That was the beginning, but nurturing Rocket Lab into what it is today came as a result of building a dedicated, innovative team of people around the project that were prepared to do things differently.
What are the trade-offs when turning a passion/pastime into a fully-fledged commercial operation?
When something truly is your passion, it's not a trade-off to turn it into a commercial operation. It certainly requires a lot of time, patience and problem-solving, but if you're passionate about what you're trying to achieve then you're prepared to make it a priority and give those things in full measure.
What are the main challenges of being a US owned company operating in NZ, and what are the main business advantages each country has that the other could learn from?
Rocket Lab was founded in New Zealand 10 years ago. In the early days we secured local investment from the likes of Stephen Tindall's K1W1 fund, but we knew we'd need significantly more to grow.
The Electron programme was and is ambitious - we're setting out to solve a global problem, not just found a successful local business. That requires a level of capital that simply isn't available in New Zealand, so we turned to the US for investment and to fill our board of directors with world leaders in tech and space.
Our customers are heavily skewed to the US too, so it made sense for us to become a US company to enable greater access to investment capital and international markets.
One of the challenges we continue to face is that New Zealand simply doesn't have manufacturing capability on the same scale as the US, which can make it hard to find the people and suppliers needed to scale up production to build an Electron rocket every week.
Naturally the tyranny of distance can be a challenge too, as any international business with operations in New Zealand will experience. On the other hand, New Zealand is filled with innovative problem solvers who certainly played a significant role in the development of world-first technology.
If you were preparing someone to perform Dragon's Den/Shark Tank-like pitch to investors what would be your main points of advice?
Securing investment is about telling a good story. You obviously need to have your facts and figures in order, but at the pitch stage you're a storyteller. Paint a picture for the investor of what your business will achieve and how the world will be changed by your idea. Keep it concise, accurate and engaging.
How do you qualify "success" when comparing product performance with operating profit?
We have a saying at Rocket Lab – "Make everything you do a work of art". We believe everything we create should be innovative, disruptive and beautiful. But none of that matters if you're not solving a genuine problem in an industry.
You can have the best performing product in the world, but if it doesn't solve a high-value problem for a market then you won't recognise a significant profit.
Often businesses start out with a product and then seek out the market interested in it. For us it was about starting with the problem and building a unique, high-performance product to solve it.
