Bridgit Mendler

CEO, Co-founder @northwoodspace

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Today Northwood has raised $100M in Series B funding led by @WashingHarbour and co-led by @a16z to support a simple objective – take space missions further faster.

This financing follows millions in signed contracts including a $49.8 million contract with the Space Force to support the Satellite Control Network – critical infrastructure used for launches and early satellite operations, to track and control satellites, and to provide emergency support to tumbling and lost satellites.

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Making galactic scale ambitions a reality is notoriously hard. Hence the famous, "the best way to become a millionaire in the space industry is to start as a billionaire" quote. But I find the strategic sequencing one of the most fun challenges.

When you have a big vision for space, how do you break that goal it into the right size chunks to actually make sustaining revenue while moving along the most critical derisking points in the operational path? That has led us to "unsexy" problems that matter enough to build a 185,000 sqft factory around!

It's gratifying to feel the momentum of this flywheel reward us with more scope and more resources to run even faster.

Thanks for coming by for a first look at the factory @MollySOShea !

[Molly O’Shea @MollySOShea]

“There's enthusiasm around compute use cases & IoT & other future industries moving to space. But the reality is—that's not space today.”

@bridgitmendler says SpaceX’s IPO has created a ton of momentum & new ideas in the space industry, but companies like @NorthwoodSpace still need to build around real businesses that exist today:

“We're a pragmatic business. We're very excited about the potential of space. We appreciate that there's public sentiment & excitement about space, but we're also making sure that we're building a real business today so that we can rely on our own business going forward.”

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Thanks for the chat @itsmoislam !

[Mo Islam @itsmoislam]

.@NorthwoodSpace recently announced Prism, a new satellite ground antenna to significantly increase its ground station network capacity.

@bridgitmendler: "Today, what that looks like is addressing the use cases of today. That's something we fundamentally believe in — let's start with the users that are here now that have capacity shortages. So we start out in frequency bands like S, X and Ka.

Over the next two years, we're going to be driving to 100 Gbps on that same antenna formulation. And then ultimately driving towards capacity that can kind of rival an example of an internet peering exchange."

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Why does networking for space matter? How you send data between earth and space determines the use cases you can unlock, the market you can capture, and how you maximize your return on investment.

We want to see more space missions introduced and become viable on economic terms. That’s how you move from science fiction to reality.

[Mo Islam @itsmoislam]

.@bridgitmendler on the founding thesis of @NorthwoodSpace.

"We really were recognizing the same problem, 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.

The way that you actually solve that networking problem for space is through introducing a model that gets you to the scale that you need, not just for one individual company or a mission, but for the industry overall."

Full "Valley of Depth" episode in comments 👇

[Northwood @NorthwoodSpace]

Spacecraft are generating more data than ever.

The infrastructure receiving it was built for a different era.

On Valley of Depth, Northwood CEO @bridgitmendler spoke with @itsmoislam about how
Northwood is building the network for the next generation of space missions.

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

It’s exciting to finally announce what Northwood has been working on behind the scenes – the newest addition to our network, Prism, which will support high throughput comms through space.

When we first founded Northwood, the pressing problem in front of us was the sheer volume of spacecraft that needed to be coordinated and successfully operate in a new dynamic environment.

This led to our first offering, Portal, which has changed spacecraft link access on many important dimensions. We can now fit the equivalent of ten 7.4 meter dishes, providing multi-orbit link capacity, into a single 20ft ISO shipping container that can be manufactured in weeks, shipped over air freight, and stood up in hours. A capacity shortfall that looked like it would take years to resolve now has a solution for how to hit scale.

Our second offering is about envisioning the next set of challenges for space. As more of our economy moves to orbit, we need to design networking that meets or beats terrestrial performance. Prism is designed for the next step in expectations around throughput, latency and reliability. This is true industrialization of space networks.

Our solution here was also baked from first principles — a mixture of old and new. Northwood’s vision for high throughput networking is high frequency RF (today meeting customers in S/X/Ka, and in next version will be 100gbps+), a standard 2.4 meter building block that deploys in hours and can be digitally combined to adjust for different orbits and resiliency conditions (need to keep piping data to customers when it’s raining? We got you).

The real thing I want to celebrate is the pace of development that Northwood continues to set. In 2.5 years, we have:
- Sprinted through three block changes of Portal
- Gone from clean sheet to deployed Prism unit in 6 months
- Deployed a total of 14 antennas across 2 continents, at 5 sites with another 13 sites across 8 countries underway

These accomplishments are our data points that there’s no space networking problem too big for us and the best is yet to come!

Huge shoutout to Mariko McMurty and Kiran Raj who each lead a portion of our Prism product and the whole of company effort across digital, RF/EE, mechanical, manufacturing and production, supply chain and logistics, sites and network operations. Let’s keep building!

[Northwood @NorthwoodSpace]

Today we're expanding our network to support the things spacecraft actually need to do now: high-volume enterprise backhaul, direct-to-cellular communications, compute in space.

https://t.co/qVd7iuN11j

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

thank you for your support it really means so much <3 i'm sorry we had to take the music down, we'll find a way to do it the right way

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

when it is, trust me, you'll know ;)

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

sorry to disappoint everyone, the spotify release wasn't me!

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Congratulations @ambrosiaenergy and @sara_spangelo !!

[Ambrosia Energy @ambrosiaenergy]

We are building solar + battery power plants, off-grid to start. 100% renewable. 99.9% availability.

Grateful to our early backer @dfjgrowth. Read more about Ambrosia from DFJ: https://t.co/dbHbMqIEIU

[a16z @a16z]

Bridgit Mendler on why the space economy is like the early internet:

"I get really inspired by the analogy especially thinking about, you know, for folks that were early with the internet."

"There's no way they would've foreseen what the internet is today."

"But they were betting on a direction and they were setting up a model that would basically unlock a lot of innovation."

"A year ago today, would we think that everybody would be talking about orbital data centers? No way."

@bridgitmendler of @NorthwoodSpace with @eriktorenberg

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Thanks for having me @eriktorenberg 🫡

[a16z @a16z]

The space economy has a ground infrastructure problem.

You can build a satellite and launch it faster than you can connect with it from Earth.

Bridgit Mendler is building Northwood to fix that — deploying ground infrastructure in 3 months instead of 3 years.

She joins a16'z Erik Torenberg to talk about vertical integration, the $50M Space Force contract, and why space is like the early internet:

00:00 Introduction
6:10 The ground segment bottleneck
10:06 Pandemic antenna origins
13:18 Three months, not three years
18:19 Starlink is not a threat
23:48 The space economy market map
29:45 The Space Force contract
36:03 Culture and values

@bridgitmendler @eriktorenberg @NorthwoodSpace

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

@kituckers @nunzi46 @TheFP thank you 🙏

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Underrated way to go fast is to be ok with saying the perceived dumb thing that is blocking you from an outcome. One of the things that our team is proudest of is cultivating humility/approachability. To be on a team that is entirely focused on the goal and not defending ego it is liberating.

Thanks for having me @TheFP + @SulkinMaya !

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

@nunzi46 full video with @TheFP here https://t.co/ddRWP8Erhj

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

As one of my faves @nunzi46 says, have fun, play to win :)

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Go @ILIVETWICE !! @CapitalAlso just got a rockstar

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

More friends, more fun at @CapitalAlso!

We’re thrilled to welcome @ILIVETWICE, known to most as “Shaur”, as our newest Venture Partner.

We first met Shaur as part of our initial investment in @NorthwoodSpace in 2023. When we asked a mutual friend about him, the friend was unequivocal—“Shaur’s the smartest person I’ve ever met. Also the kindest.”

Close to 3 years since that first interaction, our lived experience has proven that friend’s assessment remarkably accurate. In that time, he helped take Northwood from inception through a $100M Series B, scaling the org from 3 co-founders to over 60 FTEs. Last year, the market also took notice of his contributions, with him receiving the Matthew Isakowitz Rising Star award and being named to Forbes 30 Under 30.

From day one Shaur’s been generous with his time and network, sharp and thoughtful with his technical and market insights, and a staunch supporter of Also and our broader community.

Most importantly, he’s values-aligned with everything we stand for–high integrity, low ego, and finding joy in the daily grind of solving hard problems. Bringing him into the fold in a more intentional way was a no brainer.

Shaur joins @WillBruey, Colin, @jimcox25, and @danielaperlein, our incredible group of Venture Partners whose lived experience helps them understand the challenges and complexity of building in Hard Tech. They’re an amazing resource to us and our portfolio companies as they navigate hiring, fundraising, strategy, and manufacturing at scale.

A fun fact about Shaur: at one point he served as a volunteer firefighter, graduating as valedictorian of his fire academy class – a small glimpse into the kind of intensity, commitment, and service mindset he brings to everything he does.

Welcome to the team, Shaur!

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

@MichelleVolz congrats michelle!!

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

@CameronLMcCord @foundersfund @sequoia @generalcatalyst @Lux_Capital @Redglass @lightspeedvp @haystack Go nominal!!

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Woohoo go Mike!

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

We’re back with round 2!

Announcing @CapitalAlso’s second fund, $50M to catalyze founders solving hard problems

Was a ton of fun breaking the news with @tbpn @jordihays @johncoogan 🙏

We’ll share more detail tomorrow, but for now we made this graphic to celebrate 🚀

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Thanks @MorganLBrennan and @CNBC !

[Morgan Brennan @MorganLBrennan]

.@NorthwoodSpace closing a $100M series B to build out ground infrastructure to support space ops and data:

"In recent times, because space has sped up so much, it actually takes longer to get your ground infrastructure set up then it takes to build a satellite and to launch it" -Co-Founder & CEO @bridgitmendler
@CNBC @CNBCWEX
https://t.co/i250nforMH