#41: How a 21-Year-Old Founded a Space Startup (feat Shoaib Iqbal, Co-Founder & CEO of Esper)

NewSpaceVision

Technology

4 • 4 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Building a space company is hard - but doing so at 21 is just another level. Shoaib Iqbal started Esper Satellite Imagery while still in college, and in just a few years, he’s built one of the most capital-efficient hyperspectral satellite companies out there.

In this episode, Shoaib joins us to share what it’s really like to start and scale a satellite business from scratch, talking about the surprising ways hyperspectral imaging is being used today and how Esper differentiates from competitors.

Similar to our last guests, he also touches on what happened when their first satellite failed, as well as why cost efficiency is the real game-changer in this field.

Follow Shoaib and Esper:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shoaib-esper

https://www.linkedin.com/company/esper-sats

https://www.espersatellites.co

Follow NewSpaceVision:

https://de.linkedin.com/company/newspacevision

https://twitter.com/newspacevision

https://www.instagram.com/newspacevision/

https://www.facebook.com/newspacevision/

https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/newspace/

This podcast is sponsored by LiveEO. For more information on how Earth observation can help your company, contact:

[email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	What is your advice to young entrepreneurs or people who want to start a company?
0:07.0	Get battle scars early. As mentioned, the space industry has a very good way of humbling you.
0:13.0	And in a sense, not to say that puts you in your place or say, but that gives you the business to actually really navigate and grow very quickly within the industry.
0:22.6	Honestly, I think it's still too soon for me to say like, oh, losing a satellite is the best thing that happened to us.
0:27.6	I still wouldn't say that yet.
0:29.6	Then who knows, maybe you're at the line.
0:31.6	We'll actually look back and just see what it sort of had, it forced us to evolve as a company and just focus on our business
0:38.5	fundamentals, focus on our economics, focus on what the customer really hears about in the end.
0:47.6	All right, a lift-off, the clock is turned.
0:50.0	Three, Steve, two, the scene, one.
0:53.0	We chose to go to the world. Lift- space, we're going to the world,
0:55.5	lift-off, we have a lift-off.
0:59.2	Hi, and welcome back to the New Space Vision podcast sponsored by LiveEO,
1:03.0	where we discuss new space technology, finance, and innovation with executive founders
1:07.0	and more exciting people from the space ecosystem.
1:09.6	I'm Sam Shavara.
1:10.7	And I'm Daniel Nizadell,
1:11.6	and together we are the founders of the Earth Observation Company, Live You, and New Space Vision.
1:16.3	Today, we have two first-timers. I'm really happy to say that. So we are joined by Shoaib Iqbal.
1:22.8	He is the co-founder and CEO of the Hyper Spectre Satellite company, Asper Satellite Imaging, or we just call
1:28.7	it short Asper.
1:30.1	And yeah, you are the first one in the podcast who made it twice to the Forbes 30 under 30 list.
	...

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