Jonathan Lacoste is a former teenage tech founder who co-founded Jebbit at 19, raised nearly $100M, and sold to Vista, bringing a decade of operator experience to his role as an investor at Space.VC where he focuses on finding founders before they start companies and writing the true first check. He positions space as part of a broader hardtech movement rather than a siloed vertical, tracking founder migration from top tech and defense companies as his strongest signal for where new value is forming, and advocates for concentrated pre-seed investing in mission-obsessed founders building orbital infrastructure that serves as a silent backbone for terrestrial enterprise markets like insurance, finance, and agriculture.

• Deep commitment to space economy infrastructure and satellite technology, often highlighting companies that bring novel utility to orbit. For instance, he celebrated portfolio company Hubble Network for enabling Bluetooth connectivity from space and ArrayLabs for their work on formation-flying satellites.
• Strong interest in defense technology and national security, specifically regarding re-industrialization and manufacturing speed. He frequently posts updates about Castelion, a portfolio company developing solid rocket motors and hypersonic systems tested in New Mexico.
• Concentrates on the critical intersection of energy infrastructure and AI advancement, arguing that winning in AI requires superior power solutions. He has pointed out specific bottlenecks like power transformers and the massive water consumption required for cooling data centers during AI queries.
• Preference for hardware-first, frontier technology companies over pure software plays, often referring to these as deep tech or non-consensus investments. He cites examples like VitalLyfe, a desalination startup tackling water crises, as the type of weird or non-obvious idea that can break out.
• High regard for founders emerging from established deep tech giants, specifically viewing them as prime training grounds for future entrepreneurs. He noted that a significant portion (42%) of the startups he has backed feature founders or leadership alumni from SpaceX.
• Actively recruiting and investing in early-stage ventures, specifically targeting pre-seed and seed rounds with check sizes around $1 million. He explicitly lists interests in robotics, physical AI, and next-generation communications infrastructure as key areas for these initial capital injections.