Commercial by background. Space by choice.

I'm Hugo van de Haar. I work on how new markets get built. Europe's space economy is a good place to ask that question: there is no shortage of technology or funding, and not many people looking at it from the commercial side.

My background is commercial: performance marketing and demand generation, in markets where customers have to be won one at a time, not assumed. I've grounded that in the sector itself: UNOOSA's space-law course, EUSPA on the space economy, and the time I spend in the sector's network, at conferences and in conversation with the people building and funding it.

The sector is full of people who can explain how the technology works. I'm here for the other question: who buys it, and why.

That runs on two tracks. I publish the research in the open, because it is only worth something if it survives contact with a real commercial problem. And I do positioning work for a small number of space and deep-tech companies, which is where the research gets tested.