Will Marshall
Co-Founder & CEO of Planet Labs
Discussion
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Will Marshall
@wsm1 · CEO, Planet Labs
Thanks, everyone for the fun and smart questions!
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Hi everyone, my name is Will Marshall and I am co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs. Planet Labs builds and operates fleets of compact, highly capable Earth-imaging satellites. Founded by myself and two other NASA scientists, Planet's goal is to image the entire Earth every day. Our imagery is used in markets like agriculture, consumer mapping, and disaster recovery. I am especially excited about OpenCA, an open source release of millions of square kilometers of imagery of the State of California - the largest data release of its kind. Before Planet, I was a scientist at NASA where I worked on projects that included a lunar orbiter and lander, creating a satellite from a smartphone, and a plan for space debris remediation. Now, let’s get started with the questions!
Videos:
TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/will_m...
Satellite deployment from ISS:
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Thomas Stöcklein
@tomstocklein · FoundersFundersFuture.com
Hi Marshall,
Great to have you on ProductHunt! On your website it says that
"In 2016 Planet Labs will have enough satellites in orbit to image the entire globe, every single day."
That's really impressive. How close are you guys to achieving this goal?
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Will Marshall
@wsm1 · CEO, Planet Labs
@tomstocklein To date we have launched 133 satellites. This year we are launching roughly the same number as the rest of the world combined. At the end we should have enough to image the whole earth every day!
Thomas Stöcklein
@tomstocklein · FoundersFundersFuture.com
Your technology seems like it could be very helpful for providing live/very recent image data to help in the aftermath of major natural disasters. How, for example, would Planet Labs collaborate with emergency response teams, the USGS and others in case of a major earthquake in the Bay Area or LA?
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Will Marshall
@wsm1 · CEO, Planet Labs
@tomstocklein We share our data in times of disaster response under the 'Space Charter', coordinated in the US by USGS. To give some recent examples, we've helped with the earthquakes in Ecuador, Japan and with the fires in Canada. We provide our data openly for everyone, including the disaster response teams, to help improve their efforts. What's important is not just that we have up to date data soon after the event, but also data from recently before. In Haiti there was the challenge that people quick;ly scrambled to get data afterwards, but the most recent data from before was 5 years out of date so it wasn't an apples to apples comparison. So we can help both quickly after an event and have the data from immediately before.
Andrew Ettinger
@andrewett · Product Marketing, Twitter (ex-PH)
How much red tape is there in entering the satellite market? What are some other, non-obvious barriers to entry?
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Will Marshall
@wsm1 · CEO, Planet Labs
@andrewett Some -- we have to get regulatory approval from FCC, NOAA, and if we launch our satellites abroad, then from State dept. Other non obviousl barriers to entry: it's really hard to get launches, and to show you're satellite is good to launch (like isn't going to break apart during the high-g ride up) and then there;s just the complexity of building satellites and the ground stations around the world. I'd say the biggest barrier to entry is the shear complexity of building and operating large constellations of satellites!
Andrew Ettinger
@andrewett · Product Marketing, Twitter (ex-PH)
@wsm1 How hard is it to raise money with those complications? Who are the leading VCs in the space?
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Will Marshall
@wsm1 · CEO, Planet Labs
@andrewett IT wasn't too hard actually -- the leading VCs in space? Well I'd say @DFJ, Yuri Milner, @DCVC to name a few...
Joao Torres
@joao_torres1 · Student
Hello Will. I'd like to know what is Planet Lab's business model. Do you intend to sell your solutions directly to the final costumer (e.g.: farmer) or do you intend to sell the images to other companies so that they can create their solutions and then sell to the final costumer?
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Will Marshall
@wsm1 · CEO, Planet Labs
@joao_torres1 We sell our data to folks in Agriculture, Consumer Mapping, Civil Governments, NGOs etc. Take agriculture: we can tell crop yeild on a pixel by pixel basis -- enabling farmers to more smartly decide when and what to planet etc. In Consumer mapping, folks want up to date satellite imagery layers.
Joao Torres
@joao_torres1 · Student
@wsm1 Thanks for the answer. But I would like to know if your business model is based in selling directly to the farmer, for instance, or if your intention is to sell it to another company so that they can add some more information and inteligence to the solution you've created an then sell it to the final consumer. Are you considering both business models?
Crystal Mendoza
@you_go_girl · MBA Student
@wsm1 @joao_torres1 I'm interested in working in NGOs in the future, and would like to know more about how your satellites can be used to help them. Can you share with us a couple of organizations who you have supported and an example of how your services were used to help their missions?
Joao Torres
@joao_torres1 · Student
@wsm1 How would this other company have access to the images? Is it using the same online platform used by final consumers?
Alton Wells
@alton_wells · Part Time Astronaut
I follow your company closely and am a huge fan of the data labs portal Planet Labs has built. My question digs down into the process of monetization for your satellite imagery, What does it take to get the information from your servers into the hands of paying customers? Who are those customers? How have you structured those relationships? and how would you say the Micro Sat business stack up against the drone business? What are the parallels and contrasts?
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Will Marshall
@wsm1 · CEO, Planet Labs
@alton_wells Lots of questions here. 1. They can go on our website. 2. Ag, consumer mapping, civil governments. 3. Basically data <--> cash. 4. Satellites are much lower cost per unit area of coverage. Drones are much higher resolution. So if one is trying to track agriculture -- which is 26% of the land area of earth -- one wants satellites. If one wants to monitor a building site brick by brick, one wants drones. I see them as complementary.
Brenda Shih
@brendashih · UX Designer
Hello!! How has design influenced how Planet Labs approaches solving large environmental or social challenges?
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Will Marshall
@wsm1 · CEO, Planet Labs
@brendashih Great question. We have an artist in residence programme at planet labs -- a person puts design flair on everything we do. They even put art on the wings of the Doves! We care because we take pride in our work.
Raluca Musaloiu-E.
@ralucam · Software Engineer at Meraki
Is it possible for Planet Labs to play a role in climate monitoring by adding greenhouse gases detection sensors (carbon dioxide, methane). I think frequent and accurate planet-wide metrics would be super valuable (as opposed to using various estimations and models). Would this be too costly or not feasible because of the altitude or the size of the doves?
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Will Marshall
@wsm1 · CEO, Planet Labs
@ralucam We care a lot about helping monitor climate change -- it's much of why we started Planet Labs! Other sensors are possible for sure. We've looked at a sensor for Methane. But right now we're focussed on RGB & NIR (near infra red) daily of the whole globe -- which allow us to do a huge amount. If we get that done we'll think about what's next.
Ben Tossell
@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt
Hey if you had to swap lives with a tech ceo/founder for a week who would it be and why?
fares al hasan
@alfares2212
Hi Marshalle,
I used open california during some courses at wageningen university, Netherlands. It was amazing to work on very high spatial and temporal resolution images.
I am looking for doing my internship in your company. Is that possible?
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Will Marshall
@wsm1 · CEO, Planet Labs
@alfares2212 Yes! We do have internships; send an email to jobs@planet.com