Iain Christie

On Risk, Particularly Execution Risk – Advice to Founders

Risk versus reward

Let's talk about risk. In an earlier column I discussed how investors see, and quantify, the return they expect to see when they consider investing in a company. But we did not talk about how investors view the other side of the risk-reward equation. This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven space news, columns, business, policy, technology and more. Support independent journalism. …

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Valuation – Where’s The Value in That?

FOMO - Fear of Missing out - Where’s The Value in That?

Whether they like it or not, Founders tend to spend a lot of time trying to raise money. After establishing that they want or need the money, the next question they always confront is how much they are worth. Or more specifically, what value can they set on their company and their equity in it – to sell that equity to an investor. This is known as …

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The Five Forces of Business Acumen – Advice to Founders

The Five Forces - Advice to Founders

This is a column that builds on the topic I raised a while back. It's the topic of how do you, as the founder or CEO of a small business - or any business actually - separate the merely urgent from the truly important. This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven space news, columns, business, policy, technology and more. Support …

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Do You Have Time? And the Collision of Two Approaches

Do You Have Time?

In the space business, there is an old adage. If you don't have time to do it right. Do you have time to do it twice? This is, in a sense, one of the rules of the space business that has been challenged in the new space environment. This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven space news, columns, business, policy, technology …

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Leadership Is…

Leadership illustration

Leadership is the art of influencing human behaviour so as to achieve the mission in the manner desired by the leader. That is the definition of leadership that I learned at the age of 13 as an Air Cadet (it was the Canadian Forces standard definition at the time). I have never needed another.

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Let’s Get It Together People

project complexity, complex project

In the last two columns I have talked about why space, as an investment sector, is not really like other "Deep Tech" sectors. At times, I may have made the sector sound like it was unattractive to investors. I don't think it is. In fact, I think it has enormous potential specifically because its dynamics are not widely appreciated. The sector really is ready for some smart money that …

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A Market That Is Out of This World

marketplace disruption

In my last column I spent some time looking at the investment environment in the space sector, including why I think that it may not be meeting the expectations of some investors who arrived in the last major surge of investment. Without going into detail again, I think that the main issue is that the space market does not match the expectations of investors coming …

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