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This week, we welcome Kyle Briggs as our contributing editor to The Merge Premium.
Kyle spent the last 10 years flying F/A-18s in support of operations in the Western Pacific. He currently serves as the Private Capital and Industry Engagement Officer for Task Force Hopper, the surface Navy’s digital transformation team where he sees first hand what it takes to get technology from a demo to the fleet.
Hubble
On September 23, Hubble Network raised $200 million at a $1.6 billion valuation and opened its satellite network to customers. The line repeated in nearly every write-up: any Bluetooth device can now reach orbit with a firmware update.
However, today's satellites need a transmitter up to 100 times more powerful than a typical Bluetooth chip puts out. For most designs, that means adding an amplifier and getting new FCC certification. The firmware-only version depends on satellites that haven't launched yet.
That’s the opportunity in play.
Hubble sells one product but has essentially built two businesses:
a ground network riding on borrowed phones, which has all the traction, and
a satellite service, which carries the valuation.
They have different risks, different customers, and opposite answers to the a defense buyer.
Military-wise, any tag a satellite can hear from orbit is a tag an adversary can detect. But the Pentagon may need this anyway-and it’s utility happens before anything reaches the battlefield.
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