How We Hatched: Lisa Rich, Founder & COO of Xplore

Tim Winkler: 00:00:05

Welcome to The Pair Program from hatchpad, the podcast that gives you a front row seat to candid conversations with tech leaders from the startup world. I'm your host, Tim Winkler, the creator of hatchpad. And I'm your other host, Mike Gruen. Join us each episode as we bring together two guests to dissect topics at the intersection of technology, startups, and career growth. All right, let's jump in. Lisa, thank you for joining us on The Pair Program. Uh, this is another bonus episode of a miniseries that we call How We Hatched. Uh, and today we've got Lisa Rich spending time with us. Lisa is the founder of Xplore, a commercial space exploration company doing some very cool things with satellites and edge computing. Um, we're going to approach this episode a little bit different, uh, than some of our past, how we hatched episodes. We're not going to be spending as much time talking about your entrepreneurial journey, but instead, uh, we're going to be focusing our discussion more around, you know, what it takes to build a successful space company. Um, and, and the timing for this chat couldn't be better, given we've been recently hosting some fantastic entrepreneurs from innovative space and satellite companies on the pod. Uh, but just in general, you know, the space tech industry is super hot right now, there's a ton of, uh, modern advancement that's happening. And so I'm very excited to dive into this discussion with you. So again, thank you for graciously sharing your time with

Lisa Rich: 00:01:39

us. Thanks, Tim. It's great to be here.

Tim Winkler: 00:01:43

Awesome. Well, let's jump in. Um, I do still want to give our listeners just a little bit of context on your journey into the space industry. So we could maybe just start there. You know, what was it that inspired you to enter the space industry and how did that lead to you founding

Lisa Rich: 00:02:01

explore? Yeah, well, first got involved in the space industry in 2014, uh, understanding that at that time, there was a transition occurring where the government was not just buying hardware, but talking about buying services. And as we look at the space as an opportunity for investment, I was an investor at that time, um, looking at. Opportunities that were, you know, for exponential growth, because in the startup world, uh, the odds are pretty low that you find great companies that are going to have, um, be the billion dollar opportunities for investment. And so I was looking at. The, the venture environment and seeing new companies popping up that were synergistic in terms of this combination of software capabilities, mixing with hardware capabilities, and that if you could merge software and hardware, uh, there were platform opportunities and that that spoke to a services industry versus, uh, A buying of hardware industry, um, which is what most venture folks did in the past as they were investing in hardware, or we saw the government making investments in hardware, but saying that they wanted to have services. So, there seemed to be a trend there and a pattern forming it was signal of. Government shifting to commercial services, and we saw that happening in the space industry, but how were space companies going to respond to that? When traditionally, every space company was designed around the hardware. And the founding teams were designed to build great missions, like, for example, for NASA that are very large missions with exquisite capabilities. But how could you look at space in a new way to see it scaling where you didn't have to be a billionaire anymore to run a space company. You could have a technology that is scaled that's lower cost, higher capability. And maybe instead of selling that hardware, you could be selling those services and those services would be valuable to the government. Yeah,

Tim Winkler: 00:04:41

so it's, it's also clear that, you know, you, you all are, um, uh, doing a number of like data as a service, uh, and explore, I'd love to just kind of real quickly unveil, you know, a little bit more about what it is that you're doing at explore. And then we can pivot more into, you know, what it takes to be successful when building this kind of a space company.

Lisa Rich: 00:05:02

Yeah, well, the idea behind Explore is that we have not, uh, uh, a satellite that is a specific single purpose with a single sensor and a single customer. It's a satellite that's a platform of instruments and that platform of instruments each have valuable data that we bring down from space. And that that data is of interest to any type of a customer. And can have a global impact because the different stakeholders that would want this data come from the commercial sector. They come from the government sector, governments themselves might be interested in this data. Um, we have the environmental, uh, and climate customers that want the data science and research, uh, opportunities, uh, would benefit from this. And educational, the educational sector, even stem environments, uh, supporting stem, uh, can occur with this. So there's, there's really, um, anyone that can benefit from earth observation data is going to be able to access it at the lowest possible cost from our company in the future. And that's pretty disruptive.

Tim Winkler: 00:06:34

Yeah. A lot of use cases for sure. Um, and you know, as I mentioned, you know, this is a, this is an area that, you know, we're seeing a ton of interest from technologists wanting to get involved to new budding entrepreneurs wanting to, to build something new. Um, but, uh, the reality is that, you know, this isn't just something that happens overnight. Uh, it's very different than, you know, just kind of whipping up a. A dating app or something along those lines, no offense to those founders of Bumble or tender. But I would say that this is a very, uh, different approach and process. And I'd love to hear it from you as a, as an entrepreneur that's in this space. You know, what, what are some of these things that you would say, um, are some of those challenges that you're going to be facing in these earlier stages? And, and, you know, how did you specifically kind of look to overcome some of those challenges? Well, I

Lisa Rich: 00:07:27

think I'll start with what was being done before, uh, you had CubeSats and companies building CubeSats and putting those into space. Those typically don't have propulsion. They're kind of considered disposable and maybe lasting 1 to 3 years. And then you have the primes building out higher capability satellites that are very expensive and companies, startups, even paying for, uh, satellites that are smaller, but built by the primes. And so when we looked at the marketplace of acquiring a satellite to fly multiple instruments, there wasn't a solution that existed. For a low cost, high capability satellite that we could acquire from someone else. So we had to engineer it ourselves. So again, yeah, nothing happens overnight. You have to start with what is the blueprint for a new, highly capable satellite? And can you engineer something? That's that's so highly capable at a low cost. And so that journey started a few years ago, and we're very excited to be at the point where we're, we're close to launch. Uh, and I'm sitting here in my office, looking out at our clean room on the opposite side of the table at our X craft satellite, uh, Being assembled. Um, so it's, it's really thrilling to be at this moment in time where we're months away from, you know, a launch and proving out that a company could engineer a satellite on their own. That is this next generation capability. In terms of how you build a business that's resilient, um, and even how do you, how do you have it survive until you launch and get to the point of revenue, that's a challenge that every founder has, no matter what business you're running. And we've followed a path that is similar to many other space companies or tech companies where we've sought out, uh, Government contracts and been very successful at that with contracts. We've successfully secured from customers like NASA. Noah DARPA, um, D. I. U. which was a significant contract. We won where the defense innovation unit in. Concert with the national security innovation capital group, um, basically paid for the hardware for the X craft. Um, this was quite exciting. We want to be sort of their poster child, if you will, to prove out that they made a great choice and in backing us, they had only a 15 million budget and looked for dual use capabilities. That they could accelerate to counter the supply chain issues that arose due to covet and other issues we were experiencing at the time. And so, to advance our dual use capability and get the X craft built, the idea was, let's. Let's help explore become first in line for buying those components to to then, uh, build the X craft. So, uh, out of the 15Million dollar budget, uh, we were awarded 2Million dollars. Um, there were only 4 companies that won the award at that time out of 400 applicants. So we were. Really honored to have them as a partner and to be a winner and they've continued to support us over the years as we've developed and and built out our plan and and purchases of all our components. I also, I should mention that what was truly phenomenal in terms of execution with the government customer is that, uh, we were awarded the contract. And the contract itself was executed. About 21 days after the award, so just kind of imagine government showing that with a simple contract structure. That you could issue an award and executed in 21 days. It was really something that we, we said this was the government showing us that they could move at the pace of commercial business. So that was. Quite a quite a thrill. Um, so D. I. U. is a really important contract for us. They're a great customer. But, uh, other government contracts that are foundational for our company include our recent award from the National Reconnaissance Office, which, um. Previously had electro optical awards that were won by companies doing optical observation, like a planet or black sky. And those awards for those companies were, uh, matured to a point where they secured. 30 to 100Million dollars a year in purchases for their optical data. And so we pursued an NRO award for the hyperspectral imagery. We will bring back from our satellite and we won that. So we're quite excited, uh, thinking that the national presence office is going to be a. A great customer and buyer in the future when we fly, but, uh, explore is, as I mentioned, um, bringing data back for any type of a customer. And that's part of our de risked model is that we can have government customers, but we expect the majority of our buyers to be commercial. Companies, so the more you can do to have a diversified customer base and diversified streams of revenue. I think the more the resilient your company can be regardless of what it's doing.

Tim Winkler: 00:14:15

Yeah. And I, and that leads me to my next point, which is, uh, centered more around the investment on funding, right. Uh, you know, when you're talking to investors, um, are they probing for this dual use, uh, opportunity? Um, they're, they're looking for, you know, outlets that, you know, you're not just, you know, siloed into one side or the other, but the, this is a much more appealing way. And, and I'd imagine, you know, uh, encourages more of a, you know, uh, writing of a check. Um, I guess, All in, uh, you know, what are some of those challenges of, of pitching to, to, to VCs, you know, when you're, you're building the, uh, you know, an early stage space company,

Lisa Rich: 00:14:53

we have, uh, had dual use investors. Those are typically investors that understand, uh, a government contract is, I like to say, uh, Uh, good, like having a good housekeeping seal of approval, uh, because your technology and capabilities have been vetted by the expertise of our, our government customers and that's a feather in your cap, but, uh, dual use. Funds are coming online, uh, being supported by the office of strategic capital in the months ahead. We have a program where the OSC is actually matching funds for, um. The ability to, to advance and, and have more capital available, um, for these larger funds that will make dual use investments. So explore is listed on the Silicon Valley defense groups, Nat sec, 100 list. So national security, 100 lips. List, and this is a list showing the top 100 venture backed dual use companies, uh, that they've selected as, you know, top tier. Which is really exciting, because I think by having the Silicon Valley Defense Group identifying, uh, these dual use companies that, um, with their expertise, they've vetted, that's a great list for funders to be looking at to say, I probably want to be investing in a company that's on that list because they're. Recipients of federal contracts, government contracts that could grow and that's always good to know that maybe there's. Already an existing customer there, if they're not like, explore and already establishing a commercial. Base of customers in the future.

Tim Winkler: 00:16:59

Sure. So I'm always curious when, um, you know, building a company, um, you know, when you built out a, maybe like a, a sales team or folks that are going to be helping you really navigate those federal waters where that were those things that you came in to explore with a little bit of a background in, or did you strategically hire somebody? That you knew could kind of navigate the bureaucracy and, uh, how to, how to get in touch with the folks that were, you know, uh, making buying decisions.

Lisa Rich: 00:17:30

It's a great question because the navigating of the government customer field is, is it's a minefield, right? Uh, there's so much to learn and, and so much time really that's required to get to know different government customers and to know. Which ones are likely the buyers of your data? Um, it's taken years, I would say to be building relationships with different agencies. And that comes from a lot of groundwork, uh, right. Being at events, being at conferences, and then as well, having external experts that you hire to. Make introductions and search for opportunities. There are a number of organizations that help, um, match a company's capabilities with contracting opportunities. And certainly an early stage company has to, uh, allocate budget for that, for those types of, um, consultants and advisors. Uh, and sometimes they pay off and a lot of times they don't, uh, but it's money that you, you put into the effort, uh, and maybe over time, whether a contract is one or not, you've built a relationship. So, for example, in with our company, we have a future opportunity to go to this lunar space. Our initial flights are for earth observation. But we built a satellite that can go to cislunar space. Well, this is of interest to our Space Force, our Air Force customers. But we think that once, once we establish the capability and they've seen it fly and they see what it can do, then they're going to say, okay, now it's time for us to work with you on a CisLunar effort, for example.

Tim Winkler: 00:19:34

Build that past performance up. That's a big, big thing in the government

Lisa Rich: 00:19:37

space. Um, they really have great people. So knowledgeable. Um, and Uh, working on these, what they call the transport layers and the, the hybrid architecture, there's all this government speak that you can can learn about, but, uh, really, it's, it's strengthening the resiliency of and having a sustainable capability for. Uh, all United States space companies, how can we work in concert? How can we work together to, to have, um, to be stronger? It's pretty simple. Yeah.

Tim Winkler: 00:20:17

You know, just kind of, um, circling back to, you know, this kind of playbook for entrepreneurs that might be looking to build, uh, a space company, a space tech startup, um, It's tough to boil this down to three things, but, you know, um, what would you say are three, you know, crucial pieces of advice that you would, you would give somebody that's really trying to jump off the deep end into, into this world of, of, uh, of a space company, of a space startup. I think

Lisa Rich: 00:20:48

the, the idea of having a business is. Exciting to a lot of people, but the execution side of it is the hardest part and what are you executing on? Um, the business model, uh, and time spent on what is your business model? How do you get to a profit? How quickly can you get to a profit is lost on a lot of people because they maybe are in love with the new technology they want to build. They're in love with the idea of tinkering and building something new, and that's all great. That's that's wonderful. However, you must have it supported by a very solid business model that if you can't plot it out on paper, how you get to profitability in the shortest period of time. It's it's high risk. So the goal is to constantly be de risking, uh, the business because you can't rely on any one thing to get you to the finish line, to get you to profitability.

Tim Winkler: 00:22:05

Yeah, that's sound advice. Um, I feel like in startup world to, um, you know, the, the, uh, kind of reference, like just building apps, you know, I think that's a very different ecosystem than what we're talking about. If there's. You know, the combination of hardware and software, you know, looking at much larger raises that are needed, uh, much longer timelines and, um, being comfortable with that, uh, extended timeline, extended runway of becoming profitable. It's very different than, you know, building that quick hitting app that you're just trying to get. Subscribers,

Lisa Rich: 00:22:41

the venture world, um, investors are looking for, uh, these time horizons of getting their return on investment in seven to 10 years. And you have to have a business that is not going to have this be fraught with risk along the way. Um, because they're not just going to keep putting more and more money into the business. You have no guarantee of that. So you have to think about, um, these creative ways of getting to some new form of revenue. Earlier on, and that may not be the main business, but it can't also be a distraction from the main business. So, um, there are ways to do it. Um, every government contract my company has pursued has aligned with our, our long term strategy. That's hard to do, but you don't just pursue contracts for the sake of maybe I'll get money here or there. It has to make sense on the continuum of where is your company going in the next few years and does this align? Yeah.

Tim Winkler: 00:24:03

I want to talk briefly about, um, Diversity in the, in the industry as well. Um, you know, you're a successful woman in a, we consider maybe a traditional kind of male heavy sector. Um, how has that seen changing or what would you say the industry can do to maybe encourage more women to take up. You know, leadership roles in space and tech ventures. It's such

Lisa Rich: 00:24:27

a challenge, really. Um, we need, uh, we have a workforce issue in the space industry because we don't have enough, uh, talent coming out of university to support the jobs and the roles that exist across the space sector, whether you're. A young man or a woman, um, and so we have a gap in our education system that we need to be graduating more of more students from stem careers. So, when you're then at the point where you're hiring, and you're looking for, not just students that are out of school, but, um, maybe. With 10 years plus experience, then how do you find, uh, women that are qualified and men that are qualified and in an industry where the talent is a finite pool. And so what, so you effectively have space companies with people that have jobs at those companies, and you don't necessarily have a lot of people outside of the space industry that you can draw from for new positions. So, with our company Explorer, we're looking for talent and. I would love to attract more women to the roles that we have to fill in engineering. Um, and hopefully women would understand that we're an early stage venture back company. And in that regard, there's an opportunity for. Um, equity for options, uh, that you would not have if you were going to work at a prime, for example, um, the benefits are very different. So if you start to learn, I would encourage young women engineers out there listening to learn about the venture opportunity to understand how that can compare. To a job where you could work at a big prime or a big company, like an Amazon or Microsoft or that type of thing. Um, it's a very different. Uh, to be at a startup and so. I wish there was more education out there about the venture opportunity and the startup environment. To attract more women to it, because, um, I think if they understood, uh, more women understood the, the upside, uh, they might be more attracted to, uh, being at venture backed startups versus applying to. Uh, work at a large prime, like a Lockheed or a Boeing or something

Tim Winkler: 00:27:24

like that. Yeah, I think that with the wave of, of tech startups that are playing in this space, um, both satellite and space companies, uh, I think it will open up a lot more doors where folks maybe thought that the space industry was almost untouchable or, you know, it was going to be a, a much longer journey to get into, to break in. Um, I think that's, what's great about startups is it, it does create a window for folks that maybe, uh, don't have the extensive tenure, um, but they are able to, to build on that, you know, in a, in a real world setting. Um, and it's, you know, it's on those founders to. So, you know, they take a little bit of a chance on, on folks as well with the intent that they groom them and build them up. But I have, I've been, uh, seeing a lot more of these kinds of career fairs where it's really catering to space and satellite tech companies. Um, that are really looking to hire because there is a, there is a gap out there, uh, from a talent marketplace. So,

Lisa Rich: 00:28:24

um, really, um, they've got founders, uh, myself and my business partner, our CEO, uh, have built businesses throughout the course of our career. We are investors in 37 commercial space companies. We built Hemisphere Ventures, which is one of the top VC firms in the space sector and top in deep tech. Um, we were out also, by the way, listed on the national security 100 list right behind, uh, In Q Tel as the. Most prolific investor in the top tier dual use companies. And just this week, uh, our investment in Axiom space, we were the first investors in Axiom, they just closed their series C round of 350 million and sent their. Second, a group of astronauts to the ISS, uh, this year, so that company began with our being the first investor with four people and our understanding that this could be a multi billion dollar company. Um, all this to say that just as founders of a startup, uh, I understand the investment environment, uh, very well. And as a result, have built hemisphere ventures in 5 years to have, uh, multiple return for investors, uh. By making great investments in companies and understanding what great business models are, and then putting a great business model in place ourselves that we expect to bring through to fruition, um, and produce great revenues and returns for our investors and our

Tim Winkler: 00:30:08

employees. That's really impressive. That's impressive. Um. I want to kind of close on, um, another little area here, which I think is something that's top of mind for a lot of folks that are coming into the space, which is kind of like ethics and in space, uh, and and with the, you know, the commercialization of space, there's You know, it's a responsibility for these different companies to kind of play, you know, play nice up there. Um, so how, how does Explore kind of approach space ethics and I guess any thoughts on, on that at large? Are

Lisa Rich: 00:30:42

you talking about space as it relates to responsible operation of your satellite? Exactly. Yeah. Well, all satellites have, um, uh, have to file their, their... How they operate is already like approved by like the licenses that you have. So we're fully licensed, um, for the missions that we're going to fly.

Tim Winkler: 00:31:17

Yeah. I didn't know if there was just a general thought or, you know, during, you know, throughout some of the conversations or conferences that you attend, if there's Big things in space ethics that, that are popping up, uh, just because it's a fast moving arena and a lot of new companies are coming into it. A lot more satellites are getting sent up. So I didn't know if there were things kind of color top of mind in that regard.

Lisa Rich: 00:31:41

International issues that I think are too big for this conversation. Probably

Tim Winkler: 00:31:48

sure. Sure. Yeah. Well, let's, let's, let's move on. Um, uh, I did want to kind of just close the main discussion before we transition into the five second scramble with. Um, it's just a sneak peek into the future for explore some of those exciting projects or collaborations that are on the horizon, I guess, what you're able to share with our audience, some of those things that folks can be excited about going into 2024. Yeah,

Lisa Rich: 00:32:12

well, we have, um, already established a great rapport with a slew of customers that want to buy the capacity. Of data on our satellites, and so can't wait to to deliver, uh, to those customers, but those customers include international interest and. Partnerships were forming with governments. That are small nations, for example, that a small government that could be getting data back from the X craft and allowing them to monitor. Their land, the oceans, um, the, uh, assets that they have and so it's been really a humbling to meet, uh, constituents around the world that want to. Be working with Explorer once we fly, you know, we're an early stage company and yet we have the ear of very important governments. And, um, I just can't wait to see what the future holds there. And we want to be able to provide services and. Valuable data to all of them, uh, because we think that, uh, what we're, what we're building, uh, with data from video instruments from hyperspectral, uh, IR spectrometry, uh, allowing us to measure greenhouse gases, um, et cetera in our sensor suite is all going to be, uh, something that customers want. And they need to start thinking today about their space strategy. Uh, this is something I, I love to harp on it at events is to say, if you're not thinking about transformative data, that will come that will be available and accessible to you. In the next year, if you're not prepared for this, and you don't have a space strategy, aren't you similarly in the same boat as the person at the dawn of the Internet that didn't think the Internet was a thing. And were you left behind because our data will be valuable to commercial companies, insurance companies, financial firms, um, you know, environmental and climate change monitoring people, the list is endless. And this is why we built the company is, could we have something that we could build that we would have, you know. Interesting projects for the next 10 years at minimum by the work we can do it explore. And I think that answer is yes. That's awesome.

Tim Winkler: 00:35:13

Yeah. As you know, you talk about the, you know, the global partnerships as well. I mean, the space race is, is happening in real time and India just today, you know, landed on, on the, the Southern pole. So the moon, so it's a, it's a really fascinating, uh, space that's happening so quickly. And, um, again, brings it back to why this is so, so current and, and, um, relevant. So. Yeah. Um, I guess the last thing with regards to explore, uh, before we do a couple of little rapid fire Q and a, um, what kind of roles do you hire for, uh, what kind of roles are you hiring for? I'm always curious to hear

Lisa Rich: 00:35:49

about that. Well, we are looking for a suite of engineering roles, specifically looking for folks with, uh, hands on expertise with satellites in, um, mechanical electrical engineering. Systems engineering, all of the things that, uh, get a satellite to flight and help us build a whole suite of X craft satellites. So, uh, more hands, uh, on the satellite process would be a good thing. Uh, more hands. On site in Redmond, Washington, building satellites is what we're, we're looking to have here and, uh, folks can go to our website at www. explore. com and look at the careers page to apply.

Tim Winkler: 00:36:44

Awesome. Yeah, we'll be sure to promote that as well. Um, and, uh, that's kind of a wrap on, on the main discussion. Um, are you up for a quick. A quick five second scramble segue here. All right, let's do it. Um, it's, uh, it'll start with a couple of business questions and then we'll have some, some fun personal questions as well. But, uh, uh, explain, explore to me as if I were a five year old.

Lisa Rich: 00:37:11

Well, if a five year old knows what a Swiss army knife is, we could say that Explore is a satellite that's like a Swiss army knife, or maybe a five year old knows what an iPhone is. And basically Explore has built an iPhone, but it's a satellite.

Tim Winkler: 00:37:31

That, that latter one is certainly something that I think most five year olds still know at this point. What, um, what are the biggest problems that you all are solving? We're,

Lisa Rich: 00:37:41

we're solving the problem of accessing valuable data from space for a low cost.

Tim Winkler: 00:37:49

What aspect of your culture do you most fear losing with growth?

Lisa Rich: 00:37:59

Well, we're all fantastic jugglers here. And as I say, there's never a dull moment at our company. I think that there's very personal aspects of being a close knit group. And, um, what Lou, you know, we do want to keep. Uh, a talented team of experts and be a, a close knit group. We don't expect to be a thousand person company. So I don't know that, that I have a lot of fears around that. I think our, our culture is just. Constantly reinforcing, um, the excitement of what we're doing and the impact it can have on the world. And I want to make sure that that trickles down to everyone at the company.

Tim Winkler: 00:38:50

Awesome. What type of technologist thrives at Explore? We,

Lisa Rich: 00:38:57

we have a very bright minds here and people that are able to juggle many tasks. Um. That is the tradition of at a startup is being good jugglers, but I think it's really the problem solver mindset is absolutely

Tim Winkler: 00:39:17

key. Nice. What is a charity or corporate philanthropy that is near and dear to

Lisa Rich: 00:39:25

you? We are very interested in the. The impacts that we have on, um, humanity. And so climate disasters, uh, we just saw happening in Hawaii. Um, we, you know, what we can do to change that in the future with, uh, advanced warning systems with weather, et cetera, um, are important to us. And I think just, that's an example of a situation most recently, which strikes my heart. We have a partnership. With the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, not in Maui, but, um, it, it strikes us all of what, what they're going through right now and our hearts go out to them.

Tim Winkler: 00:40:15

Yeah, well said, um, all right, on a lighter note, uh, can you briefly describe your morning routine by

Lisa Rich: 00:40:23

morning routine? Well, I'm someone that's kind of on 24 7. so regardless of the time zone, people often say, you know, I got a message from you at 3 in the morning or 5 in the morning. It's because I'm always thinking about different people at different times of the day, so my morning routine is somehow getting myself dressed into the office. But by the time I've gotten to the office, I've probably sent many emails, texts, and voicemails to people because that's how I operate. I just, um, I have people and priorities in mind and I am constantly communicating regardless of my. You know, I'm lucky to get dressed in the morning to tell you the truth.

Tim Winkler: 00:41:12

Are you a coffee drinker?

Lisa Rich: 00:41:13

No, I'm a, okay. Truth be told, um, I'm a diet Coke drinker and typically when I've had calls with people, um, and I've had too much diet Coke, they know it because. I come, I'm too, um, no, I just, I think I, I can move at a very, very fast pace. That's, um, a little, um, uh, alarming for some people because I'm just excited and, and, uh, you know, always wanting to advance a conversation quickly because I have a lot going on in my

Tim Winkler: 00:41:53

life. Sure. I'm a proud Diet Coke drinker myself. It's a good Diet Coke plug. Um, All right, here's a fun one. If you could take a one week vacation anywhere in our solar system, where would you

Lisa Rich: 00:42:08

go? Well, my favorite planet is Saturn. I am fascinated by the rings of Saturn. Uh, the sort of, the ring is made up of these Ice crystals that are actually some of them the size of buildings, which I don't even understand. It's just hard to even understand what we're looking at through, you know, the lens of a telescope and and I'm just fascinated by that planet. And I could go there. That's where

Tim Winkler: 00:42:39

I would go. Yeah, I like that answer. Um. What is the worst fashion trend that you've ever followed?

Lisa Rich: 00:42:48

Well, I haven't followed it, but, um, I refuse to buy the puffy shirts and the long sleeves that women have been wearing for the past year. I just don't see the point. I can't stand pushing a tire. It looks like 1980.

Tim Winkler: 00:43:06

Yeah, baggy, baggy clothes are coming back, apparently. Yeah. Um, on the topic of fashion, you know, we've all kind of seen the classic astronaut suits. Um, if you could design the next gen space outfit, is there a fashionable feature or fun feature that you would add?

Lisa Rich: 00:43:24

Oh, what an interesting question. Cause Axiom just designed a new space suit and I actually bought the Axiom Build A Bear teddy bear that is the astronaut bear wearing the Axiom space suit, so it's adorable. Um, and I have that teddy bear now at my house, but, um, well, what, uh, what fed, what would I add to a space suit? Um, I'm one of the first people to. Be in a space suit that women have, like very few women have been able to try on, um, new versions of space suits. And what was fascinating to me as the designers of the suit, when they saw me in it, and this was several years ago, they said, wow, we're so fascinated to see your level of mobility because women move differently in a space suit than men. And. Uh, I think that that, uh, lightness of a suit is important. So we could totally get on a riff about materials, by the way, I'm a, I'm a materials nerd. So I love, um, any kind of discussion of, you know, like, um, aerogel and things like that.

Tim Winkler: 00:44:46

And lightweight material. Right. Yeah. Well, we'll have to run a sec, a second episode. We'll talk all, um, materials. It was fun. Uh, just a couple more here, uh, to wrap it up. So if you had to pick one fast food joint to establish as the first restaurant on Mars, which one would it

Lisa Rich: 00:45:05

be? Well, I am a sucker for five guys, so I know this. We ordered lunch the other week. From five guys, and I didn't realize how often I go there, but it's kind of like in and out burger where you get to know the language and you can order something that's called all the way with all the toppings. And I made the mistake of telling. The person doing the ordering, Oh, I want, you know, a double cheeseburger all the way. And she said, wow, you must really go to five guys a lot if you know their terminology. And I said, guilty as charged.

Tim Winkler: 00:45:46

Yeah. A five guys. I'm in heaven right there. Yeah, that's. That's, uh, that's great. Um, that's actually the, uh, that's actually my answer. Um, I, I would pick five guys as well, but we get a lot of folks on the pod that are maybe on the West coast in California and an outbreaker seems to be their, their pick and choice. Um, Chick fil a is in the running as well. Um, Alright, uh, last one. What was your dream job as a

Lisa Rich: 00:46:12

kid? What did I dream of becoming? Well, ironically, I did the Myers Briggs test and it told me that I would be either a gardener Or an astronaut now, I was technically kind of both as a kid, I was studying, uh, flora and fauna and the genus and species of all sorts of plants. And not only having, um, you know, thousands or thousands, sorry, hundreds of house plants that I had, but I was interested in in space. So in an odd way, I think I. Grew into my dream job.

Tim Winkler: 00:46:56

Yeah, that's really neat. What are both a very interesting professions, but, uh, I think the, the, the vertical space seems like one that a lot of folks would be really jealous of. So good, good for you. I

Lisa Rich: 00:47:09

remember getting the test results and saying, I don't know what this means. I do not understand.

Tim Winkler: 00:47:17

Well, that's a wrap, uh, Lisa, I want to thank you again for spending time with us. Uh, we are excited for the future of what you all are building at Explore. It's a very fascinating company. Um, we're excited. I'm sure you'll be super successful. So we're rooting for you all and I wanted to thank you again for hanging us, hanging with us on the podcast. Thank you,

Lisa Rich: 00:47:35

Tim. It's been great. Have a good one.