EP 81 — Inversion's Justin Fiaschetti on Hiring Engineers Who Think Like Founders

Storing cargo in orbit is becoming cost-comparable to maintaining hundreds of terrestrial warehouses scattered globally, but in orbit, they’re not as vulnerable to atmospheric conditions, geographic limitations, and single points of failure.

Justin Fiaschetti, CEO & Co-founder of Inversion, explains how this approach requires orders of magnitude fewer units to cover the same geographic area because any satellite can deliver to any location within its coverage zone. When launch costs continue declining with reusable systems like Starship, the economics shift dramatically toward orbital warehousing that eliminates moisture, temperature variations, and the fragility of ground-based logistics networks while providing true global reach.

But what would a company journey be without some challenges? Recruiting for a hardware startup demands different strategies than software companies where engineers are somewhat interchangeable. Inversion needed distinct specialists, each requiring completely different screening processes and networks. Justin's solution was screening every candidate against one question: could this person be a future founder? That mindset ensured each hire could own an entire engineering discipline autonomously, allowing Inversion to build a 25-person team capable of designing and launching operational spacecraft in under 3 years. 

Topics discussed:

• How pre-positioning cargo 400 km above Earth eliminates geographic constraints while maintaining coverage of any point on the globe.
• Recruiting strategies for hardware startups requiring distinct engineering disciplines, focusing on founder mentality over domain expertise.
• Why resource constraints force startup focus and efficiency that unlimited funding prevents.
• Implementing commander's intent leadership philosophy where clear direction replaces micromanagement.
• The economics of space logistics becoming cost-comparable to maintaining global warehouse networks.
• Autonomous landing systems achieving sub-3-meter accuracy using guided parachutes that surpass human skydiver precision.
• Defense applications for 1-hour delivery including medical supplies within golden hour treatment windows and mission-capable parts.
• Cold email conversion strategies for reaching military decision makers by targeting specific innovation offices and logistics personnel.

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