Luca Rossettini is CEO and co-founder of D-Orbit, Expert at the Space Advisory Group of the European Commission, Board member of AIPAS, and corresponding member of IAA. He’s an aerospace engineer with a Ph.D. in advanced space propulsion, masters in strategic leadership towards sustainability and a Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
None
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I had a very, very difficult time at the beginning to find money for the business… I invested my own money here. But still my initial business plan required a seed investment of 5,000,000 dollars and I got 300,000 dollars at that time from a crazy investor, crazy in a good sense. I was in the same room as him when he decided to invest the money. And he was on the phone with an expert from one of the space agencies and I heard clearly on the other side of the phone that the person was laughing. So that’s high I said crazy investor. Now he is very happy by the way but at that time it was really a bet”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t Book by James C. CollinsFavourite Quote:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has” Margaret Mead
Recommended Online Resources:
- Sector Magazines
- News Aggregators
- Paperly – Collect content that s aligned with your customers interests, and deliver it wherever they are Automatically share content on social media, publish your own web newspaper and send email newsletters
- Space News from SpaceDaily Com brings the space industry professional daily news from the frontier, with contract, bid, launch and on orbit satellite news as it happens
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“it’s definitely having a vision, making a plan and be ready to change the plan but make sure that whatever you do follow a very simple algorithm that we use basically every day for every decision. So, when you have to take a decision ask yourself is this decision going in the right direction? Yes or no? If it is no, you just discard it. Is it an open platform? So even if you are not really getting to your final destination is it helping you to move forward later on or is it a dead-end? And the third is the most important… Can I get a benefit in the short-term? That could be an economic benefit or any other sort of benefit but show be a benefit in the short-term otherwise it means that it’s not the right moment to take that action. And the last aspect I already mentioned before… Do not give up.”…[Listen for More]
More About Luca Rossettini:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Nothing is stronger than a broken man rebuilding himself.” Unknown
Other Quotes From the Chat with Luca Rossettini:
- “Space is not easy and you need a lot of motivation, effort, stubbornness and boldness. And so do not give up”
- “I believe we are what we are thanks to the errors that we may… To me the competitive advantage of technology is less and less important the more the market is going to develop. It is coming from a roadmap of learning and fine-tuning”
- “Being seriously and personally motivated in what you do. It doesn’t matter if you want to become an entrepreneur or you have a career or you have a life goal go ahead you have a direction, don’t give up, never give up. It’s very easy to give up. It’s the first solution but if you have a direction and a clear goal even if sometimes you find a barrier in front of you you have two solutions. Either you have a very strong head so you can keep the barrier until it falls or you just find another way around. I think if you do this and you don’t do it alone and you put together a team along the way in such a way that when something goes bad you still have someone around you that helps you. To me this is the sauce for success”
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