Dan Berkenstock
About Dan Berkenstock
I don’t believe in walking a traditional path. I’ve helped train astronauts for spacewalks, built a go-kart from scratch, nursed ailing voting machine prototypes back to health, started/grown/sold a company that made significant contributions to the burgeoning commercial space industry, taught product design courses to Googlers, and traveled to more than 30 states while hauling a 30 foot Airstream and homeschooling my kids. At heart I am a prototyper, product manager, & strategic planner. I love developing a good plan for an audacious goal, rallying a team around it, and iterating over and over until the back of the envelope becomes reality. A couple career highlights: • Co-Founded Skybox Imaging and served as CEO through the initial business plan development, first ~$20M in venture capital financing, growth to 50 employees, and completing conceptual technical design for a best-in-class, small imaging satellite design that would set the industry standard for the next decade. • Grew Skybox Imaging as Chief Product Officer through an additional ~$100M in venture capital and the launch of our first two satellites, while overseeing all aspects of the business and go-to-market strategy, including building a firm sales backlog of more than $20M and partnerships to represent $100M’s of additional potential revenue. • Played a critical role in $500M acquisition by Google, representing a 60% annualized rate of return for investors across all financing rounds, and leading the product, business, go-to-market, and sales integration efforts within Google over the next 3 years. • Provided mentoring and support to the next generation of aerospace entrepreneurs through service as an Independent Director on Boards of three venture backed aerospace companies and development of the first entrepreneurship course at Stanford specifically focused on aerospace concepts with high capital requirements, significant regulatory burdens, and binary risk outcomes. • Returned to graduate school to complete the PhD program I left in 2009, while traveling all over America in a large travel trailer, to hike/run/climb/fish as many mountains, canyons, rivers, and lakes as we’ve been able to find, with a big focus on southern Utah. Today, I'm inspired to help families live their healthiest, happiest, fullest lives. Feel free to reach out if these are areas that inspire you as well, or if you’re looking for someone who is comfortable helping you develop strategies and plans for big audacious goals!