What does a space station, a lunar lander, a nuclear reactor, and a fleet of cislunar space vehicles have in common? They’re all part of serial space entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian’s holding company IBX.

IBX consists of:

• Axiom Space, which provides private flights to the ISS and is also developing a commercial space station.
• Intuitive Machines, which is developing autonomous lunar landing systems.
• X-Energy, an engineering company working on nuclear reactors and fuel design.
• Quantum Space, which provides payload transportation, critical data, and infrastructure services in geostationary orbit and cislunar space.

This week’s Pathfinder podcast features IBX’s Chief Investment Officer, Anton Brevde. Anton was previously a general partner at famed deep tech venture fund, Prime Movers Lab, where he led  space investments. 

Payload went under the hood to understand how the four companies relate to one another and discuss the current state of the space economy, particularly:

• Anton’s role managing the business and capital needs of four highly complex businesses
• Fundraising for space companies in today’s market environment
• The role of government as a provider of non-dilutive funding
• The most common do’s and don’ts for space founders
• And much more…

This episode is brought to you by Epsilon3, software for complex engineering, testing, and operational procedures. Learn more at https://www.epsilon3.io/

• Chapters • 

00:00 - Intro and Epsilon3 Ad

01:12 - Experience at Prime Movers Lab (PML)

06:47 - PML's investment philosophy

08:58 - New role at IBX

10:37 - Why the increased focus on the space industry?

12:36 - Responsibilities of a Chief Investment Officer

14:42 - Common thread between IBX companies

19:26 - What is X-Energy?

22:57 - What is Quantum Space

26:06 - Epsilon Ad break

26:36 - Categorizing the space industry for an investor

32:36 - The current state of the space economy

35:55 - Government intervention in space

41:05 - The role of government in funding needs

49:49 - New innovations in the industry to be excited about

51:56 - What do you look for in founders and what makes them successful?

56:41 - Common founder mistakes

01:03:05 - Where to find Anton's blog

• Show notes • 

IBX's website — https://i-b-x.com/

Anton's blog — https://anton78704.medium.com/

Anton's socials — https://twitter.com/anton_brevde

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam 

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace 

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes 

• About us • 

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers. 

Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)