[[Home|🏠]] <span style="color: LightSlateGray">></span> [[Interviews]] <span style="color: LightSlateGray">></span> May 6 2012 **Insider**: [[Peter Beck]] **Source**: Spark Interview **Date**: May 6 2012  🔗 Backup Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vXaScILUWM ## 🎙️ Transcript >[!hint] Transcript may contain errors or inaccuracies. **Interviewer:** Could you just tell us a little bit about your background and how you became interested in rockets? **Peter Beck:** I've always been an engineer, right from a very early age, and grew up in an engineering environment with the rest of my family. So engineering was always just part of the backdrop. I guess that's where it all started. I started off life as a tool and die maker, on the practical side of things, and then moved up through into design and then analysis, and ultimately ended up at a government research lab. Although I don't have a university degree, I've sort of done it through industry rather than through academia. That's how I started, and rockets have always been something that's really interested me. **Interviewer:** That's incredible. You haven't studied science at university at all before? **Peter Beck:** No. There are two ways of doing engineering, aren't there? I mean, you can go to university and learn about it in a classroom - for example, you can learn about when a shaft will break under load. Or you can go into industry and actually make that shaft, put it in a machine, have it break, and go "Ah, okay." So you've learned the same thing but just in different ways. **Interviewer:** Do you think that approach has contributed to your success commercially and in your ventures? **Peter Beck:** I don't think it has affected it either way. ### Motivation and Keys to Success **Interviewer:** What is your motivation, in that case, to building a commercially viable company? **Peter Beck:** Well, I guess I mean you want to build a business and create something. I think if you're in business and you're not motivated, then you shouldn't be in business. If you're not motivated to be in business, then you won't be in business. **Interviewer:** In your opinion, what would be the single most important factor to achieving success in any industry that you're really passionate about? **Peter Beck:** Hard work and motivation. Everything else will follow after that. **Interviewer:** When did your interest in rockets actually begin? **Peter Beck:** I don't remember - very, very early age. I always enjoyed the engineering challenge. I guess the engineering challenge really gravitated me towards rockets, and also the fact that you can just fit a bucket load of energy in a small space. ### Challenges in New Zealand **Interviewer:** In New Zealand, you were saying that we don't have a rocket industry, and that most people, when you say that you're going to be building rockets, look at you as if you're a little bit mad. What sort of hurdles and challenges has that brought to you, for someone who's actually trying to make a business out of manufacturing rockets here in New Zealand? **Peter Beck:** It's bought hurdles in the fact when you're looking for certain support - in the early days, that is - looking for certain support from various organizations. If you're looking for funding, for example, it was impossible in New Zealand. But I have to say, really, there weren't any major hurdles. ### Initial Funding Story **Interviewer:** So where did you first get your funding from in the initial stages? **Peter Beck:** It's a bit of a funny story. I started Rocket Lab with the vision of what I wanted to do, and put together a business case and business plan and all the rest of it. Then there was a guy on the radio by the name of Mark Rocket, and he had bought a ticket on Virgin Galactic's space tourist venture vehicle. He had renamed himself "Rocket," so I thought, "Well, here's a guy who's clearly passionate about rockets." So I contacted Mark and shared the vision, and I was just extremely lucky that he shared the vision as well. He was prepared to put his money where his mouth is as an angel investor, and that's what got us going. **Interviewer:** Fantastic. You couldn't ask for a better name for an angel investor to give you the money for a project as well. **Peter Beck:** Exactly. ### Maintaining Motivation **Interviewer:** You were talking earlier about how much hard work is involved in building a successful business. Where do you find the energy to keep driven? **Peter Beck:** It's not something you find, it's something you've got or you haven't, in my experience. I mean, you're either motivated or you're not. It's really the passion for the subject which keeps you motivated, I guess. It is challenging and there are ups and downs, but at the end of the day, I'm doing what I want to do. So it's not hard to find the passion or the motivation to do that. ### International Recognition **Interviewer:** Fantastic. And now you're working with large organizations in the States, people that have been building rockets for many decades. What sort of recognition do you think New Zealand is now getting from these organizations? **Peter Beck:** You would be surprised, you really would. Initially it's, "Oh, I didn't realize anything's going on down in New Zealand." But the good thing about this industry is it's all about the technology, and if you've got a technology that's superior, people will listen. It's often joked actually when I go to some of these organizations, we're defined within the United States as "the New Zealand space industry" - this is Rocket Lab, the New Zealand space industry. Everyone thinks it's a bit of a joke, but it's amazing. ### Future of Rocket Science **Interviewer:** What do you think is the future for rocket science, both in New Zealand and globally? **Peter Beck:** Fundamentally, if you look at where technology is going, it's more and more reliant on extraterrestrial communications and infrastructure. So there's absolutely no argument that the space industry is growing, and it continues to grow even in recessions. It continues to grow, so there's a huge, huge industry there and growing. **Interviewer:** Is there limited space in space, or is it going to fill up eventually? Is there a problem with debris and rubbish? **Peter Beck:** Absolutely, there's a problem with orbital debris right now. **Interviewer:** How do you stop your satellites or your rockets - I know you're not yet into getting something in orbit - but how do people prevent their orbiting satellites from crashing? **Peter Beck:** There's not a lot you can do. I mean, you've got certain propellant reserves on board, and there's often avoidance maneuvers that are done. And things go wrong too, so it's going to become a much bigger problem in the years to come. ### Building a Team in New Zealand **Interviewer:** With such a limited industry here in New Zealand, how did you go about building a team of people and inspiring a team of people to work with you? **Peter Beck:** Funny enough, we don't usually have much difficulty in employing people at Rocket Lab. I mean, we're doing different stuff, and the advantage of that is we can employ the very best people. I like to think, and I'm pretty confident, we've got some of the best engineers, if not the best engineers, in the country working for us. It's a challenge getting people with experience, but in my experience, if you've got people with motivation who are really, really clever, that's all you need. ### Working with Military Clients **Interviewer:** A lot of your client base is military, US military? **Peter Beck:** Some, not a lot of it. Some of it is, yeah. **Interviewer:** What are the military organizations and governments like to negotiate with? **Peter Beck:** Good. I mean, no problems there. They pay their bills. ### Advice for Entrepreneurs **Interviewer:** What would be one of the best pieces of advice that you could give to other entrepreneurs or business people or scientists that really want to push their idea out, and they think they've got a really good idea and they really want to push it out? **Peter Beck:** Don't talk about it, just do it. Just get off your ass and do it. **Interviewer:** Right. Well, Peter, thank you very much for your time, and we wish you all the best with your endeavors in the future. **Peter Beck:** Thanks very much.