Viktoriia Yaremchuk (CEO & Co-Founder of Farsight Vision) was handed a problem nobody had solved: Ukrainian frontline units drowning in drone footage with no way to process it, sitting manually watching hour-long videos to spot something useful. She had a PhD, a software background, and friends calling from the front asking for tools that didn't exist. So she built them.

What followed was three years inside one of the most unforgiving product environments on earth - geospatial AI and digital twin technology tested not in a lab, but in GPS-denied warzones where the users can't always tell you what they need because the information is classified, and getting it wrong costs lives. From a first investor cheque of ~$100K with little more than an MVP, to contracts spreading brigade by brigade through word of mouth on Signal, to a team now spread across four countries, many of them with husbands, brothers, and fathers serving on the frontline.

In this episode, Viktoriia delivers a masterclass in building and selling in defencetech, how Farsight Vision actually works, how to sell to a military customer when there's no conventional sales cycle, what it takes to build and lead a team when there's no end date on the mission, and what Europe still doesn't understand about the war being fought on its doorstep.

Get in touch with Viktoriia:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktoriia-yaremchuk-3ba80116

Want to get hired by Farsight Vision

https://farsightvision.hurma.work/public-vacancies

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Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:45) What Farsight Vision Actually Does

(17:40) How to Find the Right Co-Founder

(27:08) The Personal Turning Point That Started Farsight Vision

(46:44) From Idea to Battlefield: MVP in Months

(53:07) The Biggest Mistake They Made in the First Year

(01:01:00) How to Hire for a Mission-Driven Team Under Extreme Stress

(01:07:04) Raising the First $100K: What Investors Saw Before Victoria Did

(01:16:59) How to Price a Defence Software Product Nobody Has Ever Built Before

(01:32:10) From One Sale to Hundreds: How Word of Mouth Works at the Frontline

(01:43:48) What Is Darkstar and Why It Changed Everything

(01:57:40) Closing a €7M Round: What Actually Got Investors to Say Yes

(02:06:13) The Most Important Lesson for Building DefenceTech

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You will learn:

- How to sell to a military customer with no procurement process, no sales cycle, and classified feedback

- Why your product development methodology breaks the moment it meets a warzone

- How word of mouth on Signal became Farsight Vision's entire go-to-market strategy

- Why founders undersell what they're building — and how the right framing changes everything

- What it actually takes to lead a team when the mission has no end date

- How to get your first defence contract with nothing but an MVP and a problem worth solving

- Why co-creation and ecosystem thinking beats going it alone in defencetech

- What European defence is still getting wrong — and why Ukraine has already figured it out

- How digital twins are changing the doctrine of modern warfare

Frank Salzgeber (sometimes called the "Father of ESA BIC") was initially handed a broken ESA tech transfer programme and told to fix it. Nobody asked him to build an incubator. He just had enough freedom and used it.

What followed was 19 years inside ESA watching the European space startup scene grow from nothing — Isar Aerospace, Leaf Space, ClearSpace - watching them go from founders with a crazy idea to some of the most recognised names in European New Space industry. Then Saudi Arabia called, and he left to do it all over again from scratch in the Middle East.

In this episode, Frank breaks down how ESA BIC actually works, how to get a yes, what kills most space startups before they ever get there, and what Europe needs to urgently fix before it gets left behind completely.

Get in touch with Frank:

https://sa.linkedin.com/in/frank-salzgeber

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Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:22) What Is ESA BIC and Why It Exists

(03:02) How to Apply to ESA BIC Today

(12:09) What Steve Jobs Taught Frank About Branding, Hiring, and Building Teams

(16:11) Why Branding Matters More Than Most Founders Think

(19:31) What Running Your Own Startup Teaches You That Nothing Else Can

(25:15) The Right Balance Between Startup Speed and Institutional Structure

(28:08) How Frank Flew Under the Radar to Launch ESA BIC

(33:42) The ESA BIC Selection Process: Three Things That Make Frank Say Yes

(40:35) Common Thread Between the Biggest Successes and Failures

(44:03) What ESA BIC Could Have Done Better and What Founders Should Push For

(46:30) is When to Use Soft Funding vs Equity-Based Funding

(56:49) Most Undervalued Space Opportunity Right Now

(57:35) Why Promising Space Companies Die and How Founders Can Avoid It

(58:06) Europe vs Middle East: Where to Base Your Space Company

(58:58) The Difference Between a Fundable Idea and a Research Project

(01:02:53) The Most Important Lesson for Building a Space Company in 2026

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You will learn:

- What Frank took from his years at Apple that he applied in building ESA BIC

- The 3 things that get you a yes from ESA BIC

- How Frank convinced ESA to fund something they'd never done before

- The one thing Frank looks for in a pitch that will never show up in your deck

- Why your tech is never the problem and what actually kills startups

- The exact line between a fundable space idea and a research project

- Why Frank thinks ESA BIC's 75% startup survival rate is actually a bad sign

- The most undervalued space market opportunity right now

Amin Chabi (founder of Lúnasa Space) didn't set out to build a company. He graduated with a master's in space and astronautics, COVID hit, nobody was hiring — and starting alone was the only option left. What he stumbled into was one of the most overlooked crises in space: thousands of dead satellites cluttering orbit, threatening the GPS, banking, internet and telecom infrastructure the entire modern world depends on.

In this episode, Amin shares how Lunasa went from a blank incorporation form to a full acquisition by Infinite Orbit in just five years, what it actually takes to build rendezvous and docking technology that enables satellites to be serviced in orbit, and the exact blueprint he'd follow to make a European space startup acquirable as fast as possible.

Get in touch with Amin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aminchabi/

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Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:34) Who Is the Founder and What Does Lunasa Space Do

(04:18) The Space Fan Who Dropped Out at 16 to Support His Family

(08:33) How COVID Killed His Job Hunt and Forced Him to Start a Company

(17:09) Surviving the First Months With No Funding and No Safety Net

(20:00) Why Storytelling and Marketing Matter More Than Engineers Think

(26:22) How He Hired a Full Team Using LinkedIn Cold Messages

(29:13) Landing the First Public Partnership and Getting on the Radar

(38:24) The Right Way to Think About Fundraising in Deep Tech

(41:32) Getting the R&D Grant That Broke the Chicken-and-Egg Problem

(46:12) Building the Full Tech Stack In-House From Scratch

(01:12:07) The Acquisition by Infinite Orbits and Why He Said Yes

(01:19:00) What Actually Made Lúnasa Acquirable

(01:24:30) Post-Acquisition Integration - What Happens Now

(01:27:58) Quick Fire Round and Final Advice for Founders

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You will learn:

- How Amin got his first £10,000

- Why space is one of the most underrated industries when it comes to marketing, and what Amin did differently

- Why he deliberately avoided raising too much private capital

- How he built his entire network from scratch as a solo founder who knew nobody in the industry

- Why in-orbit manufacturing is the most overrated bet in space right now

- What Europe gets catastrophically wrong about building space companies

- What Infinite Orbits actually saw in Lúnasa that made them want to buy it

- The exact blueprint Amin would follow to make a European space startup acquirable as fast as possible