Northwood

Please welcome Marvin Shu to Northwood as our Lead FPGA Engineer, who comes to us from Ouster. At Northwood, we are working to bridge the gap between space and life on Earth. We’re excited to have Marvin on our team helping to bring us closer to that reality. What excites you about the present and future impact of space technology and its reach into our daily lives? "The biggest change I’m excited about is space-based communications infrastructure that will allow us to connect from anywhere. This is already well underway. Starlink now has millions of customers, and new iPhones employ satellite texting to enable SOS services.  For me, this means I won’t need to carry my inReach into the mountains, but more importantly, we are connecting entire populations of users that previously didn’t have internet access. It will be interesting to see how this technology evolves in the coming years. Will the satellite network continue to supplement existing ground-based networks or will it become the dominant mode of connectivity with ground-networks used only in dense urban environments? It’s exciting to be part of this space at Northwood and steer how this plays out." Why did you join Northwood? "First, I believe that hardware is where core innovation happens in technology and forms the infrastructure for new applications. As discussed above, the infrastructure in space continues to evolve, and Northwood is in a position to make a large impact and become the primary communication link between earth and space. Second, I’m excited to bring my experience as a co-founder of Ouster, where we scaled a new lidar technology from academic research to mass production. At Northwood, we are similarly scaling what has been a niche technology and making it accessible to all satellite operators. I’m looking forward to taking this product from the first prototype to a mature network of ground stations all over the world. Finally, I’m excited to join a small, focused team of brilliant and passionate individuals. You may hear other hiring managers advertise their team as a startup within Big Company, but there’s nothing like an actual early-stage startup." Likes: Hiking mountains, home improvement, science fiction, burritos Dislikes: Blue cheese, clutter, humidity, social media Please give Marvin a warm welcome to the Northwood team! Interested in opportunities at Northwood? View open roles here: https://lnkd.in/gBiBVpYb

Go Dan!

Please welcome Zachary Kirstein to Northwood as Head of Growth, who comes to us from Palantir Technologies and Loft Orbital. At Northwood, we are working to bridge the gap between space and life on Earth. We’re excited to have Zak on our team helping to bring us closer to that reality. What excites you about the present and future impact of space technology and its reach into our daily lives? "Space is likely the most tangible, impactful dual-use domain and technology area of both the present and future. The same foundational systems that allow us to monitor climate change and connect the world are simultaneously keeping warfighters safe and helping to protect the homeland. It’s hard to overstate how important space is to virtually every aspect of our lives on Earth and we are truly just scratching the surface of what space can do for mankind." Why did you join Northwood? "Having seen firsthand what can happen when ground systems are not ready, available, or capable of supporting critical national security operations, I was super excited to hear about what the team was working on. At Palantir, I learned to love the hard, un-sexy, foundational problems that underpin the world’s most important institutions; getting to see your work translate directly to global outcomes (even when you can’t talk about them) is a feeling that never gets old. The opportunity to be a part of something so foundational, so critical, and so fast-moving was impossible to pass up, especially in a domain that is evolving so rapidly and promises to be so important in the coming years." Likes: live music / biking / MeatEater / infrastructure Dislikes: cilantro / Woody Allen movies / run clubs / the ATO process Please give Zachary a warm welcome to the Northwood team! Interested in opportunities at Northwood? View open roles here: https://lnkd.in/gBiBVpYb

Please welcome Casey Clark to Northwood as Head of Site Operations, who comes to us from SpaceX, where he deployed global ground stations for launch operations and Starlink. At Northwood, we are working to bridge the gap between space and life on Earth. We’re excited to have Casey on our team helping to bring us closer to that reality. What excites you about the present and future impact of space technology and its reach into our daily lives? "The rapid advancement of space technology and companies over the past decade has been one of the most exciting and transformative shifts, impacting nearly every aspect of our lives — from navigation and high-speed global internet to national security and action on climate change. Being at the forefront of this revolution is a dream come true." Why did you join Northwood? "After leaving SpaceX, I looked for a new challenge that could deliver real-world impact quickly, and Northwood Space is exactly that. While the number of new satellite and spacecraft operators has surged in recent years, the ground infrastructure hasn’t kept pace. We need to rethink how we approach ground systems and scale them rapidly to support advancements in high-speed internet, imaging, sensing, and AI. Bridgit and co. are assembling a kickass team, and I’m confident we’re up to the challenge!" Likes: a good book / outdoors / LA sports - go Rams / time with family and friends Dislikes: delayed flights / country music / lack of LA public transit / global inequality Please give Casey a warm welcome to the Northwood team! Interested in opportunities at Northwood? View open roles here: https://lnkd.in/gBiBVpYb

Please welcome Thomas Row to Northwood as Head of Manufacturing, who comes to us from SpaceX. At Northwood, we are working to bridge the gap between space and life on Earth. We’re excited to have Thomas on our team helping to bring us closer to that reality. What excites you about the present and future impact of space technology and its reach into our daily lives? "Despite being so distant physically from the everyday person, space is really the thing that makes the world closer. Space technologies enable more efficient farming to feed the growing world, faster communications to allow relationships to span continents, telehealth to rural areas, natural disaster warning systems to save lives, and so much more. It truly is the invisible hand that touches every part of our lives in ways most people don’t realize." Why did you join Northwood? "The hard parts of the satellite industry used to be launch and the satellite construction itself. The advent of smaller electronics brought us small sats (satellites) and the disruption of the launch industry by SpaceX has diminished those challenges. There is still one shortcoming, however, which is the link between satellites and the ground. The ground network needs to grow to match the size of modern satellite constellations and come into the 21st century with real network optimization. Northwood is the answer for that modernization need. The hard engineering challenges of making a large quantity of sophisticated ground stations, deploying them across the globe, and being at the forefront of the modern satellite ground network made Northwood an obvious place to be to make an impact in the world." Likes: Making as many foods as possible from scratch / bouldering / music / cocktail bars Dislikes: subtitles / being late / bad drivers / global warming Please give Thomas a warm welcome to the Northwood team! Interested in opportunities at Northwood? View open roles here: https://lnkd.in/gBiBVpYb

Excited to share that I'm joining Northwood to help revolutionize the world of space communications and resilient ground architectures! As a nation, we are overly dependent on a limited number of outdated ground entry points that are both massive bottlenecks and single points of failure. The next generation of solutions are behind schedule, over budget, and don't sufficiently address the resiliency and timeliness concerns presented by a potential great power competition. Commercially, operators have been forced to settle for "good enough" and "best effort" ground solutions, a problem that compounds exponentially as the number of data-generating and data-transmitting objects in space explodes. Linearly scaling solutions just won't cut it. Enter: Northwood. When I first met Bridgit Mendler and Griffin Cleverly, I knew that they were onto something special and that I wanted to be a part of it in some capacity; kudos to Shaurya Luthra and Mike Annunziata for helping to rip the band-aid off! This hungry, scrappy group of "ground nerds" (now including Josh Lehtonen and Marvin Shu) is already cruising with great backers and great tech. Can't wait to dive in and help out!

Excited to share that I’ve cofounded a company – Northwood! Bridgit Mendler, Shaurya Luthra and I started by asking what satellite backhaul would look like if we built it from the ground up with today and tomorrow in mind. We approached the problem from first principles designing a system that is dynamic, scalable, and resilient. Off to a strong start with a killer team and the backing of the best. If you like building quickly and seeing your work deployed in locations around the globe with real impact, we want you at Northwood. Check our careers page https://lnkd.in/gK-ZE_Qg or send me an email at griffin@northwoodspace.io