Ashwin Iyer

Yo, you gotta hear about Ashwin Iyer. This guy’s the real deal in the space startup game. So, he’s a young gun, part of YC’s W25 batch, and he’s crushing it as co-CEO of Instinct. But get this-his thing is building GPS satellites for the Moon. Yep, lunar navigation. No joke.

Ashwin’s background is kinda crazy. He’s got a Master’s in mechanical engineering and industrial systems from Cambridge, which is no small feat. Before jumping into startups, he was deep in the space scene-working on NASA’s IMAP mission, ESA’s Solar Orbiter, and helping develop CubeSats at Open Cosmos in the UK. Basically, he’s always been into making space tech more accessible and smarter.

His story starts way before Instinct, though. He met his co-founder, Alex Pinel Neparidze, back in college when they started a rocketry society. That’s where the passion kicked off-building rockets, dreaming about space. Fast forward, they turn that passion into a mission-to make lunar navigation as reliable and cheap as GPS on Earth. Because right now, the Moon’s got zero infrastructure for navigation, and that’s a huge problem for all these upcoming lunar missions. That’s where Instinct comes in, using tiny 6U CubeSats to make it happen.

So, why does this matter? It shows Ashwin’s all about pushing boundaries. He’s not just in it for the tech-he genuinely wants to solve big problems that matter. Making lunar navigation accessible isn’t just cool tech; it’s about opening up space exploration, making it safer, cheaper, faster. The fact that he’s based in London but building something for the Moon? That’s the modern startup world-borderless, ambitious, no bullshit.

Bottom line-Ashwin Iyer is a next-gen space founder who’s blending hardcore engineering, planned vision, and a passion for exploration. He’s not just dreaming about space-he’s building the tools to get us there. And honestly? No Cap, he might just be one of the guys who changes how we explore the Moon.