Edward

@Exosat_

[Edward @EdwardGe]

I’ve joined @ycombinator to build @Exosat_

As the world becomes more multipolar, enterprises and governments are nervous about dependence on Starlink or Chinese state-owned satellites for critical network infrastructure

Meanwhile, much of the world still has no reliable connectivity and other providers face years of delay and need millions of dollars just to build a single satellite

Exosat is filling that need by designing satellites with zero ITAR/EAR-controlled content, enabling us to leverage manufacturers anywhere in the world to produce our satellites at under a tenth of the cost and launch them from other nations to bypass capacity bottlenecks and access equatorial orbits

We launch our first in-house satellite next April, have hundreds of millions of dollars in Letters of Intent with early partners across six nations, and have a ITU spectrum filing for 11,000 satellites to build the largest space-based cellular network outside of the United States and China

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@Apotheolitical Much “American” hardware in many fields is sadly also just Chinese hardware with an American middle man taking a 3x cut. Buyer beware indeed.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@Wizardgames15 Well, funny thing about satellites with zero U.S. made parts with a fully ex-U.S. engineering team…

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@Wizardgames15 There’s no point to operating within the United States as like you’ve said, there’s ten (and probably even more) companies here all doing the same thing, and I still don’t get how Starlink doesn’t steamroll them.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@Wizardgames15 We very explicitly are not an American company with zero plans to operate within the U.S., and the vast majority of our early partners are Global South users who otherwise refuse to buy from American satcom. Realistic competition is moreso Chinese SOEs.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@rohanganapa Nokia/Ericsson are viewed as de facto American. They use "The West" and "America" quite interchangeably. Haven't seen much at all of Samsung or Japanese hardware.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

African telecom exec: “We assume Chinese hardware has backdoors and the American hardware also has backdoors, so we go with whoever’s cheaper”

Surprise surprise, their entire infrastructure runs on Huawei and ZTE

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@risknc Much of our user base lies in Global South markets where customers are rejecting any U.S-owned infrastructure and are leaning towards Chinese state-owned satellite providers. We’ve butted heads much more with Guowang than Starlink. But the avg person doesn’t know them.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@MichaelAlleged Same story across LatAm, Middle East, and much of Asia (and even Europe!)

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@tekbog Yeah. You don’t feel it in the U.S. as much, but doing business in the Global South in particular makes you realize how rapidly Chinese economic influence has grown in virtually every industry.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@jamesmishra Technically not export controls as we aren’t exporting anything (we aren’t based in the U.S.)

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@pugnacious_polk @AI_in_LEO @ycombinator @Exosat_ That's what I figured as well, but I wouldn't get out of bed for anything less.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

I’ve joined @ycombinator to build @Exosat_

As the world becomes more multipolar, enterprises and governments are nervous about dependence on Starlink or Chinese state-owned satellites for critical network infrastructure

Meanwhile, much of the world still has no reliable connectivity and other providers face years of delay and need millions of dollars just to build a single satellite

Exosat is filling that need by designing satellites with zero ITAR/EAR-controlled content, enabling us to leverage manufacturers anywhere in the world to produce our satellites at under a tenth of the cost and launch them from other nations to bypass capacity bottlenecks and access equatorial orbits

We launch our first in-house satellite next April, have hundreds of millions of dollars in Letters of Intent with early partners across six nations, and have a ITU spectrum filing for 11,000 satellites to build the largest space-based cellular network outside of the United States and China

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@AI_in_LEO It certainly needs to be updated. Some partners (even in allied nations) have told us they won’t hire Americans and don’t want us to use any American vendors in our supply chain because of ITAR/EAR. Which is bad, because it takes opportunities away from Americans.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@AI_in_LEO @ycombinator @Exosat_ Yea, we made a conscious choice to give up any potential U.S. market presence (besides, Starlink has it well covered here! And Amazon Leo! And AST!). I don’t think our strategy would’ve worked without this sacrifice.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@AI_in_LEO @ycombinator @Exosat_ It’s quite fun as I get a lot of visibility that people otherwise don’t get into both sides of the space race. Realistically our main competition is also Guowang/Qianfan over Starlink as our ICP is heavily Global South.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@AI_in_LEO @ycombinator @Exosat_ Them? Maybe, but less so. I don’t think Europe has truly ITAR-free satellites; Thales tried but turned out their American vendors were mislabeling parts, so outside of China itself I don’t think ITAR-free satellites are a thing.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

Traveling around Asia to hang out with various telecom and space execs was fun. Time to lock in again.

[Edward @EdwardGe]

@inerati Have you ever heard of Starfish Prime (that time the Air Force detonated a nuke in space)? Thanks to EMP, they are in fact trivally easy to nuke.