Today’s Pathfinder episode features Chris Celtruda, CEO of Valence Surface Technologies and Operating Executive at ATL Partners. With over 30 years of leadership experience, Chris offers a masterclass on scaling aerospace & defense businesses and implementing successful management styles.

In addition, Mo and Chris chat:

Chris' experience building multiple A&D businesses
ATL Partners’ new focus on space
The current investment landscape
Raising capital in today's market

And much more…

This episode is brought to you by SpiderOak, a US-based software company that builds space cybersecurity products and solutions for civilian, military, and commercial space operations. Learn more at https://spideroak.com/

• Chapters •

00:00 - Intro & SpiderOak Ad

02:10 - How did you get into the space industry?

04:48 - Has the industry changed in El Segundo, CA?

06:30 - What is ATL?

10:10 - What made ATL focus on space?

11:42 - How is ATL different?

13:42 - Chris's management style

17:14 - Selling your vision to an investor

20:32 - Advice for new founders

25:18 - Investing strategies

34:13 - Launch market

37:08 - Is satellite broadband a viable business model?

41:14 - Public space stocks

45:46 - M&A outlook

47:46 - IPO outlook

48:58 - What technology excites you and how would you invest your capital today?

• Show notes •

ATL's website — https://www.atlpartners.com/

Valence's socials — https://twitter.com/ValenceST

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes

• About us •

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers.

Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)

Management Masterclass, with Chris Celtruda (ATL Partners)

Valley of Depth