🚀 SoCal DeepTech Real Estate Report 🚀 This is the holy grail for anyone serious about DeepTech in SoCal. We've mapped out the ecosystem like never before. 📊 🔥 Sneak Peek: Here's 1 of 10 insightful pages. Want the full report? DM me! I'm Owen Fileti—Co-Founder of SoCal Deep Tech Week, a leading advocate for the SoCal tech community, and advisor on 700 commercial real estate deals. #SoCalTech #RealEstate #Innovation #VCs

Beautiful.

This $200M Series C investment round is a massive vote of confidence from our backers— as demand for our bus platforms has exponentially increased, as are also seeing the underlying need for space based capabilities growing rapidly. With this capital, we are excited to double down on supporting the needs of the US and allied warfighter as well as critical commercial applications. Go Apex!

Bet against San Francisco at your own risk. It was an honor hosting the Invest SF Boom Loop Breakfast today. We had @agarwal from @GrowSF , @BrookeJenkinsSF SF DA, @DanielLurie , @SFGiants CEO Larry Baer and many of the city’s business leaders in attendance. We raised a ton of money for @SalvationArmyUS San Francisco is getting its mojo back.

Quite the day as AstroForge’s spacecraft launched on their path into deep space and make history. Lots of fun with @alexisohanian and @MattGialich. 🛰️🚀 And what an impressive headquarters facility!

🤝 Some meetings just feel like the start of something special. It was a pleasure to welcome the talented team from Hybron to El Segundo’s Smoky Hollow District, a hotbed for forward-thinking startups. Their cutting-edge work with composite jet engine blades is a reminder of the incredible innovation happening right here.

Please run again for mayor, Rick. Your city needs you and your skills.

Is Apex the Henry Ford of satellite buses? We say yes. @DefenseOne’s @audrey_decker9 discusses her exclusive tour of Apex, covering the progress we made over 2024 and our production ramp up in 2025 to support more operational constellation customers. defenseone.com/business/2025…

The LA Fire images and videos are tragic and surreal. I just had a friend message me their entire community is gone. My heart is with so many deeply impacted. It’s hard to fathom and there are so many displaced Angelenos right now.

According to Matt Gialich, founder of space mining company Astroforge, companies will soon 'make a s***load of money' mining space rocks. dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/…

Loved our panel at TeckWeek: LA: Gateway to the Final Frontier 30-second reel

Congrats @SpaceX for pushing innovation forward. The very first attempt in the tower is successful!

Excited for LA’s TechWeek coming up next week! Lots of great founder/founder events and conversations to tackle some of the hardest problems. #losangeles #longla

We have some major announcements - our 40M series A, and our third mission, Vestri.

Congrats to @raiseyourwork and @jtbed on expanding OpenAI in San Francisco! I cut this squad their first check and today Raise works with 75% of AI companies in the Bay Area.

Details: — In the earliest days of a startup, it’s possible for a small team to remain continuously connected electronically. This create false confidence in remote. It doesn’t scale. By the time the startup has hundreds of employees, full remote completely breaks down. — There are a few counter-examples that are always cited; the fact that it’s always the same one (eg GitLab) should tell you something. This is not a mass-market solution for effective company-building. — Maybe 10% of the roles in a company can naturally be remote. These are (1) 10x engineers whose code check-ins are obvious and (2) field sales reps who live in their territories and close large enterprise deals (the $ value of which are also obvious). In these cases, the onus is still on the employee to spend enough time at HQ (at least once/quarter) to stay acculturated. — What makes these remote cases justified is that achievement is largely individual and fairly obvious. By contrast, the contribution of most employees is often subtle to measure and depends on a team dynamic. Hence the importance of being together in an actively managed environment. — Full remote companies are dominated by a feeling of atomization. Their founders will often complain that it’s hard to get the company culture to gell, or to get all the employees aligned around the new strategy, or to adequately share information even though it’s already been shared many times before. These problems largely go away when you’re collocated — or at least require much less energy to solve. — The value of “managing by walking around” cannot be underestimated for a founder. Founders solve problems, make course corrections, and save the team a lot of work going down a wrong path. Founders also have a different level of energy, enthusiasm and work ethic. As the company scales, the number of employees who can be touched by founder enthusiasm has a direct impact on performance. — Most startups seeking to correct from a Remote strategy will want to move to Hubs. Hubs concede that it’s not possible for everyone to be in one location but try to limit the number of locations. An effective Hub will at least collocate everyone on the same team or function. Eg, a call center in Salt Lake. An engineering team in Eastern Europe. A sales office in London. These are all viable strategies. — A Hub is only as good as its leadership. A headless Hub will not work. Moreover, mid-level managers need to sit with their teams. A manager who is remote while their team is at a Hub is worthless. Ambitious executives will prioritize moving over WFH. — Headcount reductions provide an opportunity for startups to reorganize around Hubs. Take this opportunity to create a strong HQ with a very limited number of Hubs. Ideally all of the most strategic functions in the company are still at a central HQ, with Hubs used for supporting functions. — Now that you know the truth, act on it. Founders have far more agency to change any aspect of their company than they often believe. Current macroeconomic conditions mean that there will never be a better time to make these changes for the future of your company. If you act, the benefits will compound over time.

The purpose of the office continues to shift. Good insights on the latest major pulse surveys covering office oss e sentiment are shared here… forbes.com/sites/emmylucas/2…

2% Commitment FTW! 🙌

Four years ago today, Bill Fileti got his wings. If you ever knew him, do a random act of kindness for someone today in his honor. He’d appreciate it.