Mark Matossian, Ph.D.

As an Apollo generation kid, I never had any doubt that I wanted to study Aerospace Engineering. However, I also made time to include a degree in Russian and Eastern European Studies, which gave me not only a unique specialty but also a transferable framework for successfully leading global operations. After recognizing the commercial potential of the nascent satellite constellation efforts in the Strategic Defense Initiative, I earned my Ph.D. by developing a design optimization methodology for satellite constellations. I worked on several efforts during the first commercial wave of constellations, including Iridium, ICO, and Teledesic, the precursor to SpaceX’s Starlink, as well as a European-Japanese telecom project. I soon learned that while design optimization is essential, disciplined program management of the scope, cost, and schedule all the way through the deployment operations is an equally important link in the chain.

After several years at Silicon Valley software and bleeding edge wireless startups, I began a thirteen-year tenure at Google, scaling new products across Space, Telecom, Cloud, Android, Payments, and VR, and running projects across the US, Asia, Europe, and South America. Initially, I built all the hardware for Google data centers worldwide (>$1B), managing supply chains, production, and logistics, and evolving into a senior problem solver for Google operations across the globe. I then moved to the product and Moonshot side of Google, in leadership roles for the first smartphone POS payments product (now a ~$200B market), the satellite broadband project that became OneWeb, high-altitude UAVs, and Terra Bella, turning a $500M prototype-stage imaging startup acquisition into a process-driven operation that built and launched Earth observation satellites at scale.

Since Google, I have led startup efforts as a founder, executive, and CEO. I served as CEO of ICEYE US, part of ICEYE of Finland, operating the world’s largest commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging satellite constellation. I closed the first spacecraft sale for ICEYE, opened the DOD/IC market, and led a perfect score performance at INDOPACOM’s Valiant Shield exercise. I co-founded Solstar Space to deploy telecom services to radically disrupt the space operations market, and as Co-Founder & CTO of Lonestar Data Holdings, I rewrote the business plan to pursue something genuinely audacious, space-based data center services for terrestrial customers—years before the AI embrace of orbital data centers. Finally, I co-founded ingeniSPACE, which provides sensitive intelligence technology and services to governments in SE Asia.

I have worked in many technology areas. I helped build the cloud before it was The Cloud. I have seen the space business massively evolve and merge with Cloud operations. I’ve had some successes—and gained some very valuable scars. Over the years, I have also advised VCs, PE, and hedge funds on investments in technology, strategy, and operations. At Whipsmart I get to do the thing I care about most: back the founders building the hardware-and-software systems that will define the next century. I have been that founder. I know the difference between a beautiful prototype and a company that can turn that prototype into a business, and I invest in the people who can cross that chasm.