As another special bonus episode, Niccolo de Masi, the CEO of the dMY Technology SPACs, is back to discuss the 2022 SPAC market.

Niccolo previously spoke with us in November to give us his views on the challenging SPAC environment in the fourth quarter of 2021. However, the first quarter of 2022 has proven to be even more difficult so Niccolo returned to gives us his thoughts on why and where he thinks the SPAC market will be headed.

This week, we speak with Marc Bell, CEO and co-founder of Terran Orbital. Terran Orbital entered into a $1.5 billion combination with Tailwind Two Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:TWNT) in October. Terran is building the world’s largest satellite manufacturing facility in Florida and it aims to be the first pure play space company that is vertically integrated all the way from its supply chain to the cosmos. Tailwind Two Co-CEO and CFO Matt Eby also joins us to discuss the SPAC side of the transaction and its unique mix of financing tools. We also get into how to best evaluate space targets now that there are suddenly multiple publicly listed space ventures.

This week, we speak with SeatGeek co-founder and CEO Jack Groetzinger. SeatGeek entered into a $1.35 billion dollar combination agreement with RedBall Acquisition Corp. in October. Event venues have traditionally had an adversarial relationship with ticket scalpers and the secondary market. But, SeatGeek is part of a new generation of companies managing those marketplaces on behalf of the venues. We talk about how SeatGeek weathered the pandemic and what event patrons can expect now that the latest variant is waning. We also discuss how SeatGeek’s software tools are going deeper inside venue operations and what advantages a SPAC transaction can still bring in the current market.

As another special bonus episode, we spoke with Harry Sloan, who has been CEO or Chairman on eight of the Eagle SPACs, including Diamond Eagle, which combined with DraftKings in 2020. Harry's most recent SPAC, Screaming Eagle, recently raised $750 million at its IPO despite a very challenging SPAC market.

Harry gives us his view on the wild SPAC years of 2020 and 2021 and where he thinks the current market is headed for 2022. We also discuss the novel structure of "Spinning Eagle", his other SPAC currently in registration, and why he thinks it makes sense for SPAC sponsors.

This week we will be speaking with Chet Kanojia, co-founder of Starry, which announced a business combination with FirstMark Horizon Acquisition Corp. in October.

Starry is an internet service provider deploying home internet with wireless broadband. We talk about the economic advantages to this approach and why legacy internet players have held off disruptors for decades.

We also speak with Amish Jani, President and Chairman of FirstMark Horizon, to get the SPAC-side view of the transaction, as well as some of the unique terms that this merger includes.

On this week's podcast, we speak with Heliogen Founder & CEO Bill Gross about their new type of renewable power plant that uses AI to direct thousands of mirrors at a single point. This can generate dozens of megawatts of power, as well as potential heat and hydrogen outputs for industrial clients and grids beyond. We also speak with Phyllis Newhouse, CEO of Athena Technology Acquisition Corp., to get the SPAC-side view of the transaction, as well as some of the differentiators its all-female team brought to the table.

Jim Zukin, Co-Founder of Houlihan Lokey, discusses the launch of Zukin Certification Services and, more importantly, the Z-SPAC certification.  The Z-SPAC cert confirms that a SPAC is ready to combine with a target company, but listen in to hear all the details on what goes into actually being "ready".

On this week's episode we talk with Planet Co-Founder and CEO Will Marshall about the private space sector. Planet announced a $2.3 billion business combination with dMY Technology Group IV in July. Planet provides data services to a raft of industries powered by its fleet of 200 satellites generating a complete image of the earth's surface every day.  dMY Technology CEO Niccolo de Masi also joins us to discuss the SPAC side of the transaction and why he's been eager to get a deal done with Planet since his first SPAC. 

As a special bonus episode, we talked Niccolo de Masi, the CEO of the dMY Technology SPACs, three of which have already completed successful combinations and with dMY IV looking to close their combination shortly. We cover Niccolo's view of the current state of the SPAC market and how he and his team approach working with companies to take them public via the SPAC route.