Reading & Writing the Planet

Growing islands. Seeing through clouds from space. Forecasting the weather months out. Join First Star Ventures for a Q&A with the founders doing all three (and using earth observation to actually make money).

Come hang with founders, investors, researchers before and after. Light snacks + beverages will be served.

Doors open: 4:00pm

Discussion/Q&A: 4:30-5pm

Mix & Mingle: 5-5:30pm

Founders Reading and Writing the Planet:

Skylar Tibbits (CEO/Co-Founder @ Coastal Assembly)

Coastal Assembly grows new coastlines, islands, and harbors. Using in situ and remote sensing data, they map wave energy, currents, and sediment movement, then design, fabricate, and place passive structures that harness those natural patterns to shape the Earth for humanity's benefit.

Mike Boyarsky, PhD (CEO/Founder @ Extellis)

Extellis uses metasurfaces to capture synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with far higher capacity, shorter revisit times, broader coverage, and order-of-magnitude better unit economics. That unlocks capabilities that were previously impossible or uneconomic across energy, infrastructure, defense, and more.

Sam Levang, PhD (CSO/Co-Founder @ Salient)

Salient makes the world's most accurate weather forecasts from 2 to 52 weeks ahead, using vast amounts of earth observation data to predict how the global water cycle and atmospheric energy will affect everything from energy markets to supply chains.