Best Place To BuildSuyash Singh, GalaxEye | "If I can't build a deep tech startup at IITM, I can never do it." | Ep. 10
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
65 min read · 13,021 words- 0:00 – 2:00
Introduction & The Story Behind Suyash's Smile
- UHUnknown Host
I am sitting in one of the best institutes in the country, ranked one in many ways. If I can't build a deep tech project here, I can never do it in my life. So I think we will be launching six to eight satellites after this first one in the next four to five years. India space, in my opinion, walked so far, and we will now run. [upbeat music] Hi, my name is Amrit. We've heard that IIT Madras is the best place to build. [upbeat music] So we've come down to the Sudha and Shankar Innovation Hub. We want to meet some people. These are builders. We want to talk to them about their work and also ask them, "What makes IIT Madras the best place to build?" [upbeat music] Hi, hello, and welcome to the Best Place to Build Podcast. Today, we are sitting with Suyash Singh. He's the co-founder and CEO of GalaxEye, one of India's hottest space startups. Hi, Suyash, welcome to the podcast.
- SSSuyash Singh
Hey, Amrit. Thanks for having me.
- UHUnknown Host
Suyash, the first thing that I've noticed about you, and I've met you a couple of times by now, is that you're always smiling. It's amazing. I also want to say that I can imagine how difficult, stressful you must be at because you're running a space startup in a country like India. Um, what is the secret of your smile?
- SSSuyash Singh
[chuckles] So there's a nice story to that. So when I was at IIT Madras, uh, I was starting this team called Avishkar Hyperloop, and, uh, our first orientis-
- 2:00 – 4:00
Educational Journey: From Corporate to IIT Madras
- SSSuyash Singh
orientation session, all the guys came in, and when I was finished with the presentation, they said, "You, you are super depressing. We don't feel that we should be working with you." And that was the point, you know, I started to practice smiling slowly and gradually. [chuckles] It, it became a part of my life, yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
That's amazing. Um, you were at IIT Madras, uh, which years?
- SSSuyash Singh
2017 to 2019. I did my master's.
- UHUnknown Host
So what is the story? How did you get here? Uh, where did you study school from? And, yeah, just run us through your journey to IIT Madras.
- SSSuyash Singh
Sure. So I, I did my bachelor's back in 2013, so I graduated in 2013 as a mechanical engineer. Then I did a corporate stint, you know, where I did a bunch of other things, and I experimented throughout the life. I prepared for UPSC. I did a bunch of other things as well during those four years. And eventually, at TCS Research, where I used to work, I found myself not having a lot of good fundamentals to engineering and life. So, you know, that was the point where I decided to kind of pursue master's at some university here and there. And, uh, of course, you know, GATE, GATE examination was the gateway to IIT Madras, and, uh, that ... By appealing to that, I made it to IIT Madras, joined, uh, aerospace engineering here. And after joining here, my goal was to kind of get, you know, hired by one of those big giants, like Amazon, Google, Facebook, et cetera, Netflix. Uh, but, you know, eventually, I ended up doing deep tech, building Hyperloop for next two years, uh, building a massive, good team, and that was a U-turn entirely, right? From, from mechanical engineer to doing Hadoop, AI, big data in four years, appearing for UPSC, coming to IIT Madras, and doing deep tech, and then doing deep tech forever.
- UHUnknown Host
Damn interesting! Um, uh, I- just to stop, little bit of information gap I have here
- 4:00 – 9:00
Breaking Barriers: Starting Hyperloop at IIT Madras
- UHUnknown Host
in the sense that I'm not very clear about how the GATE exam works.
- SSSuyash Singh
Mm-hmm.
- UHUnknown Host
I also find it a little odd that, um, see, in JEE, uh, when, when students go from class 12 to college-
- SSSuyash Singh
Mm-hmm
- UHUnknown Host
... they, they have no idea what life anywhere, so it's fine. Like, one exam bunches them into a bunch of courses. Uh, but after, uh, after you do your bachelor's, you work for a few years, you're giving the GATE exam, isn't it weird to have one exam for computer science, engine- uh, mechanical engineering, aerospace? These are completely diverged fields by now, right? So how does that work?
- SSSuyash Singh
No, so I think there are specific, uh, papers for each of the engineering disciplines, right? So you don't o- you don't give a generic exam for all the engineering discipline. You have to specialize in that, uh, particular discipline that you have, uh, you know, done your bachelor's in. Uh, but, but all the more, I, I do agree partially that it's a very, you know, um, very short exam for f- what you've learned for four years. And, uh, testing the aptitude for engineering in those two to three years is, is, is, is a little unfair to many, so to say, right? So I, myself, attempted it for two times, got in to the second time.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay. And then did you, uh, choose to join aerospace? Was that something that you wanted to do?
- SSSuyash Singh
Um, partially yes, you know, uh, and partially no as well. Uh, I was more focused on getting into a discipline where I can build on applications, and I'm more application-centric person rather than, you know, going deeper into research, and so on and so forth. So my master's, for me, was to kind of pick one domain and become an expert to that particular area as much as possible.
- UHUnknown Host
That's interesting, because when you're doing a master's at an institute like IIT, you have the option to sort of go more into research side?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah. Or more into application side, so. So then at IITM, you joined Professor Sathya, uh, um, but in addition, you also started the Hyperloop club, right? So what is your experience in IIT Madras like?
- SSSuyash Singh
No, I think the-... the, the goal was to kind of, you know, uh, of course, join aerospace. Uh, Professor Satya didn't- you know, was not the start point for me for my master's. It was a generic course for a year. In the second year, you get to choose your professor, you know, who do you want to work with for the thesis part and et cetera. When I met Professor Satya, it was a story. You know, by that time, I was always al- you know, already fascinated by Bill- you know, Elon Musk and his competition that was organized, uh, at SpaceX every year. And, uh, by the time I was about to start my research, I've already latched on to kind of, you know, doing Hyperloop.
- UHUnknown Host
I've heard this story before. So the way I've heard you say it is that you were in your first years, first-year master's-
- SSSuyash Singh
Right
- UHUnknown Host
... and you heard about the SpaceX-
- SSSuyash Singh
Competition
- UHUnknown Host
... competition, and you sort of, like, couldn't sleep overnight because you were- So can you run us through that?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah. So I think it's interesting story, two to three months, you know, because I've given a GATE examination, but, you know, I also worked for a corporate for four years. So my lethargy to going classes and other things were, were, were actually pretty much than other students who, who came in the batch. So it was almost difficult for me to sleep at on time and, you know, get up on time and do things. So I used to kind of speak to my friends who are in the US and so on and so forth. So one of my friends told me that, you know, Elon, Elon Musk has started this competition, where they get to build Hyperloop, and they get to demonstrate it at SpaceX. And that was the moment that hit me very hard. It, it was like, I am sitting in one of the best institutes in the country, ranked one in many ways. If I can't build a deep tech startup, a deep tech project here, I can never do it in my life, and that triggered me very, very hard. And the other motivation was one of my friends said, "You can't do this in India." [chuckles] So, you know, it was... It became almost like, you know, I, I want to kind of give it back to him, speak back to him, saying that, "You know, this is how I built it, and I built it better than your university in the US." And that's how it started. Couldn't sleep overnight, of course, you know, and the next day, um, went to a bunch of people who can actually join me for this crazy thought process. Because generally, you know, you'll find in the institute when I joined them, there was a cultural divide between bachelor's and master's student, and it was way easier for a bachelor's student to kind of walk into CFI, Centre For Innovation, and start something, while master's don't have that culture, right? So, so from seniors, there's no rolling culture that was coming to us, a- a- in during our master's time. It was challenging, to be honest, to kind of walk, walk into CFI or walk into anywhere. First of all, find CFI,
- 9:00 – 13:00
From Hyperloop to Space Tech: The GalaxEye Origin Story
- SSSuyash Singh
that there is a [chuckles] there is a Centre For Innovation to do something like that. Uh, but, you know, I was curious enough, I went to, uh, to many of the events and, uh, discussions that were happening in the institute that time. And, uh, I found Gaurav, you know, Gaurav Doda was in 2017, and, uh, I spoke to him. I, I kind of, uh, I was chasing him in many of the places in the labs here and there, wherever he could go. And I found him one day, I wrote an email to him, and he, he agreed to me, saying, "Okay, you are a master's students. I don't know how far you will go along building this project, but let me give it a shot. You know, I will, I will, I will go to my dean and ask whether I should be allowing you to build a team here or not, but let me give it a shot." So he put in s- he took a leap, leap of faith, and he said, "Let's, let's try, but don't ask any money. [chuckles] I, I won't give you any money at all." Uh, but, you know, he putting, uh, some faith in a person who is coming from master's, zero cultural alignment with the bachelor's at that particular point, in my opinion, uh, was something that was pretty massive as a trust.
- UHUnknown Host
This is interesting. What you're saying is, you heard of this project-
- SSSuyash Singh
Mm
- UHUnknown Host
... interesting project. You were deeply motivated to go and try it.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Nobody is trying Hyperloop in IIT Madras or in, or in India.
- SSSuyash Singh
India, largely.
- UHUnknown Host
Right. And so you go to someone-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... and say, "Hey, listen, let me build a Hyperloop club-
- SSSuyash Singh
Right
- UHUnknown Host
... or a Hyperloop project."
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
That can go two ways, right? Somebody can just laugh at you, and, yeah, somebody can say, "Okay, sure, why not?" Right. So you're saying that somebody chose to do the, uh... So this master's, uh, BTech divide, I guess, I guess it's been there for a while. It's changing now?
- SSSuyash Singh
Um, I think after we building Hyperloop and keeping that mix of master's students and bachelor's students together in the same team, giving that example to many that this can work very nicely. Plus, master's students bring in that research kind of, uh, mindset, while the bachelor's people would bring in that innovative mindset, and when these two things come together, I think Hyperloop kind of projects can be pulled off.
- UHUnknown Host
Right.
- SSSuyash Singh
And when that was demonstrated, I feel... I think post that we have seen, you know, it has become better. So we generally call ourselves as the bridge between bachelor's and master's, that, [chuckles] you know, we bridged the gap at that particular point of time, and we have seen many other teams also kind of doing the same thing after that.
- UHUnknown Host
Interesting. Um, you know, um, uh, I a- I also imagine that master's students are probably closer to professors because they are research associates or, uh... And, and, uh, they've come here with the intent to join a professor's lab or something like that, whereas bachelor's students are still fresh and-
- SSSuyash Singh
Mm-hmm.
- UHUnknown Host
Amazing. So, um, uh, so you got here, and then, of course, you graduated. Did you, uh, from starting Hyperloop, um, did you imagine that that would lead to your journey to GalaxEye?
- SSSuyash Singh
... mm, um, honestly, no. So I still r- vaguely remember when we were starting Hyperloop, uh, we used to- I mean, our professor who used to guide was Professor Satya, and he's still guiding the team, by the way. Um, he also started a company called Hy- Agnikul, in the same lab that year, right? And that was very space-focused. They wanted to build launch vehicle, et cetera. We were building Hyperloop. We started Hyperloop. Agnikul was starting up exactly at the same time in NCCRD that time. But I was never fascinated about space, space that time. So post my 2019, when, when I graduated, I, uh, happened to get an offer from, uh, two of the biggest corporate houses in the country, right? So I, I chose to go
- 13:00 – 18:00
What is GalaxEye? Understanding Space Imaging Technology
- SSSuyash Singh
one, in, in one of those, while my other teammates went in the other corporate house. [chuckles] I won't take the name as of now, but, uh, the, the place where I went to work got me into starting GalaxEye. Yeah, so space was never a, never a choice or never, uh, was never an interest to me to kind of get into, but it happened because a very interesting problem statement came my way.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Very interesting. So then you got back and, uh, you know, uh, uh, I, I have a sense of what GalaxEye does, but it'll be nice to hear it from your words. So what does GalaxEye do?
- SSSuyash Singh
So think of GalaxEye, uh, you know, it's a space technology com- startup, vaguely, but let me tell you in the other way. We are a data company. We acquire data from space. We click pictures from space, in the most layman language, to be very honest, right? And what do we do and why do we do is, if you think about the larger gamut of space applications here and there, there is communications, navigation, and imaging. These are the three large applications in space. Uh, communication and navigation, in our opinion, is pretty much done. Imaging is something that is not yet done at that scale, is... And one of the key reasons to that is the cloud cover that Earth has all the time. So at any given point on, in time, uh, Earth is covered by clouds around 70%. So 70% of the landmass is covered by clouds, and during the nighttime, your cameras can't, can't open the shutter and click pictures because you don't have enough light. There's no source of light during the nighttime, and clouds can't be penetrated by the visible cameras and stuff. So I think this problem statement was very interesting for us to, you know, to see whether we can build a satellite that sees through the cloud and still give you an imagery throughout the year, agnostic of the cloud, agnostic of the ti- nighttime as well. And that started with an interesting problem, actually. It didn't came out so well in the beginning. You know, it started with, I was solving for a California forest fire problem, you know, wherein, uh, I had to quantify the damage of how much forest has been damaged by the fire. And, uh, while doing so, uh, my natural progression was to kind of collect satellite imagery, and I did that. When I took satellite imagery, it was all smoky or cloudy, so can't see through-
- UHUnknown Host
So one second.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
What do you mean by take satellite imagery? Who, who gives you satellite imagery?
- SSSuyash Singh
So I think by that time in 2021, there are a bunch of space agencies who have already launched Earth observation satellites of A kind and B kinds, and there are a bunch of companies as well, you know, who are based in the US and Europe, who operate those satellites-
- UHUnknown Host
Okay
- SSSuyash Singh
... and they collect data.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
So what we found that in all of these satellites that existed in 2020, '21 timeframe, it was either a camera-like satellite, which would click pictures, or it'll be a radar-like satellite.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
Now, radar is something that penetrate through clouds and can do nighttime imaging, but it is like X-ray. You know, you see black and white dots in that. So either you find a camera-like imagery or a radar-like imagery. Now, both are not useful because camera is intuitive but not available because of clouds. Now, radar is available, but not intuitive.
- UHUnknown Host
Right.
- SSSuyash Singh
Because it's like an X-ray.
- UHUnknown Host
I'll have to sort of train myself to read that.
- SSSuyash Singh
Absolutely.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah.
- SSSuyash Singh
So we wanted to kind of come to a, you know, midway between these two, and that make imagery available and understandable for an average user. So, for example, you know, if I am in my final year of my graduation and I want to solve for an agriculture business or for an aquaculture use case, or I have any problem set that I want to kind of solve for, and that can be done by satellite imagery, today it may not be very much possible because the consistency in satellite imagery is not there.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
So service level agreement that we call gently, is that to deliver a satellite imagery with clear, visible, uh, no cloud cover into your inbox, and that you use for your SaaS automated application, that is not there.
- UHUnknown Host
I'm imagining that if I want images of, say, some... say, of this building. Uh, we are sitting in the CFI building, so I want space imagery from, of this building.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
And if there is a cloud cover at a particular point, then the satellite
- 18:00 – 24:00
The Four Pillars of Satellite Imaging Applications
- UHUnknown Host
has to basically, like, wait for the clouds to move or like-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yes
- UHUnknown Host
... do a full orbit and come back, and-
- SSSuyash Singh
That's right
- UHUnknown Host
... hopefully, the clouds will be gone by then, and-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... it not take another orbit to come back.
- SSSuyash Singh
Oh, so it's unpredictable.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay. So, um, you mentioned, so the way you started was, you said that the, the-... the use cases of space, uh, I don't know what is the word you use, but it's-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... navigation, uh-
- SSSuyash Singh
Communication.
- UHUnknown Host
Communication and imaging.
- SSSuyash Singh
Imaging.
- UHUnknown Host
So navigation is like GPS.
- SSSuyash Singh
Right.
- UHUnknown Host
Communication is like cell phone and-
- SSSuyash Singh
Right. Internet.
- UHUnknown Host
Internet. And, uh, I, I, so-
- SSSuyash Singh
Huge thing
- UHUnknown Host
... I'm just trying to understand what is imaging used for today? And I, I know you said agriculture and aquaculture use cases, but what does that mean?
- SSSuyash Singh
Sure. So I think, uh, imagery is used in, I would say, four bigger, larger buckets, so to say, right? The first bucket is mapping and survey. So you're planning to put up an- put up a building somewhere, or you're planning to put an infrastructure somewhere. Then you acquire these imageries, and you find places, and you properly plan on that. You know, you dimensionia- you use the dimension scale, whatever scale, you plan the entire layout.
- UHUnknown Host
Mm.
- SSSuyash Singh
Uh, so that's called mapping and survey. Second part is on the commodities monitoring. So if you see, you know, we're one of the largest agriculture geographies in the world. So rice, wheat, maize, corn, potatoes, uh, tomatoes, onion, shrimp, which is an aqua commodity, spices, coffee, palm, palm, palm trees.
- UHUnknown Host
Mm.
- SSSuyash Singh
All of these are like-
- UHUnknown Host
Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. You are saying that with space Earth imagery-
- SSSuyash Singh
Right
- UHUnknown Host
... somebody will be able to tell how much wheat, how many plants are-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- 24:00 – 39:00
Deep Dive: Understanding SAR Technology
- SSSuyash Singh
or railways monitoring or so on and so forth, needs consistent imagery inputs. That was not available. So that's where we came down to saying, "What kind of technology can help us acquire this data consistently over the time?" And that's where we found synthetic aperture radar and multispectral camera as a technology coming together can help-... bridging that consistency gap.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay. So, uh, okay, I, I understand at a, at a business level what you're saying.
- SSSuyash Singh
Sure.
- UHUnknown Host
But at the technology level, what is, uh, what, what- can you break down each word for me?
- SSSuyash Singh
Sure. So SAR is synthetic aperture radar. Uh, SAR is a technology that is a microwave, uh, that does imaging in the microwave spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum. Now, there are many bands that you can use. You can use an L band, you can use a C band, you can use an X band, P band, and so on and so forth. All of these bands are also used in some sort of communication as well, right? But we use these band for imaging.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
So for example, X band generally ranges between 9 to 10 gigahertz, right? While L band is on the lower side. Okay, so, uh, high frequency towards... If you go towards high frequency, that's X band. If you go towards lower frequencies, you go towards L band. Now, the lower the frequency is, higher the penetration is.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
So for example, you want to penetrate through a foliage cover, the forest fire, forest, uh, cover, and see what is hiding beneath the forest. Then you need an L band SAR. While the X band SAR is very good to understand the buildings or the urban footprint that is available on Earth. That's at, uh, something around 9 to 10 gigahertz. And X, mm, uh, above X, comes Ku, Ka bands and others. Uh, but Ku and Ka sometimes don't penetrate through clouds very well. But X onwards, you do that.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay. So this is what you mean by multispectral, like, um, you are-
- SSSuyash Singh
No, multispectral is a different, uh, region altogether. So that comes in visible and IR side of the story. So in the, in the EM spectrum, if you just draw that, we use microwave region, and microwave has certain frequencies in itself. So you exploit each of the frequency for a different application. While visible and IR range, or visible and infrared range, that is what is used for imaging, like a camera.
- UHUnknown Host
Right. That's the more visible side of things.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah. So you capture red, green, blue, and other bands in the visible range, and there's a band called near-infrared. You know, so it's like somewhere between visible and IR spectrum, somewhere in the mid. So multispectral and hyperspectral cameras that we talk very often, talks about visible and near-infrared ranges.
- UHUnknown Host
Of- so there's IR, near-IR, uh, visible, and then there's microwave. In microwave, there's L going on to X-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... and then Ku and so forth.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
So, uh, the SAR technology is on the microwave side, and the multispectral technology is in the near-IR end?
- SSSuyash Singh
That's basically it. Absolutely.
- UHUnknown Host
And so, uh, y- your, um, uh, your, uh, technology-
- SSSuyash Singh
Correct
- UHUnknown Host
... marries the data from these two things-
- SSSuyash Singh
Correct
- UHUnknown Host
... and gives you an interpretation?
- SSSuyash Singh
Absolutely.
- UHUnknown Host
So technically, you can sort of like use it to see beyond cloud cover or below what is the-
- SSSuyash Singh
Right
- UHUnknown Host
... more at what, below trees.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Right.
- 39:00 – 43:00
Evolution of Earth Imaging: From V2 Rockets to Burj Khalifa
- SSSuyash Singh
gives you more denser imagery collection capability. So I think we will be launching six to eight satellites after this first one in the next four to five years.
- UHUnknown Host
Amazing. Uh, uh, and since we are talking of Earth imaging, I, I did this thing where I checked out the history of Earth imaging.
- SSSuyash Singh
Sure.
- UHUnknown Host
So I wanna show you. So I, I guess you've already seen this.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
I don't know why I'm showing you. This is the first image of Earth-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... taken from space, and this is from, um, uh, uh, an experiment run by a bunch of scientists on a V-2 rocket in 1946. Uh, V-2 rockets captured from Germany after the end of the war.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
So interesting. Um, and of course, it doesn't show much. It's super grainy.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Um, move to the really famous image of Earth rise, which is from the Apollo mission. Um, the first image... Uh, and it's not the first image of Earth being captured from space, but it's a very, like, i- i- iconic image, right?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah. Much more high resolution and much better representation of Earth, so to say.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah, and just the idea of, like, seeing Earth, uh, rise, like how we see Moon rise from Earth. Um, and, and, and, and in our prep call, you showed me an image, which is absolutely fascinating. So going from this really grainy image in 1946-
- SSSuyash Singh
Mm-hmm
- UHUnknown Host
... to this image, like, can you tell us about this image?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah. So this is- I think, you know, you can just see this image and see where Earth observation has come, where Earth imaging has come down to, right? This is Burj Khalifa's image, and this has been taken by a company, a very famous company in the US called Maxar. Now, their tech is to kind of take 30-centimeter resolution imagery from space.
- UHUnknown Host
What does it mean, 30-centimeter resolution?
- SSSuyash Singh
So, for example, this table, if you see, uh-
- UHUnknown Host
It's about a meter.
- SSSuyash Singh
It's about a meter. Now, if this meter cross that meter, let's say there's a square box. If that is one pixel in your image, that's called one meter resolution.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
So the finer I can see from space is the resolution that calls about. For example, this mug would be-
- UHUnknown Host
10 centimeter
- SSSuyash Singh
... 10 centimeter.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah.
- SSSuyash Singh
So if, if my 10-centimeter pixel is there in my image, I can probably see the spot. Actually, it takes four pixels to classify an object, to be very precise, so I need this mug to be on at least four pixels, spreaded across four pixels.
- UHUnknown Host
Right.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
So if my pixel grid is such that from pixel to pixel is 10 centimeters, then I get a 10-centimeter-
- 43:00 – 48:00
India's Space Journey: ISRO to Private Space Revolution
- UHUnknown Host
imaging company?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Nice. Damn, cool. Uh, you also showed me this other image, so let's just go through that also. Th- this is from an ISRO, uh, satellite, right?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah. So this is Cartosat-2 series, and, uh, this is, uh, Holkar Stadium in, uh, Indore. So that was taken on January 15, I think, uh, which is also mentioned there. But, you know, you can see clearly this was also a 0.28 meters, which is 28 centimeter imagery. So India has gone down to 28 centimeter, uh, uh, s- imagery, and you'll be very surprised that 'til 2020, we didn't have a space policy. We didn't have a geospatial policy.
- UHUnknown Host
Wait, wait. Hold on, hold on.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Before you get there, I have to tell you a story, and I, I, I want to explore the sort of the brief history of Indian space, uh, from the imaging side.
- SSSuyash Singh
When, uh, my daughter was born, uh [chuckles] such a silly story. When my daughter was born, uh, our gynecologist and her... I mean, there were two doctors.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah.
- SSSuyash Singh
One of the doctors was named Insect.
- UHUnknown Host
Oh, really?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yes. And, and she was very open about it. She's like, "My father loved space." [chuckles] So, and, and it's such a popular, popular thing, right? Like, the Indian space, uh, program, the ISRO or, a- and the space program. So it's so inspirational and just, like, uh, extremely, uh, um, uh, uh, uh, like, uh, how do I say it? Like, i- i- it's imbibed into our pop culture that-
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah
- SSSuyash Singh
... we have this great space program, and, uh, India is one of the countries which has a great space program.
- UHUnknown Host
So run us through from early INSAT days to this Cartosat 28 centimeter resolution thing.
- SSSuyash Singh
Sure. So I think, uh, you know, if you talk about India's space in particular, um, we are one of the four space-faring nations in the world, right? And the space-faring nation, being one of those four is- means a lot, to be honest. And all credits to ISRO for doing that, uh, with, with great, uh, you know, um, great pride, to be honest. So we have one of the best launch vehicles in the world, right? Until SpaceX came into the party, probably our launch vehicle was one of the best in the world. And now, of course, SpaceX has done great things, and so on and so forth. But launch vehicle-wise, we were the best. Moving forward, s- we built so many satellites, uh, from imaging perspective, from telecom perspective, and so on and so forth. From INSAT to Cartosat, to RISAT, IRS, EOS, I think we have built high-resolution satellites one at a time, and that was built all by indigenously. Now, it was all built in India. So I think ISRO was not an organization that was dependent on, you know, the Western nations to kind of provide the technology transfer.
- UHUnknown Host
And almost bound because we were sanctioned in the middle, and we had to develop it on our own right.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah. So it, it was actually, you know, that hunger to kind of develop space technology was pretty massive, and hence ISRO has made a lot of strides so far. But typically, you know, the most landmark moment that I feel is the Chandrayaan. You know, like, landing it on the south pole of the moon was crazy, and if you see chairman's interview, it was not even... I mean, the landing was about to happen, and chairman was so confident that it will land no matter what happens. [chuckles]
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah.
- SSSuyash Singh
Even if we break the communication, we are landing, don't worry. [chuckles]
- UHUnknown Host
I, uh... Yeah, it's, it's remarkable. I mean, from, from very early on, we had a space program.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
It's not like it's, it's- it's not like it's a post-1991 thing.
- SSSuyash Singh
Right.
- UHUnknown Host
We had it from very early on. Uh, it survived on very little money, and, uh, uh, it's, it's remarkable.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah, we've made great strides. I think we have made one of the best launch vehicles. We have made great moon rovers. We have also made great satellites, but I think we s- so, you know, there's upstream to the entire space ecosystem where you build hardwares, and there's midstream to this entire space ecosystem where you build infrastructure to gather data, and then there's downstream to this entire space ecosystem where you use data.
- UHUnknown Host
Right.
- SSSuyash Singh
Right? We are great in upstream because of ISRO. Midstream, we were okay, but I think downstream, we were never there.
- UHUnknown Host
Mm.
- SSSuyash Singh
What has happened of late is government came with this policy to kind of, uh, do reforms in the space and privatize space.
- 48:00 – 50:00
GalaxEye's Unique Approach: Testing Before Space
- SSSuyash Singh
it. There'll be a policy that will govern, but it is very industry-friendly policy, to be honest. So, so I think that was a pivotal moment for so much of interest that's happening in the space today.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
And India space, in my opinion, walked so far, and we will now run.
- UHUnknown Host
Mm. Very interesting. And of course, since 2020 to now, I think there are about 50-odd startups already?
- SSSuyash Singh
Um, 83 registered.
- UHUnknown Host
83 registered space startups.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah. [chuckles]
- UHUnknown Host
Amazing. [chuckles] Okay, so, um, we dis- we discussed, uh, sort of a little bit of history of imaging, um, the tech that you built, uh, what it can do, and of course, you are almost on this, like, sort of like this epic journey, right?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Um, and, and can you, like, uh-... I've heard that you have a take on how you want to get through that journey. So can you ru- run us through how you're planning to get to space and use this technology?
- SSSuyash Singh
Sure. So I think we started 2021. Uh, 2021, when we started with this problem to impart consistency in the satellite imagery world, uh, got us into thinking, "How do we reach space and start this entire revolution?" sort of setting. Uh, we, we are, we are based in India. You know, our mindset is very Indian, so we are frugal. And building a satellite and putting it into orbit, you know, it's almost like running a code that can be buggy [chuckles] and that code will fail in- on production server. So we didn't do that at all. We said, "Can we actually miniaturize this entire technology that we want to send into space, and put it on aerial platforms, such as drones, aircrafts, uh, or HAPS?" So in the last three years, we built sensor stacks for all of these aerial platforms.
- 50:00 – 52:00
The SpaceX Connection: Why Elon Musk Inspires Space Innovation
- SSSuyash Singh
We did 400-plus flights on the same, gathered data, perfected the algorithms, architectures, and everything, and now the final moment has come that we are planning to go to space.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
So we are probably 10 to 12 months away when we start to orbit in space.
- UHUnknown Host
Nice. Damn cool. And, um, y- I, I, uh, I saw that, uh, y- you're going to space on spa- a SpaceX rocket, right?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
That's an interesting callback because you started from Elon Musk's, uh, call to action almost-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... and now you are going to space with an, uh, with a Muskian rocket. In fact, just talk me through it. Like, I know that in Hyperloop, um ... A- and we can talk a little bit about the Hyperloop technology also, but in the Hyperloop SpaceX competition, you, you, uh, ran this team. Your team went to meet Musk. Um, I, I, I, I... Fine, you had a conversation with him. Um, but just tell me, why is Elon Musk revered so much in the space circles, and why is he such a inspirational figure for engineers?
- SSSuyash Singh
I think... See, traditional space, traditionally, space was always a subject of national importance earlier, right? Earlier to when Elon Musk really ventured with his SpaceX.
- UHUnknown Host
It was a NASA thing.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah, it was always a NASA thing or an ISRO thing, right? Uh, or any space agency thing.
- UHUnknown Host
ESA and-
- SSSuyash Singh
ESA, and so on. JAXA from Japan. Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Or Russia.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah.
- SSSuyash Singh
Uh, Gla- uh, Glavkosmos. But, you know, when Elon entered into this entire thing, he fundamentally asked a lot of questions at every stage of this entire, you know, technology, how it was evolving, right? So for example, uh, he probably asked, "If we were on Moon in 1950s, 1960s, why are we still away from
- 52:00 – 53:00
From Space-Grade to Commercial Space Electronics
- SSSuyash Singh
Moon today?" Right, like, "What got into us not doing or not developing this technology further?" So, A, challenging the status quo, B, uh, his ability to vertically integrate the systems. So for example, I, I know of a particular control system that goes on a satellite, uh, that literally costs you around $250,000 price point, which makes the satellite cost go up by three more, right? That guy built that entire system in-house for $600.
- UHUnknown Host
Mm.
- SSSuyash Singh
Right. So, you know, uh, doing all of these things is something that makes SpaceX more specialty. How do you challenge this entire thing? So, so there's a, there's a thing in space, uh, we don't use regular
- 53:00 – 55:00
Risk Taking & Innovation in Space Industry
- SSSuyash Singh
electronics in space, right? We don't use COTS or hobby-grade electronics. Uh, we also don't use mil-grade electronics, which is military-grade. We have to use space-grade electronics.
- UHUnknown Host
Right, so there's hobby-grade, industrial-grade, military-grade, and space-grade.
- SSSuyash Singh
That. So now space-grade is, like, the most costlier, and it is all rad-hardened and stuff like that. And we do that because we don't want to fail. And see, traditionally, space agencies, because it's taxpayers' money and so on and so forth, our ability to fail is, like, very less.
- UHUnknown Host
I also feel like if something blows up in space-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... such great drama that-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... literally every news channel will cover it forever.
- SSSuyash Singh
Absolutely, and-
- UHUnknown Host
I, I mean-
- SSSuyash Singh
... that's the fear, that's the fear of the space agencies-
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah
- SSSuyash Singh
... that doesn't lead them to experiment a little. You know, and hence, you know, a private company comes in and says, "Okay, I will not put a space-grade electronics in space. Let me see what happens." So that guy understand the space environment a little better, brings down that space-grade requirement to a COTS level probably, and an industrial-grade electronics, and still puts the same thing in space, and it works. So, you know, the ability to kind of challenge what has been going on, I would say it's more like a fear factor, right? For example, when we, uh, when we do- when we preach someone, [chuckles] right, th- there's a fear factor. "If you don't preach, what will happen? Something ba- something bad can happen."
- UHUnknown Host
Oh, for instance, when you come into CFI, which is a fabulous lab-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... I'm sure at a, at a, at a undergrad level or, you know, j- just first year into IIT-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... um, or at a master's level, you come in, you see all this thing, and you are always a little afraid that, "Should I... What if I blow something up, or what if I break something? Or what if somebody gives me a lot of money for, you know, build this and then I..."
- SSSuyash Singh
You fry an IC.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah.
- SSSuyash Singh
Do, do whatever. [chuckles]
- UHUnknown Host
Which is very common, by the way. [chuckles]
- SSSuyash Singh
You do it very often?... yeah, so I think that was challenged, and that keeps him very, very special, and
- 55:00 – 56:00
SpaceX and Vertical Landing Innovation
- SSSuyash Singh
the speed of innovation is crazy.
- UHUnknown Host
Mm.
- SSSuyash Singh
And, yes, we are going on his rocket. [chuckles]
- UHUnknown Host
Right. Uh, uh, oh, and, and of course, the- I want to say that, uh, I'm, I'm- I, I studied mechanical engineering.
- SSSuyash Singh
Sure.
- UHUnknown Host
Maybe I didn't explore an engineering career that much, but to see, uh, y- the, the SpaceX rockets land vertically backwards, uh, or to see them being caught by clippers-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... it was a different feeling. It was like, "Wow, can this- this can really be done?" Like-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... um, very inspirational moment. Okay, so of course, Elon Musk is the patron saint of, uh, space, in addition to being the patron saint of, uh, EV industries also.
- SSSuyash Singh
Right.
- UHUnknown Host
Um, it's interesting. So, um, a- and just on that thread a little bit, because we spoke so much about Hyperloop.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Can you explain the Hyperloop technology and what it aims to achieve?
- 56:00 – 58:00
Introduction to Hyperloop Technology
- SSSuyash Singh
Sure. So I think Hyperloop was, uh, thought through by Elon in around 2014, 2015 timeframe. It was a white paper by him. You know, it's literally was a feasibility study that he just wrote and, you know, uploaded it online. And then he thought, "You know, this will trigger innovation," so he set up an entire testing facility for people to come and test their pods in a hyperloop tube.
- UHUnknown Host
But what is Hyperloop?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah, so Hyperloop-
- UHUnknown Host
No, I'll, I'll tell you why I'm asking you.
- SSSuyash Singh
Sure.
- UHUnknown Host
I'm asking because sometimes we... So we, we do this roadshow for IIT Madras, where we go to different places, and we talk to parents-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... and students who are planning to join IIT Madras. Um, when we talk of Hyperloop, the, the believability quotient goes down. [chuckles] Like-
- SSSuyash Singh
Uh-huh
- UHUnknown Host
... almost the entire audience are like, "What? What are you talking about?" [chuckles] So can you explain Hyperloop and why it's possible even to do that?
- SSSuyash Singh
Well, I think Hyperloop is the fifth mode of transportation that'll come up, when it comes up, right? Now, it's like a train inside a vacuum tube.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
It's, it's the same... Or rather, I would say, a Volvo bus inside a vacuum tube.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
You know, and in the vacuum, it's actually floating and reaching from one point to another. And the reason why it was conceptualized was it eradicates all forms of friction, okay? So when you move a bus, you have two major forms of friction. One is the road, uh, the surface friction between the tires and the road surface, and the air friction, the drag. So we do vacuum, so air is gone, and we levitate, so the surface friction is gone.
- UHUnknown Host
Isn't it extremely expensive to do both levitation and vacuum?
- SSSuyash Singh
It is, but, you know, when you set up a large tube with the infrastructure, once you remove one, uh... like, when you do vacuum once, then it can sustain for,
- 58:00 – 1:01:00
Building India's Largest Hyperloop Tube
- SSSuyash Singh
for a very, very long time. And this is about hard vacuum. You're actually doing, uh, you're taking out air till a pressure of 1,000 pascals.
- UHUnknown Host
Oh.
- SSSuyash Singh
So unlike space, you know, where you have, like, very minuscule pascals, you're still at 1,000 pascals. It's a soft vacuum, not a hard vacuum, so to say, right? And there'll be small leakages, of course, here and there, which you can operate small vacuum pumps and take it all- take it out all the time. I think the biggest challenge is not the technology. The biggest challenge is, how do you lay down such large infrastructure? So for example, in IIT Madras now, my team, which rolled down to eighth generation now, they have built a tube in the new campus that's 410 to 422-meter tube. Now, 422-meter tube will test all the possible technologies that can go inside a Hyperloop.
- UHUnknown Host
So this is a tube that can fit a Volvo bus in it?
- SSSuyash Singh
Uh, no, this is a subscale one. This can fit a car very easily.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Nice.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
So you can-
- SSSuyash Singh
So you can possibly test everything.
- UHUnknown Host
Uh-
- SSSuyash Singh
But then when you want to scale this up, I think the question becomes: how do you then in- put up an infrastructure project? You have to acquire the land, you have to get all the environment clearances, to do all those kind of things, you know? It's not the technology that is kind of pulling it back-
- UHUnknown Host
Sure
- SSSuyash Singh
... it's the, it's the other administrative challenges.
- UHUnknown Host
And, um, is this the only Hyperloop in the world?
- SSSuyash Singh
Uh-
- UHUnknown Host
How, how is it defined? Hyperloop tower? No, Hyperloop-
- SSSuyash Singh
Hyperloop tube
- UHUnknown Host
... tube.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Is this the only Hyperloop tube in the world?
- SSSuyash Singh
Uh, it's the largest.
- UHUnknown Host
Okay, the largest.
- SSSuyash Singh
There are a bunch of them in Europe as well, but I think this is the largest. And, uh, the idea was, you know, like, when we went into- when we went to SpaceX in 2019, uh, we were the only team who put up a flag in our booth, right, the India flag. And, uh, uh, trust me, and you can go back to my team and ask whether this happened or not, but we, uh, we were so pumped, and we s- we shouted slogans of, uh, you know, that movie, Uri, like, "How's the josh? Hi, sir," in front of all the teams. You know, we were so pumped up by, uh, you know, we being the Indian company, Indian team, and being there alone in, in the starting of that kind of evolutionary technology. So today, I think we stand neck to neck with all the best teams in the world.
- UHUnknown Host
Damn, interesting. I'm just looking at your journey. It's 2025-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... and 10 years back, you were in TCS-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... Research, and then you gate- gapped, joined IIT Madras, uh, heard of the SpaceX program, started a Hyperloop team.
- 1:01:00 – 1:04:00
Support Systems & Entrepreneurial Journey
- UHUnknown Host
Your satellite's launching, uh, this year with SpaceX, and, uh-... That's intense. What will the next 10 years look like? [chuckles]
- SSSuyash Singh
No, I think the, the focus is re- going to remain in building the, this entire satellite infrastructure. Uh, I think not just me, but the entire team is committed. The team of founders that I have, uh, the support system that we have gotten, you know, we are committed to build this entire satellite infrastructure, and not just give data to India, but to the world.
- UHUnknown Host
Interesting. And, and this, what do you mean by support structure? And also, like, I want to understand the whole ecosystem that, um, you got support from, uh, both within IIT Madras and on a, at a broader level.
- SSSuyash Singh
I, I think IIT Madras, uh, certainly, you know, was the, the center for most of these activities that I really talked about, to be honest. And, and this was the place, uh, where Hyperloop happened, where GalaxEye started. I met my founders, right? Uh, most of the support system that I got, uh, outside IIT, inside IIT, was all here, right? So unparalleled support. Uh, sometimes I would say it's a, it's a, it's an asked support. Sometimes it's a unasked support, you know, an unsaid support that you always get. So I think being in this ecosystem, navigating you, uh, across the network, across departments, helps you build that kind of network, right? That network leads to another set of network, and then it cascades along, along, along. So, you know, we got a first set of investors who are into deep tech. They invested in Agnikul, so we got to know from them, right? Uh, a second set of investors, we got to know because we had a cascaded network from space environment and, and so on and so forth. So I, I think it was always to kind of take that first step in this institute, and the rest will come along. You, you have to keep going. So you have to take the first step, and you have to keep going, but the support will come. Support will pour in. That's my belief, right? For example, we have, we have five founders. We stuck around with each other for last, last eight years. We met here at IIT Madras for the first time. For eight years, we are all together.
- UHUnknown Host
Five CFI.
- SSSuyash Singh
In CFI, when this building was not this building. [chuckles]
- UHUnknown Host
But do you feel that you'll reach a point where y- it'll be like, "Okay, you know what? This is all the support we can give. This is done"?
- SSSuyash Singh
Um, I, I think then it's the point where you have to give back the support, right? [chuckles] So it, it's that circle of, uh, uh, support system, I would say. So people... Uh, see, when we advance to a certain stage, we will have to give it back. For example, some of my other, uh, team members at Hyperloop have now started to
- 1:04:00 – 1:06:00
Government Relations & Leadership Support
- SSSuyash Singh
build their own companies. When they walk into GalaxEye, the doors are, like, pretty wide open. You do whatever you want. You use whichever lab you want to use-
- UHUnknown Host
Right
- SSSuyash Singh
... you know, but build something massive.
- UHUnknown Host
Right.
- SSSuyash Singh
And I think that we need to have more and more.
- UHUnknown Host
Mm-hmm. And, uh, um, and the- you've also received a lot of support from the government. I saw that you were on Mann Ki Baat, which is- congratulations.
- SSSuyash Singh
Thank you.
- UHUnknown Host
Um, I- how has that looked like? Like, did you imagine that... Um, I don't know. Sometimes you feel from the outside, sometimes you feel like the government is this really large machinery. It doesn't care about anyone.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Uh, is it really like that, or did you get a lot of s- I, I don't know. How is it like?
- SSSuyash Singh
I feel, uh, there, there are two nuances to that, right? I feel the person sitting on the top, uh, who is the topmost leader, uh, if, if, if that person is wanting to make something happen, uh, things on the bottom gets aligned, right? And things on the bottom can be m- messy, can be tough to navigate at times. But then again, the second part comes in where it's a people's business, right? So you may find a secretary who's very nice to speak to you. You may find the other secretary who's very pragmatic or very conservative, right? The, the third secretary can be very innovative, very creative, and so it depends on person, right? Who, who is the person that you're going to deal with. But at the- at large, I, I believe that the leadership should encourage, motivate the larger ecosystem to grow. When that is there, so there's a force field from the leadership, and in the force field, some people will fall back, some people will actually go ahead. So to pick and place with right, and, you know, pick and partner with the right people to kind of, you know, navigate yourself, it's, it's, it's heavy hitting. It's not easy, but you have to navigate
- 1:06:00 – 1:07:00
Building a Deep Tech Team
- SSSuyash Singh
if you want to make things happen.
- UHUnknown Host
Right.
- SSSuyash Singh
And, uh, I think then the other thing is you have to also use your existing network and support system to help you kind of navigate, right? Uh, we got massive support from Professor Satya, uh, Professor Kama, IIT Madras Incubation Cell. Uh, beyond that, we have Gani, who is on our board. So, you know, our investors, Peshar Invest, Mela, now Infosys. All of these people, you need to kind of get your help, and you have to ask. You can't think that I'm going to be sitting back, and the support will come from the front. You have to ask for it. So in three years, if you want to kind of-
- UHUnknown Host
And I'm guessing that you have to smile a lot for it. [chuckles]
- SSSuyash Singh
Uh, I think that's a... [chuckles] That's, that's the deal breaker, to be honest. [chuckles]
- UHUnknown Host
That's amazing. I want to understand, when you talk of, uh, a complex engineering problem like this, there are lots of fields of engineering coming together, right? It's not just
- 1:07:00 – 1:07:30
Satellite Design & Testing Process
- UHUnknown Host
aerospace.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Right? So run us through, how do you build your team?... mm, um, what kind of people, uh, want to join companies like yours? And, uh, you know, w-what do their careers look like? What do their ambitions look like?
- SSSuyash Singh
Right. So I think, uh, we have tried a lot of things so far. I would s- I won't still say that we have perfected it, right? But we have been
- 1:07:30 – 1:09:00
PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM)
- SSSuyash Singh
very fortunate and, you know, pretty successful in building a really good team, uh, at GalaxEye. Uh, so, you know, when you start on day one or day zero, so to say, you know, till your first few months, the kind of talent that you need is very different. Then post maybe that first milestone that you were trying to k- stitch, stitch through into your roadmap, the next stage needs, again, a very different kind of talent. And then s- beyond one point, you again need a very different talent, right? So playbooks at every stage changes for your talent acquisition, right? You need more generalists in the beginning, and then you go towards specialists moving forward. While having said all of these things, generalists and specialists in the space ecosystem are almost nil in this, you know, or almost m- very minimal like.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah, there are very few. You also mentioned some AT startups.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
They must be all vying for the same talent.
- SSSuyash Singh
That's right.
- UHUnknown Host
Uh, plus, they have the option to go abroad and work for similar companies abroad, yeah.
- SSSuyash Singh
And plus, you know, the research subjects that a lot of people that masters and PhDs do are not also aligned to what we are doing at GalaxEye, right? So I think the way we are able to solve that problem to a larger extent is by bringing a mechanism of having, uh, ISRO, ex-ISRO scientists
- 1:09:00 – 1:11:00
Future Satellite Network Plans
- SSSuyash Singh
and ex-DRDO scientists, uh, becoming, so to say, as a lead of, of relatively fresh talent, uh, with them.
- UHUnknown Host
Nice.
- SSSuyash Singh
So, you know, so experts coming from ISRO and DRDO who are retired-
- UHUnknown Host
Right
- SSSuyash Singh
... I say, "Sir, please come." [chuckles]
- UHUnknown Host
So you have, like, a mentorship layer?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yes.
- UHUnknown Host
Mm.
- SSSuyash Singh
So that mentorship layer bridges the gap of that experience that is nonexistent in the country.
- UHUnknown Host
And these mentorship layer, uh, folks you have, they're still engineers at the, at, at that age?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah, I think ISRO probably, uh, still is very hardcore research till even you're 60 years of age. Management, uh, hardly you would find, right? And people who are coming... So we've been very fortunate to get at least six to- six advisors from ISRO, three from DRDO. All of these guys talk more maths than any of us.
- UHUnknown Host
More what?
- SSSuyash Singh
Maths.
- UHUnknown Host
Maths. Oh, okay. That interesting.
- SSSuyash Singh
They, they, they talk more maths than any of us put together in the team, right? For example, in an image, uh, what is, what is the distribution of the noise? Is it normal? Is it Rayleigh? What distribution, right? We, we probably don't think because we are operators, and we think, you know, we can do a brute force thing, and we get away. But these guys bring in that sort of experience. Say, "You need to apply a Fourier, a fast Fourier transform. You need to do Rayleigh distribution mapping to the noise, and you need to do all of these things." See, I think a deep tech company, not just for space, for any deep tech companies, you need to be more fundamental. You need to be more first principles. And hence, you need to have that advisory layer or the mentorship layer. More than a mentorship, I would say advisory layer, who can also at times say, can say that, "You know, okay, you're not able to solve this. Let me come to your office, sit for- with you, and do..." And they, they are literally hands-on.
- 1:11:00 – 1:13:00
Qualities GalaxEye looks for in potential hires
- UHUnknown Host
That's so exciting. As an engineer, when I was studying engineering, I was so fascinated by engineering. It's so beautiful. You get to solve these problems, improve mankind, whatever, all of this. Then you enter your first job-
- SSSuyash Singh
Mm, and so-
- UHUnknown Host
Crash
- SSSuyash Singh
... same thing. [chuckles]
- UHUnknown Host
Right.
- SSSuyash Singh
And then you realize that, uh, a lot of times you don't use too much engineering in our jobs.
- UHUnknown Host
Yes, and, and what you're saying is deep tech companies like yours, um, you're sort of like you, you still have that opportunity to continue going deep into engineering.
- SSSuyash Singh
Right.
- UHUnknown Host
Uh, plus you have access to mentorship, like-
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah
- UHUnknown Host
... uh, of people who have done engineering, hardcore engineering, for 40 years.
- SSSuyash Singh
That's right.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah, it's amazing. So has it been hard to hire talent?
- SSSuyash Singh
Um, I think at an early stage, you, you prefer more, more, uh, you know, qualitative attributes to be there, ri- uh, uh-
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah, you mean like mission aligned?
- SSSuyash Singh
Ability to learn. Uh, I would say ability to learn, ability to listen, because an ISRO advisor who's going to come, and if you're going to oppose them, right? You need to oppose them if you feel you are right in your calculations and everything. You need to be structured. You need to structurally take those advices and structurally give them feedbacks, right? So you need to find more attribute, uh, thought processes and ability to learn, which is more aptitude, rather than saying, "Oh, you know, you have... Have you built a radar?" See, unlike in the US or western parts of the world, where you find, "Oh, you know, I'm going to build a radar. Can I go to one of those defense primes, such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and everyone, and get one person who's a VP of radar systems, VP of this systems and that systems? Let that guy come in, build his own team, and do the job." I think deep tech in India will, will see those years 10, 10 years later.
- UHUnknown Host
Right.
- SSSuyash Singh
Right now, we are all brute force.
- UHUnknown Host
Fair enough.
- 1:13:00 – 1:17:08
Investors in Indian Space Tech
- UHUnknown Host
We don't have a history of 50 years of deep tech entrepreneurship.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
We have a history of five years of deep tech entrepreneurship. [chuckles]
- SSSuyash Singh
Possibly. So we have to work with what we have.... um, but I, I but think it's fun, and you will see, you know, after this first cohort of deep tech companies, we'll see more talent, you know, solving for more niche problems, and they will be able to poach and hire from companies like us, right, who, who are building those talent firsthand.
- UHUnknown Host
Fair enough. Your challenge will move to retain, re-retaining-
- SSSuyash Singh
Retaining.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah. I'm interested that, okay, I can see why a startup like yours will be very enticing for young engineering talent who really want to do engineering work.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Um, why is it enticing for, uh, investors? Because this sounds like a fairly risky business, right?
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
How do you convince investors to back you up?
- SSSuyash Singh
Well, I think, uh, it's not one way, you know, uh, where we say, "This is something that you should be investing in." I think investors are also looking at larger macro trends, right? For example, the geopolitical aspects that are, you know, changing, uh, very often these days, and this Make in India push, building in India, and the leadership that we have today in the country, all of these things put together is making investors more excited about the deep tech opportunity or the more hardware tech opportunity moving forward, right? That is one macro trend, I would say. Second is the talent, right? Talent, instead of going to the US and starting a company there, they probably are now some of them are staying back and saying, "Okay, I know I'm going to build a company here." So all of these things put together, plus our history of demonstrating Hyperloop, right? Uh, a clarity on the vision that, why do we want to build a satellite? It's not for love of space. It's for a particular problem. And, you know, we being, uh, very open to learning from the board members and investors, I think these three or four things really pulled a cohort of investors into our captivity, who we fondly call as Avengers of the Deep Tech.
- UHUnknown Host
Hmm. [chuckles] Hmm. Well, because you have Sparsh and-
- SSSuyash Singh
We have Sparsh, we have Infosys. You know, we have Kawach, uh, we have Mela Ventures, we have IdeaForge, and many. In fact, we have, uh, Zerodha, uh, as investors-
- UHUnknown Host
Rain Matter.
- SSSuyash Singh
From Rain Matter.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah. We have Prashant Pitti's investment as well.
- UHUnknown Host
Yeah.
- SSSuyash Singh
Prashant Baijal from EaseMyTrip.
- UHUnknown Host
Prashant Baijal, of course.
- SSSuyash Singh
So all of these guys are there in the cohort.
- UHUnknown Host
Nice. Congratulations on what you have been able to achieve so far.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
And, uh, I wish you all the luck for the next one year and two years, and we've-- of course, we're waiting for your satellite to launch and, uh, for the first images to come in.
- SSSuyash Singh
Yeah.
- UHUnknown Host
Um, congratulations again, and yeah, that's it. Audience, that was Suyash.
- SSSuyash Singh
Thank you so much, Amrut, for having me here. Ask IITM is the best. Secondly, uh, I don't know if you remember this, but IITM Entrepreneurs Group is also something, you know, we should all give credits to. The bunch of people that come along in that WhatsApp group and discuss is also very crazy.
- UHUnknown Host
What Suyash is talking about is the secret underground [chuckles] WhatsApp group, which is meant for IITM founders to, to sort of rant to each other, to help each other. "Which bank account should I, uh... open a bank, and how do I move Forex from here to there?"
- SSSuyash Singh
Right.
Episode duration: 1:17:08
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