I've spent 11 years at the intersection of space systems engineering and product strategy — launching rockets at ULA, building New Glenn at Blue Origin, founding companies through Y Combinator, and now running radiation-hardened microelectronics at Mercury Systems.
At Mercury, I own product strategy for one of the industry's broadest radiation-tolerant portfolios — memory, processing, and storage flying on defense and commercial space programs across the major US and European primes. The work spans the full lifecycle: roadmaps, pricing, new product introduction, and navigating the supply-chain disruptions reshaping the rad-hard market.
Before that, I was a founder. Y Combinator taught me how to build products customers actually want, how to prioritize ruthlessly, and how to operate when everything is on the line, lessons I now apply with a balance sheet behind them.
My technical foundation is launch operations: Atlas V, Delta IV, Delta II, SLS, New Glenn. I was the Responsible Engineer for Delta IV second-stage propulsion systems with go/no-go authority during countdown, and I helped stand up the New Glenn factory from dirt floor to flight hardware. I've priced the components that fly, and I've been on the floor when they left the building.
I write about the rad-hard supply chain, qualification economics, and what happens when commercial silicon meets orbital physics. If you're working on space electronics, defense semiconductors, or supply-chain problems nobody's named yet — my inbox is open.
We're excited to introduce Correlaite, an AI-driven market research platform designed to help businesses stay ahead of the curve in today's fast-paced industries.
Traditional survey methods are too slow to keep up with rapidly changing markets. That's where Correlaite comes in – our cutting-edge platform leverages AI-generated synthetic voices to provide quick, accurate, and unbiased market insights.
Key benefits of Correlaite:
Faster insights for data-driven decisions
Scalable data collection for diverse market segments
Minimized bias through the use of synthetic voices
Real-time trend analysis to stay ahead of the competition
We're offering a limited-time free beta, giving you early access to our powerful platform and exclusive perks, such as discounts on future paid plans and priority support.
Discover how Correlaite can revolutionize your market research and drive growth for your business: www.correlaite.com
We'd love to hear your feedback and answer any questions you have about Correlaite. Join the conversation and let us know what you think!
Try Correlaite for free today at app.correlaite.com
Thank you! For the growth factors, we do not have any plans currently for producing them in-house, however there are several companies within the industry (Future Fields for example) that are making great progress in developing animal-free growth factors. Right now, using precision fermentation seems to be the preferred method of production. This is essentially beer brewing but the yeast is modified to produce a certain protein/ growth factor. Since this process is yeast based, it should scale fairly well, as yeast is resistant to the stresses found inside the fermenters.
Great question: part of the scaffold will dissolve, part of it (edible materials) will be in the final product. The amount of it in the final product (basically the degradation kinetics) can be tuned depending on needs and desires
Of course! As the factories get larger and larger, security becomes even more important, and traditional methods such as limiting access, badge-in/ badge-out, and access codes would be utilized.
1) We have already created our first piece of edible pork using our method!
2) ATKearney in their article "How will cultured meat and meat alternatives disrupt the agricultural and food industry?" estimates that about 10% of global meat consumption could be switched over to cultivated meat around 2030. While 10% is low, I think you'll start seeing restaurant experiences start cropping up more and more over the next 3-7 years.
3) For cultivated meat, one method of adding flavor is by cultivating fat cells and merging it with the muscle cells after maturing.
4) With our method, the final shape of the meat can actually get very unique. There really are no limitations on the shape/ layout of the meat, and the final shaping is done after maturing the cells. If you want to have chicken meat in the shape of a ribeye, you will definitely be able to with our technology.
5) We have not tasted it yet, but we will very soon!
6) We are probably closer than you might imagine. Our technology enables production at any scale, from a full industrial plant to a small "home brewing" set-up. Really, it just comes down to getting the medium and growth factors to be cheaper for the average consumer.
7) Generally yes, with some minor and not so minor adaptations.
Good Food Institute has a great write-up on the reduction of emissions and land use which can be found here (https://gfi.org/blog/cultivated-meat-lca-tea/). To summarize it, with renewables along the production chain, estimates for the reduction of greenhouse emissions/land use for chicken, pork and beef are 17%/63%, 52%/72%, and up to 92%/95% respectively.
We definitely agree with you that the reactors currently used in biopharma were not really meant for the level of production required to scale cultivated meat. As for the growth, typically you'll find what's called a "seed train" for growing cultivated meat. This is basically a series of reactors starting from a small flask around 10 mL and ending in a reactor greater than 20000L! The train might have reactors along the way, 10mL, 200mL, 4L, 80L, etc. until the final reactor volume is reached. Some of these reactors, especially the larger reactors near the end of the process, are meant to handle the cells at a specific stage in the lifecycle, such as maturing, where the cells grow in volume.
Contamination is definitely a problem for cultivated meat. It is one of the leading risks when scaling because if the reactor is contaminated at all, you could lose entire batches of meat, and as you can imagine, this is a huge cost hit. To avoid this, cultivated meat is grown in sterile, clean environments. The same kind of equipment you'd find in a hospital (autoclaves) is used to sterilize the equipment common in cultivated meat. There are two basic ideas for preventing contamination. One is to use single use bioreactors, which are sterile after manufacturing. This is extremely common in the biopharma industry, and is preferred because it doesn't require complex cleaning systems. Of course, anything that is single use ends up in a landfill, so thats part of the trade off as well. The other option is to use reusable bioreactors. These require a steam clean after each batch, which adds to the overall operational and build costs of the reactor. This can also generate waste products which have to be handled.
Maintaining cleanliness is a challenge, but with proper laboratory practices, and the right kind of bioreactor, contamination should be less of a problem.
Great question! So the basic medium composition itself is fairly simple, but the growth factors can be difficult to make. There are many places along the supply chain that are strained due to recent events. Because of this, procuring the food is somewhat difficult, but should become easier in the future. Many companies within cultivated meat (such as Heuros, Multus, Future Fields) are also working on animal-free growth factors by using precision fermentation. Precision fermentation is essentially beer brewing, but the yeast is genetically modified to produce a certain growth factor. As for being green, the industry is trending towards trying to find ways to utilize plants as much as possible across production phases. Eventually, besides the initial cells, most cultivated meat production could rely on common plants for the nutrients and growth factors for the cells. This could drastically decrease overall emissions, and even make the products carbon-negative.
At Mercury, I own product strategy for one of the industry's broadest radiation-tolerant portfolios — memory, processing, and storage flying on defense and commercial space programs across the major US and European primes. The work spans the full lifecycle: roadmaps, pricing, new product introduction, and navigating the supply-chain disruptions reshaping the rad-hard market.
Before that, I was a founder. Y Combinator taught me how to build products customers actually want, how to prioritize ruthlessly, and how to operate when everything is on the line, lessons I now apply with a balance sheet behind them.
My technical foundation is launch operations: Atlas V, Delta IV, Delta II, SLS, New Glenn. I was the Responsible Engineer for Delta IV second-stage propulsion systems with go/no-go authority during countdown, and I helped stand up the New Glenn factory from dirt floor to flight hardware. I've priced the components that fly, and I've been on the floor when they left the building.
I write about the rad-hard supply chain, qualification economics, and what happens when commercial silicon meets orbital physics. If you're working on space electronics, defense semiconductors, or supply-chain problems nobody's named yet — my inbox is open.