You need to be paying attention to the space industry. Why? Because Payload Cofounder Ari Lewis has finally agreed to be a guest on Pathfinder.

You’ve probably seen Ari in his natural habitat: flying around the country to events and conferences, sporting his trademark Payload baseball cap, helping companies understand why they need to partner with Payload. But today, the lifeblood of Payload’s sales engine sits down with fellow cofounder and Pathfinder host Mo Islam.

Mo and Ari discuss the Payload origin story, scaling a media organization, and the future vision of the business.

They also talk about:

Challenges faced by the space industry today
Parallels between the space and crypto industry
How to build a strong media brand
The Payload 10-Year Vision

And much more…

Our 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 - Introduction

00:35 - SpiderOak Ad

01:13 - Introduction to Ari

01:37 - What finally made you decide to come on the show?

02:16 - Payload origin story

07:01 - How Ari got to Payload

09:02 - Crypto to space?

13:02 - What made Payload unique and allowed it to grow?

18:25 - How does Payload make money?

21:53 - Space industry challenges and how Payload can help

31:02 - How you view Twitter as a tool for the space industry

35:57 - SpiderOak Ad Break

36:45 - Will Payload expand beyond the space industry?

39:00 - Fundamentals of building a strong brand

45:53 - How Ari stays focused and motivated

47:37 - Hobbies outside of work

48:29 - Secret energy source?

50:23 - How does someone working at Payload ask for a raise?

51:39 - Favorite part about Payload or memory

54:40 - The Payload 10 Year Vision

• Show notes •

Ari's socials — https://twitter.com/amlewis4

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/)

The Media Cofounder, with Ari Lewis (Payload)

Valley of Depth