A VC, a Headhunter, and a Trainer Walk into a Bar

For years, startup culture has pushed the idea that if you're not working around the clock, you're not really committed. But is that actually true? Can you be fully committed to a startup while still making time for your family? Where's the line between being mission-driven and burning people out? And how should founders think about commitment as their companies grow? In this episode of VHTB, Matt...

For the first time, the VHTB crew got together to record a live episode from Las Vegas on SpaceX IPO day, watching one of the biggest moments in hard tech history unfold in real time. Joined by former SpaceX employees, founders, investors, and operators, we discuss how SpaceX became more than just a company and how its culture, talent, and lessons learned have spread throughout the industry. We al...

What happens to the top talent when companies like SpaceX go public? Do big windfalls make people retire, consult, or start the next hard tech startup? How do internal dynamics shift when early employees suddenly hold life-changing equity? Could liquidity windows open up opportunities for fresh talent and new growth? What ripple effects will these post-IPO moves have on the broader ecosystem? In t...

What does it actually take to build a space company from scratch? Not in theory. Not in a pitch deck. But in reality… where timelines are long, capital is massive, and failure isn’t an option. In this episode, Matt Gjertsen , Seyka Mejeur , and Justus Kilian sit down with Max Haot , CEO of Vast, for their first guest conversation to dive into what it really takes to build in hard tech. Max is lead...

Hardware cycles tend to look obvious in hindsight but are much harder to navigate in real time. In this episode of VHTB, we revisit CleanTech 1.0 and earlier infrastructure waves, where enthusiasm, overbuild, and correction often follow large physical bets. We discuss how today’s hardware environment differs from the late 2000s, with more specialized capital, clearer funding pathways, and investor...

Capital is moving out of software and back into physical systems. What actually changes when that happens? In this episode of VHTB, Justus Kilian, Brian Mejeur, and Matt Gjertsen look at the rise of what JPMorgan calls “Halo stocks”, heavy asset, low obsolescence companies spanning robotics, manufacturing, and infrastructure. We break down why investors are suddenly re-rating hardware, from AI-dri...

What actually changes when leadership changes at NASA? You hear a lot about culture shifts, but what does that actually look like in practice? And how quickly does it show up in real decisions? In this episode, the VHTB team breaks down a packed Q1 2026, starting with the shift happening inside NASA. From the Starliner fallout to a renewed focus on accountability and transparency, they break down...

Where’s the line between pushing people to do their best work… and just being an asshole? It’s a question that comes up a lot in high-performance environments especially in hard tech, where the stakes are high and the margin for error is small. Because in industries like space, defense, and advanced engineering, “good enough” isn’t good enough. The standards are high for a reason. But how you enfo...

Every Hard Tech Founder Needs a Gwynne Shotwell We often focus on visionary founders, the big personalities pushing boundaries, taking risks, and shaping industries. But what about the people who actually make that vision work day to day? The unsung heroes who translate ideas into execution, keep the company on course, and preserve culture while chaos swirls around them In this episode, Brian Meje...

Are the best founders actually narcissists? It’s a question that comes up a lot when you look at the personalities behind some of the most iconic companies. The extreme self-belief. The charisma. The willingness to ignore consensus and push forward anyway. Those traits can be incredibly powerful in the early days of a startup. They help founders recruit talent, raise capital, and convince people t...

When is it actually time to pivot? And when do you just need to keep grinding? This is one of those questions every founder runs into. You start with uninformed optimism. This is going to be great. Then reality hits. You are in the thick of it. It is harder than you expected. And you start wondering… did we build the wrong thing? Or is this just the hard part? In this episode, Matt Gjertsen from B...

Simplicity is winning. But how do you know whether to build what customers are asking for… or build what they don’t even realize they need yet? In this episode of VHTV, Seyka Mejeur from AdAstra Talent Advisors is joined by Justus Kilian from Space Capital and Matt Gjertsen from Better Every Day Studios to dig into one of the hardest questions in hard tech: do you build the breakthrough technology...

Managing up is one of the most overlooked skills in hard tech. In this episode of VHTB, Justus Kilian from Space Capital is joined by Matt Gjertsen from Better Every Day Studios and Seyka Mejeur from AdAstra Talent Advisors to talk about what it really means to move critical information up an organization, especially when it’s uncomfortable, unpopular, or urgent. We will discuss how to surface urg...

What Happens When Founders Go Into “Founder Mode”? Founder mode, a concept popularized by Brian Chesky and Paul Graham, describes how founders can take a highly selective, hands-on approach to solving the critical problems that employees or managers alone cannot tackle. In this episode, Justus Kilian of Space Capital is joined by Matt Gjertsen of Better Every Day Studios and Brian Mejeur of AdAstr...

What happens to space startup teams after big milestones? Big milestones in space startups, whether a Dragon 2 launch, a major funding round, or an IPO, often bring excitement, celebration, and sometimes turnover. After all the long hours and high stakes, some employees naturally take a step back, pivot, or even leave entirely. But is this a problem to solve, or a natural part of how talent flows...

What’s Really Driving the Space Industry Right Now? Q4 2025 wasn’t just another quarter; it may go down as one of the most pivotal in the modern space economy. Between Blue Origin’s New Glenn landing, massive defense-driven capital inflows, and the looming SpaceX IPO, the space startup ecosystem is facing new opportunities and new challenges at every turn. In this episode, Brian Mejeur of AdAstra...

How Should Startups Balance Hunger, Energy, and Experience? The space startup ecosystem attracts brilliant, ambitious people fresh out of school, people who want to build fast, learn everything at once, and take big swings early in their careers. But can raw tenacity really replace experience? And how should founders and hiring managers think about the tradeoff between youthful intensity and seaso...

How to Actually Understand Startup Equity Equity is one of the biggest reasons people join early-stage companies, and one of the least understood parts of any offer. In this episode, the VHTB team digs into why equity feels so opaque, what the different types of stock-based compensation actually mean, and how candidates and founders can talk about it without confusion or hype. Matt Gjertsen of Bet...

How Technical Talent Grows Into Leadership Deeply technical founders and engineers often struggle when their jobs shift from solving problems themselves to leading people who solve problems. In this episode, the VHTB team, Seyka Mejeur of AdAstra Talent Advisors , Matt Gjertsen of Better Every Day Studios , and Justus Kilian of Space Capital , break down why this transition is so challenging and w...

The Valley of Death, Part III: Breaking Through the Other Side In this final part of our Valley of Death series, the VHTB team, Matt Gjertsen of Better Every Day Studios , Brian Mejeur of AdAstra Talent Advisors , and Justus Kilian of Space Capital , break down how space startups can escape the treacherous middle of growth and begin to scale successfully. After early wins and the slog of the mid-v...

The Valley of Death, Part II: Surviving the Middle In this episode of VHTB , hosts Brian Mejeur of AdAstra Talent Advisors , Matt Gjertsen of Better Every Day Studios , and Justus Kilian of Space Capital continue their deep-dive series on one of the hardest stretches in the life of a space startup. the middle of the Valley of Death . After the early wins and momentum of scaling up, this phase test...

The Toughest Phase in Building a Space Startup In this episode of VHTB, hosts Justus Kilian of Space Capital , Matt Gjertsen of Better Every Day Studios , and Brian Mejeur of AdAstra Talent Advisors kick off a three-part series on one of the toughest challenges in space entrepreneurship. The Valley of Death . From defining what this critical gap really is to exploring how startups can bridge it th...

How to Avoid Over‑Hiring in Startups In this episode of VHTB, Matt Gjertsen of Better Every Day Studios , Justus Kilian of Space Capital , and Seyka Mejeur of AdAstra talk through what causes startups to grow their teams too quickly and how to keep hiring in check. They explore how to align hires with technical and financial milestones, how to set up hiring authority and decision processes, and ho...

How to Actually Understand a Company’s Culture Before You Join In this episode of VHTB, Justus Kilian of Space Capital is joined by Seyka Mejeur of AdAstra and Matt Gjertsen of Better Every Day Studios to answer a listener's question: How can you figure out what a company’s culture is really like before accepting a role? They talk through practical ways to figure that out. what to look for in team...

What Founders and Candidates Should Be Asking - But Often Don’t In this episode of VHTB, Seyka Mejeur , Founder and CEO of AdAstra , is joined by Matt Gjertsen of Better Every Day Studios and Justus Kilian of Space Capital for a candid conversation about the kinds of questions that often go unasked. Specifically, the ones that don’t get asked enough in investor meetings, hiring conversations, and...