Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share #48 - Delian Asparouhov
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
#48 - Delian Asparouhov
Delian Asparouhov is the co-founder, President and Chairman of Varda Space Industries, a company building spacecraft to manufacture materials in microgravity that are difficult or impossible to produce on Earth— starting with pharmaceuticals. He’s also a Partner at Founders Fund.
Previously, he was a principal at Khosla Ventures, head of growth at Teespring, and founder of a healthcare company called Nightingale. Delian is Bulgarian, attended MIT, and likes to ski and play soccer.
0:00 - Intro
3:14 - How Does Innovation Happen?
6:23 - Varda and the No Science Allowed Rule
7:52 - A Primer on Solid State Microgravity Manufacturing
18:25 - Space Industrialization, Trading Posts, and the Chinese and Portuguese Navies
21:13 - Economic Incentives and Future Business Models in Space
24:24 - SpaceX and The Costs of Mass to Orbit
27:45 - Demand for Space Manufacturing and Varda at Scale
33:44 - Manufacturing, Servicing, Machining, and Future Markets for Space
36:42 - Incubating Companies
40:33 - When Would Varda Have Been Started Otherwise?
42:19 - The Hollywood Model of Startups
45:20 - Future of Incubations
47:47 - Media’s Role in Technology
50:39 - What Media Inspired Varda’s Founding?
52:38 - Talent, Culture, and Cementing Company Trajectory
53:57 - Narratives and Talent Recruitment
55:28 - Traits Delian Looks for in Founders
57:38 - The ‘Why Now’ When Investing
1:00:08 - Bring Non-Consensus and Right
1:02:53 - Is Varda Consensus Yet?
1:03:24 - Identifying Non-Consensus Opportunities
1:05:12 - Lessons from Founding and Investing
1:07:40 - What Skill Do You Wish You’d Developed Earlier?
1:10:11 - Immigrant Mentality
1:11:24 - Less Obvious Reasons for Success
1:12:55 - On Speed
1:14:23 - What Should More People Be Thinking About?
🎙️More Episodes🎙️
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3QDLQFt
Apple: https://apple.co/478Be6M
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sfiFiE
📲Socials📲
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adlabossiere
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlabossiere/
View all episodes
By Podcast Notes
4.3
7474 ratings
Delian Asparouhov is the co-founder, President and Chairman of Varda Space Industries, a company building spacecraft to manufacture materials in microgravity that are difficult or impossible to produce on Earth— starting with pharmaceuticals. He’s also a Partner at Founders Fund.
Previously, he was a principal at Khosla Ventures, head of growth at Teespring, and founder of a healthcare company called Nightingale. Delian is Bulgarian, attended MIT, and likes to ski and play soccer.
0:00 - Intro
3:14 - How Does Innovation Happen?
6:23 - Varda and the No Science Allowed Rule
7:52 - A Primer on Solid State Microgravity Manufacturing
18:25 - Space Industrialization, Trading Posts, and the Chinese and Portuguese Navies
21:13 - Economic Incentives and Future Business Models in Space
24:24 - SpaceX and The Costs of Mass to Orbit
27:45 - Demand for Space Manufacturing and Varda at Scale
33:44 - Manufacturing, Servicing, Machining, and Future Markets for Space
36:42 - Incubating Companies
40:33 - When Would Varda Have Been Started Otherwise?
42:19 - The Hollywood Model of Startups
45:20 - Future of Incubations
47:47 - Media’s Role in Technology
50:39 - What Media Inspired Varda’s Founding?
52:38 - Talent, Culture, and Cementing Company Trajectory
53:57 - Narratives and Talent Recruitment
55:28 - Traits Delian Looks for in Founders
57:38 - The ‘Why Now’ When Investing
1:00:08 - Bring Non-Consensus and Right
1:02:53 - Is Varda Consensus Yet?
1:03:24 - Identifying Non-Consensus Opportunities
1:05:12 - Lessons from Founding and Investing
1:07:40 - What Skill Do You Wish You’d Developed Earlier?
1:10:11 - Immigrant Mentality
1:11:24 - Less Obvious Reasons for Success
1:12:55 - On Speed
1:14:23 - What Should More People Be Thinking About?
🎙️More Episodes🎙️
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3QDLQFt
Apple: https://apple.co/478Be6M
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sfiFiE
📲Socials📲
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adlabossiere
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlabossiere/
More shows like Podcast Notes Playlist: Latest Episodes
View all
The Tim Ferriss Show
16,184 Listeners
We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network
3,360 Listeners
This Week in Startups
1,301 Listeners
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
542 Listeners
The Knowledge Project
2,693 Listeners
Conversations with Tyler
2,453 Listeners
The Rich Roll Podcast
11,897 Listeners
The a16z Show
1,109 Listeners
Founders
2,218 Listeners
The Peter Attia Drive
8,006 Listeners
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
10,235 Listeners
Huberman Lab
29,300 Listeners
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis
600 Listeners
BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley
472 Listeners
TBPN
139 Listeners