Interview with Guillermo Sohnlein, founder of IASE

10/17/03 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

p. Several months ago I found the web site for the International Association of Space Entrepreneurs. I regularly checked in to see if anything had happened but for most of the summer nothing seemed to be moving. I recently checked back in to find that the web site had been updated and that IASE was hosting a speakers series that started with John Higgenbotham of SpaceVest back in July. In order to find out more I decided to give IASE's founding director, Guillermo Sohnlein, a call.

p. According to Guillermo, IASE's goal is “to promote global entrepreneurship in the space industry through concerted efforts in business, public policy, and education.” Their first step is to form a 501©(6) membership trade association with these short term tasks:

• attracting experienced business people to space related markets
• help entrepreneurs locate capital by bringing those entrepreneurs to capital markets that don't normally consider space businesses
• lobbying governments on behalf of the industry for a business friendly regulatory changes (taxes, liability, regulatory, etc) through PACs and other methods.
• educational foundation for entrepreneurial space development by targeting schools and organizations that have strong aerospace and entrepreneurial programs that need cross discipline development resources.

p. One important point is that IASE will not focus on any particular segment of the market. IASE breaks the industry up into 4 segments:

• Governmental: companies that act as contractors to existing DoD/NASA space programs.
• Commercialization: companies that take technology developed by government space programs and turn them into commercial products (GPS, foam beds, etc)
• Mainstream: companies who's products aren't necessarily about space but that use space technologies to provide products (telecom, remote sensing, satellite radio, etc)
• Pioneers: companies that are creating new industries (space tourism)

p. While each segment may have different customers, they all tend to have the same problems of access to capital, long term ROI, and high initial capitalization requirements. IASE will attempt to mix these industries up at its events in order to create cross pollenization between the various segments.

p. In addition to the trade association, IASE will also be developing an economic development consulting subsidiary that will help communities that have some space related resource (such as a NASA center or high tech resource such as Mojave airport) better integrate that resource with the entrepreneurs. Guillermo even thought it possible to provide that service to virtual communities such as space advocacy groups looking to integrate more with the business community.

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At the end of the interview I asked Guillermo what he though the number one problem was that he'd like IASE to fix. His response was that the industry as it stands is populated by enthusiasts. What he'd like to see is the industry switch to being populated by business people in much the same way that the personal computing industry switched in the 80s from being a mix of home brew computing clubs to being a trillion dollar business run by business people.He made the point that nothing really happens unless there is an economic reason to do so. And right now there is no work being done by business to develop the economic reason for space development. According to Guillermo, if IASE can help change that then he will have considered it a success.

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IASE will be having its official public launch on October 30th at 6:00 pm in Herndon, VA. Given Guillermo's goals I think IASE will have a lot to offer. If you can make it to the event I think it would be worth your time (and if you go drop me a note!). If you would like to keep up with IASE drop by their website at http://www.spaceentrepreneurs.org/ and sign up for their quarterly newsletter.