From first principles to first customers.
How founders turn a difficult technical insight into a company somebody will actually pay.
Founder conversationsA field guide to the next frontier
Nobody builds
hard tech alone.
Honest conversations with the founders, operators, and investors building the future of commercial space.
Explore the conversations01The idea
The most interesting part of space is not the countdown.
It is everything that has to happen before it: the hard decisions, unlikely collaborators, engineering tradeoffs, early customers, and years of work nobody sees.
Frontier Beyond gets inside that work. Not the polished pitch. The real story of what it takes to build.
The conversations
What builders actually talk about.
Long-form video, articles, and full transcripts. Our first conversations are in the works.
Reinvention / October 9, 2025
From Prison Parole Agent to Punchlines: Finding Freedom Through Comedy and Courage
Mike Knox spent decades working as a parole agent inside some of California's toughest prisons before leaving a high-stress law-enforcement career to become an actor, comedian, and writer.
Reinvention / September 25, 2025Kate Galli: Choosing Alignment Over Approval After 40
After two decades as a top Sydney trainer, Kate Galli walked away from a familiar path to build a heart-led vegan coaching business centered on freedom, integrity, and compassion.
Reinvention / September 11, 2025From $5K/wk to $0: AI Killed My Career and Saved My Dreams
Once thriving as a voiceover artist, Aaron Ryan watched AI and shifting economics disrupt his career. He used the collapse as a catalyst to return to writing and build a new creative path.
Reinvention / August 28, 2025From Stay-at-Home Mom to Mystery Author at 40+ [Ansley Ashe's Reinvention]
From wrestling mom and soccer coach to published mystery author, Ansley Ashe proves it is never too late to reclaim a long-delayed creative dream.
Finding investors who understand hard tech.
What early-stage space investors look for, what they get wrong, and what makes them lean in.
Investor perspectivesThe people behind the people building.
Engineers, operators, manufacturers, researchers, and communities that make the hard things possible.
Ecosystem storiesPlanned coverage areas. Guest conversations will appear here when they are published.
A better kind of interview
Less pitch deck.
More truth.
Every conversation starts with the person behind the company, then goes where the useful answers live.
- What pulled you toward this problem?
- What was harder than anyone told you?
- What did you have to learn the hard way?
- Who helped make the next step possible?
- What changes if you get this right?
About the project
Built for people who are building.
Frontier Beyond is an independent publication about the people and technologies shaping the next frontier, starting with commercial space.
Our first audience is current and aspiring founders. Our conversations also make room for the investors, executives, operators, researchers, manufacturers, and public-sector leaders who help ambitious companies take shape.
We start from the Pacific Northwest, one of the most interesting space ecosystems anywhere, without pretending good ideas stop at a state line.
Your hostDavid NiuSeattle-based entrepreneur, company builder, and curious student of the space ecosystem.
Be part of it
Know someone we should talk to?
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Tell us about someone building something difficult, useful, or unexpectedly important in commercial space.
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We are open to thoughtful partners who want to help the space-building ecosystem grow. Sponsorship does not buy editorial coverage.
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