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Firehawk’s $5,000 Demo: How a Rejected Rocket Startup Learned to Sell the Pentagon Speed
Firehawk began by pitching a new kind of rocket engine. The Pentagon wanted an easier swap. One cheap printer, a filmed hot-fire test and a strategic retreat turned that rejection into a plan for rebuilding the propellant supply chain.
Alex Grant
Alex Grant is the co-founder and CEO of Magrathea, an Oakland-based startup building a new electrolytic process to make magnesium metal from seawater and brine with near-zero carbon emissions. A chemical engineer who previously founded lithium-extraction company Lilac Solutions and modeled battery supply chains at Minviro, Grant started Magrathea in 2022 to reshore US magnesium production. What began as a climate play turned into a national-security one: after Russia's invasion of Ukraine tightened global magnesium supply, Magrathea won a Defense Production Act partnership with the US Department of Defense. He was a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Energy in 2021.