Former Disney Channel star Bridgit Mendler has had quite the career shift, as she’s now the CEO of space industry startup, Northwood Space, according to CNBC.
What’s Happening:
- Bridgit Mendler is known for playing the lead role of Teddy in the early 2010s Disney Channel sitcom, Good Luck Charlie, and she also appeared in Wizards of Waverly Place and The Clique.
- She has since spent the last several years studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School, where she “completely fell in love with space law.”
- This has skyrocketed Medler into a new career in the space industry, as CEO of startup Northwood Space, based in El Segundo, California.
- Rather than build rockets or satellites, Northwood aims to mass produce ground stations. Also known as teleports, ground stations are the typically large and often circular antennas that connect to satellites in space.
- Already, Northwood is attracting high-profile venture investors, with about $6 million in initial funding raised from investors including Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz and Also Capital.
- Mendler is building Northwood with two co-founders: the startup’s chief technology officer, and her husband, Griffin Cleverly, as well as head of software Shaurya Luthra.
- The startup plans to target services for satellites in low Earth orbit initially, for companies that don’t want to spend the money to build their own ground station networks.
What They’re Saying:
- Bridgit Mendler: “The vision is a data highway between Earth and space. Space is getting easier along so many different dimensions but still the actual exercise of sending data to and from space is difficult. You have difficulty finding an access point for contacting your satellite.”
- The idea for the company originated while she was spending time with family during the COVID-19 pandemic: “While everybody else was making their sourdough starters, we were building antennas out of random crap we could find at Home Depot … and receiving data from [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] satellites,” Mendler added. “For me, why the ground-side matters is because it actually is about bringing the impacts of space home to people.”