From Idea in the Shower to Mapping Earth in Real Time | Ep 229 with Chris Newlands Founder of Space Aye
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So Chris Newlands, the CEO and inventor and founder of Space Eye and Chris says,

When I started looking at what you're doing, I'm thinking like, okay, you can see anyone anywhere. You can find assets anywhere, anytime. I started to get a little scared, but also excited. And then I read that you even invented this in the shower, which me, I'm like an inventor in my head. I've never invented anything, but I got to think like, wow, how did this all come about? We're going to dive into all these things. But first I wanted to understand, uh,

how did this come about in the shower? And then how did you actually translate that to

to a real thing. Hi Daniel, thanks for having us on your show in the first place. Very long story short, having been a founder of a previous organisation, one of the hardest things to do is to access an audience through social media platforms like Facebook, obviously that thing, Google, in terms of paid marketing. And I was using the concept, but how could I use space possibly? Because space

is sexy, the best way to describe it, I think in many ways, to actually access people attending events. So the ability to give actual evidence of attending a particular event. So if you imagine Glastonbury or Burning Man or the Super Bowl, and that ability to see you in the satellite picture, not place your data on the image,

And at that time, I was in the shower. I was literally thinking about how you could target other people without going through social media algorithms and use organic content. And long story short, I come up with the idea of a space selfie.

So the ability to capture your attendance at the event and have actual evidence. Apparently, Woodstock, there was something like seven times more people claimed to have been there than was actually physically possible to have done so. So that evidence to show you were quite a cool grandparent at some point, your children, I think is the overall overarching concept there.

And the beauty of that from a marketing perspective is that that can be paid for by the sponsor. And then they would get their brand organically. I think it was something like eight times more effective than paid marketing. So very attractive concept. And when we launched it, it went to the top 10% of all app downloads in history in a single week, which is really quite attractive. But that was the week or the month before COVID kicked in. So every event that could have happened didn't happen. But again,

Whilst we were actually building the app at that time, we applied for patents. And that's a longer story. We'll come back to that, I'm sure. So you made this Spelfie. Yeah, that's how you pronounce it. I mean, this space selfie. Did you ever think like people...

people probably aren't going to care about this or they have no idea? Or were you that confident that everyone, this is going to become the biggest downloaded app of history? You know, it was an experiment at the time, Daniel. I'll be frank with you. At the time, there was no real consumer access to satellite imagery. And it's still quite hard to do that, to be honest. It's complex. It's science. It's space. It's hard to do, to be honest. So that ability to access not just a picture or a map,

or something that was taken several years ago. But that ability to actually capture the event in the reality is something that actually captured the imagination. So to go to the top 10% of all app downloads in history in a single week,

wasn't bad it wasn't too shabby yeah and I think from that perspective it encouraged having said that obviously no one expected a global pandemic Daniel so I think we had to rebase things but because we'd applied for the patents then we were able to step back from it a bit and then observe as commercial space became a thing because it wasn't a thing in 2017 2018 it now has become one as such so so that's

part of the story, but that's the, I feel like the genesis moment. In the shower, space selfies, ran downstairs, soaking wet with a towel, did some due diligence, nothing existed. We got some non-disclosures, non-competes signed by Maxar and Airbus at the time. They were the biggest in the market and the rest is history to some degree.

So as you continue to release this, I can imagine the people that are like, oh, wow, I want to use this technology from the commercial side. So you have I understand like the people want to take a spell fee. I want to take a spell fee. But when you looked at the commercial side of this business, I would imagine that, you know, the possibilities are endless. But who have you seen from the commercial side wanting to partner with you? And who like who are those clients have been for you?

So it's really interesting. So we're an emerging capability. We are a globally emerging capability. The patents have been granted in the States, in China, in South Korea and Japan, and Europe's hopefully about to fall too. So if you imagine that that takes time to get all of the duck

in a row, if that makes sense. So we've built a platform that will normalize satellite imagery. So to give you an example, there are no common tasking processes for tasking a satellite across all of the constellations. There are no constant image formats. There's over

20 image formats. So no common tasking, no image formats, and there's various different types of imagery as well. So to try and normalize that into one interoperable format is quite difficult to do. And I love capitalists and capitalism, I am one, but fundamentally unique selling points are the devil of interoperability. So that ability to take that image and turn it into something you can use on your smartphone, on your watch, and every day use a bit

user-friendly interactions is quite a difficult thing to do. But you don't care about that as a consumer. It's our job to take that away and actually create that. So we're talking to telecoms companies, oil and gas, energy, logistics, shipping. Obviously, there's a dual-use aspect to this, so defence and security are very interested as well. But

A quick example, if you're looking at a situation where you can see a wildfire from space using infrared or optical satellite imagery, that ability to identify the responders actually in their vicinity of the fire and survivors potentially and livestock or

pets potentially and actually save lives from a command and control perspective, actually taking control and keeping the communication lines open. We reckon they could save many lives, many properties and many billions of dollars going forward as well. And

put the fire out more quickly, which stops global boiling as well. So there's a myriad of things, but I think communication and that ability to have eyes from space is something that is actually very, very important going forward. Yeah, I see that you talk about wanting to save the world.

I know you just gave some examples, but can you dive in deeper into how this technology can be used for so much good impact to quote unquote save the world? I think when anyone says that you always sound like a lunatic. Let's be honest, because no one person can. But you can start the momentum and you can lead the way in some ways. Now, for me, that ability to have better, more informed information, to make better, more informed decisions,

means that you can potentially be more efficient in everything you do. There was a report out last week by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey, and they reckon purely from a shipping perspective, logistics and cargo, let's say, the ability to actually take our capabilities, which is what they describe, would actually improve logistics

the efficiencies of those sectors. Now bearing in mind 80 odd percent of all freight travels on the sea yeah so 35 percent is what they estimate will be the savings to a sector that is worth trillions of dollars. So all of a sudden you get more efficiency, you get more transparency, you can actually see the impact on nature, humanity, on the climate literally not just a

in on a map to say there's a ship, but the AIS, which is the signal, which is the automatic information system that effectively identifies the ship and each of the actual containers on those ships would be identifiable using our capability. So that changes everything.

efficiency, climate impact, and fundamentally makes us all in a better place. And one final thing I'd say to you is that actually, apparently, if there's no shipping for four days, there's no shopping. So the impact of everything working to a particular time and being efficient has a direct impact on every one of us. If there's no shipping, there's no shopping. So when you...

When you look at this in terms of privacy, because I would guess a lot of people would bring that up, or what if this gets in the hands of certain people that could maybe have a negative impact on how they would use it? Does anything like that keep you up at night or

How are you thinking this? So it has kept us up at night. That's the first thing to say to you. And equally, privacy is sacrosanct. I mean, we will comply with all local laws and customs in that sense as well, because we have to. The law is the law of the land, if that makes sense.

Equally, more than that, we want to do so. So it would be an opt-in. So if you want to be able to drive an autonomous vehicle or have a real-time sat-nav at some point in the not-too-distant future, you have to be able to see where your car is in context of other cars and what's happening up ahead and what's round about you from a north, west, east and south perspective. If you're in a situation where you want to just have a bit more context, so imagine you lost your seven-year-old child

So we did an example where we looked at a map, an image of a Google map, an image it was actually some time ago of Aberdeen. And it showed a lovely picture of Aberdeen city centre. And there was a triangle of grass. And the child was located in that triangle of grass. But when you took a real-time satellite image, there was actually a

it was actually the circus was in town and the child was standing beside the circular tent on that triangle of grass. So quaintly in the past, you used to say you ran away with a circus, which is probably child abduction back in modern day terms. So that ability to know where things are and give that context from space means you make different decisions. Sometimes more urgent, sometimes less urgent, but fundamentally it helps you make better, more informed decisions. So essentially, let's say there's a natural disaster.

or something happens and you need to find somebody, your family, or somebody's missing, could this essentially be used in those type of environments to see, or even like what's happening in that specific area? Because I think that's a big problem. Like something happens, you don't know where they are, the cell phone goes down, things don't work like we saw with earthquakes or hurricanes or the tornadoes recently in the U.S. that are wiping out an entire city and no one has a clue about what's happening.

I think going back to the privacy point, there's no need for silver tinfoil hats. Everyone can opt in and your privacy is sacrosanct, just to re-emphasize that point. However, your point is valid. Let's imagine you're in a situation where you live in an area, Tornado Alley, I think it's one of the areas within the US, and everyone has an app. And on the app, there's a particular, everyone can opt into that. And that would allow them all to connect with family and friends. And potentially what you then have is you've got several elements. If you have

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We've got terrestrial infrastructure that will be damaged by a tornado or a hurricane, potentially. But equally, if you're looking at now, the way things are changing, if you take communications and obviously Starlink from space and OneWeb and others, obviously Kuiper too, so that ability to maintain satellite and comms from space that can't be affected by tornadoes is essential. There's also IoT, Internet of Things, signal-enhancing satellites,

15 000 will be and taken to space over the next five years of all numbers are to be um um to be understood and to be believed and that will ensure there's no dark spots so all of a sudden the thing we rely on just now will become slightly obviously above us if that makes sense and protected from uh those scenarios then if you find someone who survived by location because of our

patterns it also includes biometrics so then you can listen for their heartbeat and you can triage survival and obviously recovery modes if you're looking for survivors as well and that would work in the earthquake situations as much as it would obviously within hurricanes or tornadoes so it's a game changer and also for

things like the pandemic, the ability to see how healthy you are, where you are at any given time and manage things more efficiently. In the UK, spent £52 billion on track and trace. That would be a thing of the past. And we're now in the most

connected stage of humanity we've ever been. We live in the matrix, Daniel. We literally have got 20-odd to 40-odd billion IoT devices pulsing data from 8 billion people and all other assets. And all of a sudden, that data is now being captured from space, and that just changes the game. It's amazing. I feel like I'm in the matrix. I mean, it's pretty amazing. It sounds like there's some incredible uses for it, and it's very exciting. And I mean...

The fact that you coined the term spelfy, I think is pretty epic in itself. When you look at the conversions of all these different technologies, the advancements of where we're at with AI and Gen AI to, you know, you said IoT, you got 5G, who knows, maybe 6G in the future. You have all these different technologies at this pretty advanced stage. How do you see the future of IoT and mixing with, you know, satellites and everything coming together?

The first thing I'll highlight is that Spellfade was a concept, a proof of concept. So SpaceEye is the platform that we're now working with as such. So we've been coined as GPS with pictures.

or Google Earth Live has been used many times. So that ability to see the world now and see what's happening around the world is really important. So without IoT, Internet of Things devices, now to explain what those are, because not everyone understands what that is necessarily, it's the wearables on your wrist, your smartphones, it's your rings that you're getting these days as well. There's many brands out there these days, and your smartphone, laptops, anything that's effectively your ring doorbell is a smart device, it's Internet of Things as well.

So fundamentally, we now live in a world where everything has been to some degree monitored or observed on maps, but we're just moving the map and placing that with a real-time image to give you more context as such. So we believe that Internet of Things data now, combined with satellite imagery, now there's now thousands of cameras. When we started the journey, there were 630-odd Earth observation satellites in 2017, mostly owned by governments. They're now mostly owned by commercial entities now.

So that ability to capture the data posting from 8 billion people, 20 billion devices and thousands of cameras

can actually become the training data for artificial intelligence models and we've called that the large terrestrial model because fundamentally if you think about what happened in January with DeepSeek they used open source data which means it's not proprietary and open source is open to racism, sexism, bias and hallucination and it's now starting to eat itself. It's become a

cannibalistic in some ways as well. So the hallucination is becoming even more hallucinogenic in some ways. So that ability to be able to identify categorically, potentially taking the critical reliance models up to seven nines. So that's 99.99999% accurate. It means it's a one in three million chance of getting it wrong. Changes the game in terms of risk and

in terms of accuracy and things like markets, anti-fraud, people trafficking, wildlife poaching. The whole world would become just a place where it should become safer. A comment from...

Interpol recently stated they believe that physical crime within 10 years could become a thing of the past and that's game changing because not everyone has the ability to have the infrastructure that we have in the West so that ability to create that opportunity to protect people and families going forward I think is game changing

I'm super excited. I'm so excited to be alive right now just because we have access to all of these different technologies coming together five, ten years. Like you said, it's

crime, I mean, natural disasters, all these different things could be, uh, could be helped at least. So at least you could save lives in any of it, uh, would be amazing. I know the head of Google maps and Google earth has said that you're, you know, the best thing since sliced bread in your industry in the last 10 years, um,

How do you feel when he said this? And I believe he's also now a part of the organization. So he was the former head of Google Maps and Google Earth. I should state that rather than being the current head of Google Earth, just for clarification. But I mean, delighted, proud. I mean, Ed Parsons is the face or was the face of Google Earth and Google Maps for many years.

when he said to me that we remind him of the early days of Google Maps and Google Earth. When you understand that's a $140 billion sector, forecasted with $230 billion by 2030, you start to understand the numbers. When you understand that the World Economic Forum and McKinsey are talking about a 3.8 billion

trillion dollar sector in terms of the value that adds to all of the other sectors within 5 to 10 years. So that equates to 4, maybe 5% of the total global economy. You start to understand that this is game changing. I mean, someone like that with that kind of background wants to be

part of that and wants to help shape that, then I've got to be honest, it makes me very proud. One final thing I would say to you as well around that, in terms of pride, we've committed to the United Nations to capture the Amazon rainforest as the loggers log, not six months after when we measure the impact of the loggers. And that will change the game on a number of ways and protect local indigenous tribes and equally hopefully help save the

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planet again there's just a myriad of things we can do when you have something that is not a product but a capability a bit like ai if ai was the 25th capability of humanity we believe space space i is the 26th but combine the two together wow from this the space selfie to saving the world that is space i i love that chris but this has been amazing if people get in touch with you how can they do so

I'm on LinkedIn, Chris Newlands. You can reach me by emailing me, chrisnewlands at space eye, A-Y-E dot com. We went for A-Y-E because it's a Scottish word that means always and it phonetically works because it's eyes from space. And it was also £30 to buy the domain name for dot com. And it was $100,000 to buy E-Y-E dot com. So the Scots like good value. But

You can contact me in many ways. I'm very easy to contact and we look forward to engaging. The future unicorn from Scotland. That's what it sounds like. Could be trillion dollar company at this point. Why even, why chase a billion when you can have a trillion dollar company? But Chris, this has been amazing. So honestly, Daniel, it's been a real pleasure and it's not so much about the money for us. It's more about the money matters for shareholders, but it's also about the values. We can make a huge difference.

And I think for me, it's just we have an opportunity and we don't get these chances very often. This feels like the smartphone. This feels like the internet. The opportunity to see the world in the rounding context now is a game changer.

And I think we need to grasp it with both hands. I think we're seeing now, it's not companies that are chasing the money anymore. It's companies that are chasing the impact, chasing making the difference. And then the money is just a byproduct. But thanks for joining us again today on Founders Story. Not at all. Thank you. Nice to meet you now.

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Hey, I'm John Ashton. And I'm Neil Michaels. And we are the hosts of The Approach Shot, the golf-flavored podcast. Golf-flavored? What does that mean? It means we talk with celebrities like athletes, actors, and authors about their careers, their passions, and what sets us apart, their golf game. Hence the golf-flavored podcast.

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