Considerations in Predicting Financial Returns on Space Businesses

Alexis Sáinz is the global co-leader of the Hogan Lovells Space and Satellite practice and a member of the Infrastructure, Energy, Resources & Projects group.  She regularly represents export credit and multilateral development agencies, satellite operators, aerospace manufacturers, launch services providers, communications companies, financial institutions, project sponsors, private equity firms, hedge funds, and other industry participants on structured, project and vendor financings, in negotiating commercial and corporate transactions, and with commercially strategic regulatory matters. She also provides industry advice in connection with debt and equity offerings, joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions, and financial restructurings.

Alexis works with investors and lenders to understand the underlying issues impacting space projects and companies, at the intersection of commercial, regulatory and financing aspects of a transaction.  She works with project parties to focus on key deal points and to identify appropriate industry-based risk mitigants and efficient allocation of risk in order to build consensus and drive closure.  She works with companies to build a project and financing strategy from the ground up, anticipating financing issues early in the development of a new project or the growth of a company.

Alexis co-chairs the American Bar Association’s Committee on Space Law.  She co-authored the chapter on “Commercial Satellite Programs” in the Routledge Handbook of Space Law.  Prior to beginning her legal career in 2007, Alexis spent over 10 years working in internet-based industries, including e-commerce and media. She previously served as a consultant for the World Bank, National Geographic, and domestic non-profit organizations in connection with internet-based technology, and she was an early member of KPMG Peat Marwick’s financial service’s e-commerce consulting practice, where she focused on emerging technologies.

James Bruegger, the co-founder and CIO of Seraphim, is a prolific venture capitalist investor in the global Space Tech domain. James was the early VC investor in Arqit, Iceye, LeoLabs and D-Orbit and led investments in several companies that went public including Spire Global and AST & Science. Previously he worked at YFM Equity Partners and Burlington Consultants, a boutique strategy consultancy that was acquired by Deloitte & Touche. James holds a first-class degree in History from University College London.

Mike Collett is Founder and Managing Partner of Promus Ventures in Chicago. Mike previously was Founder and Managing Partner of Masters Capital Nanotechnology Fund and also on the Technology Equity team with Masters Capital, a hedge fund.

Mike was Vice President at Merrill Lynch in the M&A Group as well as an Associate in M&A Division with Duff & Phelps. Mike has invested in over 60 software/hardware startups and is currently on the board of Spire, Layer, Kurbo Health, Gauss Surgical, Dispatch, Enview, FirstLine, and Daylight Solutions. Mike received his BS in Math and a BA in English from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. Mike and his wife Paige have four children and live in Chicago.

• Armand Musey President and Founder of Summit Ridge Group. He has over 15 years of equity research, investment banking, and consulting experience. Armand has completed dozens of financial valuation, strategic analysis, business development, corporate governance, and business plan creation assignments in the communications industry and has experience working on numerous financing and M&A transactions. His projects include leading Summit Ridge Group’s support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust division’s review of the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger. Armand’s involvement with a wide breadth of companies has allowed him to develop a deep understanding of a range of media and telecom issues and the complex web of relationships underlying the sector’s competitive dynamics and associated regulatory issues. His legal background allows him to understand the heavily regulated telecom sector. During litigation support assignments, Armand’s legal background also allows him to quickly digest legal documents and identify industry issues likely to be most relevant to the legal team he supports.
• Prior to founding Summit Ridge Group, Armand led the satellite industry research teams for Banc of America Securities, and later Solomon Smith Barney where he also covered the wireless tower industry. He earned numerous honors as a research analyst including being named to the Institutional Investor “All American” team three times (2000-2002) and the Wall Street Journal “All-Star” team. He was ranked as the top satellite industry analyst by Greenwich Associates. He was previously president of a boutique investment bank specializing in the satellite, media, and telecom industries.

Mr. Schmidt is a Managing Director at KippsDeSanto & Co., recently acquired by Capital One’s commercial bank, and co-heads the Aerospace & Defense Group, where he focuses on sellside and buyside M&A advisory engagements and sourcing growth capital.  Key areas of experience includes space, defense electronics, and armaments.  Prior to joining KippsDeSanto & Co., Mr. Schmidt worked at a competing investment bank where he helped create a leading Aerospace·Defense·Government Services industry banking group.  Notable space-related clients and assignments include multiple General Dynamics space businesses, BEI Precision, Orbital Sciences, GeoEye, and other space-component businesses.

Leading up to his entry into investment banking, Mr. Schmidt served in various combat arms assignments in the US Army across the globe and in various Joint and Army staffs working on classified intelligence assessments, equipment modernization, and weapons testing.  Mr. Schmidt earned a B.S. in (aeronautical) engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, an M.S. in operations research from the Naval Post Graduate School, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  He is registered with FINRA as a General Securities Registered Representative (Series 7, 63).

Sven Strohband is a Partner and Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, where he led the firm’s early investments in Berkshire Grey, GitLab, Hermeus and Rocket Lab, among others. An engineer at heart, Sven is passionate about technologies that forge new industries and accelerate novel user experiences.

Previously, he led technical diligence for six years at Mohr Davidow Ventures for the infrastructure IT and sustainability practices. He also worked across the portfolio to recruit technical talent, run product-market fit experiments and develop fundraising strategies.

Prior to that, Sven led technical projects at the Electronics Research Lab of Volkswagen, ranging from LED front lighting and electrochromic glass to driver-assistance systems and robotics. He was also lead engineer and project lead for the Stanford racing team’s autonomous car, Stanley, which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. Now featured at the Smithsonian Museum, Stanley was  the foundation for Google’s self-driving car efforts. He also co-founded and was CEO of AI company Metamind, which is now a key component of Salesforce’s AI product Einstein.  

He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in mechanics and computation from Stanford University. Sven sits on the boards of numerous companies including Berkshire Grey, Rocket Lab, Velo3D, Waabi and ThoughtSpot.