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Rocket Labs pivot from small launch darling to serious SpaceX competitor is about to be tested. The Long Beach, California-based company has already sent 12 of its light-lift Electron rockets into space in 2025, carrying payloads for commercial and government customers, with several more planned before the end of the year from its Virginia and New Zealand launch sites. But the next several months are pivotal, as Rocket Lab races to bring its next-generation, medium-lift Neutron rocket to the launchpad before years end. Its an ambitious timeline, CEO Peter Beck acknowledges, and the company will need to hit all its marks in the coming weeks to meet it. “When we put a vehicle on the pad, we do not expect it to fail,” Beck tells me in our wide-ranging conversation. “If you look at our launch vehicle, our spacecraft history, generally the stuff that we build works the first time.” But with the success of Neutron, Rocket Lab will be able stake its claim as a major player in space-defense infrastructure. Neutron can carry nearly 28,000 pounds, perfect for launching larger satellite constellations and national security missions. Already, Rocket Lab is building satellites for missile defense systems, broadband, and more. As he prepares for the first flight of Neutron, Beck talked with me about whats riding on this next-gen vehicle, how the companys long-term strategy hinges on making it work, and why launchpad explosions are not part of his development plan. In this Premium piece, you will learn: The massive cost savings Rocket Lab is achieving on Neutron compared with the competition How Beck bested more than 100 small launch companies to dominate that market What he’s doing to put Rocket Lab in position to be a “real provider” for the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense project Why the major space companies of the future will be “a little bit blurry” in terms of their mission Weve seen mixed outcomes among your launch competitors this year, with some notable flameouts. How do you see the state of competition right now? I think everybody can declare that the small-launch race has been won, right? Electron has really hit a high cadence this year, and weve had a lot of customers all turning up on time, which is fantastic. I remember when we started the Electron [program], there were more than 100 small launch companies and billions of dollars flowed into small-launch. Astra consumed $400 million or so in their program [before going private last year and refocusing on engine building]. Virgin Orbit spent $1.2 billion on their program [before filing for Chapter 11]. ABL spent $300 million or $400 million, and so it goes. Firefly is sending payloads into the ocean. I think the medium-launch market is going to end up in a similar way. There are a few programs that are funded, and I think that will sort itself out and there will be a viable alternative to the [Space X] Falcon 9, which is much needed for some competition in that space. Its going to be really interesting as the heavy vehicles shake out. You saw a really great flight from [United Launch Alliances] Vulcan. Youve got [Blue Origins] New Glenn coming on. So it’s getting exciting. The next phase of Rocket Labs business depends on getting the medium-lift Neutron launched. Youre still holding out hope for a launch in 2025? Things are happening in parallel and theyll all sort of crescendo at the end. It’s a green light schedulethat means everything has to go. But right now, we can see a path until there’s no path. Were not waving the white flag. And at the end of the day, if it’s not at the end of the year, it won’t be that far away. A few months here or there in the grand context of a 20-year lifecycle of a product is just totally irrelevant. One of the things that I don’t think we’ve done a good job of is putting into context that this will be a four-year-plus, $350 million rocket development program. If you look at the last two rocket development programs: The one that just launched [ULAs Vulcan launch], that was a decade and $7 billion. And another one that just launched [SpaceXs Starship] was, like, 20 years and nobody knows how many billions of dollars. In space exploration, things go wrong all the time. If the first Neutron launch failsif it explodes as weve seen from competitor rocketsare you ready to try again quickly? Let’s talk about philosophy to start with. So, we don’t put anything on the pad unless we think it’s going to work. The threshold for Electron was 92%: I said to everybody that unless you are 92% sure that your system is going to be perfectly functional, don’t put it on the pad. Other companies have philosophies where theyll take big risks and are happy to fail and fail fast. I think you can do that if you have essentially infinite capital. Our development approach is not like that. When we put a vehicle on the pad, we do not expect it to fail. If you look at our launch vehicle, our spacecraft history, generally the stuff that we build works the first time. The expectation of Neutron is that we reach orbit on the first flight. I’m not setting an expectation that we clear the pad, or that we get a good stage burn or nominate so many seconds of flightthat’s all bullshit. The idea here is to get to orbit. The one area I would appreciate people giving us some slack on is the reentry and landing, because thats new and it took a company a very long time to master. But if the worst happens, we have enough capital reserves to fund the entire program three times over. So it would be disappointing. Someone would need to leave me alone for a couple of days. But it presents no existential threat to the company whatsoever. How quickly can you establish the kind or regular launch cadence you now have with Electron? At the moment, theres one Electron rolling off the line every 11 days. With the Neutron, we’ve been really consistent that our bill rate will be one, three, and five [for the first three years]. Although everybody wants it to be faster, that’s what it takes. You need that dwell time between those flights to make the upgrades and the learnings that you see and to build that into your manufacturing. With Electron, we put a factory in that was capable of producing one Electron every week, and we are at one every 11 days now. We haven’t bought or added any capital equipment. We followed the exact same approach with Neutron. At our Middle River, [Maryland] facility, we invested in a 90-ton, three-story building where we build all of the composite components for the vehicle. We have the Archimedes engine factory, in Virgin Orbit’s old factory building [in Long Beach, California]. So we’re able to really build that scale quickly. The one wrinkle here with Neutron is that its a reusable first stage. So the highest production rate we will ever have of stage ones at least is at the beginning of the program. And then stage ones get replaced once every 10 or 20 flights. Launch services are just one part of Rocket Labs business. Where do the others stand right now? On the space-system [spacecraft components] side, we continue to build out scale there with pending acquisitions of companies like Mynaric [a German manufacturer of laser communication equipment], which are a really key elment. And the third pillar is youve seen us for the first time move into payloads, which is squarely focused on national security. We think with the opportunities that are there right now, that is exactly the right place to be focused. Can you explain what you mean by payloads? The sensor. Basically, you only build a satellite to host the sensor. The sensor is doing the work, and you only launch a satellite because you need to put the sensor in orbit. So, everything revolves around the sensor, whether it’s an antenna for doing broadband or it’s a telescope for doing Earth observation, it is the reason that you build something and go to space. And thats the reason for acquiring Geost, which makes electro-optical and infrared sensor systems? The acquisition of Geost positions us to be a disruptive player in [defense] programs such as the Golden Dome. Its not quite the Manhattan Project, but not that far off, with massive spending. And the space domain piece of that is core. Our aspirations are slightly larger than just to be a part of it. We want to be a real provider. And the payload, or sensor, acquisition of Geost is a key element for that missile defense infrastructure that we now have under our belt. With the continuing uncertainty around the Ukraine conflict and U.S. involvement with NATO, have you had more demand from governments in Europe, too? With the world today, unfortunately, everybody is looking at their defense strategy. I’d say we are just getting our feet in Europe. Obviously, we’ve won some launch contracts for the European Space Agency on Electron, and our components business has sold into Europe for a long time. But once we close the acquisition of Mynaric, well have a German base. If you look at how weve expanded globally, Europe is the next big opportunity for us outside America. Have changes in government contracting under the Trump administration, and the DOGE cuts, impacted your business? Have you benefited from the Trump-Musk falling out? I have a policy not to comment on politics. Unlike my competitor, I’m just a humble rocket guy. But what I will say is that there is more desire than ever to have a really fulfilled competitive landscape within launch especially. And both commercial customers and government customers really, really want Neutron to come along and provide some competition in a market that has become a little bit less competitive over time. Do you think the space industry will look very different five years from now? If I have my way, it will. I think it’s going to become very clear, if its not already, that the really large space companies of the future are going to be a little bit blurry about how much of a space company they are and how much of something-else company they are. I mean, if we look at our friends over at SpaceX, are they a telecommunications company, or are they a space company? It has always been our ethos and our belief that if you have the ability to build the spacecraft and launch it and deploy it in orbit at a rate that’s faster than anybody else, then you have a distinct advantage. That’s been proven out with Starlink. The only way to be competitive with Starlink is to have your own ability to launch at will, at mass, at cadence, your own satellites. I think that will become true in a lot of domains in space. And so there’ll be a relatively small number of companies that have launch and manufacturing capabilities who will be the large players. Does that mean that many of your current competitors will not be around in five years? I dont know if they’re still around, or they morph, they adapt? Thats up to them. As the industry changes and adapts, you can have your Kodak moment or not, right?
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Resilience is often misunderstood. Were taught to think of it as some hardened mental posturethe ability to push through pain, to toughen up, to bend and not break. But real resilience doesnt come from brute strength. It comes from self-understanding. From owning your truth, finding meaning in your pain, and choosing who you want to become in the face of your worst fears. I learned that the hard way. At 19 years old, I took another mans life and was sentenced to 17 to 40 years in prison. I would spend 19 years behind bars, seven of them in solitary confinement. I went into that system broken, angry, and afraid. And for a long time, I let that pain define me. But at my lowest pointtrapped in a cell the size of a parking space, cut off from the worldI made a decision. I chose to change. I began to write. I read hundreds of books. I confronted the darkest parts of myself and committed to something radical: I was going to rebuild my identity from the inside out. That process didnt happen overnight. It happened through small, daily choices. The same way we build muscle in the gym, I built resilience by showing up for myself when no one else could. What I learned in that cell has guided me every day sincethrough my reentry into society, through building relationships, raising children, writing books, working with CEOs, and speaking on stages around the world. Here are a few of the most powerful lessons I took from that experience: 1. You have to tell yourself the truth. At the core of any transformation is brutal honesty. Most of us are in denialabout our pain, our patterns, our past. We bury the things we dont want to face. But until you confront your truth, youre a prisoner to it. For me, the truth was that I had been deeply wounded long before I ever picked up a gun. I had unresolved trauma, I felt unworthy of love, and I didnt know how to ask for help. Prison forced me to stop running from that truth. It taught me that freedom begins where denial ends. 2. You are not your worst decision. One of the most damaging myths we carry is that we are defined by the worst thing weve done. That belief keeps us locked in shameand it keeps others from seeing our humanity. I will never forget what I did. I live with that every day. But I also know that Im more than my past. The man I am todayfather, author, mentor, friendis a result of years of conscious work, reflection, and growth. You dont have to stay stuck in the story someone else wrote about you. 3. Stillness is a superpower. Solitary confinement is designed to break people. And for a long time, it nearly broke me. I was angry, bitter, and desperate for an outlet. But in that silence, I began to hear myself clearly. I began to feel emotions Id numbed for years. Stillness became my teacher. In the outside world, were surrounded by noise. But resilience requires space. You cant rebuild yourself in chaos. Whether its five minutes of breathing or an hour of journaling, carve out silence. Your growth depends on it. 4. You can choose your thoughts. This was the biggest revelation of all: I didnt have to believe everything I thought. I could challenge the stories in my head. I could reframe my pain. I could interrupt the loop of self-hate and replace it with something better. In prison, that meant shifting from Ill never get out to What can I do with this time? Outside of prison, it means shifting from Im not good enough to Whats one small thing I can do today to move forward? Your mindset is your operating system. Update it as often as necessary. 5. Growth is nonlinear. Change is messy. Youll stumble. Youll relapse into old patterns. I certainly did. But I kept coming back to the vision I had for my life. I held onto the version of myself I hadnt yet become. The goal isnt to be perfectits to keep growing. Thats what resilience really is: not avoiding failure, but learning how to recover with grace. These lessons didnt just help me survive prisonthey helped me lead. Today, I speak to leaders around the world about trust, culture, and transformation. And I tell them what I know to be true: the same tools that saved my life can strengthen their teams, their families, and themselves. Because in the end, were all doing time. Were all navigating systems, stories, and struggles that can box us in. The question is: will you let those constraints define youor will you choose to break free?Adapted from How to Be Free by Shaka Senghor. Copyright 2025. Reprinted by permission of Authors Equity.
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E-Commerce
The fastest way to destroy value in a high-potential company isnt a bad market, its scaling a business that isnt ready to grow. And this article highlights one of the few ways you can identify and take action before you find out the hard way. Mid-market companies ($20M$200M in revenue) often attract private equity attention for their expansion potential. Yet many hit a ceiling post-close, not because of market miscalculations, but because internal maturityacross leadership, systems, and culturelags behind external ambitions. Scaling when this is present magnifies disorder, not value. This is what we call the growth trap: a condition where external growth initiatives overwhelm internal capacity, suppressing returns and elongating the value creation timeline, ultimately delaying or decreasing returns. For private equity firms seeking faster time-to-scale and stronger exit readiness, avoiding this trap requires one critical shift: treat internal capability as the foundation for growthnot a post-acquisition fix. I. The Anatomy of the Growth Trap The growth trap isnt caused by ambitionits caused by misalignment. In dozens of post-acquisition performance reviews, we observed a consistent pattern of dysfunctions that emerge when growth outpaces infrastructure: Premature Expansion: Companies rush into new markets or product lines without conducting thorough due diligence or assessing the organizational impact. Operational Inefficiencies: Existing processes, often adequate for smaller operations, become bottlenecks as the company scales. Lack of standardized procedures, inadequate technology, and poor communication lead to operational chaos. Talent Gaps: Rapid growth exposes weaknesses in the talent pool. Existing employees may lack the skills or experience required for larger-scale operations. Recruitment and training lag behind expansion, leaving critical roles unfilled or filled with underqualified individuals. Culture Shock: Growth triggers significant cultural shifts that are often underestimated. Existing cultures can be disrupted, resulting in employee resistance, decreased morale, and a decline in productivity. Data consistently shows that organizational culture is not a soft factor but a core driver of business performance and growth. McKinseys Organizational Health Index further revealed that companies with healthy cultures deliver shareholder returns 60% higher than their peers and are more resilient during transformational change. Leadership Deficiencies: Leadership is the top internal determinant of a firms performance. Leaders may struggle to adapt their management style to the demands of a larger, more complex organization. This can lead to a lack of strategic direction, poor decision-making, and an inability to drive change. II. How Private Equity Can Learn to Architect Scalable Growth The good news: private equity firms can insure the operating company is uniquely positioned to intervene early, structure operational discipline, and drive scalability as a value lever. Rather than seeing talent and systems as post-close cleanup, the most effective firms approach internal optimization as a precondition for external expansion. Below is a four-part playbook to prevent or reverse the growth trapone that places people, process, and leadership at the center of value creation. We have implemented this strategy with business leaders that plan to scale to ensure the company is ready for growth. 1. Culture Change as a Strategic Imperative: Recognize that scaling is a significant change management effort, not just a transaction. Implement structured change management programs that address employee concerns and build buy-in. Foster a culture of accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement. 2. Right People, Right Roles: Conduct thorough organizational assessments to identify talent gaps and define clear roles and responsibilities. Invest in talent acquisition and development programs to build a high-performing team. Implement performance management systems that align individual goals with organizational objectives. 3. Operational Excellence: Streamline and standardize processes to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Invest in technology that supports scalability and automation. Implement robust data analytics to monitor performance and identify areas for improvement. 4. Strategic Leadership: Provide leadership coaching and development to equip executives with the skills needed to manage a larger organization. Foster a culture of strategic thinking and data-driven decision-making. Ensure clear communication and alignment across all levels of the organization. III. Case studies in transformation Here are a few examples of how our strategic partnerships can support growth. Case Study 1: Operational Discipline Drives Margin Expansion in Residential Construction A $50M portfolio company in the housing sector had ambitions to double revenue within five years. Initial efforts to scale via geographic expansion quickly exposed deep inefficienciesmanual scheduling systems, undocumented workflows, and informal project tracking. Operational leadership halted expansion efforts and implemented a scalable operations framework: documented and aligned operational processes and procedures, established a decision making framework on go/no go work, developed a KPI dashboard and standardized billable time and project tracking mechanisms. A new organizational design was rolled out to expand in multi-region rollouts. Within 12 months, operational waste dropped, top-line revenue grew, and margins improved, setting the stage for accelerated yet sustainable growth. Case Study 2: Culture Integration in a $1B Construction Firm A construction portfolio company scaling from $200M to $1B through acquisition faced significant cultural turbulence. Top talent exited due to unclear roles and shifting norms. Productivity dipped despite rising demand. Recognizing culture as a performance variable, the operators introduced a dedicated integration officer and initiated quarterly culture pulse surveys across acquired units. A “culture blueprint” was developed and shared through onboarding and leadership workshops. Within nine months, employee engagement scores rose and project delivery timelines improved, aligning performance with scale. Case Study 3: Scalable Leadership in a Bank Growing to $5B in Assets A regional bank executing a roll-up strategy grew from 800 to 3,000+ employees and from under $500M to $5B in assets in five years. Despite strong top-line growth, internal systems and leadership infrastructure struggled to keep pace. Operations implemented a focus on people, process, and technology integration. A shared operating model, “Shared Success, Shared Failure,” was adopted for each acquisition.The result: unified reporting lines, reduced duplication, and a shared cultural identity that anchored the business through hyper-growth. Case Study 4: Strategic Joint Ventures in Electrical Fabrication An electrical fabrication firm in the industrial services sector aimed to expand via joint ventures but lacked process rigor and alignment. Integration efforts stalled as internal teams were unclear on ownership, accountability, and delivery standards. Through a post-investment diagnostic, the operator firm uncovered structural issues in project ownership and communication. A centralized Project Management Office was created, roles were clarified, and joint venture integration playbooks were deployed. The company improved 25% in on-time project delivery within three quarters, unlocking the next wave of JV opportunities. IV. The takeaways For Private Equity Investors: Diligence Beyond the Deck: Evaluate internal readinessnot just market potentialduring diligence. Ask: Can the current systems, people, and leadership model handle 2x scale? Value Creation = Infrastructure + Strategy: True value creation doesnt begin at revenue accelerationit begins with operational predictability. People as Assets: View top talent not just as cost centers but as scale enablers. Investing in leadership often yields higher ROI than bolt-ons. For Portfolio Company Leaders: Build Before You Scale: Rushing growth without aligning structure will burn resources and reputation. Dedicate time and budget to organizational development as a proactive strategy. Make Culture Explicit: Dont let culture drift during scale. Define, document, and live the behaviors that will carry the organization forward. Train Leaders for Tomorrow: Your leadership team must evolve alongside the company. Equip them now to manage complexity later. Prioritize Culture: For all involved, prioritizing culture leads to better financial performance and outcomes. Studies show that when PE-backed firms prioritize culture, they see up to 2.3 times better financial performance and 25% higher first-year post-acquisition results when using experienced integration specialists to bridge cultural gaps. V. A Real and Present Danger The growth trap is a real and present danger for midsize companies. By understanding the underlying causes of this phenomenon and implementing an integrated strategy that prioritizes people, processes, and leadership, private equity firms can unlock significant value and drive sustainable growth. The key is to recognize that scaling is not just about increasing revenue; it’s about building a strong, resilient organization that can thrive in a dynamic market. By focusing on internal optimization, PE firms can insure their portfolio companies have a dedicated partner to avoid the growth trap and realize their full potential.
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E-Commerce
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