doesn't set the company apart. Uh I like to talk about this Bezosism of how companies should spend their resources on what makes their beer better. Um I think space companies should do the same thing and so that shared infrastructure it really benefits from the economies of scale. Like being able to aggregate a lot of capacity, being able to justify features that maybe you wouldn't if you're just building it for yourself but because there's five 10, 100 companies that benefit from the same thing, you can start to do that. So like that's the vision that got us really excited. It's let's build this thing that's way better in aggregate that you could build for any one company individually. And then the way that you do that is doing it vertically integrated.
And and trying to think of a model that like maximizes the efficiencies. And so that's why when people first met Northwood we came up with this wacky phased array concept because that's how you could accomplish a much more efficient architecture for some of the critical space problems. Um and so you know, that's really been built around this thesis around uh all of these spacecraft going into orbit, how can they continue to uh maneuver successfully, operate successfully uh especially in a dynamic space environment? And then this next chapter of Northwood is really about uh how do we bring the internet to space? We are galvanizing the momentum that time is is here and it's happening. And so kind of following that same playbook that we always have uh is how do we how do we introduce the next solution to solve for that?
Where did the name come from?
It came from Northwood Lake in New Hampshire where we did our first prototyping.
Um fun fact, all of my companies have had some tie to that lake house.
Both in origin as well as in name.
Okay. So, is that that's your that's your happy place?
So, uh let's take a step back. Tell me about NorthWood. Like what do you guys I mean, you mentioned phased array. Like from when, you know, from that time in the lake house when you were like mapping out what the company was going to be to what it is today, has that sort of roughly followed along the vision or has it evolved? And how And if so, how?
It's Yes, I it it is the same fundamental concept that the end-to-end experience of delivering data to the end user. For that first experience for us at NorthWood Lake, we were the our own end user. We were downlinking imagery from a public broadcast satellite and turning it into an actual picture that we could look at of Lake Michigan. It's a great, you know, gift to receive from space. And that has that has continued to stay true. It's that same story of, you know, how do you build that right solution for getting that data to the end user. Um and that's really what I find so important and compelling about the networking is there's all of this promise about the value that space can bring. Uh you know, recent most recently the SpaceX IPO has been one indication of you know, public sentiment around that. Uh how do you actually deliver that value? How do you, you know, do that for folks like us who are at NorthWood Lake getting an image that we could actually, uh you know, reference.
For others, that's the ability to, uh you know, connect to internet in a location they've never been able to do so before or or cellular connectivity or enable, um you know, autonomous tracking of objects that beforehand had been like completely dumb. Um so, I think the the potential of all of those applications is is very real, but driving it to the actual end user is like what NorthWood has always been passionate about. And the modality to do that changes. Like fun fact, through our time at Northwood, we tried a bunch of different antenna designs. There were like wild helical antenna formulations. Um eventually we wound up doing the phased array design, but uh I think it's it's really that process of understanding what is fit for the purpose that you are addressing, and then carrying it all the way through.
Because that's ultimately what matters.
Yeah. Well, so we'll talk about we're going to talk about the phased array antenna, but you you you that's not your only product right now, right?
So, tell me about your recent announcement.
Yeah, so we are recently announcing that we have our our network operating now for high throughput use cases. Uh as I mentioned previously, the the Portal system is designed for dynamic maneuvering in space, uh and and more space traffic and space mobility use cases. This next category of our business in the Prism product line is about higher throughput applications. Um today what that looks like is addressing the use cases of today. Uh you know, that's something we fundamentally believe in is let's start with the users that are here now that have capacity shortages. So, we start on frequency bands like S and X and KA. Um over the next 2 years we're going to be driving to 100 gigabit per second um on that same antenna formulation. Um and then ultimately driving towards capacity that can uh kind of rival an example of an internet peering exchange.
Yeah. So, Portal is the phased array system.
We started with the Portal system, you know, coming down to the basic fact that doing uh many lower data rate links off of the same aperture surface, especially when you're trying to hit different uh orbits, is just most efficiently done through that piece of infrastructure. Like, we can fit now, this is our our second um iteration of our design. We're working on our our third iteration now. Um in a single shipping container, the equivalent of 10 7.3 m dishes, which is larger than two of these factories.
Um so that the footprint consolidation is very significant. Um but you can match that performance if you can do it through the phase array form factor, which translates to speed, cost, timeline reductions by multiple orders of magnitude. Um and so that's really what that product has aligned to. Uh and then this next product is borrowing those What you'll see for our system is not that we're designing a different variant of this antenna for different use cases. Uh we like to describe it like an IKEA couch versus a custom couch. Um this is going to be the same IKEA couch for for every different application. Um but we're able to scale it through those same techniques that we've developed through Portal.
So let's talk for a second about the ground station model.
Right. It's not I mean ground stations have been around for a long time. They tend to be capital intensive, built to spec. Um and then there's been recently a newer sort of ground station as a service model. W- how where does like NorthWood fit into that and and what is kind of prompted you guys to come in and say, "Okay, those models didn't really work and this is like where this approach makes more sense?"
Yeah, I think of, you know, networking challenges for space kind of going through a couple of different changes. First, there's the world of the past where space used to be a couple of disparate assets, generally stationary, you know, low data rate, low requirement, like very uh kind of constant in terms of their data needs. We've transitioned from that now to something that's much more proliferated, more dynamic uh spacecraft that instantaneously will turn on or will uh you know, expand out of different locations and change their their requirements and their needs. Um and so we entering a much more dynamic phase of space, but now what we're on the cusp of is another order of magnitude in terms of requirement from the networking side for space. So, we are now entering a phase that looks more much more like the internet, which is why I reference it. Um, dramatically higher throughput. Importantly, it is also about reliability and resiliency, being able to constantly have those systems running.
Um, you know, this was a General Saltzman quote recently, space is no longer, you know, the icing on the cake, it's the eggs in the batter. And when you have something that is the eggs in the batter, it has to be on all the time. That's a very complicated networking challenge. Um, we also think of like different regions and the ability to route data across different regions to where it needs to land from like a data sovereignty perspective. Um, you know, compliance and and privacy of all that handling. So, it is going through a massive whiplash on the networking side. Um, to your question of like where ground station infrastructure sits today, um, I think there's been a phenomenal recognition of that transition that we're in. Um, you know, largely at this point meeting a moment in time of saying like let's change the economics so that we actually can solve for more proliferated architectures or a bunch more commercial space activity. Um, what, you know, keeps us up at night at Northwood is saying, uh, we are like just scratching the surface in terms of the capacity requirements. Um, and and just the um, like the the kind of like level of challenge um, to performance that this networking is about to be um, exposed to. And so that's what we're trying to solve against is um, a significant level of scale uh, and resiliency um, and kind of like operational flexibility that just hasn't existed before.
What's sort of the I mean I know depending on the use case and the customer, this answer could be different. But if you were to like just generalize, like what is the value proposition of NorthWood if there's there's a company trying to decide between a number of different ground station providers? Like why would they go with you?
Space assets are depreciating assets. You have you have like parked a ton of capital in this asset that you now have like no control. Oh, I mean you do have control over the asset through networking. Um, but you you spent your resources on a bus, on the payload, on the launch, and it's up there. Um, all of that sunk capital needs to be recovered. And the way that you do that is through utilization. And the way that you do utilization is through, uh, you know, maximizing how much data you can get on and off of that spacecraft. Um, so that's like across the board for every space application, that is the equation.
Um, and so I think what's exciting, but also challenging, is as the demands on those spacecraft missions increase, and as we talk about like a lot of capital flowing into the space economy, how do you make sure that that's actually, uh, you know, being recognized in value creation, um, and and kind of delivering against the investment in those assets.
Do you know what the sort of average utilization of a ground station is typically? Like whether it's like kind of an old model or like a like a ground station as a service model?
Yeah. That So, that's a a phenomenal question. Um, it So, if you look at like a historical ground station, um, a lot of bespoke assets. I've talked to different, you know, uh, large commercial operators that say they have like basically a one-to-one link per antenna per spacecraft. Sure. Like think about like if you cannot, uh, if your a other antenna is not compatible with any other satellite in the constellation, there's a significant limit in how much that resource can be utilized. And so, historically, assets have been really bespoke and you know, fit to like very singular purposes. Another thing that just like as a thought experiment, I like to think about is like the the the Stanford dish. If folks have seen that, it's this massive dish designed for one very particular problem. Utilization is probably going to be challenging on that kind of resource because it's so fit to a specific problem set. And so, what I get excited about thinking about you know, the future of networking for space and the infrastructure that supports it is how do you build infrastructure that can be as generic as possible so that it can serve as many different use cases as possible.
Right. And that's what really drives the utilization.
So, is that so obviously a big part of your value proposition is vertical vertical integration. And then the the the second piece is the fact that you know, you're not building bespoke you know, antenna systems for bespoke spacecraft. Is the reason why you can be a little bit more adaptable or more adaptable to different spacecraft designs and systems? Is that because that's where the engineering has gone for spacecraft? Versus like like how do you how how how are you able to be more flexible?
Yeah, yeah. No, it's a great question. I think I suspect that space operations will continue to be very diverse just because the missions for for space are diverse. The the requirements are. And so, what we're solving for is being able to accommodate that diversity. The way that we do that really comes down to our ability to build individual units that can be recombined uniquely. So, think about like a site, a Northwood site, is uh a certain amount of resources that you can divide up in different quantities to address different mission needs. So, um you know, for instance, with our Space Force contract, they're making use of two beams at one of our sites. Um other customers can make use of other beams.
Uh and those beams can have different power levels depending on the mission need.
How many sites do you have now?
We have five sites across two continents.
And what's the uh what's sort of like the goal like by end of year like over the next couple years? How how how What do you And by the way, those sites are primarily the phased array antennas, right? Not the new
Yeah. Um so, Prism already deployed, uh already taking passes.
Our latest Prism site actually uh was deployed went from deployed to taking passes in 3 and 1/2 hours. Um so, yeah, our our plan for end of year is to be across eight countries, um over a dozen sites. Uh the next year we'll be doubling both site and antenna count. Um we'll be in the hundreds of antennas at that point in town time. You can also think like these are not just sites with one single asset at them. They're sometimes like north of a dozen assets. Um and then uh the following year is where we're really aiming to kind of uh start to measure things in terms of overall network throughput.
So, uh let's talk about let's talk about the market demand side for a second. So, I don't know, there's probably like 13,000 satellites in orbit right now. A vast majority of them are currently Starlink satellites. Uh and Starlink and SpaceX uses gateway. They have the So, they have their own ground station infrastructure. Um Kuiper will have its own ground station infrastructure. Like, how do you think about how big this market is, right? So, you're basically like kind of thinking X SpaceX X Amazon. Like, how big is that remaining market? Uh maybe today it's not that big or maybe you'd argue it is today very big, but how do you see it evolving?
Yeah. I would argue that I think given the underlying principles behind, you know, what makes shared infrastructure so capital efficient, that will eventually be compelling to every space business, even the most vertically integrated ones. You know, sometimes you can you can point to AT&T for example, like they wind up selling off all of their tower assets.
Um so that's not like to in response to your question, that's kind of like as a side thing. Um I think for the space economy, a lot of it looks like that growth value and that's where our customers are coming in. Um so you know, with existing customers, uh it looks like folks who are either currently experiencing a lack of capacity, they don't have the capacity that they need with their spacecraft, um or it's folks that are planning net new constellations. Um and so those are the partnerships that that we have where they say, "Okay, we're scaling up our capacity. Our current ground solution doesn't make sense for that anymore." Um and so, you know, I like to be very bullish on space because I think that's what we're all here here for. Um but you have to be pragmatic about like building a business at the same time. Like it's great to be bullish on a space outcome, but you have to survive in order to see it there. And so, I think that's that's really informed our product roadmap. Um but I think it's also philosophically the right thing to do. You know, like I really believe in building for what the space industry needs now, um and real customers that exist today and have those ground shortages. Um but I also believe that kind of having the continuity between today and into the future is how we actually reach those substantial outcomes.
Where do you see your single near-term like your biggest near-term opportunity? Like is it backhaul, direct-to-cell, compute? Like where are you like what are you most excited about? Or is it the government?
Yeah, I think, um, what's interesting is we are getting like significant interest from folks in the enterprise backhaul space.
Uh, however, I think they're thinking of the future as well. They're thinking of how they can continue to adapt to growth areas and have that exposure. And so, what winds up being useful is having a third party like NorthWood that's thinking about like comprehensive ground solutions and is invested in innovation. So, like, when they're opting in with us, um, you know, they get to, uh, they come generally like with a pretty blank slate saying, "Help us think of how to solve this networking problem." Um, but they get the advantage of knowing, you know, NorthWood is a 2-year-old company on its third design revision of its first system and and on the second design revision of its second system. Um, we will continue to iterate very rapidly. Uh, and they can trust that that growth path is going to take them towards the use cases that, you know, they need to tell their stakeholders that they are building towards and have that growth exposure to.
Right. Um, when you think about the other companies that maybe you come head to head against and, you know, you don't have to name them, but I'll name a few that I that kind of strike me as like companies in your orbit. So, like, like, uh, like a Leaf Space or Kymeta or like, you know, AWS, like, how how do you I mean, in in in in a lot of ways, the all of their, um, offerings are, um, you know, this kind of ground we mentioned earlier, this ground station as a service model. Um, they also talk about flexibility and and and, um, some of the items that you've mentioned. Like, how do you how do you differentiate versus those companies? Or do you think there's more similarities?
I think that space networking is a big problem space where, like, we will have no shortage of need, um, and I I think that like for for the record like they're doing phenomenal business. Like there's a lot of need for ground capacity and, um, you know, I think it's really exciting the growth that they're having. Uh, for us our like the thing that keeps us up at night is if we can't build this capacity, uh, fast enough to meet the shortages that exist and and really like do that like from the very bare bones of that hardware itself.
Like we're building the antennas, we're building the modems, we're building the software rack, like we're doing all of it ourselves. Then there are use cases that are very significant both to national security interests as well as just to market growth and potential that are not going to be addressed.
And so I say like the more the merrier and really glad for their success and we're still freaked out, you know, like still keeps us up at night like needing to make sure that we get enough capacity out there.
Where do you see the biggest growth in capacity coming from? Like what segment of the market? If you were to put...
Like, uh, if you were to ask me immediately, I think there are some very immediate problem sets in the US government space. What's really exciting is there was a recognition of all of the importance and potential of proliferated architectures and of kind of modernizing and integrating government mission sets into, you know, broader use cases. However, it is so easy to think of like a sexy spacecraft pathfinder mission and forget that you need to actually connect to it on the ground. So there's a lot of like that flavor of opportunity where we're, you know, really happy to partner with, you know, government partners that need that capacity switched on really quickly.
Well, so okay, so you won, you just recently won a $49.8 million dollar...
Force award. I was going to say 50, but I knew you'd correct me. So what is that contract? What are you guys going to be doing for them?
Yeah, so that was for the satellite control network supporting the Space Force.
