April 22, 2026

Dear Space Founders, 

Five years ago, I entered the global space industry as an outsider and rose to the highest levels of commercial space. And what I saw behind the curtain changed everything I believed.

I expected a relentless engine of progress. Instead, I found a system built to reward preservation over progress, forcing founders to navigate a procurement system designed for a different era. 

That system is built on the Single Buyer Myth, the embedded belief that one customer, one contract, and one approval chain is the natural order of a space economy. This preserved system has led the business of space into a bureaucratic permission-seeking process that keeps founders from building at the scale the market demands. 

The solution is not another lobbying campaign. We need a new market architecture, an open exchange that gives space founders direct access to buyers across every country and sector, and the financing infrastructure to get there. When the market becomes the mechanism, the Single Buyer Myth collapses.

Four forces shape the future of our industry right now. 

‍The Agencies. NASA, ESA and other global space agencies deserve infrastructure worthy of their mission. The problem is not their vision; the problem is the system filters out the exact founders most likely to accelerate their programs. 

‍The Old Guard. The legacy establishment built their businesses on political access and proximity to the government. They mastered the single buyer model, but in a multi-tenant market, proximity to one government or one contract is not a sustainable advantage anymore.

‍The Pioneers. They proved that private companies can do what governments and legacy contractors could not. But what worked for a few extraordinary firms will not work for an industry now growing to thousands of startups. The new generation needs access to capital and infrastructure at scale.

‍The Space Founders. You are the reason this letter exists. You should not have to spend your time seeking permission from a system that was never designed for you. I have seen the limit of the current system, and it is far below the possibilities of your potential.

Progress is not measured by the ceiling of the elite. Progress is measured by the floor built for the innovators. When new space founders have the same access to financial, data, and orbital infrastructure as established institutions, we will see progress.

Bring your excellence. We will bring the rails. The market will provide the leverage.

If this resonates, let's talk.

Thanks,
Tej

Tejpaul Bhatia
CEO & Founder | Nebex.com