Post by Patrick Haddox

Today I am proud to announce that Samara has raised a $10M seed round of venture capital. This is a massive achievement that will double our team size and propel us toward our next major milestone: a launch of our full Hummingbird satellite in 2027.   But on a personal note, raising this much capital (nearly $15M in the last ~9 months alone) a few short years after starting from zero - literally zero - is a massive personal accomplishment for me. When Vedant and I founded Samara, I had never taken a business class, I didn’t know what a P&L statement or a 409a was, and I certainly couldn’t explain breakthrough satellite technology in layman’s terms (shoutout to those early mentors that had to sit through my technobabble). But I put in the time, read the books, went through the Techstars accelerator program, and navigated some incredibly low periods of my life (something any startup founder can confirm) to achieve what very few startups are able to. This is a personal growth trajectory I never would have thought possible.   Samara’s success will ultimately be determined by our customers, but right now I’m celebrating a successful fundraise that I am immensely proud of!   Thank you to everyone who supported us along the way: our amazing team that believed in us enough to join the company, my advisors who helped build me into an effective CEO, my co-founder Vedant - for keeping me sane [enough], and all our investors who made the right bet on the future of the space industry, especially Balerion Space Ventures for kicking off this round early. I can’t wait to share our next big achievement with you!   Now it’s time to grow the team. Employee [lucky] number 13 starts today, and we have 8-10 more roles to fill over the next few months – mostly engineering. If you know someone tired of building the same satellites we’ve been making for decades and who wants to build something truly new and game-changing for the space industry, please direct them to our Careers page. At Samara, we’re doing things differently – flexible hours, top tier benefits, unlimited PTO, company ownership, and a fun work culture that respects you as a person. Our greatest asset is not our patented technology, but the passionate team of selfless people working to create a step change in capabilities for satellites. Apply now! https://lnkd.in/gkY8yDUF (If you made it this far, thank you for reading my giant wall of text, proudly written by a real human.)