Elena Ash leads this practice. Here is how she approaches the work.
As Partner at BAA International, I lead the Earth Observation and SpaceTech commercialisation practice.
The work turns on one question: whether a technically strong company has a credible path to revenue, scale, and a fundable investment round.
I approach this from both sides of the table: with founders building toward market adoption and investor-readiness, and with investors running commercial due diligence on a target company.
Every engagement is hands-on. I take the one problem that matters most and work on it directly with the team over four weeks – not as a report from the outside, but from inside the company's commercial reality.
When a technically strong EO or SpaceTech company needs to translate capability into customers, revenue logic, and investor-readiness.
When a fund, family office, or strategic investor needs to understand whether the commercial case behind a technical company is credible.
Can a technical capability become a scalable commercial business?
Five questions decide the answer:
The work takes two forms, depending on which side of the table you sit.
A single engagement runs over four weeks and stays fixed on one commercial problem – the one with the most riding on it.
It opens with your input: what you have built, what you are seeing in the market, and where progress is stuck.
From there, the work moves through four stages: commercial diagnosis, evidence and assumptions, commercial structure, and a decision-ready output. These are an arc, not a fixed timetable. How long each stage takes depends on what the problem needs.
Each week closes with a working session. I present what has emerged, we go through it together, and we decide where the work goes next. The thinking is visible as it forms, rather than landing as a document at the end.
When a commercial cycle runs long – procurement, regulatory approval, multi-stage adoption – the work can extend beyond a single sprint.
When you are evaluating a target, I assess one thing: whether the commercial case behind the technology is credible.
I work from the outside, as an independent read on the company – not as its advocate. The question is whether a technically strong business has real customers, a revenue model that can scale, and a route to market that holds, or whether the commercial story rests on assumptions that will not survive contact with the market.
The output is built for a decision: where the commercial credibility is real, where the risks sit, and what a closer look should test before you commit capital.
Three recent shapes the work has taken – examples, not a fixed menu.
Since 2007, I have worked on the commercial side of Earth Observation, seen from the inside – including the acquisition of BlackBridge, the former RapidEye, by Planet and its first steps on the continent.
I have built markets and partner ecosystems across the EO value chain, from satellite data infrastructure to decision-ready applications, and closed multi-million-euro contracts in complex and often overlooked markets.
What I bring to an engagement is judgment built on real deals: the ones that closed, the ones that did not, and the commercial reasons behind both.
If you are building, evaluating, or investing in an EO or SpaceTech company, I can help clarify the commercial case.
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