How Altimeter Is Investing $100M+ Checks | Anduril, SpaceX, K2 Space
Erik Kriessmann, Partner at Altimeter
“The Team You Build Is The Company You Build”
Today we have Erik Kriessmann, Partner at Altimeter, where he shares how his distinctive background in human capital has shaped his approach to investing $100M+ checks into high-growth, real-world technology companies. With a career that spans Khosla Ventures, Index, and now Altimeter, Kriessmann brings a founder-first mindset rooted in talent as the ultimate lever of company success. He believes “the team you build is the company you build,” and views talent density as a leading indicator of long-term outcomes.
→ Listen on X, Spotify, YouTube, Apple
Erik’s superpower lies in identifying, attracting, and supporting world-class talent—from helping portfolio companies recruit transformational hires to spotting future founders before they launch. Whether backing & supporting defense-tech leaders like Anduril, space companies like SpaceX & K2 Space, or energy challengers like Base Power, Kriessmann applies a consistent philosophy: great people build enduring companies.
P.S. Erik also invested in Bridge - which was recently acquired by Stripe for $1.1B; He sourced + Co-led the Seed investment while at Index with colleague Chris Ahn
Highlights
00:49 From Khosla & Index to Altimeter
06:50 Building Relationships & Trust
08:35 Sponsorship Message from Brex
09:38 Investing in Real-World Technologies, Aerospace, & Defense
14:19 Deep Dive into Anduril
24:22 Spotlight on K2 Space
29:54 Building a Winning Team
31:41 Recruitment Challenges & Strategies
34:14 Altimeter's Investment Approach
40:28 Evaluating Success in Investments
41:46 Exit Strategies & Market Trends
45:36 Opportunities in Aerospace & Defense
50:58 Kalshi Predictions (AI, Wealthiest Person, SpaceX, Aliens)
Brought to you by:
Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, and travel. As a Sourcery listener, you can unlock up to $500 toward Brex travel or $300 in cash back, plus exclusive perks to help you move even faster: https://brex.com/sourcery
Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery
Erik Kriessmann
Erik Kriessmann began his career in human capital at top-tier venture firms like Khosla Ventures and Index, where he partnered closely with founders such as Max Rhodes (Faire), Alexandr Wang (Scale AI), and Dylan Field (Figma). At Khosla, Vinod told him success would be measured by founder feedback: " I'm just gonna ask the entrepreneurs that we've asked you to spend time with, like, ‘Hey, what do you think Eric?’ And if they tell me, ‘Hey, he's great, thank you so much.’ I know you're doing your job. I trust that what you're doing is beneficial in making an impact to the companies.” At Index, he built the talent function from scratch, thinking deeply about relationship journeys between founders, future executives, and LPs.
His talent work often led to early insight into emerging founders and teams, including Bridge (acquired by Stripe). He joined Altimeter about three years ago, making a rare leap from talent to a very large growth-stage investment Partner.
Altimeter Capital: Investment Strategy
Altimeter, with over $10B in AUM, is known for its crossover approach, investing in both private and public markets. Some of Altimeter’s investments include: Snowflake, CoreWeave, SpaceX, Anduril, Hammerspace, OpenAI, K2 Space, Grab, Roblox, Plaid, StockX, Cockroach Labs, Uber, Airbnb, Base Power, and ByteDance.
Originally a software-focused investor, Altimeter has expanded into real-world sectors like aerospace and defense, driven in part by Erik’s conviction. The firm is highly concentrated: "Diversification is the enemy of outlier returns." Investing out of their seventh venture fund right now, they’ve invested in around only 70 total companies. They go big and go deep with their companies, investing large checks ranging from Series A: $15M to $25M, and at growth: $50M to $250M.
Altimeter operates with separate private and public funds but uses insights across both to inform deals (e.g. public investments in Nvidia helped drive conviction in CoreWeave privately). They aim to back only a few breakout companies each year and concentrate capital as those businesses scale.
*Not current performance figures, still, incredibly impressive.
Anduril: Defense Vibe Shift, Premium Products, & Aspirational Brand
Anduril, a modern defense prime built on software and AI, is arguably the crown jewel of defense, and also happens to be the largest position in Altimeter’s real-world technology portfolio. Erik Kriessmann had been tracking the company for years and strongly advocated for an investment shortly after joining Altimeter. “It was obvious to me,” he said. “The team is so good, and how they’re attacking the market is just different. I thought it was destined to be a wild success.” Altimeter made its first investment in late 2023, aiming to build a concentrated, long-term position in what they see as a future public market leader.
Anduril is building a modern defense prime — a vertically integrated defense contractor designed from first principles to take advantage of today’s software, AI, and mass manufacturing capabilities. It began with surveillance towers but now has product lines across air, land, sea, and space, including:
Lattice – a software platform that stitches together data across Anduril’s systems
Fury – high-performance, multi-mission group 5 autonomous air vehicle (AAV) enabling trusted and collaborative autonomy for the high-end fight.
Roadrunner – reusable, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), operator-supervised Autonomous Air Vehicle (AAV) with twin turbojet engines and modular payload configurations that can support a variety of missions
Dive, Copperhead, Seabed Sentry – underwater systems
Klas – ruggedized edge compute and networking
What sets Anduril apart is not just its technology — it's the company’s ability to resonate with the modern workforce and redefine what a defense contractor looks like. Kriessmann notes that “they’ve created a whole vibe reset in defense.” The company has cultivated a uniquely compelling brand, spearhead by an incredibly talented individual & a rare role at a defense company: Jen Darhy Bucci, Head of Design.
Jen and the team are building a brand that feels more like a cool streetwear x mission-driven tech startup than a traditional Beltway defense supplier. Their visual identity — including limited-run anime-style merchandise, high-design videos, and internal storytelling — has turned heads across the industry and attracted top-tier talent. “Good luck getting the merch,” Kriessmann joked, “but their design team has incredible taste. It feels like a consumer brand.”
Palmer Luckey’s Defense Company Is Selling Loot Boxes of Drone Parts to Its Fans
More importantly, Anduril’s brand is anchored in authenticity and mission, not marketing spin. Founders Palmer Luckey and Brian Schimpf built the company with a clear-eyed view of national defense, stating that supporting the military should not be controversial. Kriessmann reflected on this tension: “There’s unwavering support for the people who serve, but somehow backlash toward the companies building the tools they need. Anduril took that head-on — and won.” Despite early criticism from the venture community, Anduril leaned into its mission, focused on impact, and earned respect by building undeniably great products.
This clarity of purpose has had downstream effects across the defense-tech ecosystem. Anduril’s success has legitimized the sector in the eyes of both VCs and top engineering talent, sparking a broader vibe shift. What was once considered “unfundable” in Silicon Valley — defense — is now a hotspot for innovation. Kriessmann credits Anduril with being the first to make defense feel “cool,” in part because of their unapologetic stance, elite execution, and cultural fluency. “They’re intense,” he said, “but they’re also fun, down-to-earth people who care deeply about what they’re building.”
He also highlighted their commercial excellence — the company has mastered government contracting, built trust with defense customers, and continues to outperform legacy incumbents in both innovation and cost-effectiveness. “ the government is just getting a lot more value per dollar of spend by buying from Anduril” he noted. In other words, Anduril isn’t just building the future of defense tech — they’re changing who wants to build it, how it's perceived, and what modern deterrence can look like.
K2 Space. Scaling Power in Orbit with a Team of SpaceX Alumni
K2 Space is building next-generation, ultra-large satellite buses designed for medium Earth orbit (MEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO) — areas where performance requirements are high and existing solutions are both costly and outdated. Founded by brothers Karan and Neel, an alumni of SpaceX, the company has attracted a team of deeply experienced engineers from programs like Dragon, Falcon 9, Starlink, and Starshield. “They’re a talent magnet,” said Erik Kriessmann, noting that their ability to recruit top-tier talent from the SpaceX ecosystem gives them a critical advantage.
The core insight behind K2 is that launch costs have dropped dramatically, thanks largely to SpaceX, but satellite hardware hasn’t kept pace. Legacy satellite operators still operate under the old paradigm — optimizing for minimal mass at extremely high cost. K2 is flipping that model by embracing size and power. Their satellites are massive: up to 20 kilowatts of power each, with the ability to launch 10 at a time aboard a Falcon 9. Compared to a legacy system like ViaSat-3 — which cost over $500 million for a single 26-kilowatt satellite — K2 can deliver nearly 10x the capacity at a fraction of the price. “More power equals more bandwidth, and more bandwidth equals more dollars,” Kriessmann explained.
K2’s real edge lies in vertical integration. Instead of relying on expensive suppliers (like Honeywell reaction wheels at $2M apiece), K2 builds its own subsystems in-house — just like SpaceX did. This gives them unmatched cost control and performance tuning. “They’re delivering 10x performance at 1/10th the cost,” said Kriessmann. This makes K2 particularly valuable for both commercial applications and national security needs, especially as the U.S. Space Force pushes to proliferate capabilities across all orbits.
As autonomy and multi-orbit resilience become national priorities, K2 is well-positioned. Their platform supports a wide range of missions, and their timing aligns with growing defense and commercial demand for high-capacity space infrastructure. Kriessmann views them as a long-term foundational layer for modern space systems: “There’s no one else doing what they’re doing — and they have the team to pull it off.”
Base Power: Leadership & Talent Density
Altimeter also backed Base Power, led by Zach Dell and Justin Lopas, whose complementary experience and clarity of mission have made them one of the most compelling new energy infrastructure startups. “They’re executing violently,” Erik said, describing their ability to attract elite talent willing to relocate to Austin to work on the mission.
Erik had known Zach from his Thrive days, and the firm backed both the Series A and B. Like Anduril, Base is one of very few companies tackling its specific challenge — and that scarcity helps them attract people who want to “do meaningful work that actually matters.”