Astor Perkins Space Investor Roundtable

October 29, 2020

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Astor Perkins’ All Things Space & Survival October 2nd Event: Astor Perkins Space Investor Roundtable

Moderating the roundtable will be Scott Amyx, Managing Partner at Astor Perkins

Let me introduce the investor roundtable panelists:

Ola Sars is the Founder and CEO of Soundtrack Your Brand, the world’s fastest growing music-platform for B2B, which he co-founded together with Spotify back in 2014. Before Soundtrack, he was the co-founder and COO of Beats Music, acquired by Apple and transformed into Apple Music. Please welcome Ola Sars.
Our next panelist is Jeff Ransdell, who is a founding partner and the Managing Director of Fuel Venture Capital, a $224M venture fund with 23 startups in its portfolio, including PredaSAR, Soundtrack Your Brand and Taxfyle. Prior to Fuel Venture Capital, he was a managing director and market executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, a role in which he was tasked with managing more than $130 billion of global private client investment assets, a P&L of $2 billion. Please welcome Jeff Ransdell.
Ben Rifkin is the CEO and President of Ten Eighty Capital, a family investment office and VC that invests in high growth businesses. He is also a co-founder and board director of AcceleratUM, a privately funded collaborative that develops consensus solutions for the unmanned mobility industry. Prior to Ten Eighty, Rifkin served as President of Royal Street Investment & Innovation Center and advised Royal Street’s sale of Deer Valley Resort and Solitude Resort to Alterra Mountain Company.
Jeff Crusey is an Investment Manager at Seraphim Capital, the oldest and most prolific space tech VC globally. Prior to Seraphim, Jeff managed strategy at Viasat, a provider of satellite communications for defense and commercial markets. He also led climate tech VC investments at DTE Energy Ventures and is also an entrepreneur. Jeff holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at UPenn.
And today’s featured startup in the roundtable is Steelhead Composites, led by CEO Andrew Coors, who grew the company to a dominant global pressure vessel manufacturer. Steelhead is active in hydrogen storage for zero-emission applications and launch & propulsion solutions for aerospace and has over 120 customers worldwide. Steelhead has received numerous awards and accolades for advanced manufacturing. He holds a MS degree in Economics from the University of California and is a CFA Charterholder.
- A bit more about Steelhead:
  - They have over 120 major customers in 26 countries
  - Their customers are the “who’s who” of the new space race for launch and propulsion, such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, ULA, and many others
  - Their revenues have grown 300% YoY since 2019 and are expected to maintain that growth rate next year
  - They hold a strong patent portfolio that protects their proprietary design, engineering, manufacturing and testing of their patented pressure vessel designs
  - They are the fastest in the industry for prototyping with a fully digital manufacturing floor
  - They are aerospace quality system (AS 9100-Rev D) and environmental management system (ISO 14001) certified
  - Let’s welcome Andrew Coors from Steelhead Composites