00:06:05 · Baiju Bhatt
[00:06:05] S1: Yeah. I think the biggest thing is is that there's a lot more distinct disciplines here. Mhmm. Right? Because in building a software company, Robinhood, like, the the core kinds of people that you'd have there... That we had there were, you know, front end engineers to, like, mobile engineers. Right? So Android engineers, web engineers, iOS engineers, then back end software engineers. So database engineers, like people building the APIs, you know, DevOps, all that stuff. Then you have a whole bunch of compliance and regulatory people, legal people. And for us, a big focus was on design and product design. And so we had, like, a a small but mighty, like, design team, which was people doing visual design, brand design, but also research. Right? So people that are professional behavioral researchers because we spend a ton of time going out and interviewing customers. To me, that was always kind of the north star of, like, how you differentiate a good idea versus a bad idea. Because the north star there is like, is it something that's useful for customers? Right? So how do you know if something's useful for customers? You... When you talk to customers, I think... So this is kind of like the the culture there. And obviously, a lot of other functions, like tons of customer support people, operations people, finance people. Right? But on the engineering side, it's different here because there's more specialization. Right? Because there's embedded software engineering. There's, like, optomechanical engineering. There's a thermal engineer sitting right behind you. There's, like, a lot of there's a lot of, like, much more unrelated fields. Right? So you have, like, people that come from mechanical, you know Mechanical backgrounds. Yeah. Mechanical backgrounds, people from electrical backgrounds, people from computer science backgrounds. And then you have laser people. You have optics people, which are sometimes also mechanical people. So the the kind of engineering, there's a lot more different kinds of engineering. But that's kinda like some of the functional stuff. In terms of culture of how do you... Like, how does the company... What's the operating system for the company? One of the things that I found is, kind of universally true is when people are having fun, when people are, like, legitimately enjoying themselves, they will go above and beyond.
00:08:35 · Baiju Bhatt, Ty Morse
Right? And so that not only that though, but when people are having a good time and they're actually enjoying what they're doing, there's like, there's another really interesting benefit that comes from it, which is that people tend to be more creative in my experience. [00:08:53] S0: Yeah. I think I think there's been kind of some studies, on this where if you have... If you... If you're in, like, a... Even, like, a fear state, you... Your creativity shrinks way down. And if you're very calm and, like, comfortable and happy, you're much... Like, your mind flows in a whole bunch of different ways. [00:09:11] S1: It does. It's also... Like, one of the things I've kind of found related to that is when people are... They're they're having a good time, they're enjoying what they're doing, You tend to get more ideas out of people. Like, if people feel comfortable, like, actually that they enjoy what they're doing and they're working hard, you get the quiet people to speak up a little bit more. Right? And you get the people to, like, actually vocalize the halfway formed ideas. You know what I mean? And, like, those are ideas where it's like, I don't know if this is a good idea or not. [00:09:42] S0: Taking risk by sharing it, and it's like basically lowering the barrier for them to feel like they can. [00:09:47] S1: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And if you hear a good idea, you're like, no. That's a great idea, or that's the kernel of something that, like, could be a really interesting idea.
00:09:47 · Baiju Bhatt, Ty Morse
[00:09:47] S1: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And if you hear a good idea, you're like, no. That's a great idea, or that's the kernel of something that, like, could be a really interesting idea. [00:09:55] S0: I don't think this is something that people typically come into, especially when they're, like, joining a new company. You kinda gotta feel out what is the right... You know, how do we operate in this Exactly. New And I think it takes a little while for people... Like, every every person that I that I brought on, like, they have the ability to have ideas that are really great for improving things. [00:10:13] S1: Mhmm. [00:10:14] S0: But you kinda gotta draw it out at least a couple times prior to them naturally just offering them up. [00:10:20] S1: Totally. That's so much more comfortable. I've kinda been, like, almost at feet level and, like, kinda pushing off from this table. Mhmm. Much better. Amazing. [00:10:31] S0: Jobs had this line, and I think Brian Chesky has really adopted this as well, where the design is not only, how something looks, but also how it, like, functions. Yep. And you want something that's great, super usable, but also beautiful and, like, delightful. How do you kinda take that same philosophy to a fucking satellite?
00:10:50 · Baiju Bhatt
[00:10:50] S1: Yeah. I I I read the Walter Isaacson book on Steve Jobs years and years ago. Super inspirational. And Steve Jobs undeniably through coming up was my idol. Like, I absolutely idolize that guy. And I tried to embody as much of his sort of approach to design as I could and really took it to heart. The the answer to the question is something I've actually thought about quite a bit, and I'm, you know, still kind of figuring out what that exactly means. But in the world of software and kind of how it extends to hardware, it's about form and function. Does the form of the thing natively represent the function? And like is the function of what it's trying to do fundamentally simple? And does the form communicate that simplicity? So the example that kind of comes to my mind right is like the function of like a laptop right? Is it on or off? Like how do you communicate that it's on or off? Is there a button? Is there a light that's on? Like, that's kind of the function. Right? Do you have, like, a persistent little green dot that tells you it's on? Or do you natively assume that it's on and are sort of like given a signal that it's off. Right? Like, how do you communicate the function of on versus off for a computer? I bring this up because I think Apple thought about this a lot. And I... They were always like... My my understanding was there was like a real allergy to, like, indicators. Right? Yep. Like, there's a there's a little light that always says it's on. Like, no. You should actually have the form of the thing represent the function, which is that it's natively on unless you actively turn it off. Interesting. That's like one. I'm not sure if I did a great job of articulating exactly that point, but this idea of the way it looks is integrally tied to the way it works and that the way it looks is not window dressing on top of the way it works.
00:12:52 · Ty Morse, Baiju Bhatt
[00:12:52] S0: I think they're kind of doing that now, aren't they? Yeah. They're trying to have it always on. [00:12:56] S1: Always on. Right? Interesting. There isn't an on off button. So what does that mean for satellite hardware? It's actually kind of interesting because you've got a job that the thing needs to do and you want the form of the thing to natively represent the function of it. Right? Not because you're looking at it, but because you don't wanna overcomplicate the thing. And so it's kind of in the early stages. We'll get into this more, but we're... You know, we've kind of been for the last year and a half designing payloads that that go on other people's satellite buses that, you know, we partner with a third party for our satellite buses and kind of thinking of the form and the function of what does a laser system look like, what does a compute payload look like. But as we get to designing entire satellites and designing constellations, the thing that the jobs that the thing has to do will very natively define the way it looks and feels. So for example, in the context of things like laser power beaming, which we're actively working on here, right, you have the biggest things in the satellite are gonna be the power generation and the heat dissipation. Right? So how can you natively combine those things? So ideas that we've played around with are, you know, can you localize the power generation and the heat dissipation? [00:14:18] S0: So, basically, the, solar panel is gonna both dissipate heat while also collecting? Exactly.
00:14:18 · Ty Morse, Baiju Bhatt
[00:14:18] S0: So, basically, the, solar panel is gonna both dissipate heat while also collecting? Exactly. [00:14:24] S1: Or can you get the actual, you know, diodes that go from electrical to optical to reject the heat and leverage the surface area of the thing that you've already got to reject the heat? So there... There's a video playing right here, which is a very early rendering of how we thought the system's gonna work. Obviously, a lot of evolution in the idea since then. But even in this, you can see on the backside of the satellite, there are these big sheets, which are effectively the radiators that dissipate the heat. Right? So, like, to answer your question, like, what does marriaging form and function look like in the context of a thing that has a very extreme job to do as opposed to something that, like, fundamentally just needs to represent simplicity to a person that wants to press a button, have it do the thing that it's supposed to do. [00:15:09] S0: Do you have a specific feeling? Like, whenever I see something beautiful that just looks right, I get this feeling of it just looks right. It feels right. Do you have that same feeling when you are designing something?