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Voyager Technologies CSO and CMO John "Slick" Baum sits down with the leaders, builders, and operators defining the next era of aerospace and national defense. From propulsion labs to Capitol Hill, from low-Earth orbit to lunar infrastructure — this is where strategy meets execution, and where the people doing the work tell it straight.
The Voyager Podcast - Dylan Taylor V7
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[00:00:00] Slick: Thank [00:00:10] you so much for tuning into our first podcast. We are so excited of what we're gonna bring you this season. I am so honored to welcome our first guest on our podcast, the founder, [00:00:20] CEO, and chairman of Voyager Technologies, Dylan Taylor. Dylan, thanks for being here.
[00:00:23] Dylan Taylor: Slick, I, I'm s- I'm thrilled to talk to you.
[00:00:26] Dylan Taylor: It's always a pleasure.
[00:00:27] Slick: It's incredible. You know, you're one of these guys who've, like, [00:00:30] literally done more in a decade than, like, an entire country, right? I mean
[00:00:33] Dylan Taylor: I don't know about that,
[00:00:34] Slick: but- Well, I tell you, y- you are so humble, uh, and I know that that's kinda, uh, what we're gonna talk about i- [00:00:40] is your humility, but success as well.
[00:00:41] Slick: I mean, a- and I wanna take it back to the beginning. I mean, the origin story of Dylan Taylor, I mean, you are a guy who, uh, who grew up in [00:00:50] Idaho. Your dad is an engineer. He was a professor of engineering. Uh, you grew up playing baseball, football, fly fishing, riding horses. I mean, [00:01:00] tell me what it was like growing up, and I, I can only imagine, uh, the stories that were around the, the Taylor- Right
[00:01:06] Slick: uh, dinner table.
[00:01:07] Dylan Taylor: Yeah. Well, first of all, there was a prequel to [00:01:10] that, right? So my dad-- my parents got married super young. I think my dad was 20, my mom was 19. So when I was born, he was actually serving in Vietnam.
[00:01:18] Slick: Oh, wow.
[00:01:19] Dylan Taylor: And, [00:01:20] uh, my mom and I were kinda, you know, think of almost like a young single mom situation.
[00:01:24] Dylan Taylor: Sure. Um, so I think early years were a little bit scarce, and of course, I think that forms a little [00:01:30] bit of your, you know, the way you see the world. Um, but fast-forward, my dad finishes his PhD at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, uh, [00:01:40] that's the tie-in back to Denver, and, uh, gets this professorship at the University of Idaho.
[00:01:44] Dylan Taylor: And actually, I really commend my dad because he got job offers at other places like NYU and [00:01:50] Columbia, uh, but he's like, "No, I'm not doing that. I'm prior-prioritizing my family." And, and so we ended up moving to Moscow, Idaho. You know, think of Mayberry, right? It's kinda this [00:02:00] idyllic place. Um, and it was a great childhood, I mean, truly.
[00:02:03] Dylan Taylor: I mean, to your point, lots of outdoor stuff, fly fishing, riding horses, playing [00:02:10] baseball. You know, when you grow up in a small town, and, you know, probably many of the listeners, uh, have, it's really a different experience, right? It's about the relationships. It's about [00:02:20] conversations. Uh, there's not a lot to do, right?
[00:02:22] Dylan Taylor: You know, you're up on the mountain having a kegger, right? That's your entertainment, basically, which is, which is great, but it's not like there's a professional sports team [00:02:30] or, you know, an amusement park or different things that bigger cities have. Um, yeah, so it was great. I mean, it was a great, it was a great upbringing, and I would say, um, my passion at that [00:02:40] time was seeing the world.
[00:02:42] Dylan Taylor: So my dad was a professor, as you mentioned. Lots of his students were international students. So one of my favorite memories [00:02:50] is we have a Fourth of July party. We have people from 10 different countries, uh, blowing stuff up, and of course, they're like, "Wow, this is an interesting holiday." And, and, uh, or [00:03:00] Thanksgiving, you know, because they didn't have families, so they would come, uh, with our family.
[00:03:04] Dylan Taylor: And so that was a, that was a great passion of mine, and then of course, uh, always super competitive with sports and [00:03:10] outdoor stuff and baseball, football, and all that.
[00:03:12] Slick: Well, you know, I, I have to say thank you. You know, the, the unsung heroes for us military members that get to serve are the families that support them.
[00:03:18] Slick: And I know that there's many, many [00:03:20] folks that serve and, you know, were dependents of, of active duty or, or guards or guardsmen or reservists. So thank you. And of course your, you know, your mother being that, that single mom, if you will, [00:03:30] for, uh, for lack of a better way of saying it, while dad was off serving, husband's off serving.
[00:03:33] Slick: So thank you for that, and I'm sure that that shaped, shaped what, uh, your outlook was, uh, looking forward and, and [00:03:40] for, to others that have served as well, so.
[00:03:42] Dylan Taylor: Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure. And I think, uh, well, thanks for saying that. I'll pass that sentiment along to her. She'll appreciate that.
[00:03:47] Slick: Yeah, appre- it, it is the toughest job for, [00:03:50] uh, in the military family, so.
[00:03:50] Slick: Especially
[00:03:51] Dylan Taylor: when you're 19.
[00:03:52] Slick: Yeah, especially when you're young. Yeah. For sure. For sure. And, and of course the worry and all the things that we could have a, an entire separate podcast talking about that. That's right. But, uh, at any rate, [00:04:00] thanks to, to you and, and your family for supporting the military. And then of course now, um, w- I don't wanna fast-forward, but we have to do, obviously mention the connection with Matt Cuda and his military service, uh, your co-founder, and we're gonna [00:04:10] get into that, uh, here shortly.
[00:04:11] Slick: But before we jump all the way to, uh, to getting to Voyager, so, um, you grow, you grow up in a household, uh, with a, a materials engineer.
[00:04:19] Dylan Taylor: [00:04:20] Yeah.
[00:04:20] Slick: Right?
[00:04:20] Dylan Taylor: Right.
[00:04:20] Slick: And then you go off and become an engineer yourself going through school?
[00:04:24] Dylan Taylor: Yeah, well, I, I wouldn't call myself an engineer per se, but I did study engineering undergrad.
[00:04:29] Dylan Taylor: Uh, I did [00:04:30] quite well in my education, but you know, for me, I really I need to interact with people. And I, I was fearful that engineer meant you're stuck in a, in a lab, [00:04:40] you know, working on a project and not necessarily being tied to the grand vision. So I would say about two years in, 'cause I studied th- in the same field as my, as my dad, [00:04:50] I knew I didn't want to be necessarily a traditional engineer, but I knew I wanted to be a technologist.
[00:04:55] Dylan Taylor: And I had some really good mentors at the time, and they said, "Look, engineering is probably the best foundational [00:05:00] degree you can get." Sure. Right? This is really kind of pre-- You know, I-- Now maybe people would say computer science or, or something like that, but I still think engineering... And, and why is that?
[00:05:09] Dylan Taylor: It [00:05:10] teaches you how to solve problems, critical thinking skills, and I also think it trains you to utilize technology in a way that actually has [00:05:20] impact, right? Like, traditional science is discovery, which is great, but the practicality and tying it into something that actually is gonna work [00:05:30] or that's affordable or that has an impact, that's really the engineering solution.
[00:05:34] Dylan Taylor: Of
[00:05:34] Slick: course. Yeah. The, the critical thinking angles that you, that you attack a problem is probably different than a traditional, you know, [00:05:40] finance major, right? Uh, going into business. So you then get into business, uh, doing, uh, e-electronics, right?
[00:05:47] Dylan Taylor: That's right. Yeah, my first job out of school was working for a [00:05:50] Swiss electronics company.
[00:05:51] Dylan Taylor: That was a brilliant, uh, role. Uh, they created this role, think of it almost as like technical support, where you're [00:06:00] interacting with customers, you're understanding what they're trying to design for, and then you're taking the catalog of solutions for the company, and you're trying to help them co-create a solution to that [00:06:10] problem.
[00:06:10] Dylan Taylor: Uh, so it's one part customer service, one part design engineering, you know, one part, uh, sales. Uh, so I, I really, really enjoyed it. Yeah, I was with that [00:06:20] company around six and a half years. Caught that at the right time. They were just expanding from Switzerland to North America. And so I ended up having a lot of success [00:06:30] there, getting promoted to go back to the world headquarters in Switzerland, so I did two years over there.
[00:06:35] Dylan Taylor: And then promoted to run North America, which I, which I later did and moved back to the US. That's
[00:06:39] Slick: [00:06:40] incredible. So yeah, that international piece that you had growing up translates directly into living overseas and then, uh, you know, growing your, your personal, uh, experience in [00:06:50] business to then leading, uh, a company.
[00:06:51] Slick: Yeah. And that was your first-- I mean, you talk about a, a rocket trajectory from a leadership perspective. Uh, really incredible. And then-
[00:06:58] Dylan Taylor: Yeah ...
[00:06:58] Slick: and then you
[00:06:58] Dylan Taylor: make a- And just on that point, like I just [00:07:00] wanna emphasize, I mean, I was ambitious and hardworking, but I was super lucky. I, I caught that at the right time.
[00:07:06] Dylan Taylor: So, uh-
[00:07:06] Slick: Well, again, your humility comes through, Dylan, because better to be lucky than [00:07:10] good. But we know that you're good, and then also, you know, you make your own luck. Those doors and that luck wouldn't have been there had you not had the resume and the work ethic and, um, I'm sure the [00:07:20] reputation that you grew quickly, uh, to take on that next challenge.
[00:07:22] Dylan Taylor: Yeah. I think that, that's one key thing that Kuda, Matt Kuda and I bonded over. I, I think Matt's got this mentality of no one's gonna outwork [00:07:30] me, and I certainly had that men- mentality, certainly at that time. I mean, now I would say I, I've got a more balanced perspective. Um-
[00:07:37] Slick: But that's youth, right? And that's what you-- we should be doing in our [00:07:40] 20s- That's right
[00:07:40] Slick: when we're kind of build-- trying to build our, our futures.
[00:07:42] Dylan Taylor: Well said. Yeah, exactly.
[00:07:43] Slick: Amazing. So, so then you're back in the US, and, and you go on a bit of a pivot, right? Out of- Yeah ... this kind of, [00:07:50] I would say, rooted in engineering with this, uh, electronics company and running that company, and then-
[00:07:54] Dylan Taylor: Yeah. So what was interesting there, so I went to business school at the University of Chicago.
[00:07:59] Dylan Taylor: Uh, that's where [00:08:00] I met my wife, Gabrielle. Uh, we were, we were study buddies. Um, and that was transformational. University of Chicago, I mean, you have, you know, top-flight students from all over the world. Uh, [00:08:10] super, super, super smart people. And that really opened my mind to-- You know, typically when you're studying engineering, you kind of look at business and you're like, "Ah, well, that's, you know, that's the [00:08:20] easy part of, uh, academia."
[00:08:21] Dylan Taylor: And what I-- what it taught me is there's a whole rigor to business- Sure ... uh, that I didn't fully appreciate. And certainly at the University of Chicago, that's the [00:08:30] standard. Uh, so I met my wife there. So about that time, when I got sent over to Switzerland in that promotion, promoted to run back-- run North America, [00:08:40] they moved the headquarters from Chicago, which is where I had left from, to Michigan.
[00:08:46] Dylan Taylor: And they did that because so much of our business was automotive related. [00:08:50] And so as an expat, and I know you've, you've done your expat assignments, the, the logic is I'm here, you move me here, you move me back to where I started. Right. And so I [00:09:00] was like, "Well, wait a second. I don't wanna live in Troy, Michigan.
[00:09:02] Dylan Taylor: I wanna go back to Chicago." And so that's when I was like, "Okay, well maybe I need to make a, a job change." And at that time, [00:09:10] there was a newly minted public company that was in the real estate services group called LaSalle Partners, publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. They were just merging with [00:09:20] another company called Jones Lang Wootton, London-based, to create a global, uh, real estate services firm.
[00:09:27] Dylan Taylor: And they were looking for [00:09:30] people who had global business experience with top flight MBAs. They only hired from four schools. They were kind of particular about that. And I'm like, "Well, this is kind of cool. I don't know much about this [00:09:40] industry, but, you know..." And so I ended up interviewing there, was super impressed with the leadership, and then I ended up essentially switching industries.
[00:09:48] Slick: Wow. Incredible. And so [00:09:50] how many folks did you oversee in that role? P- so publicly traded and you're, you're leading huge teams.
[00:09:56] Dylan Taylor: Yeah. Well, I mean, initially not. So initially I was [00:10:00] their global account manager for several accounts. By the way, there's a whole set of stories on that-
[00:10:04] Slick: I can only
[00:10:04] Dylan Taylor: imagine ... which tie back into JPMorgan and, and my first meeting with Jamie and all, all this stuff, but we'll, [00:10:10] we'll cover that in a, in another episode.
[00:10:12] Dylan Taylor: But, um, but yeah. So I think, um, initially think of it as more global account work, and then later of course I got [00:10:20] promoted into more leadership roles and then ultimately moved from Chicago to Denver for lifestyle reasons. My wife and I, that's where we wanted to raise our family.
[00:10:27] Slick: That's great.
[00:10:28] Dylan Taylor: Um, then one of the [00:10:30] senior executives at Jones Lang LaSalle went to another company, brought me along.
[00:10:35] Dylan Taylor: Uh, so it just, you know, ascended. That's really where I cut my-- I should have mentioned, we took the [00:10:40] Swiss electronics company public On the Swiss Stock Exchange. That was the first IPO that I was involved in, and then there were several others. Uh, so the claim to fame was really [00:10:50] running large public companies or divisions of public companies.
[00:10:55] Dylan Taylor: And, um, in some cases they were private companies that wanted to be public
[00:10:59] Slick: and,
[00:10:59] Dylan Taylor: and that's [00:11:00] really kind of the expertise I had
[00:11:01] Slick: developed. Yeah. Amazing. And then you're running Colliers? That's right. Is, uh, you know, ult- the ultimate-- as a CEO and another publicly traded [00:11:10] company. So now, you know, we're building this track record of, of, uh, your experience in, in the finance side of, you know, I mean, 'cause running a company is hard enough.
[00:11:19] Slick: [00:11:20] Talk about running a public company and why that is so different, you know, with the responsibilities that you have with shareholders. Well,
[00:11:25] Dylan Taylor: I love it. I mean, a lot of people are like, "Well, you know, why do it?" I, I like the degree of [00:11:30] difficulty 'cause I think it's a standard that, you know, a lot of people, um, don't fully appreciate.
[00:11:34] Dylan Taylor: You know, it's difficult to perform at that level. There's, there's a scoreboard every day. It's not [00:11:40] always fair, uh, just like, you know, sports and life, right? But at least you know where you are. Uh, so I, I really like that. I also like the ability to access capital because [00:11:50] if you're running a growth company, which is really the companies I'm used to running, um, availability of capital is really your secret weapon.
[00:11:58] Dylan Taylor: Uh, whoever has the [00:12:00] lowest cost of capital and the ability to deploy capital creatively, uh, over time, that compounds, and over time you will win.
[00:12:08] Slick: Right. Well, and again, we're gonna talk to Matt [00:12:10] Cuda, but, you know, with his ability, uh, just being like, you know, a fighter weapons school level guy of, of understanding how M&A works and, and, and, [00:12:20] and the capital markets, I mean, absolutely.
[00:12:22] Slick: It's, it's gonna be another fascinating conversation for, for our listeners to, uh, to dive into. But, uh, so we understand your business background, but-- and [00:12:30] you mentioned being competitive in sports, uh, riding horses, growing up doing that, and you-- so you, you have this, uh, this core value of adventure in [00:12:40] your soul.
[00:12:40] Dylan Taylor: That's true. Yeah.
[00:12:41] Slick: And so- No question about that ... I know that, uh, as, as all of this begins to grow, you know, you've, you've been an adventurer also in your, in your private life [00:12:50] and, um, I know you're very humble about this, but this is one of the things that when we first met each other in person, we started talking and realized we've got, you know, mutual friends across multiple disciplines.
[00:12:59] Slick: And, you know, one of, [00:13:00] one of the folks, uh, that w- was inspiring to both of us is Ed Viesturs. I had an opportunity to climb with Ed. I know that you know Ed and, and, and Jennifer on our team grew up with Ed. So it's just, it's just [00:13:10] really cool the, the personal, uh, connections there. But, uh, you, you get into alpine mountain climbing, which is something I, I, uh, also enjoy doing.
[00:13:17] Slick: But I think, um- [00:13:20] You shared this story with me that I, I really want to touch on of... So you talk about being on the side of Aconcagua, which for folks that don't know that mountain, it's the-- one of the seven s- seven summits, [00:13:30] highest peak in South America. So can you walk us through your experience?
[00:13:33] Dylan Taylor: Yeah.
[00:13:34] Dylan Taylor: Well, I appreciate you saying I'm an alpine climber. I wouldn't put myself quite in that category, uh, Slick. But I do, [00:13:40] I do have this sense for, um, pushing myself, right? I do, you know, uh, triathlons, and I do, you know, kind of long distance endurance [00:13:50] things, and a lot of weekend warrior competition. So I, I love that part of it, and I love the sense of adventure like, like you were talking about.
[00:13:56] Dylan Taylor: So, uh, Aconcagua, I was really fascinated [00:14:00] geographically by Mendoza and Argentina and all that. Sure. And I'd read a couple of books about that tragic, uh, you know, plane crash that happened, you know, in that region as well. There's a [00:14:10] great movie also, um, Seven Years in Tibet with Brad Pitt that was shot in that entire valley.
[00:14:15] Dylan Taylor: So I was really a fan of... You know, to me, I'm not a box checker, like, "Hey, let me do this seven [00:14:20] summits." That's not the way I think. But if it's experiential and it's part of a larger theme, uh, I had-- was always fascinated by the Andes. I spent time in Peru. I spent time at Machu [00:14:30] Picchu. I did part of the Inca Trail.
[00:14:32] Dylan Taylor: And to me, it's just majestic. You know, even I went to the Atacama Desert, driest place on Earth, uh, on a mount- mountain biking trip, and, and just [00:14:40] kind of fell in love with the Andes. So that was the context of Aconcagua. Um, and it's a beast, right? It's an absolute beast. It's a beast. And so we, we [00:14:50] attempted, we failed.
[00:14:51] Dylan Taylor: Um, we didn't summit. And what I'm proud about there, and I think it's the heart of your question, is we turned around, or I should say I turned around. [00:15:00] The other people in the party chose to, to wait out the weather a bit. They still ended up turning around. But, you know, to me, it's actually back to Ed Viesturs.
[00:15:07] Dylan Taylor: I had read Ed's, Ed's book, [00:15:10] and there's a chapter in there. He, he's written several books. I forget which one it was. But there's a chapter in there that talks about, um, unsuccessful climbs, risk, you [00:15:20] know, all these kinds of things. I think it was in the context of Everest. And his thesis was, I'll never forget this, he said, "The people who fail and put the teams in danger [00:15:30] are actually the most ambitious, the most goal-oriented people."
[00:15:33] Dylan Taylor: Because they don't have the judgment. They're so blinded by ambition, which by the way, this is my career, right? You [00:15:40] know, we'll, we'll talk about how we, how we transitioned into space, but for years I was sleepwalking through I wanna run the biggest company. I wanna, you know, it's all about like [00:15:50] span of control as opposed to like being thoughtful and conscious about what is it that I'm actually doing?
[00:15:56] Dylan Taylor: Like what difference am I making, right? Of,
[00:15:58] Slick: of course. You know, and, [00:16:00] and, and going back to being on the, on the side of the mountain and making that decision when you've got, what, 30 to 40 knot winds, uh, literally could just pull you off the side of the [00:16:10] mountain, uh, the risk that you have to your teammates on the rope, and of course the desire and the ambition to succeed, right?
[00:16:18] Slick: 'Cause that's always the question [00:16:20] for folks about asking about a mountain climb. "Well, did you make it to the top?" Because if you don't make it to the top, it's seen as a failure, which I would aggressively argue that that's not the case. It is the [00:16:30] discipline and the decision-making, um, and you make the tough call 'cause you, of course you wanna make it to the top to turn around and they- It was an
[00:16:38] Dylan Taylor: easy call.
[00:16:39] Dylan Taylor: It's like-
[00:16:39] Slick: It w- [00:16:40] uh,
[00:16:40] Dylan Taylor: it was
[00:16:40] Slick: that bad? It was an easy
[00:16:41] Dylan Taylor: decision. Okay. It was that bad, and there was a group ahead of us. There were four of them, and a young woman lost all eight of her fingers. She kept her thumbs, but, um, and they did [00:16:50] not listen. And the problem is it wasn't 40 knot winds up top. It was 120 kph Uh, winds.
[00:16:55] Dylan Taylor: So, uh, you know, it doesn't matter what you're wearing, it's [00:17:00] gonna be too cold, right? You're gonna be exposed. And then, um, not that season, but the previous season with roughly the same kinds of winds, I think there were 140 kph, uh, [00:17:10] two guys got blown off the mountain. So to me, once I assessed the situation, I'm like, "I'm going to base camp."
[00:17:15] Dylan Taylor: And it was actually an easy decision because I had Ed Viesturs on my mind. [00:17:20] Um, I had the commitment I made to my family, you know, don't take too much risk. Um, so it was a... I know it sounds hard, but it, it was actually a no-brainer.
[00:17:28] Slick: Yeah. I, I... [00:17:30] It, it's a great point of, uh, you know, we do these things because they're hard, uh, and we want to have the, the sense of accomplishment, but it's also, uh, having the, the training goal [00:17:40] in mind, right?
[00:17:40] Slick: "Hey, I'm gonna climb this mountain," or, "I'm gonna run this race in 90 days," right? And so it's, it's a way to keep yourself disciplined, uh, during that time a- as you're training and becoming better, right? And, [00:17:50] uh, we want that to overflow into the other aspects of our lives of being husbands and fathers and, and, and leaders and all those kind of things.
[00:17:56] Slick: But, uh-
[00:17:57] Dylan Taylor: Here's one interesting thing about the way my, my [00:18:00] mind works, like I, I don't know why it works, but I'm happy it does this way. I, uh, golf. You asked me the other day, "Do you golf?" I, I do golf. I don't golf very well. So let's say I shoot a [00:18:10] 110. I'll have, you know, 103 bad shots and seven good shots. The only thing I remember are the seven good shots.
[00:18:16] Dylan Taylor: It's just the way my brain works. So when you think Aconcagua, I [00:18:20] don't think horrible experience, bad weather, miserable, didn't make it. I think of the beautiful experience I had in Mendoza. I think of that unbelievable valley, the walk up. I think [00:18:30] about base camp. I think about the people I met, and I have a very romantic notion of the trip, you know, even though it was a failure.
[00:18:36] Dylan Taylor: Same thing with Kilimanjaro. You know, that ended up being successful, [00:18:40] but there were some really difficult parts of that climb with a few of the people on our team. I don't remember that. Sure. I just remember the, the, the beauty of, uh, us all being together on the summit.
[00:18:49] Slick: And, and [00:18:50] that's great, and that is a great, uh, segue to, you know, your mindset and who you are as a person.
[00:18:55] Slick: That directly translates into your vision [00:19:00] for exploration and I believe, getting to know you, uh, your motivation for creating Voyager, right? You are an optimist. You are, uh, a, [00:19:10] an explorer and, and I, I will s- use the word dreamer, not from this fictitious, you know, uh, idea, but like truly of the [00:19:20] things that we would put in the, in the category of fantasy But making that a reality, find-- then taking your, you know, uh, your engineering mind and, and [00:19:30] problem-solving mind of how to take something that just seems twenty fifty, things that we can't even think about- Yeah
[00:19:36] Slick: but building and pulling that forward to, uh, becoming [00:19:40] reality today. So y-you're-you've had all of the success in business, uh, you're living a, a wonderful, adventurous life, and then you decide it's time to [00:19:50] focus on human space flight exploration. We'll talk the three Ls and all this stuff, but w-what was the pivot point?
[00:19:57] Slick: You know, whe- that, that just that you-- And I know [00:20:00] y-you had to have woken up one day or had a conversation with, with Gabrielle and said, "Okay, we're making a change." What, what was that moment?
[00:20:06] Dylan Taylor: You know, it started much earlier. So having all this [00:20:10] success, in quotes, you know, and I really put it in quotes, in running these large organizations, making a bunch of money, which I thought was important at the time, which it's not.
[00:20:18] Dylan Taylor: Um, you know, money is a [00:20:20] trap, and there, there are other traps, but that's one of them. I just reached a poise-- a, a place where I, I wasn't feeling fulfilled. You know, I didn't feel like it was purposeful. I didn't feel like it was [00:20:30] meaningful. I didn't really like the people I was working with, you know, just like to be honest with you.
[00:20:33] Dylan Taylor: And it, it was more an existential crisis of why am I here? Right? Like, why, why does this [00:20:40] matter? And so that was really the reflection. And then, you know, I mentioned this, I think, to a couple people before previously, but, you know, I read this, uh, book, The Last Lecture, which [00:20:50] is also a lecture on YouTube, really gets you to think about what are you truly passionate about.
[00:20:54] Dylan Taylor: You know, go back in your childhood, really kind of probe those early memories. And for me, it had always been space. [00:21:00] Always space, always exploration. What's over the hill? Um, but this romantic notion of space really as a tool for transformation [00:21:10] and/or space as a template, template for what could be possible, I, I just was always, like, fascinated by that.
[00:21:16] Dylan Taylor: You know, and it's a cliché, but like even Star Trek, everyone's getting [00:21:20] along. There's plenty of stuff. Um, there's a new planet to explore every, every week, right? So that's really what I was searching for. And there was a guy named Eric Anderson, who's [00:21:30] still a good friend to this day, who was doing some of the early human space flights.
[00:21:34] Dylan Taylor: He was responsible for sending Dennis, uh, Tito up. He and I were friends via the World [00:21:40] Economic Forum. I had met him in Davos. We were part of a young globe-- global leader group that I was part of. And I said, "Look, Eric, I'm super passionate about this. How can I get plugged into the [00:21:50] industry?" And really started as an early-stage investor, uh, getting to know the entrepreneurs, the business plans.
[00:21:56] Dylan Taylor: Uh, then I ended up writing a few kind of seminal [00:22:00] articles for Space News. And because I had been in these different industries, I could sort of prognosticate- Sure ... what was going to happen in the industry, and people were like, "How, how did you know that was gonna [00:22:10] happen?" I'm like, "Because these are industry patterns that repeat."
[00:22:14] Dylan Taylor: So that's how I initially got involved, and then the more I got involved, the more I loved it, uh, and the more I realized that [00:22:20] was my, my future. And then about that time is when, uh, and Matt will have a different story of this. I, I'll tell you the real story. Uh, but [00:22:30] about that time is when I met Matt and, uh, you know, agreed to essentially be his mentor.
[00:22:34] Dylan Taylor: He was just getting out of the military and he was in business school. And that's when he and I, [00:22:40] um, started thinking about can we create something special? Can we create Voyager?
[00:22:44] Slick: Well, and, and you've been, you know, quoted as, you know, the guy that can see around corners, which is incredible [00:22:50] because you've got the track record of seeing the market indicators and, and where it's going and finding that inflection point to, to make the early investment, um, you know, uh, [00:23:00] to, to really know when to throw down.
[00:23:01] Slick: And of course, Matt has been a great partner, uh, with the, the way that the two of you interact together is just, it- it's really incredible to see. Um-
[00:23:09] Dylan Taylor: A lot of luck [00:23:10] though on the investment side. Just like-
[00:23:11] Slick: Okay ...
[00:23:11] Dylan Taylor: a lot of luck.
[00:23:12] Slick: Again, your humility comes through, but, uh, and I appreciate, always appreciate that about you.
[00:23:17] Slick: Um, and so then you decide, okay, we're gonna [00:23:20] form Voyager.
[00:23:21] Dylan Taylor: Yeah.
[00:23:21] Slick: That's right. Which initially I think began, you know, more on the investing side, right? With, with your background, you and, and both Matt. A
[00:23:28] Dylan Taylor: little bit that. I mean, [00:23:30] I think we probably out of the gates made a little bit of a mistake calling it a holding company because...
[00:23:34] Dylan Taylor: And then I think people thought, "Okay, well this is a collection of investments." It was re- really never our plan [00:23:40] for it to be that, but I think that's kind of, 'cause we had seeded it with some investments that I had made, I think that was a little bit kind of a branding issue. You know, thank goodness we've got, [00:23:50] you know, branding geniuses like you in the organization now.
[00:23:53] Dylan Taylor: But, um, but yeah, it was alw- always really envisioned to be an operating company, public, publicly traded, so [00:24:00] purpose-built to be a public company. Uh, we admired, you know, Danaher, HEICO, companies like that, that were well run. But what we believed was the industry really needed... We were actually really [00:24:10] concerned.
[00:24:10] Dylan Taylor: You know, we looked at the, um, defense side of the equation. We're like, "We're getting our clock cleaned by our adversaries, and we're falling further and further behind." And the [00:24:20] companies charged with building the technologies to bridge that gap are asleep at the wheel, and they're order takers, not solution providers.
[00:24:29] Dylan Taylor: Uh, and [00:24:30] the entrepreneurs who have the solutions don't really understand how to scale their companies. So we're like, this is a strategic imperative on the national security and defense side. And on the space side, [00:24:40] very similar. We were inspired by SpaceX and others that were making impact, but it's like we looked around the industry, it's like, who else is, like, innovating, uh, and scaling, [00:24:50] right?
[00:24:50] Dylan Taylor: Those were the two, the two things. And so we said, "Okay, can we create this best of both worlds? And if we can, the customer will gravitate towards that. The [00:25:00] customers will gravitate towards a platform like that. And probably more importantly, the best people in the industry will wanna work for a company like that."
[00:25:06] Slick: Sure. And then you look at where we are today. We've got [00:25:10] live feeds coming in from the International Space Station, where we have, uh, our, our commercial hardware, uh, have mission managed over 1,400, uh, events there. Uh, we are [00:25:20] the conduit. Uh, we are doing a commercial market, and, uh, and that was, again, you, you, uh, doing an investment in order to unlock potential to then grow [00:25:30] into, uh, past performance into a visionary event, and we can't not talk about Starlab.
[00:25:36] Dylan Taylor: Yeah. Right. Well, you know, live on screen we're seeing, I think this [00:25:40] is Jessica Meir, uh, doing an experiment on the International Space Station. So having the service and research expertise led to Bishop Airlock, piece of [00:25:50] human-rated hardware, only part of sovereign-owned real estate on the International Space Station.
[00:25:55] Dylan Taylor: And that really then unlocked, when we competed for CLD phase one, Commercial [00:26:00] LEO Destination phase one, I think that's the main reason we won, is because we had the services con- component, mission management component, and we had demonstrated human-rated hardware with the [00:26:10] Bishop Airlock, Bishop being named after the chess piece.
[00:26:13] Dylan Taylor: And then of course, Starlab, I mean, what can we say, right? We've got this mock-up at Building nine. It's super impressive. It's, you [00:26:20] know, three story, you know, building, six decks, uh, seven meter diameter, uh, 100% of the research capacity of the International Space [00:26:30] Station. And we've got this great, uh, international consortium of partners, you know, Airbus, Mitsubishi, Palantir, uh, MDA, you know, Hilton [00:26:40] Hotels, you name it.
[00:26:41] Dylan Taylor: So yeah, I'm, I'm super excited about that. And, you know, we've got this, um, I think we'll get into it, the three L strategy. Uh, first L being lo- [00:26:50] LEO, low Earth orbit. That's where Starlab's gonna be. Second being lunar. We've got lots of exciting things happening on lunar. Uh, and the third is Lagrange, which is really a proxy for [00:27:00] deep space.
[00:27:01] Dylan Taylor: But these stable orbits, uh, about a million miles from Earth, uh, that, you know, really allow you to do interesting things in deep space.
[00:27:08] Slick: Right. Well, we, [00:27:10] we fully understand based on, on the history here, um, at Voyager, everything that can be unlocked in LEO. So let's, let's talk about lunar, because we just [00:27:20] got to witness Artemis, which was just amazing.
[00:27:23] Slick: Um- I wasn't around for, uh, uh, for the Apollo missions, but, uh, I know that we've as, as a nation [00:27:30] lived around that legacy, and it's just so cool for us to witness and, and our kids to see the inspiration, uh, that this last mission has done with the focus to go back to the moon. [00:27:40] So from a lunar perspective, I mean, I, I know that you get excited about it, and I wanna hear, you know, what you, uh, the vision is over the next few years and how Voyager's gonna be part of that.[00:27:50]
[00:27:50] Dylan Taylor: Well, back to my dad. So, you know, being a advanced material scientist, he was doing a lot of plasma reactor advanced material work. So he was part of the team that had moon [00:28:00] regolith, you know, doing a lot of these advanced experiments on- How cool ... what you can unlock. Yeah, I mean- How cool ... everything has come full circle.
[00:28:05] Dylan Taylor: It, it's amazing. Um, yeah, so what can you say about the moon? I mean, [00:28:10] you know, you're on your porch in the... I don't know where your summer place is, uh, Slack, but let's say it's in, you know, the, uh, Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee, and you're on your porch, [00:28:20] and you're looking at the moon, and there's lights on the moon, and there's lights up there because there are people living and working up there, and that's where we're headed, right?
[00:28:27] Dylan Taylor: And I, I'm just super excited [00:28:30] about that. And, and, um, you know, it's, it's within our reach, right? So what do you need to have successful lunar commerce? Uh, and [00:28:40] think of it as, as the eighth continent, right? Right. That's what I like to think of the moon as. I love it. Uh, you need power, uh, you need, uh, mobility, and you need habitation, right?
[00:28:49] Dylan Taylor: [00:28:50] And all those different technologies we've got strategies for. Uh, habitation with our investment in max space Power, we're working on something really big, uh, which I, I hope [00:29:00] to announce very soon, at probably about the time that this, uh, comes out. Uh, and then very similarly with propulsion and mobility.
[00:29:07] Dylan Taylor: You know, that's a key part of our technology [00:29:10] stack as well. Um, and then lot, lots of other, I'll call it picks and shovels technology, like optical c- uh, communications, uh, optical navigation and [00:29:20] control. Uh, we have this really unique dust-coating technology which helps mitigate lunar dust. Uh, we also have some water extraction [00:29:30] technology for moon regolith.
[00:29:31] Dylan Taylor: Um, so think of this technology stack all, uh, being mutually reinforcing and allowing us to live and work on the [00:29:40] moon and being... having an important role in that.
[00:29:42] Slick: Right. And, you know, we, we often talk about the convergence, right, of, of all these small pieces coming together and just unlocking, [00:29:50] uh, the next, the next big step, which we know is a permanent moon base, and being part of that is just incredible.
[00:29:56] Slick: Again, that goes back to your personality of being, uh, how do I take something [00:30:00] that feels like a dream and, and pull it forward, uh, and make it tangible, uh, and make it something that everybody can be part of. Um, I do wanna touch on, we just had a [00:30:10] trip, uh, talking to our partners, uh, through the Vista program.
[00:30:12] Slick: Yeah, right. So can you walk us through Vista really quickly?
[00:30:14] Dylan Taylor: Well, Vista I think is a genius idea, and I credit you, Slick, and Jeff Manber, and other senior [00:30:20] people in the company for really unlocking this idea. But back to research pipeline innovation. So whether it's microgravity, right, which is a magic laboratory, [00:30:30] or it's the lunar environment, how do you create a research consortium of universities around the world who are focused on these research areas that, um, can collaborate [00:30:40] with one another and also create, uh, experiments or different things that could, um, create ultimately missions and payloads that would go to Leo or [00:30:50] a lunar or a Lagrange?
[00:30:51] Dylan Taylor: Right? And so think of this as almost like a, a research flywheel where the research i- i- uh, areas are identified. Funding is, [00:31:00] in many cases, coming from private industry 'cause they're interested in developing these technologies. Uh, most of the best research happens with consortiums of global [00:31:10] universities around the world.
[00:31:11] Dylan Taylor: Having these kind of almo- almost think of it as a physical science park where these scientists are working and collaborating and cross-pollinating And that [00:31:20] entire infrastructure ultimately driving commerce and research and commercialization to Starlab and Leo, the lunar, [00:31:30] uh, infrastructure we're building, and Lagrange and deep space.
[00:31:34] Slick: It's so cool.
[00:31:34] Dylan Taylor: So yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's such a good idea, and the universities love it. Um, [00:31:40] and if you look at the research areas that are applicable, you know, it's advanced robotics, it's data science, it's material crystal growth, it's biopharma, it's [00:31:50] organelles. It's all the things that are exciting in the world today.
[00:31:53] Slick: It is. And from your-- talking about your life and your life arc, it really just comes back full circle.
[00:31:59] Dylan Taylor: It [00:32:00] does.
[00:32:00] Slick: I mean, to the fact that you, you grew up in a, in a home led by a, a research professor, uh, from an international perspective with the students that he [00:32:10] taught and became part of your life, to now building a physical place that all of this research is gonna happen, and then having this hub and spoke that goes [00:32:20] out across our, our nation, and then with our international partners.
[00:32:23] Slick: I mean- Yeah ... it is a really amazing story, Dylan. I can't say thanks enough for you being here, uh, sharing [00:32:30] more about, uh, your life and, and your leadership and, uh, and all of your experiences and contributing and giving all of that back to now the next generation, 'cause [00:32:40] we are gonna inspire thousands of young people that wanna become astronauts, uh, and, and all of that.
[00:32:47] Slick: So again, I can't say thank you enough for taking your time, [00:32:50] uh, for supporting us, uh, sharing the Voyager story, and, uh, we're just looking forward to next steps.
[00:32:54] Dylan Taylor: Well said. Space is the place, Slick.
[00:32:57] Slick: Space is the place. I love it. Well, [00:33:00] thank you so much for tuning into our first podcast. We are so excited of what we're gonna bring you this season.
[00:33:04] Slick: We're gonna talk to the other leaders. We're gonna talk to other industry leaders outside of, uh, Voyager [00:33:10] itself, and I would just-- it's so excited to take you on this [00:33:20] ride.