Andrew Mullin

LEADERS' OUTLOOK

ANNUAL EDITION / JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022

The Earth Observation Ecosystem is Expanding

BY ANDREW MULLIN

Global Marketing, EarthDaily Analytics

The past decade has been revolutionary for Earth Observation (EO), leading to a massive expansion in the volume of data available. For example, just the combined fleet of Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 produces terabytes of data per day. The next evolution will be moving from maps to math, that is, analyzing the vast amount of data being collected. Following that, we believe artificial intelligence and machine learning applications will be some of our industry’s innovation trends.

Space is increasingly becoming more democratized and accessible, which will inevitably bring more human-made challenges to Space sustainability. We are open to some Space governance and believe a stronger system will be needed to effectively address the rapidly evolving ecosystem.

It is evident that the EO ecosystem is expanding, and the application of technology continues to evolve to assist businesses and governmental entities confronting the world’s most pressing challenges. As the cost required to deploy satellites goes down, the door becomes open to many more use cases and business impacts, but it will require cross-industry adoption of new technology.

The pandemic was our baseline EarthDaily Analytics was formed in the spring of 2021, so we began our business during COVID-19. In this regard, the pandemic has actually been our baseline since our inception. Today, with customers in nearly 40 countries, and that global presence means we need to be digitally equipped no matter what. Because of this, we’ve been a fully digital business since our beginning. The benefits of digital have become even more apparent during the pandemic, and in an innovative industry like ours, it’s no surprise that companies are embracing the digital economy.

We initiated construction of the EarthDaily Constellation in late 2021 with committed support from Antarctica Capital. Following planned launches in 2023, the EarthDaily Constellation will combine with the EarthPipeline data processing system to provide unprecedented scientific grade data of the world every day, positioning EarthDaily Analytics to meet the growing needs of diverse industries including agriculture, environmental social & governance (ESG), insurance, disaster prevention and recovery, commodities trading, and more. Collaboration and partnerships Businesses need advanced analytics so they can validate and verify the potential effects of climate change and sustainably adjust to resulting impacts. For example, in agriculture, the topic of carbon sequestration is garnering interest. EO can help support sustainability efforts by verifying and measuring the impact of sustainable farming practices aimed at improving the amount of carbon sequestered from the atmosphere.EO can do this by establishing a baseline, detecting change and verifying results.

For all this to happen, we need a healthy collaborative environment. I see public-private partnerships helping to expand the application of EO technology. We are also seeing new private companies, much like EarthDaily Analytics, beginning to push the boundaries. Then there are affordable launch rockets and new sensors and technologies that are continuing to revolutionize the industry.

Adoption of new technology, including EO, happens over time. It starts with a small handful of early adopters, moves through the massive mid-market and eventually enters the hands of even the most change-resistant industries.

The next evolution will be moving from maps to math, that is, analyzing the vast amount of data being collected with artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.

LEADERS' OUTLOOK GEOINT + FINTECH

Placemaking in ‘Downtown North’

Entrance to The Globe Building in the Downtown North Insight District.

ANNUAL EDITION / JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022

An urban insight district in St. Louis at the heart of America.

Over the past two decades, St. Louis business and civic leaders have worked hard to shed the Gateway City’s previous ‘rust belt’ image — replacing declining traditional manufacturing industries with high tech sectors such as plant and life sciences, information technologies, financial services, advanced manufacturing, and logistics and distribution.

In this more recent reconfiguration of the economic development landscape and ecosystem, physical platforms such as ‘Innovation Districts’ have been created to provide entrepreneurs with opportunities to establish and grow enterprises in these new sectors. For example, the Danforth Plant and Life Science Center and its companion BRDG District in suburban St. Louis, and the CORTEX District west of downtown, have been cited by Brookings Institution as best practices examples of districts for growing the plant and life sciences sectors.

Now, in conjunction with the current development of the USD 1.75 billion, 100-acre, one-million sq ft new western headquarters of the U.S. Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) on the edge of downtown St. Louis — along with the eventual move of more than 1,000 Square and Cash App employees to a newly-renovated historic building, and the high tech adaptive use and renovation of one of St. Louis’ former railroad stations, The Globe Building, into a destination for geospatial and other tech firms, both located downtown, just blocks away from NGA’s new HQ — is a first of its kind Innovation District located in downtown St. Louis.

A premier technology hub The Downtown North Urban Insight District in St. Louis is at the intersection of GEOINT, FinTech and entrepreneurship at-large. It is a premier technology hub — committed to empowering and enriching lives, solving problems, and keeping America safe.

Downtown North is a live/ work/play community home to entrepreneurs and industry leaders in geospatial intelligence and financial technology.

The Downtown North Insight District is anchored by two major entities, The Globe Building and the adaptively renovated

former St. Louis Post-Dispatch HQ Building which is becoming the new location for 1,000+ employees of Square and Cash App. The Globe Building and Square and Cash App are joined by the T-Rex technology incubator for start-up firms as the third anchor in the Downtown North Insight District.

As St. Louis aspires to become a global geospatial intelligence hub with the USD 1.75 billion new western headquarters of the NGA — just several blocks away in downtown St. Louis — this unique Innovation District has been taking shape. Square and Cash App and The Globe Building are the two closest properties to the new NGA campus with available hi-tech office and multi-tenant Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) space.

‘High Tech Castle’ — The Art Deco Globe Building The 720,000 sq ft Globe Building is a distinctive Art Deco building which once served as a St. Louis railroad station. The high tech adaptive reuse of the Globe Building by owner Steven Stone has become a prime location for a growing number of tech, GEOINT and GEOINT-related firms (such as MAXAR, T-Kartor, Ball Aerospace, the HQ for the Americas of Geospatial World); five major data centers in 145,000 sq ft of space, three direct feeds from the power company and 12 fiber providers; the new headquarters, advanced manufacturing, R&D, and global distribution center for Stereotaxis, a global leader in robotic surgery technology); and a recently-announced 75,000 sq ft SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) — the largest multi-tenant SCIF outside of the Washington, D.C. area.

In partnership with developer John Berglund, Managing Director and Co-Founder of the Starwood Group, Square and Cash App have recently completed a stunning renovation of the 226,000 sq ft facility, with space to ultimately house up to 1,400 employees.

The new Square and Cash App Building described in St. Louis Magazine as a “cutting-edge workplace

Scifing for Growth The Westway Services Group is a pioneer in the field of developing commercial Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF-as-a-Service, which has changed the way small companies conduct business with the Department of Defense, government agencies, and the U.S. military. Geospatial World Magazine, December 2021

‘The Cube Conference Room’ in the unclassified GEOINT space adjacent to the 75,000 square foot multi-tenant SCIF at The Globe Building.

The building has new interior atriums which connect interior floors. Suspended glass sculpture by Third Degree Glass Factory. equipped to help the company expand its local workforce, recruit and retain top local talent, and fuel growth strategies.” The building was the former headquarters of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.

T-REX is a non-profit innovation and entrepreneurial development center for start-up tech entrepreneurs. The center includes co-working space for entrepreneurs, a technology incubator, and an entrepreneurial resource center. It is home to over 400 founders, tech developers and designers, mentors, and educators. In the past year, T-REX has become a local hub for geospatial entrepreneurs, academic researchers, and federal employees of NGA and NGA’s Moonshot Labs.

The Downtown North Insight District unites developers, creators, influencers, and policy makers by bringing assets to the needs in corporate and commercial real estate, urban infrastructure, work-life balance, community engagement, and public art and culture.

Charting a new route Today, Downtown North is charting a new north for St. Louis.

LEADERS' OUTLOOK

ANNUAL EDITION / JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022

LEADERS' OUTLOOK

ANNUAL EDITION / JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022 The T-REX technology start-up incubator

The Conference Center at The Globe Building

View of the former St. Louis Post-Dispatch Press Room with 20’ ceilings with Tucker Blvd. to the Right. The District hosts industry leaders in geospatial intelligence, financial technology, and entrepreneur incubation. Founders are working together to collect, analyze, and distribute insights in support of national security, developing easy tools that empower and enrich people to thrive and participate in a vital economy. By hosting, recruiting, and nurturing companies that advance technological development from start-up to grownup, they encourage creative thinking through urban design.

Companies in the District attract, employ, and retain local talent that is committed to the economic and cultural development of St. Louis.

The national media have begun to take notice of St. Louis as a ‘start-up ecosystem of the future’ with recent headlines and comments, such as:  Several years ago, Fit Small Business ranked

St. Louis #2 for “Best Cities for Entrepreneurs”, behind only Seattle, and ahead of Denver, Austin,

Nashville, and Boston, in the ranking.  It further notes that, at 85.3 percent, St. Louis had the “highest business survivability rating in the nation.’  The article points out that St. Louis is the secondbest city for entrepreneurs thanks to its aforementioned high business survivability, lower-than-average tax rate, and very low cost of living.  It concludes: “While this may seem surprising to aspiring start-up owners who equate bigger cities like San Francisco with entrepreneurship, St.

Louis” affordability and undersaturation make it the ideal proving ground for new businesses.’  Lending Tree points out that “40% of new ventures in St. Louis are started by Millennials and 42% by

GenXers.”  Writing in fivethirtyeight.com about St. Louis’ efforts to build its entrepreneurial momentum as a base for future growth, former Wall Street

Journal reporter Ben Casselman’s article carried the headline, “St. Louis Is The New Startup

Frontier.”

Fulfilling this immense potential is at the heart of the Downtown North Insight District’s vision — to inspire regional growth and positive social impact by connecting, attracting and retaining companies and their talent force.

Richard C.D. Fleming

CEO, Community Development Ventures, Inc., St. Louis