SpaceX

The $3B Company Trying to Beat Amazon Prime

Sep 29, 2026 · 14:32

Stord founder and CEO Sean Henry argues value from AI and robotics will accrue to real-world operators like his company, not the technology companies themselves. Henry tells host Molly O'Shea Stord is crossing $1 billion in annual revenue this year after 10Xing over four years on a $250M Series F, processing 100 million packages a year to a third of U.S. households and nearly $20 billion in GMV. He explains how Stord's 8 billion annual operational data points accelerate robotics learning, why humanoids are stuck in pilots since humans are an inefficient form factor, and how acquisitions yield five to seven times efficiency uplift. He credits his start as a Thiel Fellow at 19 and argues AI and robotics companies will be commoditized while physical businesses like Stord win.

Dino Mavrookas: America Needs to Build Ships Again

Sep 8, 2026 · 29:56

Dino Mavrookas, Co-Founder & CEO of Saronic, argues America's shipbuilding gap—China outbuilds the U.S. 230 to 1, having built over 1,000 commercial ships last year against 5—is a national security crisis only autonomy and private capital can fix. He notes the Navy's 290 ships fall short of Congress's 355 minimum and the revised 381-ship need, and explains how Saronic's Corsair, Marauder and $3 billion Port Alpha shipyard—10,000 jobs and $160 billion of impact in Brownsville—answer that. He predicts 5 to 10 new defense primes in a decade and describes a Castellan partnership to launch a hypersonic missile off an autonomous ship before the Navy can from a manned one. He also recounts founding Saronic in 2022 after leaving private equity, his wife naming it after the Battle of Salamis.

Inside Saronic’s $9.25B Autonomous Boat Factory | CEO Dino Mavrookas

Sep 7, 2026 · 33:01

Saronic co-founder and CEO Dino Mavrookas tours Molly O'Shea through the company's 420,000 sqft autonomous boat factory in Austin, Texas, arguing vertical integration of hardware and software took the 2022 startup to a $9.25B valuation. He shows the Corsair line, which can build 2,000 boats per year, and credits its linear flow with exposing bottlenecks. He boards Mirage, a 52-foot vessel with 2,500 nautical miles of range and 3,500 lbs of payload, and points to Marauder, a 180-foot ship. Port Alpha, the Brownsville shipyard on 800 acres, will add 150,000 gross tons — 1.5X U.S. capacity — and 10,000 jobs vs. China's 230-to-1 lead. He traces the $800 Amazon-raft origins, the $392 million Navy contract, and Corsair combat use in the Strait of Hormuz, including an autonomous rescue.

Bridgit Mendler Gives Us the First Tour of Northwood's New HQ + Factory

Aug 31, 2026 · 46:17

Bridgit Mendler, co-founder and CEO of Northwood Space, gives Molly O'Shea a tour of the new 185,000 sqft Torrance factory and argues the neglected ground segment is the space economy's biggest bottleneck. Northwood has raised over $136M since 2022, including a $100M Series B led by Washington Harbour and Andreessen Horowitz, and holds a $49.8M Space Force contract for the Satellite Control Network. The factory will 5x capacity, add 400 jobs, and support hundreds of antennas a year; she explains why ground tech hasn't changed since the 1990s and how Northwood brings Portal/Prism production, machining, PCB assembly, and anechoic testing in-house. She also covers site licensing, colocation, supply-chain choices, national-security concerns, and mission ops moving into the former movie theater.

RKLB Factory Tour: Satellites, Spacecraft & Mission Control

Aug 26, 2026 · 24:50

Sir Peter Beck gives a Rocket Lab factory tour and details how the company grew from under $100,000 New Zealand dollars in startup capital into a vertically integrated space company, arguing spacecraft components are as much a moat as launch. He traces the Electron rocket reaching orbit on under $100 million and 80 people, the 2021 public listing, and three acquisitions made to impose discipline and build a multi-generational company. Beck recounts operating NASA's CAPSTONE lunar mission, his Venus life-detection dream mission, and NASA's LOxSAT liquid-oxygen storage work. He warns most new space entrants underestimate the gap between putting a satellite on orbit and building one that lasts 12 years in harsh radiation.