Should I Stay or Should Argo?

This is The Startup Breakdown, the newsletter where we breakDOWN startUPs (just had to make sure you appreciated the word play). By joining this growing community of hundreds of curious individuals, you're getting firsthand access to my observations and opinions on the current state of the startups and venture scene. If you'd like to receive these newsletters directly in your inbox once a week, go ahead and subscribe to never miss an email!

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Happy Monday, folks.

Exciting news: we have comments now! I’ve gotten sooo many replies requesting a way to publicly tell me how you absolutely live for my writing and can’t stand not being able to let the rest of the world know. Now, you can do just that (only available on the website).

Have at it. Tell me what you love about me.

Fully expect the first comment to be something along the lines of “please stop”… Thanks, Mom.

Are you even big tech if you aren’t announcing AI initiatives???

Amazon doesn’t think so, and to ensure the Kingdom of Bezos remains one of the ~cool kids~, the company announced Amazon Bedrock. The feature is an enterprise solution allowing large companies to build and host AI applications on AWS using pre-trained models from startups such as AI21, Anthropic, and Stability.

Unlike its fellow behemoths, the everything store ISN’T building its own AI model, and the solution isn’t geared towards startups but rather fellow well-capped companies. The pricing hasn’t been announced, but it’s safe to assume that it will cost companies a robotic arm and a leg.

This move also shows that Amazon believes that the best way to enter this very crowded space is in building the picks and shovels for the AI gold rush. This comes after already exploring other ways to tap into the movement, including investing in and partnering with other companies in the space and even running its own AI startup accelerator.

With the increasing number of options for people to build out their wildest AI fantasies, it will be exciting to see what products are built, especially as these solutions become more accessible for people who lack coding skills. You technical folks better watch out. It’s #IdeaGuySummer

If you’re offended by the following, you’re soft.

Women are severely underrepresented when it comes to raising VC money. Like really severely. @ you investors, do better.

Last quarter, the disparity was clearer than ever, with all-women founder teams raising $800 million, a number which might seem impressive until you zoom out and realize that this represents just 2.1% of all venture funding. Even worse, this represented a 53% decline on the year. This isn’t what Rihanna has been fighting for.

It’s not a whole lot better for teams with women founders even when the founding team is mixed. 18.9% ($7B) of funding went to these companies, a sharp decline from the $15.8B they had received last year. If there’s even a tiny sliver of sunshine in this London-esque gloom, it’s the fact that this is slightly better than the 17.5% average for this stat over the last couple of years. Yay?

What do humans and future spacecrafts have in common?

Both 💫shoot for the stars✨ and maybe even run on water.

At least, that’s the goal of a trio of the Carlisle bros, a trio of real brothers and former SpaceX engineers who recently announced their venture Argo Space, a reusable spacecraft company who have been making headlines in the Space space lately. Maybe Elon could have used them this week… 🤐 

Yeah, yeah. Everybody with a few billion dollars and a severe case of the midlife crises is starting space companies. What makes these guys any different?

I think the fact that they are looking to use Moon water as fuel counts.

Scientists have long drooled all over their lab coats over the potential of water as a source of fuel, and there has been particular interest in the use of water and ice from the Moon as harnessing this resource is believed to be essential for interplanetary travel. John Keely walked so these guys could run.

In case you didn’t know, the H & O in H2O actually refer to the elements Hydrogen and Oxygen, two essential components in rocket fuel. If you’ve ever had to move a bucket of water, chances are you’ve never felt weaker than when you’re asked to carry a couple gallons of it.

Being able to initially launch from Earth with less liquid weight and refuel at a station on the Moon would cut down on costs tremendously, particularly as the lower gravity of our friendly neighborhood natural satellite means that it takes less power to launch again. And dunk.

The benefits are not restricted to big pointy air cars, either. Astronauts are people, too. People need water. Ideally, they’d be able to rehydrate and pair it with a nice charcuterie board of Moon cheese.

Robert, Ryan, and Kirby are looking to both develop the rocket itself as well as their own method for the water extraction process and technology. The trio combines a strong educational background with years of eyebrow-raising experience on both the business and engineering sides. Plus, they can carpool home on holidays.

The company, founded in 2021, just raised its first institutional round, an estimated $2 million, led by Boost, Earthrise, Stellar, and Type One Ventures. The quartet has a stellar portfolio of successful high tech companies in their portfolios, and Argo seems to be the next in a long line of Sci Fi fanfic to reality storylines.

Space is infinite, and somehow the market size might be even more expansive. The deep space industry is valued at more than $400 billion, and it’s expected to grow 8% annually en route to a $630 billion price tag. There have been estimates that mining alone could produce $4 billion in annual recurring revenue. If you want to feel insignificant, that’s about 1 dollar for every star in the galaxy… 😅 

If you thought that “reusable space vehicles” sounded familiar, it’s prolly cause it’s what many of the CEO-turned astronauts types are working towards these days.

The owner of Twitter decided that he wanted to live on Mars, too, attempting the launch of its Starship reusable rocket last week. That AI service-hosting company’s old CEO started a company called Blue Origin trying to do the same thing, too.

It’s clear that the space space (lol) is becoming increasingly competitive, potentially the result of more investors pouring money into making Thanksgiving at Grandma’s on Mars a reality. However, there’s no barrier to more than one company reaching these sky-high (intentional) aspirations.

If anything, these competing groups just make it even more likely that we can all experience the wonders of space. At least if you have $300K lying around.

In my opinion, this team is onto something. The concept has been a scientific golden child for years, and advances in technology mean it’s becoming ever more likely that someone will actually figure it out. As for the Carlisle trio, why else would they give up a cushy job in a place with every resource they could possibly need and a committed exec to star in their own Star Wars movie?

They believe in their approach. They are experts at their craft. I’ll buy it. Seems like simple math. It’s certainly not rocket science.

TLDR: Argo Space is building reusable rockets which run on Moon water. The concept of using this resource as fuel are nothing new, but the former SpaceX engineers believe that they have the tech figured out and are well on their way to making the big money market of interstellar travel a reality.

Cheers to another day,

Trey