Space is the first vertical.
Orbit is not a metaphor. It is a factory, a logistics network, and a new industrial base. We look first at launch, satellites, and the compute that will live above the weather. If a company is serious about space, it owns the vehicle, the pad, the production loop — not a slide about the sky.
Space is the first vertical.
We back companies with a hardware core that cannot be forked over a weekend. Atoms, tooling, and process knowledge — the work that takes years and leaves a mark on the world. Software without a plant is a feature. Software with a plant is a company.
We prefer teams that own the full stack: the device, the plant, the materials, and the software that binds them. Control is not a slogan. It is how hard things ship. Vendored cores are rented moats.
The moat is the machine.
The easy markets are crowded. We look for problems that require a factory, a cleanroom, a launch pad, or a surgical theater. If it can be rented from a vendor, it is not a company we need to exist for.
Vertical-E is a personal investor with a record in hardware — and a bias toward space. If you are building a vertically integrated company of this kind, write Alex at Alex@vertical-e.com.
We fund the companies that leave the ground.
I invest in companies that own the machine — and I start in space. Launch, orbit, and the hardware that makes the rest of the stack possible.
The important companies are not assembled from vendors. They are built. A plant, a pad, a cleanroom — years of work that cannot be forked. That is the only kind of company I want in the book.
Vertical-E is a personal book with that bias. If you are building a vertically integrated company of this kind — especially one that leaves the atmosphere — write me.