Canadian launch and propulsion startup Reaction Dynamics (RDX) scored a big win last week. Not just figuratively, but literally: after competing in several rounds of Tim Draper’s startup pitch reality show, Meet The Drapers, Reaction Dynamics emerged triumphant in the finals, with a million-dollar investment from Draper’s venture capital firm.
Interestingly, they were one of several companies that received the million-dollar prize, as well as the $500,000 and $250,000 prizes as Draper said that their ultimate conclusion was that they should “make a deal” with the promising finalist companies.
SpaceQ reached out to Reaction Dynamics for their thoughts, and Founder & CEO Bachar Elzein responded with his insights on the experience, what they had learned about pitching under pressure, and the benefits it will bring to their company.
Pitching a hybrid rocket company on reality TV
One of Reaction Dynamics’ main competitive advantages lies in their fuel. As reported in previous SpaceQ coverage, the company is building launchers, engines, and propulsion systems that use “hybrid” propulsion: a mix of solid fuel and a liquid oxidizer. This approach offers unique advantages that RDX often highlights in their press materials: the fuel is shelf-stable, environmentally friendly, and not flammable outside of a combustion chamber, unlike liquid propellants, yet is also far more flexible in its usage than traditional solid-propellant rockets.
Until now, however, hybrid propulsion has largely been theoretical, due to issues arising from the burning of solid fuel and how it changes shape and size over time of combustion. Making fuel that burns steadily is the tricky part, and the one that RDX says they’ve solved with their custom-made, proprietary, and confidential fuel pellets.
RDX’s appearance on this final episode of Meet the Drapers actually featured those very same fuel pellets. Small blocks of RDX’s fuel were handed out to the judges, who marveled at the sight and feel of it as Elzein and RDX Jesse Mikelberg gave information on the company and its advantages. As before, they focused on the quiet importance of space in the global economy; and, as before, they emphasized the safety and stability of the fuel as a key competitive advantage that allows for customers to store fuel and whole propulsion systems, both on-orbit and terrestrially, for long periods of time.
Mikelberg actually took a lighter to a fuel sample to demonstrate how safe the fuel was. The fuel remained intact, and both the samples and the demonstration visibly impressed Draper’s judges.
Distilling complex ideas down, and pitching as “storytelling”
For Elzein, this consistency and directness was a key part of their (ultimately-successful) pitching process throughout the competition. “Communicating the intricacies of rocket science to non-technical investors is always a challenge,” he said, which warrants care in your approach. Although Tim Draper himself has a history as a key early investor in SpaceX and understanding of the technical issues, Elzein understood that they had to be prepared to reach out to other judges and audience members that didn’t have that background, and that they had to do it under the “tight time constraints” of a televised pitch. The secret, he said, is in “distilling complex ideas into clear, engaging messages—conveying differentiation without resorting to cliches.”
To win, they needed to remember that “success would depend not just on technical merit, but on effective storytelling.” and particularly on storytelling that “focused on outcomes, such as mission capabilities and real-world impact.”
When asked about how the Draper experience differed from a standard pitch meeting, Elzein once again emphasized the need to be clear, straightforward, and direct. In a standard pitch meeting, “there’s usually more back-and-forth,” he said, with “time to tailor the conversation to the investor’s background, and room to dive deep into things like propulsion, customer-specific capabilities or regulatory pathways.”
This time, however, Elzein said that their pitches needed to be “instantly graspable” within those tight time constraints, even by judges that had no background in space. “We had to strike a balance…staying true to the complexity of what we do, while making it accessible and engaging.”
The exercise ended up being “incredibly valuable” to Elzein and RDX. “It challenged us to reframe our messaging: to shift from technical depth to clarity and impact, and to prioritize outcomes over specs.” The brevity, he said, “makes it especially powerful.” It “forces founders to distill their story, value proposition, and vision into something compelling and immediate.”
With all those differences noted, however, Elzein said that there was one key similarity: “the need to build trust quickly.” “Whether it’s a boardroom or a soundstage,” he said, “people invest in people—and your ability to communicate vision, credibility, and commitment matters just as much as the product.”
That meant that the Draper experience wasn’t just valuable in terms of the direct investment—though Draper’s million dollars (at a $18 million valuation as he stated) will be a significant portion of their latest five million dollar funding round—but in how it was “a great exercise in storytelling,” which is “something every founder has to master sooner or later.
What’s coming next for Reaction Dynamics
As you could expect from a prominent reality television victory, the prize they received is only one part of what they might be getting out of it. The newly-minted Drapers winner is already attracting investors. In fact, Elzein said that it happened even faster than one might have expected, noting that RDX “had the opportunity to meet with investors directly” on the very same night as the win. He sees it as a result of the “incredible form of validation” that they received when Draper, SpaceX’s first investor, chose to back RDX. Others appear to see it the same way.
That would seem to augur well for this latest funding round, and assure the funding needed as they move to their first launch test of their suborbital Aurora-1 launcher and its RE-102 engines in December of 2025. “RDX engineers will be on-site in Australia as early as next week to support preparations,” he said.
They’re also progressing on the test campaign for the Aurora-8 orbital launcher, as well as its 10 RE-202 engines (8 on the first stage, 2 on the second stage) in preparation for a launch test of the Aurora-8 in late 2028. He did note that “the architecture is still subject to refinement” regarding the orbital vehicle, “the final design will be fixed following the Mission-Cycle Test (MCT), which will evaluate engine performance across full-duration burns representative of the flight duty cycle.” They will also be attempting to increase the Aurora-8’s capacity, from 125 kg to 150–200 kg, in response to customer requests. This may require “iterative modifications to stage layout” on the Aurora-8, though Elzein said that “the RE-202 will remain the core propulsion system in both stages.”
Aside from the launcher tests, there are also several upcoming tests of the company’s ability to provide on-orbit propulsion solutions using its hybrid engines. Elzein pointed to the Triumph Mission, part of a partnership with the Canadian Space Agency, which will give them the opportunity to “demonstrate the technological maturity and in-orbit reliability of our satellite propulsion system in a real operational environment.” The goal is to mark a “key milestone” for their second business division, and to “initiate the commercialization phase,” and Elzein said “we already have an active pipeline of interested clients.”
Over the course of the show, Mikelberg also repeatedly mentioned an upcoming propulsion test for DOD and the US Space Force with Gravitics and SpaceX. This was slightly unclear, but appeared to indicate RDX’s involvement with Gravitics’ “Orbital Carrier” concept, which works like an aircraft carrier but with on-orbit spacecraft that can be carried over the long term and deployed when needed. RDX’s hybrid propulsion could be perfect for that, and a test of one of these Orbital Carriers is scheduled for a future Starship launch, once the Starship completes testing and enters service.
That said, Elzein (predictably) demurred from saying anything about these DOD tests, saying only that “there are no details we can share for now”. Either way, they’ll be busy.
Elzein closed out his comments by noting that “we had a 1-in-3,000 chance of winning the top spot at Meet the Drapers when Jesse registered us for the competition,” but that these sorts of situations are “exactly what this company was built for…beating the odds and turning the seemingly impossible into reality.” Elzein said that “to have earned [Draper’s] trust and reignite his interest in launch” felt like “an incredible endorsement.”
He also emphasized his thanks to “everyone on set—you made the experience not only memorable but genuinely fun”, as well as “to the amazing crew for their support, care, and insights…Henrique, Sarika, Michael…thank you.”
Editor’s note: In the article we mention the following valuation: “at a $18 million valuation.” We’ve updated this to add some clarity as this is what Tim Draper said in the episode. It now reads “at a $18 million valuation as he stated.” RDX reached out to us to say that Tim Draper will be investing “under the same terms as our current investors in this round” meaning that the valuation will be the same as for the other investors and that the number is not disclosed publicly.
We also added some context to this sentence: “Although Tim Draper himself has a history as a key early investor in SpaceX, Elzein understood that they had to be prepared to reach out to judges…” and modified it to read “Although Tim Draper himself has a history as a key early investor in SpaceX and understanding of the technical issues, Elzein understood that they had to be prepared to reach out to other judges…”