Nobody builds
hard tech alone.

  • Go inside the inspiring journeys of visionary space-tech entrepreneurs.
  • Learn from their mistakes, and the lessons that changed how they build.
  • Understand the ecosystem behind success, from manufacturing partners to critical suppliers.
Startup LaunchpartnerTalentacquisitionManufacturingplantPowerinfrastructureTaxincentivesCapital& fundingGovernmentcontractsLegislationResearch& development
  • Launch partner
  • Talent acquisition
  • Manufacturing plant
  • Power infrastructure
  • Tax incentives
  • Capital & funding
  • Government contracts
  • Legislation
  • Research & development

One company never gets to orbit alone.

Behind every launch is a web of people who never appear in the press release: the machine shop that accepted an impossible tolerance, the utility that ran new power to a test site, the legislator who made a tax credit real, the supplier who said yes at low volume.

That is why we interview founders and the people around them. Space is hard in ways no single company can solve.

As a serial entrepreneur, I have built and sold three software companies. I have raised venture capital and scaled teams, and I thought I understood what an ambitious company costs to build.

Then a client told me about his launch. But it was not a software launch. It was a rocket launching his satellite into space 🚀

Then he shared the backstory, and I was floored. The capital required was orders of magnitude more than what I was used to. Engineers, prototyping, testing, suppliers, booking the launch: every one a hard requirement before anything leaves the ground. And unlike software, you cannot miss the date. The rocket goes with or without you.

The more I dug, the more inspired I became by how anyone pulls off these Herculean visions. But nobody pulls it off alone. It takes an ecosystem.

The greater Seattle region has one of the best in the world, with Boeing as the historical anchor. The talent, the tooling, and the supplier base were laid down here over decades. When Blue Origin and SpaceX built here, they were not starting from ground zero. They built on top of what Boeing had already put in place.

That is the driving inspiration behind FrontierBeyond: a podcast about the people who help make the impossible possible. Mostly founders. But also the investors, suppliers, government officials, and partners behind them.

There is a generation of builders here taking on the most audacious problems. I plan to share their journey. As they say, "teamwork makes the dream work."

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I built software startups. Then I met someone building deep tech.

David Niu recording an interview, wearing headphones at a studio microphone.

FrontierBeyond founder and host, David Niu

Join the journey.

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A founder, investor, operator, or supplier whose story would help other people building hard things.