Build a Market from Scratch: Strategic Lessons from the Space Economy
Space is the ultimate emerging market—what was once government turf is now a race between visionaries with different playbooks. See how markets are born, shaped, and scaled.
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In a world where emerging markets are exploding across AI, clean energy, and biotech, perhaps the boldest transformation is happening not on Earth—but above it. Space is no longer the exclusive domain of Cold War superpowers. It’s a commercial frontier, and companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are leading radically different but equally strategic paths toward the same future: human life and industry beyond Earth.
As Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau explain in their new book Space to Grow, space is much more than rockets. It’s a masterclass in how entirely new markets are born.
I spoke with them for an upcoming Outthinker podcast episode (dropping May 13), where they unpack what space teaches us about demand creation, infrastructure building, and trust coordination—lessons any strategist can apply here on Earth.
Musk vs. Bezos: Diverging Paths to the Same Orbit
Both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are investing in the same long-term vision: a future where millions of people live and work in space. But they’re taking very different routes to get there.
SpaceX, under Musk, is racing toward Mars. It generates revenue from commercial launches and satellite networks like Starlink to fund deep-space infrastructure. Musk's goal: make life multiplanetary.
Blue Origin, led by Bezos, starts with space tourism. High-profile flights, like the recent all-female mission featuring Katy Perry, are meant to normalize space travel and lower cultural and technical entry barriers.
Think of it like this: If Musk is building the highway to space, Bezos is opening the welcome center that makes people want to visit.
What unites them is a clear strategic pattern:
Define a bold future vision.
Build a profitable near-term step toward it.
Reinvest to make the next leap cheaper, faster, and more scalable.
They’re not just innovating—they’re creating the markets that will support innovation.
The Bird and the Fish: Two Models of Market Migration
A well-known parable describes a bird and a fish who both seek warmth in winter—one by flying higher, the other by diving deeper. Different methods. Same goal.
SpaceX and Blue Origin embody this same divergence in strategy. Musk aims for scale and distance—building reusability and infrastructure to push toward Mars. Bezos bets on familiarity and inspiration, using high-visibility space tourism to make space culturally relevant and accessible.
The deeper insight here is that they are both practicing market-making in real time.
They’re identifying monetizable milestones—whether it’s satellite launches or suborbital flights—and using them to reduce costs, learn, and expand the total addressable market.
As Weinzierl puts it, “Space is already essential to our way of life and economies, but most businesses are not using the rapidly expanding capabilities available from space to drive their own growth.”
From Rocket Science to Business Strategy
The transformation of space is about much more than getting rockets off the ground. It’s about turning a frontier into a functioning economy.
Initially, the space sector was economically inaccessible: high costs, few customers, and little private incentive. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) changed that. CCP was launched to restore American human spaceflight capabilities after the Space Shuttle’s retirement—but with a radically different approach.
Through fixed-price, milestone-based contracts, NASA shared development costs with partners like SpaceX and Boeing, creating a competitive environment that incentivized innovation and cost control. This model not only saved taxpayer money but also laid the foundation for a sustainable commercial spaceflight industry.
The combination of public and private funding lowered early risk, giving companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin a reason to build.
A key result of this approach is a dramatic leap in reusability. While the Space Shuttle reused its orbiter and solid rocket boosters, the turnaround time was long and costly. In contrast, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 reuses its first-stage boosters in weeks, and its Crew Dragon capsules fly multiple missions with minimal servicing.
These intentional early risks unlocked greater affordability and scalability in the future. And it worked: reusability dropped costs, which unlocked demand for satellite imaging, broadband, climate modeling, and more.
This alignment of falling costs with rising demand is what turns an idea into a sustainable market.
The 8 Levers That Launch New Markets
As Weinzierl and Rosseau emphasized to me, the process of turning a frontier into a functioning market follows a set of strategic patterns. The success of your innovation depends on building the conditions around it—not just the product itself. These eight levers are the common denominators for launching markets where none existed before:
1. Build Infrastructure First
Markets need roads before they need traffic. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines are the foundations of a broader economy. Backed by NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Programs, these launch systems transformed access to space into reliable infrastructure—paving the way for private investment and new markets in satellites, in-orbit servicing, and microgravity manufacturing.
2. Break the Cost Curve
Like APIs in software or cheap solar panels in energy, reusable rockets in space are the breakthrough that transforms a niche capability into a scalable platform. They lower the barrier to entry, reduce marginal costs, and unlock entirely new layers of innovation built on top.
3. Uncover Latent Demand
One area that saw an unexpected benefit from commercial space travel is agriculture. Farmers couldn’t dream of using satellite crop monitoring when launch costs hovered around $300 million. But as commercial providers drove launch costs down to $2 million or less, high-resolution satellite data became accessible. Now, farmers can monitor soil health, detect irrigation issues, forecast yields, and respond to pests or drought conditions with unprecedented precision.
4. Coordinate and Build Trust
Markets need shared norms and forums to reduce risk and build confidence among stakeholders. These structures create the trust and coordination needed for investment, collaboration, and the emergence of standards that accelerate growth.
5. Establish Standards & Interoperability
Docking ports, refueling systems, and orbital servicing must be modular and compatible. Think USB for space. Standardization lowers integration costs, enables interoperability across providers, and creates a plug-and-play ecosystem that scales with demand.
6. Inject Liquidity & Participation
Thin markets stall growth. More buyers and sellers create price stability and spur innovation. As participation increases, competition improves quality, reduces costs, and attracts even more entrants, creating a virtuous cycle of expansion.
7. Set Long-Term Incentives
Big infrastructure bets need patient capital. That often comes from governments, visionary VCs, or corporate partnerships.
8. Create Adaptive Governance
Markets evolve. Institutions must too. Think WTO for space or new global treaties enabling hybrid governance.
Beyond the Great Beyond
This isn’t just about space. It’s a strategy playbook for any frontier industry.
When you’re not just launching a product but creating a category, ask:
What infrastructure must come first?
What cost curves must fall?
What demand will that unlock?
How can trust, standards, and interoperability be coordinated?
How can you attract liquidity and long-term capital?
What governance will make the system sustainable?
Space isn’t just a destination—it’s a blueprint. The strategies powering the race to the stars can guide how we build new markets here on Earth. Whether you’re launching satellites or software, the lesson is the same: don’t just chase innovation—design the market that makes it inevitable.
Listen to my full conversation with Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau on May 13.
To dive deeper into business strategy while looking up for unexpected opportunities, visit Outthinker.com.