Adrià is the founder of Pangea Aerospace, a European spacetech startup that transformed an abandoned aerospike rocket engine concept into a working engine. Beginning with his passion for propulsion at Airbus, he built a company that recently secured €23 million in Series A funding to revolutionize how rockets are powered.

In this episode, Adrià reveals how he and his international founding team created Europe's first successful aerospike engine that could increase payload capacity by 30-40%. With no guarantee of success, this motocross enthusiast shares his journey of pivoting from full rockets to becoming "the propulsion provider for the future of space industry."

Want to get hired at Pangea? https://tally.so/r/3E6Raq

Want to get invest in Pangea? https://tally.so/r/nPrxPd

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Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction

(03:11) - Career journey: From Airbus engineer to founder

(09:37) - Technology breakthrough: Making aerospike engines viable

(17:13) - Strategic pivot: Why focusing on propulsion systems was key

(26:22) - Funding journey: From savings to Series A

33:40) - Market validation: How contracts secured investment

(40:42) - Public vs private: Navigating the European space ecosystem

(45:35) - Product strategy: Building a comprehensive propulsion portfolio

(54:27) - Team building: Creating a diverse international culture

(01:00:48) - Vision and advice for space tech founders

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Takeaways:

1) Dive Into Your Engineering Passion

- His deep technical interest drove him from Airbus to founding Pangea

2) Seek Impact When You Feel Limited

- Working at Airbus showed him that his impact was "pretty limited" in a large organization

3) Make Old Technology Viable Through New Methods

- Aerospike engines existed since the 1960s but hadn't flown due to manufacturing limitations

4) Be "Naive Enough" to Challenge Conventional Thinking

- "We were naive enough and blunt enough to actually go that path" when experts said 3D printing aerospike engines wouldn't work

5) Execute Difficult Pivots When Necessary

- Initially started as a micro-launcher company but pivoted to focus solely on propulsion

6) Balance Public and Private Funding

- "In Europe, everyone that has a VC inside and they're cap table, indirectly they're having as well a public institution"

- Public funding provides credibility, private funding creates urgency

7) Be Product-Market Focused From Early On

- His advice for Series A: "Early on talk to clients, customers, what are their needs... I'm doing this engine because Mr. And Mrs. A, B, C, D, and E had told me that they need this"

8) Build a Diverse, Collaborative Team

- "From the six founders that we are, we are three Spaniards, two Italians, one Swedish"

- They now have "17 or 18 nationalities in the team" because diversity "opens your mind on how things have been done"

9) Value Team Cohesion Over Individual Brilliance

- "I prefer having a very solidified team that is able to work together perfectly rather than having the geniuses that can take very impressive ideas, but they're completely unable to work in a team"

10) Embrace Both New Space and Traditional Space Knowledge

- "New Space is here to demonstrate in some areas commercial viability... But we have to learn from those guys because those guys have done it"

- Finding the balance between innovation and experience is critical

11) Build Towards a Bold Vision

- Their mission is to become "the preferred propulsion partner for everything that has to go to space, move into space, and come back from space"

- "We want to become this Rolls Royce of space"