Solutions for the New Space Age with Jeromy Grimmett

Interviewee‍

‍Jeromy is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rogue Space Systems Corporation. He started his career in the US Army where he specialized in missile guidance systems for both ground and air defense platforms. After founding and running a successful technology services company, Jeromy founded Rogue Space Systems Corporation in 2020 and brought his expertise in AI, tech, and robotics to advance space systems, orbital vehicles and space services.

Transcript‍‍

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Jeromy Grimmett: Well, I'm Jeromy, Grimmett the CEO of Rogue Space Systems and for Star Wars fans, we're building real life R2D2 for Star Trek fans. We're building X accounts, so actually Star Trek next generation. So, you know, you're a fan of either of those that should make sense for you.

Elisa Muñoz: Wow. Pretty straight to the point. I'm pretty sure that most of the engineers here are actually fans. I'm pretty sure that they are.‍

Jeromy Grimmett: Nice big group of nice big community and there, so it's all good.

Elisa Muñoz: And like, were you always interested in Space? How did your journey begin?

Jeromy Grimmett: Well, everyone has that same story about, you know, “when I was a kid, you know, I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid, I wanted to build airplanes and things like that”.  And you know, I'm no different than most any of those. However, growing up in south Louisiana that seemed a million miles away. And I think that I, one of the things that I'm really proud of that we're doing here at Rogue is we're trying to help people understand that space is not that far away. It's actually a lot closer than what you think.

And it's really important to us, especially when it comes to kids. So we've been trying to help explain to them that, Hey, sitting in our office and look, Konya New Hampshire, you're actually closer to space than you are Boston because kids understand it takes an hour and a half to drive to Boston. But if you're sitting in our office and you go straight up or you're a hundred kilometers way from space, you're closer to space in our office than you are in Boston. As soon as kids understand that it's like, you know, this much distance and the top of the globe to get to space, then the possibilities open up in their minds.

And it opens up a lot of possibilities for, for pretty much anyone that understands the concept, the house, how close space is, because that was a challenge that I had. I didn't understand that I could do these things, that I could go into a space company and build a business like this, that there was a community out there waiting to embrace the newcomers. And I think it's, you know, I think it's one of our, our core values that we're trying to build community and, and help bring others into our little adventure building space robots.

Elisa Muñoz: I know that you, after high school, joined the army. Was that your first approach to engineering or did you have any idea before?

Jeromy Grimmett: Well, I mean, I was always a tinkerer and a modeler, you know, kids, scientists, I suppose you could say it was kinda, you know, it was always taking stuff apart and putting things back together, you know, doing all these different types of things, to try to understand how things work and going into the army. It exposed me to a lot of technology and a lot of, a lot of capabilities. So I went to the MIT space conference on March 15th, 2019. And I literally walked out of the door after eight hours and the road started. What is the road now? Literally. It was just like that. I went to a conference, walked out, called my current partner, told him we're selling the company and I'm going to space just like that.

And I just simply decided with my very, very understanding and supportive wife that if I was going to go and start another company, if I was going to go do something, I wanted to do something big, massive, just no holds barred, leave it all on the field.

Elisa Muñoz: Okay. Really interesting. And what will you say if the biggest, the biggest problem that Rogue is solving right now?

Jeromy Grimmett: Well, there's a couple of things. So it's, it's, it's not a simple answer as in this is it. This is all we're solving. So the reason I say that is because there's so many complexities inside the space domain, I'm just gonna, I think it's better for me just to kind of walk you through the path of evolution, right? So when I, all of this started off as a research paper at school, that's how this started as a research paper. And there was a, there was a statistic that said there were 300,000 debris strikes, cataloged in a single year in space.

And that just kind of blew me away. It's like 300,000 degrees, right? And we're talking about very, very, very, very small degrees, but that's what the US government said. Their potential catalog is 300,000 potential strikes. So that just started wearing on me thinking about it. And so our first foray was space debris, but I got news for you. Nobody was paying to remove space for you. Nobody. There was no, there's no market for space. Very well there wasn't a market for space.

So we were talking to insurance companies, satellite operators. We were just going down the list of everyone we could think of to figure out where this product or service market fit. Okay. Space debris was not it. So we said, okay, what about satellite servicing? So we run a call, no joke because it's handed on, we're on a phone call and we're talking to an insurance company, one of the engineers, an engineer, spacecraft engineer, with decades of experience said: “Guys. If y'all had a way to go to space in jiggle, the solar panel loose, that would be incredible.”

I've been on a lot of stuff. I've done a lot of stuff in a lot of years, I've been in business and a lot of years, but the one thing I never thought I would ever do is hear the combination of words, satellite space jiggle.

It blew me away because that is such an unsophisticated term, right? It's like these guys really do not have a solution. Okay. Now we're into something. Now we've got something. Okay.

And so as we're going through this process, ultimately in early 2020 general Thompson goes on space news and says, “Hey, we're gonna, we're gonna pay private companies to remove space debris”.

Awesome. I'll take, I'll take that. But there's a direct analog. There's a direct correlation between removing space debris and, and servicing a satellite. Cause you got to get really close, got to touch it. And then you gotta be able to maneuver. You gotta do everything that you do for space debris, you have to do for satellite servicing. So we were already on the track for satellite servicing. So we started off with space debris. We went to satellite servicing, then space, four said, we need you to remove space debris. And so we went back to space debris, and it's a great analog because we're developing all the same technologies.

We're just repackaging it really. So the exact same stuff, the exact same fact, the exact same word, but space four said remove debris. Okay, fine. We'll go remove debris. That's fine. As long as the money's hitting the bank, homie. I'm good.

Elisa Muñoz: Have you had any challenges when it comes to the procurement process? 

Jeromy Grimmett: Yeah. I would say that there's two.You have two different ends of the spectrum. There are supply chain issues because there's just no availability. Okay. And then there's supply chain issues because the company is moving so fast that the industry is not normally building things at the speed that the company, the purchaser needs them.

Our supply chain issues have been more of the ladder or something. Yeah. Of, of the ladder where the space companies or the manufacturers are not to space companies needing things within a few weeks, normally programs, the delivery things in months or years, it's like, “Hey, I need it now”.

Elisa Muñoz: When are you planning on launching? Is it actually going to be November?

Jeromy Grimmett: Yes. Right now the only thing that we're waiting on is finalization of a license right now, once we're in place we'll do an official announcement, but tentatively we're putting up one space right now. Our launch schedule is we have one spacecraft going up in November, one spacecraft going up February 15th and two more spacecraft on May 15th. So we're, and then another fifth one going up quarter one of 24. But that one's kind of an outlier because it's going to a different place in space. So there's actually going to be more programs. 

Elisa Muñoz: And last but not least. Do you have any advice for future entrepreneurs or people starting on these tech paths?

Jeromy Grimmett: Don't be intimidated by Venture Capitals. Just don't. There's some highly adept and knowledgeable VCs, but nine times out of 10, they really don't know in depth about your market. They don't know in depth about your technology. They will bring in expertise to try and filter it out.

But you know, I was pretty intimidated by VCs. And what I learned is that these people were trying to learn about this stuff just as much as you are. And that if you find the right VCs, they're down in the trenches with you. And that's what you're looking for. You're looking for partners, build community. Don't, don't just build a partnership, build a community, most your team, your investors, and just be true to you. Just be, you just be yourself. Don't worry about being anything anybody else is or thinks that you should be.

Don't try to portray yourself as something that you're not just be you because I got news for you. The investors, VCs, the partners, whoever they are, they're either going to partner or be with you or they're not there. It's one of its binaries. They're either with you or they're not.

And it's better for you to know at the moment whether they liked you. They want to be with you who you really are or not. Because when the tough kids go and you need to know who's in that foxhole with him.

And do not ever be the smartest in the room. Don't do it. That is like the worst thing ever. Because if you're the smartest guy in the room you are, and if you believe that, then you should not be the CEO.

You should not be that. That is a bad place to be because that's when the gaps that's when those blind spots are going to get you. You always want smarter people than you. That was the number one piece of advice my daddy gave me. Don't ever be the smartest guy in the room. Make sure the smartest guy in the room is working for you.

Elisa Muñoz: Jeromy this is great. Thank you so much for taking the time,

Jeromy Grimmett: Hey, thank you so much. And thank you for having me hope it wasn't too long winded. So thank y'all.