It's rare when an investment opportunity hits you like a hammer! When the value creation opportunity is just so obvious that, if you can execute, you're talking about trillions, not billions.
Xona is one of those investments for me where we led their Series A and doubled down on their subsequent rounds.
It was thus a true pleasure to sit down with CEO and Co-Founder
Brian Manning for the latest episode of DeepTech Unleashed.
For a long time, GPS was considered a ‘solved problem,’ ubiquitous and free!
But when we look closely, a glaring vulnerability often goes unnoticed: We are massively reliant on GPS, which has fundamental architectural flaws: poor signal strength, insecure communication, and vulnerability to jamming and spoofing by adversaries.
So, how does Xona address new and emerging challenges in GPS?
This led to a fascinating discussion with Brian, in which we covered:
- The Entrepreneurial Spark: From growing up in a family plumbing business to working at SpaceX on the Falcon rocket thrust structure, and how those formative experiences shaped Brian's journey.
- The Limitations of GPS: Why modern automated infrastructure requires an entirely new foundation layer.
Overcoming the Skeptics: Navigating early fundraising hurdles, managing runway through volatile periods like COVID-19.
- Revolutionary New Tech: Launching Xona's high-performance Pulsar-0 satellite, which provides a signal 100x stronger and more secure than traditional GPS.
- The Launch Bottleneck: Navigating an industry where satellite manufacturing capacity heavily outstrips commercial launch supply.
- A Vision of Ubiquitous Precision: Looking ahead to a future where high-precision positioning transforms precision agriculture, critical infrastructure, and consumer applications.
Thank you, Brian, for joining us and sharing some timeless insights and valuable lessons for anyone involved in building the next generation of iconic tech companies.
🎧 Listen here:
https://lnkd.in/gMDWgu36
🎬 Watch here:
https://lnkd.in/gAEw4rwU