Today, we will be covering the endlessly fascinating market of Space. While we typically focus on an individual company for Business Breakdowns, we thought an industry primer was the best approach for this expanding market. With Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos directing so much energy to the promise of space, it is impossible not to dream about what lies ahead. To cover this endless topic, I’ll be joined by a previous guest, Tren Griffin. While Tren’s full-time job is a director at Microsoft, his experience with satellites and endless curiosity make him ideal for this conversation. We cover how our ground economy is enabled by space today, what excites him most about the space to space opportunities in the future, and how space compares to other network foundations. I hope you enjoy this great space primer with Tren Griffin. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. -----   Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss   Show Notes [00:02:19] - [First question] - The current size and scope of the space economy [00:04:42] - Important historic milestones that helped us get to where we are today [00:12:33] - The varying levels of orbit and what they unlock for technology [00:19:22] - How expensive launches were and what they are now with SpaceX and Starship [00:22:08] - Overview of the Starlink project and using it to recoup infrastructural setup costs [00:27:32] - Whether or not launch will ever become more than just a commodity  [00:31:01] - Different types of satellites and earth-orbiting technology [00:34:23] - Thoughts on in-space manufacturing as an emerging industry [00:35:33] - Future colonization of the moon, Mars, and humanity leaving the Earth [00:38:19] - The importance of dreaming big to inspire those around you [00:42:36] - Potential reasons why space may not become a new frontier [00:44:41] - Politics and the militarization side of open space [00:47:19] - Legalities and the need for a space treaty  [00:49:41] - Whether or not humans will be living on the moon by 2035 [00:51:03] - What the benefits will be of a colony on Mars if we can establish one on the moon

Today, we will be diving into Cardlytics. Founded in 2008, Cardlytics operates as an advertising platform integrated with the digital channels of banks. It allows advertisers to identify potential customers from their spending habits and reach those customers directly within their mobile banking applications. Today, Cardlytics is one of the largest digital ad platforms, seeing data on 50% of every card swipe in the US.   To help break down Cardlytics, I will be joined by Cliff Sosin, founder of CAS Investment Partners. During our conversation, we touch on what makes Cardlytics' value proposition so valuable to the ecosystem, how Cardlytics' measurement capabilities differ from Google, and what is needed for Cardlytics to reach its full potential. Throughout our conversation, Cliff gives a great perspective on how this management team brought unique insight to this opportunity but then faced struggles as the company started to scale. His understanding of the history of the business shines throughout the discussion. I hope you enjoy this breakdown of Cardlytics.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. -----   Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss   Show Notes [00:02:33] - [First question] - What Cardlytics does and their scale [00:06:51] - What happens from a consumer perspective when using their service? [00:08:14] - Numbers around the current scope of the business today [00:08:40] - Comparing Cardlytics to Google and Facebook’s advertising models [00:11:01] - History of the company and how they gained access to bank transaction data [00:15:20] - Revenue splits, gross profits, and companies that have had success using them [00:19:23] - Potential risk to the company if banks were to start offering this service in house [00:23:02] - Possible parallels between Visa and Cardlytics as a transaction protocol for banks [00:25:15] - Whether or not brand matters for them [00:26:15] - Lessons learned about network effects and whether or not it applies [00:30:24] - What opportunities excite him about improving the Cardlytics platform [00:35:24] - The role that data and predictive algorithms could play in perfecting the user experience and business scale [00:39:45] - Reasons that Cardlytics could slip and reverse their progress or fail writ large [00:44:17] - What one question he’d like to answer to improve the business [00:46:38] - Lessons he’s learned about data privacy building the company [00:47:34] - What is impressive about Cardlytics through the lens of leaders and management [00:50:39] - Whether or not his views on investing has changed in regards to the quality of management over the course of growing Cardlytics [00:51:57] - What they would have to do and where they would have to spend to grow the business over the coming decade [00:54:41] - Neobanks posing a potential threat to the tech stack they’ve build [00:59:13] - Lessons for operators in building a business when studying Cardlytics’ story [01:02:10] - Lessons for investors when studying Cardlytics’ story