Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Aaron Mitchell, Venture Partner at Balerion Space Ventures, to discuss his path from engineering to venture. Aaron traces his career from propulsion engineering at NASA through early roles at Momentus and Impulse Space, where he led product management. The conversation examines startup execution, technical diligence, space communications and power, advanced propulsion, and the next generation of aerospace founders.
Timestamped Overview
00:00 – Introduction and Aaron’s transition from engineering to venture capital
03:10 – Product management, engineering leadership, and the pace of startup execution
05:22 – Evaluating an early-stage company as both an employee and an investor
07:03 – Joining Impulse Space during its earliest period of rapid growth
08:23 – Impulse’s first facility and the incremental development of the Saiph thruster
10:38 – Working with Tom Mueller and the Mojave amateur-rocketry ecosystem
13:18 – Amateur rocketry, propulsion scale, and the transition from solid to liquid engines
17:05 – How spacecraft propulsion differs from launch propulsion
19:17 – Tom Mueller’s engineering process and the development of the Deneb engine
23:35 – Moving to the investor side and asking whether a problem is worth solving
25:34 – Why communications remains the dominant commercial space market
31:28 – Space-based solar power and the need for additional economic pillars in orbit
33:12 – Nuclear propulsion, political commitment, and competing technology pathways
37:48 – SpaceX alumni, employee liquidity, and a potential new wave of space startups
41:47 – Space technology as an emerging venture category and closing remarks
