Solstar Space Company: Pioneering the technology to create a 'space wide web'

Founder & CEO

As a serial entrepreneur, I have invested and risked millions of my own money starting, growing, closing, and re-building technology companies. I will be honest/wise steward of our investors' money.

Jon Cunningham

Chief Financial Officer

Jon is a seasoned management/financial consultant with over 27 years of hands-on experience in launching new businesses, diversifying revenue lines and growing overall enterprise value for founders, shareholders and employees within

Paul Frey

Space and Ground Operations Manager

An experienced Program Manager and GIS/Remote Sensing professional with advanced technical skills and a proven ability to manage complex operations.

Investor Q&A

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What does your company do?

Solstar Space Company is pioneering the technology to create a 'space wide web'. We enable 24/7 secure, economical, convenient, two-way, internet-based communications with every “thing” in space. Solstar’s two-way data communications also enable earth-based customers 24/7 direct access to experiments, cubesats, machines, and colleagues located in space, via their smart phones, or any other internet connected device.

Where will your company be in 5 years?

Solstar aims to be the ISP of choice in Earth Orbit and beyond. Our purpose is to make communication, experiments and travel easier. We aim to prove our effectiveness to multiple commercial space companies to build Solstar into an internationally recognized brand that will be an attractive acquisition for the rapidly-growing private space race.

Why did you choose this idea?

The commercial space industry is growing, and while other companies are focusing on building spacecraft, we identified a gap in the market for secure space communications. We want to satisfy our customer's needs by providing them with reliable connections to people and their valuable assets in space from take off to landing.

What is Solstar?

Solstar is revolutionizing the way we communicate in space by bringing commercial WiFi to payloads and people in space for the first time. In essence, we are helping space-based assets like satellites and commercial manned spacecraft better communicate with people and sites on Earth through WiFi. The commercial space industry lacks a simple space-to-ground communications solution, everything has traditionally been government based. Solstar's solution is a high-speed, reliable, and easy to use space communications platform leveraging existing billion-dollar commercial satellite communications networks. We have proven our technology on three spaceflights sending the first commercial Tweet from space; a huge milestone in commercial space history. All we have to do now is scale to meet the needs of our customers in this rapidly developing industry.

How did your company begin?

Solstar was created to meet this new need in space communications. More commercial payloads are flying in space today than ever before. They lack effective communications in flight and in space to the ground. We are providing that. We are bringing commercial access for the Internet Of Things to spaceflight. Solstar is the culmination of a 30-year professional career. CEO M. Brian Barnett started and built companies in the commercial satellite communications market for 19 years. He started my first satellite communications company in 1999. The company was one of the first to specialize in providing internet communications for commercial and government aircraft, including NATO and Fortune 500 companies. This led to developing the technology to provide communications to people and things in space. Solstar Space Company was founded in 2017 to meet a new market developing for this service. And we've already had a major success. People who are flying experiments in space are excited about using our service. There is particular interest in our WiFi from the younger generation of payloaders who represent the part of our customer base that will drive our revenues. We are also in a good position to ride the growth of. Commercial rocket companies have announced publicly they plan to fly the first people into space very soon, as soon as this year. Solstar is very well positioned to service that market.

Why is there an immediate need for this?

We already have customers and successful test flights in hand. There is an immediate and growing need for our services. More commercial payloads are flying in space today than ever before and even more are scheduled to fly. Nearly all of them need our service. Government payloads use government communications assets. Commercial assets need their own networks to meet IOT demand, cyber security, IP concerns, data rates, and more. We believe that only commercial assets can scale to meet the need, even one day perhaps offering service back to the Government itself. Solstar is a lot more accessible for commercial customers on the ground and we’re at an economical price for the first time ever. We're first to market. We also believe individuals going to space will want to communicate back to people on Earth in real time. We know there are more and more commercial uses of the international space station and they want to be able to communicate back to earth as well as other commercial assets that are going to be in space. Suborbital flights need communications in flight too. Developing those markets and letting them know there is an alternative to existing communication means, which are fairly restrictive and limited, is going to be an important part of this whole sales and marketing activity.

Why is it so difficult for a commercial space company to develop wifi technology on their own?

They are focused on their goals, flying into space safely and back. They are experts at this. We are experts in communications. We become a sub contractor to meet their needs so they can maintain their focus. It is rocket science after all. The customers have satellites and payloads, which are flying anywhere from 17,000 miles an hour at 500 miles up to 22,000 miles up. Then how do you connect them to the internet? That is very difficult to do. But it is what we do, and that's what our pending patents are all about.

Why is this the problem you decided to solve?

NASA's TDRS communications satellites are aging and are not going to be replaced. Therefore, NASA is in the process of transitioning to us commercial satellite services. Solstar is in the prime position to provide these services to NASA and University, International, and commercial customers. Solstar Space Company is meeting a market need. It’s true rocket science at the cutting edge of the new frontier.

Why do you see the biggest opportunity here in internet access as opposed to the variety of moving pieces that have to come together for commercial space?

Where others are focused on building the rockets, literally investing billions, we in turn are focused on the niche of providing communications for their payloads and passengers. Space is the cutting edge of technology, and in turn it is the cutting edge in terms of application of the Internet of Things to payloads and data for communications. More data will be coming from space than ever before and the bulk of this is commercial. It is a gap in the market that we intend to fill.

How are you able to simulate the service on the ground?

We flew two successful test flights on Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch vehicle from their West Texas Launch Site. It worked beautifully. We sent the first Tweet from space over commercial infrastructure via our WiFi in April 2018 and repeated the test successfully in July 2018.

How do you make money?

Solstar is part internet service provider and part aerospace company. We're a service company, so we charge for airtime and data; we have a subscription-based revenue model. We'll do it in a couple different ways. One is similar to when you're flying on airplanes and you pay for WiFi for your flight. The airline charges you directly or you'll be charged by a third-party service like Exceed. Most of our customers will be on Earth, who will use our apps to gain access to their space-based assets for a fee. We can’t yet disclose what we’d charge a specific customer like passengers or equipment on a private rocket. We'll either charge you by the flight or by how much data you use over a month.

How expensive is internet in space?

The market will set the price. There are many variables that go into pricing. What we can say is that we provide premium services at the highest level of customer service.

What about potential competition? How quickly could someone catch up to you and decide to provide this very same service?

Solstar currently does not have direct competition and other space communication companies have not tested their technology. We have our intellectual property and successful test flights under our belt. Barriers to entry are time and effort. We’ve already put that in and understand what is needed next. Our technology's already proven in space. None of our competitors have done anything like this yet. However, we take nothing for granted and we aim to compete fiercely.

What is your company’s sales cycle?

Sales cycles in the traditional aerospace industry can be pretty long. Fortunately for us, we already have customers, that we have developed over many years. We already have NASA contracts and agreements where they're buying our ride to space, worth approximately $10 million. That allows us to work with existing launch companies. The other really important point here is that the billions of dollars of private money coming into the commercial market is creating fast developing opportunities and we are right there with them.

What is the status of the overall commercial space industry?

We’re at the very beginning of a rapid growth in the commercial space industry. The commercial space industry today generates over $300 billion in annual revenues, and it is continuing to grow with this new segment of the industry. Our technology can be used here and in the larger industry itself. We are still exploring the implications.

What could potentially go wrong that worries you the most?

It is literal rocket science. We need to ensure that our technology works flawlessly and supports our customers when they most need it. My concern is that the market will grow so fast we can’t keep up. We need resources to grow the team to meet the potential demand.

Why are you uniquely capable of making this business a success?

We have an experienced team. There are many areas of what we are doing that requires a specific batch of experience. Our management team covers all those bases. We set really important and challenging milestones, and we achieve those. We know what needs to be done and can do it. Then we have young people that are coming on board. We're getting interest from young people who want to be a part of building the business. Now we just need the resources.

What are you raising money for?

In a broad sense, these funds will be for sales and product development. The funds will enable us to create and close deals, and to make critical advancements to our software apps and our space communicator products for suborbital and orbital applications. It's all sales, product development, and filling out our management team.

1	We enable 24/7 secure, economical, convenient, two-way, internet-based communications with every “thing” in space.
2	Solstar Space Company harnesses the power of the very best existing infrastructure to facilitate constant communication with space assets.
3	Solstar's technology has been proven on three spaceflights sending the first commercial text and commercial Tweet from space.
4	In 2017, Solstar was competitively selected to receive a small business Phase I contract with NASA to develop a preliminary design for a commercial router on the International Space Station.
5	Signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA to test our internet and wi-fi technologies in space.
6	Founder has 30+ years of experience in the commercial space industry, starting his career with 6 years at NASA 1987-1993.
7	Patent pending on our technology.
8	Solstar Space Company’s Schmitt Space Communicator has been accessioned into the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s collection.

1	The commercial spaceflight industry is in its early stages. A spacecraft accident resulting in the death of a paying commercial customer too early after commercial flights have begun could have negative impact on Solstar's ability to sell its services. The federal government may stop commercial flights while the accident is investigated.
2	The Company may never receive a future equity financing or elect to convert the Securities upon such future financing. In addition, the Company may never undergo a liquidity event such as a sale of the Company or an IPO. If neither the conversion of the Securities nor a liquidity event occurs, the Purchasers could be left holding the Securities in perpetuity. The Securities have numerous transfer restrictions and will likely be highly illiquid, with no secondary market on which to sell them. The Securities are not equity interests, have no ownership rights, have no rights to the Company’s assets or profits and have no voting rights or ability to direct the Company or its actions.
3	Not all proposals to NASA and the DoD will convert into contracts. The company has already made proposals that have been and have not been converted into contracts.
4	Changes in political climate can have impacts on the space industry and funding. These factors may be outside of the company's control but affect it's operations. As up to 60% of Solstars early revenues will come from budget contracts, government budgets may have a large affect on their business.
5	The company's success depends on the efforts of a small management team, namely the founder. The loss of services of him may have an adverse effect on the company. There can be no assurance that the company will be successful in attracting and retaining other personnel they require to successfully grow our business.
6	The company relies heavily on their technology and intellectual property, but may be unable to adequately or cost-effectively protect or enforce their intellectual property rights, thereby weakening their competitive position and increasing operating costs.
7	The Company may face competition with respect to our key products that we seek to develop or commercialize in the future. These competitors may also in the future compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified personnel and acquiring technologies. Smaller or early stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. Accordingly, our competitors may commercialize products more rapidly or effectively than we are able to, which would adversely affect our competitive position, the likelihood that our products will achieve initial market acceptance and our ability to generate meaningful additional revenues from our products.
8	The Company’s business model is dependent on relationships with other companies and organizations without the space industry. Should those relationships be damaged or removed entirely, the company could have difficulty generating revenue and ultimately operating.
9	Purchasers will not have the right to vote upon matters of the Company even if and when their SAFEs convert into preferred units. In addition, at the moment the founder M. Brian Barnett controls 86.95% of the voting power in the company. Thus, Purchasers may be able to exert more limited control over the company than if they had voting rights.
10	Our future success depends on the efforts of a small management team. The loss of services of the members of the management team may have an adverse effect on the company. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in attracting and retaining other personnel we require to successfully grow our business.

Date	Amount	Security
06/2018	$5,000	Convertible Note
06/2018	$5,000	Convertible Note
09/2019	$100,000	Convertible Note
01/2019	$331,460	SAFE
07/2017	$46,000	Priced Round
05/2017	$10,000	Loan
08/2017	$10,000	Convertible Note

Issued	Amount	Interest	Discount	Valuation Cap	Maturity
08/24/2017	$10,000	3.0%	0.0%	None	08/25/2018
06/01/2018	$5,000	3.0%	0.0%	None	06/01/2019
06/01/2018	$5,000	3.0%	0.0%	None	06/01/2020
09/19/2019	$100,000	3.0%	0.0%	None	09/21/2022

$50,000	85% -- Product Development of our software app (charlie app), small sat space communicators, flight communicator, space station router 10% -- Fundraising 5% -- Wefunder Intermediary Fee
$1,070,000	65% -- Product Development of our software app (charlie app), small sat space communicators, flight communicator, space station router 20% -- Sales and marketing 10% -- Fundraising 5% -- Wefunder Intermediary Fee

Why you may want to support us...

Our Team

And Our Major Accomplishments

Why people love us

Some of our investors

we've raised $507,460 from 519+ investors since our founding

In the news

Downloads

Solstar Provided the First Commercial WiFi in Space

Space WiFi is Extremely Complicated

Let's Connect Earth to Space Together

Our Progress So Far

We're at a Unique Time in Commercial Space Travel

Investor Q&A

Financials

At a Glance

Risks

Details

The Board of Directors

Officers

Voting Power

Past Equity Fundraises

Convertible Notes Outstanding

Outstanding Debts

Related Party Transactions

Use of Funds

Capital Structure

Form C Filing on EDGAR

Solstar Space Company Statement on Sky-Fi

Interested Investors

Forbes Validates Solstar Business Model: To Commercialize Space We Need To Build Infrastructure, Not Just Launch Rockets

ISPCS 2018 - WiFi in Space - Brian Barnett

Solstar Headliner in Important Industry Essay: Internet in Space: Bringing Wifi to Earth Orbit, the Moon, and Mars

Solstar seeks strategic investor for WiFi in Space - SpaceNews.com

SOLSTAR™ DEMONSTRATES PRIVATELY-FUNDED Wi-Fi in SPACE for SECOND TIME Company Posts another Tweet from Space

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What people are saying

Notes from investors

In the news

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