CAPTAIN’S BLOG, STARDATE August 2nd 2010

It was Scotty that started it: typical left-wing Celt. “I cannae go on giving everything Cap’n, without feeling like I have a stake in it, like I own a bit of it”. As is my wont with Scotty, I would have laughed it off, but a bunch of others piled in and agreed. My gut reaction was that everything was working pretty well so far: 4 planets in, funding in place for another 4, good “evaluation” data from Spock’s team, and so on. Still, I’m nothing if not a listening type of leader….so I heard them out.
Turns out, they had a fair enough point. I hadn’t really given our legal structure or governance much thought: too busy getting on with the job (I’ve very much from what my Uncle Bob used to call the JFDI* school of management) . We’d set up simply as a limited company, but it appears there are several different options. Scotty was all for us becoming a workers’ co-operative, while Spock had found out about some new-fangled thing called a Space Interest Company (SIC), and Uhura felt that being a registered charity would be best.

Tough call, this. Lots to weigh up: I’m certainly keen to share ownership, but also want us to be entrepreneurial and agile. I also want us to earn most of our own income, and possibly attract bigger investment in future, but be open now to some traditional start-up charitable funding. And the tax relief is appealing: the rates on our space dock are pretty scary. I also like Scotty’s point about people having shared goals and shared “skin in the game, Cap’n”; none of us are in this to get rich, so sharing risk and reward seems like a good way to go. And we’re a diverse bunch on board (Uhura once called the bridge “a microcosm of community cohesion”, which may reflect her previous role as Head of Government Jargon in the Department for In-depth Space Community Organisations), so all of those cultures being represented and benefiting definitely appeals. In time, some of those we work with might be useful to have on board as well.

Ultimately, it became pretty clear that this was a tough one to solve on our own, and that we needed specialist legal help. At least now we had a pretty clear idea of our mission, activities and financing, along with some further principles (for example, we’re going with the 1:7 ratio of salaries, which means I can only earn a maximum of 7 times the lowest-paid person; am raising their salary as I write). Someone pointed out we could get this help ‘pro-bono’ which I thought was a planet until Spock pointed out this meant it was for free; the benefits of a classical Vulcan education.

While we’re looking for legal help, I’m going to speak to a bunch of other space entrepreneurs in a similar field about why they chose their particular structure (and whether it’s worked out). Seems like a sensible place to look for advice.

Till next time, ciao.

* Just, ahem, do it

CAPTAIN’S BLOG, STARDATE July 26th  2010

I never thought I’d say it, but thank Vulcan for Spock and his spreadsheets. Since the testing on Piloti, he’s been beavering away on our pricing to see what we should charge to sustain the work (and build a bit of a war chest). He’s built our core costs, our salaries and overheads, into the unit cost, which is useful…but a bit scary, especially the heat, light and medicine here on board. I’ve had to have a pretty stern word with Scotty about our fuel costs: those dilithium crystals don’t come cheap, so he’s going to look into some renewable options that might help cut our costs. And Bones has agreed to turn off the sick-bay lights at night, and do more preventative, health and fitness work (much cheaper than treating illnesses later on with that fancy medical gadgetry of his). He’s less than delighted about the whole thing, needless to say.

Spock’s in his element, though, and it’s all good. I’ve been able to go into meetings with various potential customers, and it least if I’ve cut a few deals, I know what I’m cutting from. A relationship I’d been nurturing back at Starfleet came through as well with some central investment: it was down to a mix of great research from Uhura on what they normally fund, a stellar (no pun intended) application from Sulu, credible financials from Spock, and a fair dollop of the old James Tiberius charm. They liked the work we’d done on Piloti (and Spock’s data), and were willing to take a punt on us. Curiously, I think my honesty with them about what had gone well and what had gone badly meant they trusted us more; and they loved the stories I told that brought the work alive.

Great news for everyone: I even bought Bones a bottle of whisky to cheer him up. Spock turned down a wee dram in celebration, preferring instead to start looking for more funding and investment opportunities. Coloured spreadsheet-arama. I’ve got a few more leads that I’m pursuing more directly as well: it’s all about the face-to-face and a bit of eyelash fluttering.

Ciao for now.

CAPTAIN’S BLOG, STARDATE July 19th 2010

Everything to date has been a bit hands-off for me thus far. I’m much more of a “set phasers to stun and let’s go” type-of-guy, so have been keen to get my hands dirty and lead the team into action. What with the mission agreed and clear (Sulu has had everyone memorising it), and research done, it’s finally time to do some work. Spock was gibbering on about wanting to perfect the business plan; I get his pointy-eared point, but I told him that our work was going to exist in the real world not on the page, so ultimately it would live or die by what we did out there.

So Scotty got the power going and Chekov beamed us down to a planet called Piloti in the galaxy we were passing through. Handily, it seemed to be the perfect size and demographic to do a mapping and protection exercise with: nice choice, though I say myself. The investigation bit went well, aside from the random guy in a red jumper (was it Steve?) who got eaten by a hairy alien monster, and we helped build up a picture of their planet surface for the Pilotians. We then killed a few of the hairy monsters, and built a new protection system for them round their main town.

All seemed to go pretty well, and I was all set to head home, but Spock insisted on getting them all to fill in some paperwork. He said it was important to get data on the numbers of people helped, their ages / gender / background and so on, how much they understood about their planet now (as opposed to earlier), and also a sense of how much safer and more secure they now felt. So much blah, if you ask me; he’s just looking for an excuse to fire up another spreadsheet. Still, Uhura reckons it’s that sort of stuff that will help us get some more backers on board.

Anyway, the test stage has gone well. One of the finest pilots since, well, Chekov and Sulu I guess. We’ll refine a few techniques and methods off the back of it, and try and price it better: the Pilotians barely covered our costs, and I’m looking for a margin. As my Uncle Bob used to say, you get what you charge for.

Ciao.