Providing internet service to the moon—a business operation that does not exist—is a key challenge for anyone, particularly a company in startup mode.
Key Details
- Aquarian Space is a communications company preparing to launch satellites that will provide 24/7 reliable communications, internet connectivity, 4K video streaming, and high data rates for lunar rovers, satellites, and astronauts on the moon.
- It was founded in 2018 and is run by CEO Kelly Larson, who brings her expertise in leadership and administration to the company founders and helps navigate an emotionally challenging business environment.
- Her focus on relationship leadership and integrated leadership have helped work the company through some of its most difficult and stressful challenges as it prepares to launch its product in the next two years.
- “How do you empower someone to be the best version of themselves? That is what real leadership is—getting the right people to do what they’re gifted at, and supporting them to grow into the leaders they’re capable of being.”
Why It’s Important
According to Larson, entrepreneurs have some of the worst mental health issues in business. The stress and business that are required to create a new idea can weigh heavily on the people that risk their financial well-being to try and realize them. It becomes easy for entrepreneurs to neglect their minds and bodies, just living with continued stress.
“You’ve got to like the people for this level of stress. Are we going to get the funding? Are we going to get the NASA contract? These things make or break the company, and you must have a functional working environment,” says Larson.
These stressors are particularly severe in aerospace, where mistakes are disastrous and can make and break a startup that wants to compete for NASA contracts or spend millions of dollars paying for SpaceX to launch satellites.
Possible Solutions
When she joined Aquarian in 2018, she brought her training skills with her into her new leadership role to help the founders of this new company. It took many failures and successes to bring the company together.
“I spent a lot of years before getting into the space industry in relational leadership, training, and culture building in companies—specifically relational leadership, that is, how to relate to people and listen better, and integrated leadership, leaders who don’t take care of themselves mentally or physically,” says Larson.
Larson encountered many relational health challenges, as is common among a company of co-founders. She helped to facilitate leadership discussions, improve company culture, and teach leaders how to support others in their challenges—which helped Aquarian overcome tensions and build gratitude in their weekly meetings.
“I watched lives get changed. It took us a year to get to know the company well enough to implement the changes we wanted to make. In one two-hour session, I’d see changes happen I wouldn’t have known possible—factory floor workers with extreme conflict doing relational practices and leaving with hope and inspiration. I would not have expected a change from people with such dug-in solid attitudes. You need to adapt it to your audience, but it can still work really well.”
Notable Quote
“We’re in an age where entrepreneurship and startups are the clear way of the future. The incoming generations are very entrepreneurial-minded. And the mental health issues that come along are not talked about enough. This is one of the critical factors of success for a startup to succeed—the relationship health between teams and the health of the team leaders themselves. It can be overhandled. There was a time we were giving too much attention to this, and we backed away. We just have to find the balance,” says Larson.