Management Masterclass, with Chris Celtruda (ATL Partners)

Pathfinder

Today’s Pathfinder episode features Chris Celtruda, CEO of Valence Surface Technologies and Operating Executive at ATL Partners. With over 30 years of leadership experience, Chris offers a masterclass on scaling aerospace & defense businesses and implementing successful management styles.

In addition, Mo and Chris chat:

• Chris' experience building multiple A&D businesses
• ATL Partners’ new focus on space
• The current investment landscape
• Raising capital in today's market

And much more…

This episode is brought to you by SpiderOak, a US-based software company that builds space cybersecurity products and solutions for civilian, military, and commercial space operations. Learn more at https://spideroak.com/

• Chapters •

00:00 - Intro & SpiderOak Ad

02:10 - How did you get into the space industry?

04:48 - Has the industry changed in El Segundo, CA?

06:30 - What is ATL?

10:10 - What made ATL focus on space?

11:42 - How is ATL different?

13:42 - Chris's management style

17:14 - Selling your vision to an investor

20:32 - Advice for new founders

25:18 - Investing strategies

34:13 - Launch market

37:08 - Is satellite broadband a viable business model?

41:14 - Public space stocks

45:46 - M&A outlook

47:46 - IPO outlook

48:58 - What technology excites you and how would you invest your capital today?

• Show notes •

ATL's website — https://www.atlpartners.com/

Valence's socials — https://twitter.com/ValenceST

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes

• About us •

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers.

Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)