Jeff Crusey is the Investment Director of Seraphim Space, an investing firm specialised in the space industry. They have invested in mulitple Earth Observation companies including Spire, Iceye, HawkEye 360 and Pixxel.This episode in many ways serves as an introduction to investing - specifically Venture Capital (VC in short) - applied to the world of Earth Observation: How funds are raised, how VCs decided who to invest in and how they do it.—Episode Sponsors:Radiant Earth Foundation: Apply for the 2022 Radiant MLHub Impact Award for agriculture-related applications for Africa - with a $5,000 cash prize.Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast—About Jeff:TwitterLinkedInSeraphim Space Shownotes:Ursa SpaceJeff’s tweet having invested in 20+ space companies“Most Microsoft Flight Simulator players flew home in first journey”Books & Podcast recommendationsSam Harris podcast: Making SenseLex Fridman podcastGödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter Time-stamps:00:00 - Introduction04:30 - Conversation starts - Jeff presents himself06:56 - Jeff’s early days08:48 - Climate Tech in 200812:16 - How Jeff got into investing15:12 - Skills that make a good investor18:05 - Venture Capital investing at a high level23:31 - Finding companies to invest in27:58 - Weighing risk before investing28:49 - Investing in the Space industry31:18 - Early projects Jeff invested in in 201232:39 - Investing in Earth Observation36:39 - Data companies & Analytics companies: different models39:05 - A centralized “Search Engine” of geospatial data41:53 - Is Google Earth Engine this centralized search engine?47:12 - Is Earth Observation a giant House of Cards?49:16 - Metaverse: one of potential huge commercial application54:04 - Who would build & own a metaverse55:37 - Monitoring vs Mapping58:20 - Weather doesn’t make it in most people’s “Earth Observation” list1:03:15 - Projects that aren’t suited for Venture Capital1:05:10 - Analytics applications from an investment point of view1:07:33 - Where does the venture money come from?1:10:50 - Investing in long term projects1:13:53 - The exit process1:14:05 - Exists in Earth Observation: Valuations & Bubbles1:19:42 - The impact of Starship1:21:55 - Book & Podcast recommendations Feel free to reach out!My TwitterFor news about the podcastWebsite