#245: Melanie Stricklan, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Slingshot Aerospace, a Company Building Situational Awareness Technology to Bring Clarity to Complex Environments and Create a Safer World

Melanie Stricklan is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Slingshot Aerospace, which applies advanced analytics, computer vision, and collaborative tools to data from earth and space, providing customers with clarity in complex situations. Melanie is a retired US Air Force Officer and combat-tested executive leader with expertise across battle management, space operations, and advanced technology development and previous experience in the development, acquisition, and operation of experimental spacecraft, space situational awareness, electronic warfare, countermeasures, and cyber technologies. She is responsible for the technical vision and strategy of an emerging space technology company revolutionizing data exploitation for defense and commercial applications. Melanie is recognized as one of Inc’s Top 100 Female Founders

Slingshot Aerospace delivers a situational intelligence platform that provides a customizable solution to quickly navigate, analyze, and leverage data from earth and space. The platform brings together data from different sources — such as satellites, airplanes, drones, and ground-based sensors — and applies advanced analytics and computer vision to provide clarity in complex environments. This means that government, commercial, and emergency management customers have the information they need in order to make an impact: Armed Forces can safely and strategically navigate critical missions; emergency management teams can dispatch aid quicker than ever; insurance companies can detect damage and process claims at a record pace when families need it most; and the government can track satellites in space and safeguard from those who try tampering with critical communications.

Some of the Topics Covered by Melanie Stricklan in this Episode

• What Slingshot Aerospace does

• How Melanie's love for space began as a child

• Melanie's experience in the Air Force

• How Melanie started Slingshot Aerospace with her co-founders

• Why they chose to use an accelerator and their experience with Techstars LA

• Getting Boeing as their first client

• The process of expanding the use cases of Slingshot Aerospace

• What Slingshot Aerospace offers their customers

• How Slingshot Aerospace approaches data

• Melanie's role as Chief Strategy Officer and how she keeps her team focused

• How they've approached hiring for Slingshot Aerospace and how their process has evolved

• Developing Slingshot Aerospace's core values and principles

• The business model for Slingshot Aerospace and how it has shifted

• What the competitive landscape looks like for Slingshot Aerospace

• What Melanie is looking forward to in the space realm

• Making space operations more sustainable

• Melanie's advice for learning to run and grow a business

• How Melanie recharges away from work and finds balance

• Melanie's experience with an executive coach

• How Slingshot Aerospace has adapted to remote work during COVID19

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