Investing in the Future of Space: Interview with E2MC Ventures (VC Lab)

As part of VC Lab’s series of public online events for startup entrepreneurs and investors around the world, we were pleased to welcome E2MC Ventures Founder & Managing Partner Raphael Roettgen in summer 2021 for a conversation on the space technologies innovation landscape.  

Watch the video interview with VC Lab CEO Adeo Ressi to learn about E2MC's seed-stage strategy for investing in space startups, about the future of space technologies more broadly, and the growing role for venture investment in space exploration: 

Key Topics Include:

• The Potential of Space Investment and VC
• Rethinking Past Assumptions About Space Investments
• Understanding the ‘Piping’ and Structure Behind Venture Capital
• Why VC Lab Makes Sense
• Networking, and the Work Behind Venture Capital

Space Investment Potential

Raphael Roettgen on the current market dynamics of the space sector:

I compare where the space sector is right now to where the internet was sometime in the mid 1990s, where the big technological trends are starting to emerge...and it’s mostly about the cost decreases in launch costs, but not only launch costs - everything like a satellite is much cheaper. All of this enables us to do many more things economically in space.

Challenging Old Assumptions About Space

Roettgen explains how the realities of space technology sector investments have changed:

One stereotype is: space is really, really, really expensive and so only a few governments should probably even touch that, or even think about that... Now, you can do space privately and you can do it more cheaply, and not everything in space has to be very expensive. Not everything in space has to be very capital intensive.

Understanding the Structure Behind VC Investment

Roettgen emphasizes the need for deep research behind fund managers' structural venture capital decisions:

Most people who are excited about investing are not very excited about that part of the work - trying to learn about many different jurisdictions in the world where you could set up your fund, what the tax consequences are for LPs for different reasons, but that stuff is really important. If you don’t realize it’s important, your potential LPs at some point will point out that it’s important.

Why VC Lab Makes Sense

One of the draws to VC Lab for Roettgen was the community:

The other part, which I think I really cherish a lot, is just the community. It’s the cohort. You meet all of these other people in the same investment thesis focusing on a different sector, or located in a different country. The community is such a rich source of exchanging experiences and just being able to ask questions.

The Work in Working in VC

Roettgen explains why networking and being mentally resilient matters in venture capital:

Sometimes you can get LPs from some network where you wouldn’t have expected to get LPs, so it’s important. Networking with everybody - other VCs as well, because they might refer potential LPs; they might refer advisors; who knows, just generally smart people in the sector where you operate and the country you are in. The networking part is really important.

You’re probably going to have hundreds of meetings, and you just have to be psychologically prepared. Most of them will be no’s. You have to be psychologically prepared, but if you put in the work then hopefully it’ll pay off.