Los Angeles-based Startup Apex Is Tapping Into the Small Satellite Market by Making Buses for Spacecraft

Ian Cinnamon (0:00)

JPL here in the LA area, for example, does a lot of NASA's work. They bid on it, they know how to win it, etc. They do great work. Recently, though, more and more of these private companies have raised their hand and said, hey, NASA needs this done, NASA needs a new rover for the moon, NASA needs this. Instead of going to the traditional defense industrial base, you know, your typical primes, and there's nothing wrong with them, but they now want competition, right? These new companies are raising their hand and saying, we'll go do that. Instead of it being the same traditional players building the Rockets, what if a commercial company came about and did that?

Spencer Rascoff (0:34)

This is Office Hours and I'm your host, Spencer Rascoff. I co-founded Zillow and ran it for a decade. And in early 2020, I co-founded DotLA, a preeminent news service covering the tech scene in my hometown of Los Angeles. On this show, you'll hear from founders, CEOs, and thought leaders from around the world, the focus on the innovators in LA.

Ian Cinnamon (0:59)

Ian Cinnamon is the CEO and co-founder of Apex, the world's first spacecraft manufacturer to offer productized, configurable satellite buses.

Spencer Rascoff (1:10)

With a focus on meeting the needs of the rapidly expanding space industry, Ian leads a team dedicated to providing scalable solutions to both the commercial and government sectors.

Ian Cinnamon (1:19)

Prior to his work with Apex, Ian founded Synapse, which built AI systems for security and the defense industry, which Ian grew before it was acquired by Palantir. Ian received his BS from MIT and his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. 75 and Sunny, my venture fund is an investor in Apex.

Spencer Rascoff (1:37)

Ian, welcome to Office Hours. Thanks for letting me talk with you here.

Ian Cinnamon (1:40)

Excited to be here.

Spencer Rascoff (1:41)

Thank you. So we're recording this today here at Apex Global Headquarters. Why don't you tell listeners where are we? Tell us about this location.

Ian Cinnamon (1:50)

So we are in Culver City, strategically located in LA, the center of what we think is the aerospace capital of the world. So even in rush hour traffic, 10 minutes from LAX, which makes it really easy for vendors, customers, visitors, whoever needs to come here to be here. Space Force Headquarters is located 10 minutes away as well. So very conveniently located because we do dual use work, right? We work with both commercial and government sectors.

Spencer Rascoff (2:15)

I don't think listeners even knew there really was a Space Force. I thought that was just something that Trump floated as a joke. I did not know that.

Ian Cinnamon (2:22)

No, it is recently established and Space Force is effectively in charge of all of the space assets that the US government runs. So if you think about how do we ensure that we are staying safe from not just threats on the ground or physical threats, how are we tracking other countries' satellites? How are we ensuring that our own satellites that we rely on every day, GPS, so many other types of sensors that we don't even realize have to do with space, are safe, not going to go through cyber attacks? What if something gets shot down? How do we put a new satellite up to replace it? All of those kinds of things, the Space Force gets to handle.

Spencer Rascoff (2:59)

I did not know that. The Sears are going to learn a lot today about space and learn a lot of things we didn't know. Let's just stay for a second on the LA conversation. It's a layup question, but you teed it up. So why is Los Angeles and Southern California the nation's headquarters and hotbed for innovation in the space industry?

Ian Cinnamon (3:18)

I would like to say it's all because I grew up in LA and happened to be here and love LA and so happy that it happens to be the headquarters here. But it really comes down to the caliber of the talent and the companies that have been established in this area. So strategically, we're very close to Vandenberg Air Force Base where we have a launch facility. So driving distance to a great strategic launch facility means that years and years ago, a lot of these defense companies opened up shop in the LA area to be able to serve those needs. Now years later, as that's evolved, a lot of the great talent from those companies went out to say, okay, what do I want to go do next if I'm not working for one of these primes? And companies like SpaceX or Relativity Space or Virgin Orbit and all of these other new space companies started to emerge out of a lot of that great talent pool and stayed in this same ecosystem.