A Florida-based startup is primed to compete globally in front of thousands.
GuardianSat, which moved to Tampa Bay in March, won a pitch competition from Harvard University's alumni network, which moved the startup forward to the semifinals in a global startup competition. The win is a milestone for the early-stage company in furthering its goals. It also was a moment of growing awareness for the startup, CEO Chris Rohe said.
"It brings a solution to the forefront of people's minds because [space sustainability] has been in the news quite a bit lately, and it will continue to be in the news because of our dependency on space," Rohe said. "It gives [GuardianSat] access and visibility to a broader audience."
Co-founder Rohe is an alumnus of Harvard's Kennedy School and has been following the startup program since it started. Rohe applied to the 2024 cohort of the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator, a 10-week virtual program of networking, education and mentoring. The event culminated in a demo day competition, and GuardianSat won.
"Our victory at the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator Demo Day is a testament to the urgency and necessity of our mission at GuardianSat," David Fondacaro, a GuardianSat advisory board chair, said in a statement. "We are excited to compete at the Startup World Cup and further our development of innovative systems that promise a safer, more sustainable space environment."
The Startup World Cup entry will allow the startup to compete for a $1 million investment from Silicon Valley-based Pegasus Tech Ventures. The event is a global competition featuring tens of thousands of attendees and will happen in California in October, according to its website.
The startup officially expanded into Tampa through its acceptance into the University of South Florida's Tampa Bay Technology Incubator, an incubator program for tech and science-based startups in the region. It is building satellite protection technology, and one of its co-founders is Robert Briskman, an early pioneer of satellite radio.
