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It Started with Satellites and a Selfie… Now It’s a Billion-Dollar Space Platform | Ep 229 with Chris Newlands Founder of Space Aye
00:20:02
Chris Newlands turned a simple shower idea into Space Aye—a platform combining real-time satellite imagery and IoT to solve everything from wildfire response to global shipping inefficiencies. In this episode, he reveals how trying to escape social media algorithms led to building one of the most impactful space tech companies in the world.
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- [00:01]
A
So Chris Newlands, the CEO and inventor and founder of Space Eye. And Chris, when I started looking at what you're doing, I'm thinking like, okay, you can see anyone, anywhere. You can find assets anywhere, anytime. I started to get a little scared, but also excited. And then I read that you even invented this in the shower. Which me, I'm. I'm like an inventor in my head. I've never invented anything, but I got to think like, wow, how did this all come about? We're going to dive into all these things. But first I wanted to understand, how did this come about in the shower? And then how did you actually translate that to a real thing?
- [00:43]
B
Hi, Daniel, thanks for having us on your show in the first place. Very long story short, having been a founder of a previous organization, one of the hardest things to do is to access an audience without through social media platforms like Facebook, obviously, at that time, Google, in terms of paid marketing. And I tried to. I was using the concept of how could they use space? Possibly because space is sexy. The best way to describe it, I think in many ways to actually access people attending events. So the ability to give actual evidence of attending a particular event. So if you imagine Glastonbury or Burning man or the super bowl, and that ability to see you in the satellite picture, not place your data on the image. And at that time I was in the shower, I was literally thinking about how you could target other people without going through social media algorithms and use organic content. And long story short, I come up with the idea of a space selfie. So the ability to capture your attendance at the event and have actual evidence. Apparently Woodstock, there was something like seven times more people claimed to have been there than was actually physically possible to have done. Evidence to show you were quite a cool grandparent at some point. Your children, I think, is the overall overarching concept. And the beauty of that from a marketing perspective is that that can be paid for by the sponsor and then they would get their brand organically. I think it was something like eight times more effective than paid marketing. So very attractive concept. And when we launched it, it went to the top 10% of all app downloads in history in a single week, which is really quite attractive. But that was the week or the month before COVID kicked in. Event that could have happened. Didn't happen. But whilst we were actually building the app at that time, we applied for patents and that. That's a longer story. We'll come back to that, I'm sure.
- [02:38]
A
So you made the Spelfy? Yes, that's how you pronounce it, right? I mean, the space selfie. Did you ever think, like, people probably aren't going to care about this or they have no idea, or were you that confident that everyone. This is going to become, you know, the biggest downloaded app of history?
- [02:55]
B
Do you know, it was an experiment at the time, Daniel, I'll be frank with you. At the time, there was no real consumer access to satellite imagery. And it's still quite hard to do that, to be honest. It's complex. It's science. Space is hard to do, to be honest. So that ability to access not just a picture or a map or something that was taken several years ago, but that ability to actually capture the event in the reality is something that actually captured the imagination. So to go to the top 10% of all app downloads in history in a single week, it wasn't bad, it wasn't too shabby. Yeah. And I think from that perspective, it encouraged. Having said that, obviously no one expected a global pandemic, Daniel, So I think that we had to rebase things. But because we'd apply for the patents, then we were able to step back from it a bit and then observe as commercial space became a thing because it wasn't a thing in 2017, 2018, it now has become one as such. So that's part of the story. But that's, that's the, if you like, the genesis moment in the shower space selfies, run downstairs soaking wet with a towel, did some due diligence. Nothing existed. We got some non disclosures, non compete, signed by Maxar and Airbus. At the time, he were the biggest in the market and the rest is history to some degree.
- [04:11]
A
So as you continue to release this, I can imagine the people that are like, oh, wow, I want to use this technology from the commercial side. So you have, I understand, like the people want to take a spell fee, I want to take a spell fee. But when you looked at the commercial side of this business, I would imagine that, you know, the possibilities are endless. But who have you seen from the commercial side wanting to partner with you? And who, like, who are those clients have been for you?
- [04:37]
B
So it's really interesting. So we're an emerging capability. We are a globally emerging capability. The patents have been granted in the States and China and South Korea and Japan and Europe's hopefully about to fall too. So if you imagine that that takes time to get all of the ducks in a row, if that makes sense. So we've built a platform that will normalize satellite imagery so to give you an example, there are no common tasking processes for tasking a satellite across all of the constellations. There are no constant image formats, there's over 20 image formats. So no common tasking, no image formats. And there's various different types of imagery as well. So to try and normalize that into one interoperable format is difficult to do. And I love capitalists in capitalism I am one. But fundamentally unique selling points are the devil of interoperability. So that ability to take that image and turn into something you can use on your smartphone, on your watch and everyday user friendly interactions is quite a difficult thing to do. But you don't care about that. As a consumer, that is our job to take that away and actually create that. So we're talking to telecoms companies, oil and gas, energy logistics, shipping. Obviously there's a dual use aspect to this, so defense and security are very interested as well. But a quick example, if you're looking at a situation where you can see a wildfire from space using infrared or optical satellite imagery, that ability to identify the responders actually in their vicinity of the fire, and survivors potentially, and livestock or pets potentially, and actually save lives by from a command and control perspective actually taking control and keeping the communication lanes open, we reckon they could save many lives, many properties and many billions of dollars going forward as well, and put the fire out more quickly, which stops global boiling as well. So there's a myriad of things, but I think communication and that ability to have eyes from space is something that is actually very, very important going forward.
- [06:43]
A
Yeah, I see that you, you talk about wanting to save the world. I know you just gave some examples, but can you dive in deeper into how this technology can be used for so much good and impact, to quote, unquote, save the world?
- [06:57]
B
I think when anyone says that, you always sound like a lunatic, let's be honest, because no one person can. But you can start the momentum and you can lead the way in some ways. Yeah. Now for me, that ability to have better, more informed information, to make better, more informed decisions, means that you can potentially be more effic efficient in everything you do. There was a report out last week by the World economic forum and McKinsey and they reckon purely from a shipping perspective, logistics and cargo, let's say, the ability to actually take our capabilities, which is what they describe, would actually improve the efficiencies of those sectors. Now, bearing in mind 80 odd percent of all freight travels on the sea, so 35% is what the estimate will be. The savings to a sector that is worth trillions of dollars. So all of a sudden you get more efficiency, you get more transparency. You can actually see the impact in nature, humanity, on the climate. Literally. Not just a pin on a map to say there's a ship, but the eis, which is the signal, which is the automatic information system that effectively identifies the ship. And each of the actual containers on those ships would be identifiable using our capability. So that changes efficiency, climate impact and fundamentally makes us all in a better place. And one final thing I would say to you is that actually apparently if there's no shipping for four days, there's no shopping. So the impact of everything working to a particular time and being efficient has a direct impact on every one of us.
- [08:32]
A
If there's no shipping, there's no shopping. So when you, when you look at this in terms of privacy, because I would, I would guess a lot of people would, would bring that up. Or what if this gets in the hands of certain people that could maybe have a negative impact on how they would use it. Does anything like that keep you up at night or how are you thinking this?
- [08:52]
B
So it has kept us up at night, that's the first thing to say to you. And equally privacy and sacrosanct, I mean we will comply with all local laws and customs in that sense as well, because we have to. The law is the law of the land, if that makes sense. Equally, more than that, we want to do so. So it would be an opt in. So if you want to be able to drive an autonomous vehicle or have a real time sat nav at some point in the not too distant future, you have to be able to see where your car is in context of other cars and what's happening up ahead and what's around the road from a northwest, east and south perspective. If you're in a situation where you want to just have a bit more context. So imagine you lost your seven year old child. So we did an example where we looked at a map, an image of a Google map image, it was actually some time ago of Aberdeen and it showed a lovely picture of Aberdeen city center and there was a triangle of grass and the child was located in that triangle of grass. But when you took a real time satellite image, it was actually the circus was in town and the child was standing beside the circular tent on that triangle of grass. So quaintly in the past used to say you run away with a circus, which is probably child abduction back in modern day terms. So that ability to know where things are and Give that context from space means you make different decisions, sometimes more urgent, sometimes less urgent, but fundamentally it helps you make better, more informed decisions.
- [10:20]
A
So essentially, let's say there's a natural disaster or something happens and you need to find somebody, your family or somebody's missing. Could this essentially be used in those type of environments to see or even like what's happening in that specific area? Because I think that's a big problem. Like something happens, you don't know where they are, the cell phone goes down. Things don't work like we saw with earthquakes or hurricanes or, you know, there's tornadoes recently in the US that are wiping out an entire city and no one has a clue about what's happening.
- [10:51]
B
I think going back to the privacy point, there's no need for silver tinfoil hats. Everyone can opt in and your privacy is sacrosanct. Just to reemphasize that point, however, your point is valid. Let's imagine a situation where you live in an area. Tornado Alley, I think, is one of the areas within the US and everyone has an app and on the app there's a particular. Everyone could opt into that and that would allow them all to connect with family and friends. And potentially what you then have is you've got several elements. If you have got a terrestrial infrastructure that will be damaged by a tornado or a hurricane, potentially. But equally, if you're looking at now the way things are changing, if you take communications and obviously Starlink From Space and OneWeb and others obviously Kuiper 2, so that ability to maintain satellite and comms from space that can't be affected by tornadoes is essential. There's also IoT Internet of Things signal enhancing satellites. 15,000 will be taken to space over the next five years. Of all numbers are to be, to be understood and to be believed, and that will ensure there's no dark spots. So all of a sudden, the thing we rely on just now will become slightly obviously above us, if that makes sense and protected from those scenarios. Then if you find someone who survived by location because of our patents, it also includes biometrics, so then you can listen for their heartbeat and you can triage survival and obviously recovery modes if you like. If you're looking for survivors as well. And that would work in the obviously in earthquake situations as much as it would obviously within hurricanes or tornadoes. So it's a game changer. And also for things like the pandemic, the ability to see how healthy you are where you are at any given time and manage things more efficiently in the UK spent 52 billion pounds on track and Trace. That would be a thing of the past. And we're now in the most connected stage of humanity we've ever been. We live in the Matrix, Daniel. We literally have 20 odd to 40 odd billion IoT devices pulsing data from 8 billion people and all other assets. And all of a sudden that data is now being captured from space. And that just changes the game.
- [13:00]
A
It's amazing. I feel like I'm in the Matrix. I mean, it's pretty amazing. It sounds like there's some incredible uses for it and it's very exciting. And I mean, the fact that you coined the term spell fee, I think is pretty epic in itself. When you look at the conversions of all these different technologies, the advancements of where we're at with AI and gen AI to, you know, you said IoT, you got 5G, who knows, maybe 6G in the future. Yeah. You have all these different technologies at this pretty advanced stage. How do you see the future of IoT and mixing with, you know, satellites and everything coming together?
- [13:37]
B
The first thing I'll highlight is that spellfade was a concept proof. A proof of concept, yeah. So SpaceEye is, is the platform that we're now working with as such. So I think we've been coined as GPS with Pictures or Google Earth Live has been used many times. So that ability to see the world now and see what's happening around the world is really important. So without IoT Internet of Things devices now to explain what those are, because not everyone understands what that is necessarily. It's the wearables on your wrist, your smartphones, it's your rings that you're getting these days as well. There's many brands out there these days. And your smartphone, laptops, anything that's effectively your ring doorbell is a smart device. It's Internet of Things as well. So fundamentally, we now live in a world where everything has been to some degree monitored or observed on maps, but we're just moving the map and placing that with a real time image to give you more context as such. So we believe that Internet of Things data now combined with satellite imagery, now there's now thousands of cameras. When we started the journey, there were 630 odd Earth observation satellites in 2017, mostly owned by governments, they're now most owned by commercial entities. So that ability to capture the Data pulsing from 8 billion people, 20 billion devices and thousands of cameras can actually become the training data for artificial intelligence models. And we've called that the large terrestrial model because fundamentally if you think about what happened in January with Deep Seq, they used open source data, which means it's not proprietary and open source is open to racism, sexism, bias and hallucination. And it's now starting to eat itself. It's become a cannibalistic in some ways as well. So the hallucination is becoming even more hallucinogenic in some ways. So that ability to be able to identify categorically, potentially taking the critical Reliance models up to seven nines. So that's 99.9999% accurate, means it's a 1 in 3 million chance of getting it wrong. Changes the game in terms of risk, in terms of accuracy and things like markets, anti frauds, people trafficking, wildlife, poaching. The whole world would become just a place where it should become safer. A comment from Interpol recently stated they believe that physical crime within 10 years could become a thing of the past. And that's game changing because not everyone has the ability to have the infrastructure that we have in the West. So that ability to create that opportunity to protect people and families going forward I think is, is game changing.
- [16:16]
A
I'm super excited, I'm so excited to be alive right now. Just because we have access to all of these different technologies coming together 5, 10 years like you said, crime, I mean natural disasters, all these different things could be, could be helped at least. So at least you could save lives in any of it would be amazing. I know the head of Google Maps and Google Earth has said that you're, you know, the best thing since sliced bread in your industry in the last 10 years. How do you feel when, when he said this? And I believe he's also now a part of the organization.
- [16:52]
B
So he, he was the former head of Google Maps and Google Earth. I should state that rather than being the, the current head of Google Earth and Google Map just for clarification. But I mean, delighted, proud, I mean Ed Parsons is, was the face of Google Earth and Google Maps for many years when he said to me that we remind them of the early days of Google Maps and Google Earth. When you understand that's $140 billion sector forecasted with 230 billion by 2030, you start to understand the numbers. When you understand that the World economic forum in McKinsey are talking about a $3.8 trillion sector in terms of the value that adds to all of the other sectors within 5 to 10 years, so that equates maybe 5% of the total global economy. Do you start to understand that this is game changing. I mean, someone like that, with that kind of background wants to be part of that and wants to help shape that, then I've got to be honest, it makes me very proud. One final thing I would say to you as well around that, in terms of pride, we've committed to the United nations to capture the Amazon rainforest as the loggers log. Not six months after, when we measure the impact of loggers. And that will change the game on a number of ways and protect local indigenous tribes and equally hopefully help save the planet again. There's just a myriad of things we can do. When you have something that is not a product but a capability, a bit like AI, if AI was the 25th capability of humanity, we believe space. Spacei is the 26th. But combine the two together. Wow.
- [18:26]
A
From the, the space selfie to saving the world, that is spacey. I love that, Chris, but this has been amazing. If you want to get in touch with you, how can they do so?
- [18:37]
B
I'm on LinkedIn. Chris Newlands. You can reach me by emailing me. Chrisjulenspaceiye.com we went for a ye because it's a Scottish word that means always and it phonetically works because it's eyes from space. And it was also £30 to buy the domain name from dot com and it was $100,000 to buy eye.com so the Scots like good value, but you can contact me in many ways. I'm very easy to contact and we.
- [19:04]
A
Look forward to engaging the future unicorn from Scotland. That's what it sounds like. Could be trillion dollar company at this point. Why even. Why chase a billion when you can have a trillion dollar company? But Chris, this has been amazing.
- [19:19]
B
So honestly, Daniel, it's been a real pleasure and it's not so much about the money for us, it's more about the money matters for shareholders, but it's also about the values. We can make a huge difference. And I think for me it's just we have an opportunity and if we don't get these chances very often, this feels like the smartphone, this feels like the Internet. The opportunity to see the world and the rounding context now is a game changer and I think we need to grasp it with both hands.
- [19:44]
A
I think we're seeing now it's not companies that are chasing the money anymore, it's companies that are chasing the impact, chasing, making the difference. And then the money is just a byproduct. But thanks for joining us again today on Founder Story.
- [19:56]
B
No talk. Thank you. Nice to meet you, Naomi.