Grant Blaisdell is the CEO and co-founder of Copernic Space, a company building the digital marketplace for the new space economy.

With a unique background influenced by his family’s legacy in both the space and tech sectors, Grant is focused on how we can democratize space assets and enable greater participation in the space market.

From his early days in Southern California to living in post-communist Poland, Grant’s journey reflects his passion for creating innovative business models that empower space ventures. He shares insights into the challenges of building a commercial platform that connects space entrepreneurs, companies, and investors worldwide, providing them with the liquidity and support needed to push forward groundbreaking technologies and solutions.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• How Grant’s upbringing shaped his entrepreneurial journey in space.

• The mission and vision behind Copernic Space and its role in the new space economy.

• The challenges and misconceptions of building a space marketplace.

• The importance of creating liquidity and ownership opportunities for space assets.

• How the 2024 Moon mission will redefine space commercialization.

Quote:

“You build your own reality in space. It’s quite an open market… So my thing is, don’t be scared. Don’t feel the imposter syndrome about it and create your own brand in space.”

- Grant Blaisdell

Episode Links:

• Connect with Grant Blaisdell on LinkedIn

• Explore Copernic Space

Credits:

Production by CxS Partners LTD

Executive Producer: Toby Goodman

Audio & Sound Design: Lee Turner

Artwork: Ryan Field

Find your place in the business of space: https://interastra.space

Grant Blaisdell:

But space is the most important market in our viewpoint, has been. And now that it's entered into this more private realm and needs a solution like Copernic Space, I realized it was my time to formally enter the field strongly.

Hi, I'm Grant Blaisdell and you're listening to 'Your Business in Space'. I'm CEO and cofounder of Copernic Space, and we're building the platform and marketplace that enables Space Ventures to connect with millions of companies, individuals, and investors across the world and build the digital marketplace for the new space economy. Me, I I have kind of a unique and to be honest, a blessed background because of my parents that helped me put me where I am. I'm born in Southern California on Laguna Beach, but I've moved around everywhere. Eventually, in the nineties after communism fell, my mother, who's now cofounder of Copernic Space known as Lady Rocket, Eva Blaisdell, she got the big task and responsibility of bringing Compaq and then HP into Central Europe after communism fell.

So I got to spend about 4 or 5 years of my childhood in the nineties in Poland when I was, you know, entering into the free market and really building its itself, up again, which had a big influence on me, especially, like, as an American. You know, most Americans are pretty American centric, so to say. Right? So I think that was a big blessing for me. And then I I moved back to the states. My father's from Detroit, so I spent some time in Michigan. Went to middle school and high school in Carmel, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. And as soon as I graduated, I moved back to Southern California.

I went to LA, started launching my first startups, but, you know, and as soon as I graduated, I moved back to Southern California. I went to LA, started launching my first startups, but, you know, because I kind of moved around all the time and a lot, and both my parents were were pretty unique, ambitious people, instilled this comfort with discomfort and chaos and the capability to potentially accomplish anything. And it shows through, you know, what we're trying to achieve and have achieved already at Copernic Space.

So when I was, you know, teenager, early twenties, I didn't go the conventional route. So I didn't really go to college, university. I started my first startup at 19. Right? So technically my first job, like formal job ever is I worked at, the Starbucks on Sunset and Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, which is I think the 8th big busiest Starbucks in the world and, and a lot of So that was also kind of pressure high pace. I saw I formally didn't really study anything. Kind of part of my expertise or specialty is that I'm not a specialist. I'm not hyper focused on a singular thing.

So the iPhone technically wasn't out yet. We're programming on Palm because that was the only thing that you could really do that sort of stuff on. So, you know, being kind of ahead, in that case, to a flaw, is is always been a a part of my reality. I have a 3 generation, you know, family legacy to it. You know, my mother, once again, is my cofounder, and then all starts with her father, Tadeusz Gaievskiy, who is published by NASA somehow out of what was then a communist regime in Poland.

He was high up in the air force. And with Hrdmazewski, he built the original astronaut and space program for Poland in the sixties, seventies, eighties. And he has these earliest works around that I know of around the concept of democratizing space.

You know, it's a reality that he, you know, he had to confront based off kind of geopolitical position. So, this has always been around. So space has been a part of my life in various ways. I'm not like the kind of, I'd say traditional space enthusiast. Like I'm not scientifically, you know, hyper focused on it or, or the engineering side.

There were moments where a little over a decade ago, my mom and I started, let's say investing and, and doing various initiatives around space, especially around what was then Vandenberg Air Force Base. This is before it was Space Force Base in Lompoc, California and got to work, you know, with and be around the environment of some of these new entrepreneurs, the government sector, etcetera.

At the time I was, I just co founded and was chief marketing officer of CoinFirm, firm, which we eventually built into a global leader and a leading product in, the analytics and regulatory technology space.

So it's a platform for analyzing, crypto and blockchain assets for regulatory purposes. But you can already find the, the kind of the original, waves, of Copernicus space online of my mother and I communicating what we viewed as is one of the most important opportunities and solutions of potentially this century, both economically as well as the tangible benefits that that that it provides, which is, space needs a marketplace. And the the better we build that marketplace and push those economic models and solutions faster and forward, the more we can empower these great entrepreneurs who are creating some of the most important technological solutions for life on Earth, which space has always done. Right? It's just not the best at communicating it. So I knew I wanted to work in space, but not in the traditional way.

And now that it's entered into this, this more private realm and needs a solution like Copernic Space, I realized it was my time to formally enter the field strongly. When it comes to the business of space, you know, the biggest misconception is that it's not really a business on one end, right? Like people don't really see the market outside of Musk and and Branson and and Bezos, generally speaking. They don't understand that there's 100, if not thousands of entrepreneurs, around it building what's already a $500,000,000,000 market and economy, and that it's not all government, right? It's not all Musk and government, pretty much. There's a lot of stuff happening around it.

And, it's not gonna provide the accessibility, the commercialization or financing models or the scalability that space needs and these entrepreneurs need, to actually build a, a real market. So, one person doesn't see enough of it as a real market. The person who's in the market a lot of times, is too invested in the market continuing the way it is as opposed to going how it actually needs to go right now. You know, back to kind of this whole crypto comparison and me, you know, being around that market for over a decade now and utilizing it to build this, this economic infrastructure and the models for the new space economy.

Space is like the crypto market, you know, 12, 10 years ago in the sense of lots of ways, but one is, is it needs every type of person right now. So I think to be successful in space, a, you need to have a really, let's say thick skin, but it needs every type of person. So I think the big communication is like, you don't have to be an engineer, right? Like I, for example, I am dealing with on a day to day basis as a marketplace, I have to deal with space ventures on one end, which is like supply, right? And then I have to build the commercial consumer retail demand on the other end. Right? But I deal with these space guys that are genius dudes solving very specific problems.

On the flip side, like I'm not as smart as them in those things. I have a, once again, that kind of macroeconomic approach. So it's, it's a great time to enter the space market and kind of plant your flag. It needs better sales ideas, marketing, all these sort of aspects are needed in the space economy. It's a big, but still in the private sense, a very immature market. But you need to have resiliency. You know, the timelines in space are longer, right? One reason why space is such a hard market to invest in, one of the many is, you know, the liquidity event timelines for investors are like decades potentially. So there's a a little bit more of a long term vision and thinking and kinda risk tolerance around that.

As any new market or technology, a lot of times, it's whatever the billionaires that can step in first and really have, you know, the freedom to kind of absorb that. But like I said, there's thousands of entrepreneurs entering this space right now doing a lot of different things. And as any market, you know, most things will fail. But those who have the resiliency, to continue fighting in this space market are gonna reap the massive rewards. Just like the people in crypto 10, 12 years ago. The big opportunity in space, you know, for us especially is like, you kind of get to build the standards, build the language, of this market. You know, I'm very businessy focused as opposed to, you know, let's say engineering focus. Right? So it comes back to kind of planning your flag.

So don't have too much imposter syndrome, right?

Like, I think you're gonna feel that no matter what or who you are, in space, right? It's like, do I belong here? This is space. We're talking about, you know, people sending stuff to the moon or, you know, all this sort of stuff. So my thing is, is that you kind of build your own reality in space. It's quite an open market and it's very specific. There's actually not a lot of people in it in a certain way. So my thing is, is, is don't be scared. Don't feel the imposter syndrome about it and create your own brand in space. For me, the opportunities I'm most excited about in the business's space is really what we want to deliver, which is empower these great entrepreneurs and their engineers to be able to access, liquidity in terms and models that work and are built for them while at the same time, enabling as many organizations or individuals to have access and ownership in the Space Ventures assets, opportunities so that they're not left behind in what we view as is, is what's going to be eventually the largest market and asset class in human history.

So for me, it's really about inventing the models and then implementing that into a solution that, you know, a space venture, for example, that has some contracted revenue and needs short term liquidity to fulfill those contracts is not stuck in the position they're in today, which is pretty much screwed. You know, they can't go to VCs really under a model like that, And then can touch instead 1,000 or millions of people, in the market under a model that gives them that, that liquidity to continue moving forward. Because there's lots of great space companies that are dying or have any incredibly hard time that don't deserve to be. Right. Obviously a lot of companies deserve to be, they're not viable. Right. But, there's lots of cases where, where they are and it's just because something like we're building has not been created for the space market and for, the space economy. And if we do that, we will push these guys to once again, create solutions that tangibly better life on earth.

I'm Grant Blaisdell. I'm CEO and co founder of Copernic Space.

And you've been listening to 'Your Business In Space'.

All the ways you can connect with me and Copernic Space are in the links in the show notes. So to discover more head to interastra.space

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