How We’re Building a Procedure Software Team for Customer Success
“The most successful startups mix friendships and business to build teams.”
Our co-founders, Laura Crabtree, Max Mednik, and Aaron Sullivan have built the Epsilon3 team using a hybrid approach–hiring both people who have worked in the space industry as well as seeking out people who have the right skills and customer empathy–regardless of whether or not they’ve previously worked in the aerospace industry.
The result is a team that is passionate about building space operations software that is customer-centric as each person on the team gets to know the customers and their needs personally. This enables the team to create and iterate on test plan software that actually helps aerospace engineering teams operate more efficiently as each tailored feature is implemented.
Every customer should benefit as the Epsilon3 team expands and continues to probe for elegant procedure software solutions. Our goal is to create and nurture a team that deeply respects and understands our customers needs and vision.
Not only do we want our team members to get along together, but we want there to be a sense of community with our customers. They’re at the heart of everything our team does, and so it’s crucial that we learn from each other as much as possible.
“The chemistry is just as important as the capabilities,”
says researcher Rajshree Agarwal.
As a team, we really inspire each other, and each of us is committed to building aerospace procedures software that will help teams create the space industry of our wildest imaginations that can truly improve life here on our beautiful planet.
DEEP TAILOR | Principal Software Engineer
As the principal engineer, Deep was one of the first three engineers to work on Epsilon3’s procedure software to help mission and control teams integrate data and processes more efficiently. After writing code for frontend and backend applications, Deep now gets to manage the growing team of engineers at Epsilon3.
Before he came to Epsilon3, Deep was tech lead of mission control at NASA, though his career did not begin in the space industry. Originally, Deep went to school for finance and became an advisor. Along the way, he discovered he truly loved writing software.
Happy to leave an industry that was all about profits, he latched onto the space industry where people genuinely care about the well-being of our planet and each other. When Laura and Max reached out to him, he was more than thrilled to continue working in the space industry, and now with a private company that inspires him about the future of humanity.
As a kid, Deep was drawn to astronauts, and loved imagining the possibilities of one day leaving earth to travel into a big void that no one completely understands.
Deep enjoys working with a team that truly gets along, is highly focused, and integrates fun and passion into their jobs and lives. After spending time with the entire team on their quarterly on-sites, Deep is eager to keep working alongside his colleagues.
Outside of his Epsilon3 world, Deep is finding his new role as father very fulfilling, and wakes up before the crack of dawn at 4:00 a.m. to get to the gym or go for a run. He loves schedules and structures as he finds it helps him be more creative and efficient.
At the end of the day, Deep hopes to be a core part of what Epsilon3 becomes in the future. His goal is to create a path for future engineers to succeed at meeting customers’ evolving needs as the space industry rapidly transforms.
STEPHEN GREGORY | Principal Site Reliability Engineer
Stephen is Epsilon3’s Principal Site Reliability Engineer making sure that everything on the backend is in tiptop shape to keep everything running with few to no hiccups for our customers.
Before Stephen joined Epsilon3, he got his feet wet with a few startups in health-related software and business blogging–the latter was sold to Oracle where he got to experience working with a large corporation. Soon he found himself back working for a small startup company once again where he prefers to be.
Though he never gave much thought to working in the space industry, when Max saw his profile for another job posting at a different company, he immediately reached out to Stephen to bring him onto the Epsilon3 team. Stephen quickly learned how varied companies are in the space industry beyond the big players like SpaceX and Blue Origin. He loves seeing what the smaller companies are able to achieve, and hopes to enable Epsilon3’s customers to continue launching meaningful space missions of every scale.
Most of all, Stephen hopes to help the development team meet their goals as seamlessly and with as much ease as possible.
Recently, Stephen just visited Disneyland with his kids, and has been keeping in touch with friends all through the pandemic playing video games, which has kept him feeling connected.
JON COX | Principal Software Engineer
As an aerospace engineering student, Jon interned at NASA and Raytheon where he was amazed and impressed by the innovation and work going into creating hardware for space missions. After getting his master’s degree in aerospace engineering, Jon began working with AI and machine learning to help create a system that makes decisions for autonomous cars.
Since he joined the Epsilon3 team building whatever the customers need, he enjoys working with a small team, and the all-hands-on-deck energy of a startup. He’s thrilled to be part of modernizing software for complex missions in industries that impact our future in impactful and inspiring ways.
Jon has worked at companies that had significant growth, and he’s confident Epsilon3 is headed in the same direction. He tries to contribute to an environment where people are happy with their work and get stuff done effectively and creatively.
He lives near the beach, and gets out to surf as often as he can. Most of all, he’s excited to welcome a new baby into his world.
ALEC LANDOW | Senior Software Engineer
As one of Epsilon3’s Senior Software Engineers, Alec is beyond excited to see the code he writes used for complex space operations. For Alec, it’s thrilling to see that the future of space is actually possible with private and commercial enterprises entering the space travel playing field.
He’s been fascinated by the space industry long before he landed at Epsilon3. As a physics teacher, he began coding physics questions, and decided to get his master’s degree in computer science. For Alec, it’s surreal to be working with companies who are running experiments and prototypes similar to videos about SpaceX and Starbase that he watched on YouTube.
More than anything, Alec wants to see his code used on space stations as a part of this collective space journey that is picking up speed. His goal is to create solid code that can help contribute in a significant way.
Beyond Epsilon3, Alec is an avid chess player and is brushing up on his tennis skills to play in a league this summer.
ALEX SEDLACK | Software Engineer
Alex started his career in the space industry with an internship at SpaceX during his college years. Not a bad start, right? From there, he spent his second internship at Planet Labs (now Planet) prototyping a satellite. After graduating he headed for a less traditional aerospace path working at Rand Corporation consulting for the Air Force, the military, and some health care companies.
He then worked at his first startup for a legal tech company but quickly found that he missed the aerospace industry. At that time, Max reached out to him to kick off a series of great conversations that eventually led to Alex joining the team based on his intuition about the team. For Alex, the individuals really shape the entire experience, and after talking with Max and Laura, he knew Espilon3 was going to be a really innovative and inspiring environment.
Alex is passionate about talking with customers, and truly enjoys seeing their missions get off the ground. The more Alex works in this area of the aerospace industry, the more he sees how much opportunity there is for innovation and improvement that can really make an impact.
He’s been a long time sci-fi lover, and his college roommates were also at SpaceX. They used to spend their free time sitting around talking about aviation history, cool planes, fascinating machines, and any area of engineering that really pushes the envelope. Alex is incredibly inspired by aviation design and engineering and how it has impacted material science and mechanical engineering.
It’s important to Alex that he is part of a really strong team, which, for him, is where everything begins. He wants to be a positive force on the team, and is keen to work with customers to come up with features that will improve the product.
Outside of his Epsilon3 life, Alex does a lot of biking–including a cross-country bike trip last year. He’s always perfecting his baking, especially bagels, and he spends a lot of time outdoors with his Alaskan Husky.
JOYCE CHAN | DESIGN DIRECTOR, PRODUCT, UI/UX, BRAND
Design Thinking for Complex Procedure Teams in the Aerospace Industry
Joyce is dedicated to designing a user experience to empower all customers with various digital, engineering, and aerospace backgrounds.
As an empathetic design generalist, Joyce has designed meaningful experiences for people in every dimension–from designing events for special exhibits to refining backend management systems for digital publishing companies, Joyce brings a valuable design mindset to every product she works on.
Not only does Joyce aim to create a UI that is intuitive and empowering for customers, but she also wants to ensure that, no matter someone’s background, Epsilon3’s checklist software is accessible to anyone and requires little effort to understand and use. Joyce’s goal is to embrace the admirable lean and scrappy qualities of engineering teams, and provide them with a tool that allows them to take their innovative capacity to the next level rather than interfering with the process.
After working for large companies, Joyce is more than thrilled to be back with a startup team that requires her to find design solutions in creative and scrappy ways.
Beyond Epsilon3, Joyce is a kiteboarding junkie, loves spending time with her baby, and loves working with tactile crafts with fabric, paper, wood, and other materials to get her working with her hands.
RICH PARRY | HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
“We make the toys; they push the button.”
Meet Rich. He’s been in the aerospace industry, the Air Force to be exact, for the past ten years where he worked on stealth and satellite technology. Fast forward, and now he’s the Head of Business Development for the Epsilon3 team. His path started in the realm of engineering–both electrical and computer science. From there he took the plunge into business school after a few years as a program manager.
When he got a call from Max nine months ago, just after Epsilon3 completed their Y-Combinator phase, he immediately accepted the offer to join the team. He brings with him a solid can-do attitude as well as a healthy dose of humor to boost camaraderie on the team.
Rich loves visiting customers to see how they’re working on missions that once took years and now only take a few months.
When he’s not working with customers or other team members, Rich is flying his small Piper Archer or taking long walks–really long walks–through the Appalachian mountains or on the Pacific Coast Trail.
AUDREY FRAIJO | CHIEF OF STAFF
Audrey is not your average chief of staff. She goes above and beyond to make sure the entire team at Epsilon3 feels supported, valued, and able to reach their full potential. Not only does she tend to daily operations for everyone on the team, but she is HR, helps with finance, works closely with Laura, and is customer service. Most of all, she wants to make sure that every person who joins the team embodies the same passion, work ethic, and camaraderie that team members embody now.
She began her career in the non-profit sector working for chambers of commerce. After a few years, she realized that this was not her passion, and looked for a next step that would bring her back to her family roots in entrepreneurship. She found her way into the startup world working in the aerospace industry in rocket propulsion.
Audrey’s passion and skills are a perfect fit for helping companies scale and grow their teams. At Ursa Major she was one of the first employees, and saw the company grow to over 200 employees and managed their CO test faciilty at the time she left to move on to the next startup that would help her live a remote life.
As a Southern California native and a Colorado resident, Audrey loves spending time in the outdoors riding motorcycles, mountain biking, and gardening. She’s happy to entertain herself, and also enjoys time with her dog and boyfriend.
DAVID GARDINER | Business Development Lead
David spent 7.5 years in the Air Force and Space Force. He graduated from the Air Force in 2014, and is still actively involved with the government side of the aerospace industry. As part of the Epsilon3 business development team, he works closely with government agencies who are really excited about all the digital initiatives happening in the Air Force and Space Force.
After David graduated from the Air Force, he continued on to research labs in New York where he worked on weapons software before moving to Los Angeles where he has been able to work on national security space launches and trying to help get new rockets funded. While in southern California, David received his MBA from UCLA, and started working with Epsilon3 last October.
He has always been a big fan of anything space-related: SciFi, Star Trek, Star Wars. Before the private space industry exploded in the past few years, the only way to get into the aerospace world was to join the Air Force. Now, with so many space startups, the aerospace possibilities are truly infinite.
Over the years, David has been able to travel to Germany, Korea, and Japan as he worked for the Air Force. He now hopes he can contribute to advocating more digital initiatives in all space launches, allowing companies to launch quickly and efficiently with digitized tools.
THE FOUNDERS
LAURA CRABTREE | Founder, CEO
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
When founder and CEO Laura Crabtree is interviewing candidates to potentially join the team, she wants to know how closely they are willing to work with customers. Her goal is to bring together a team that not only genuinely likes the customers, but deeply respects them and their experience.
Customers are an integral part of the team, and Epsilon3 has established open lines of communication because she actively wants their feedback on the product. She wants each team member to realize that the customers have invested time and financial resources into our procedure software tool, and so we want them to actively tell us how to make their jobs and their lives better.
Laura’s first job as a teenager was working at a bagel shop where she quickly learned how to accept when people were unhappy and how to turn the situation around from a bad experience to a good and memorable experience. She became adept at distilling feedback and how to not take it personally. All of her first jobs were in the service industry, and she’s brought her love of the customer with her as the founder and CEO of Epsilon3.
STRONGER TOGETHER
Not only does Laura look for team members who want to work closely with Epsilon3’s customers, but she’s looking for people who can raise the bar for the entire team–they have to make the team stronger, regardless of whether or not they’ve previously worked in the space industry.
When Laura worked at SpaceX, some of the best software engineers were from industries unrelated to the space industry. They came from non-traditional aerospace backgrounds.
PASSIONATE LIFE LEARNERS
“If people are life learners and excited to learn and dig into a new industry to spark curiosity about new things in the industry, then they will be able to problem solve and help satellite operators achieve their goals with less errors.”
Of course it’s crucial to have some people on the team with experience in the space industry. They’ll understand the language and the structure of an industry that often feels like a big family. Team members from all backgrounds will solve problems differently, and that’s a valuable asset for innovation and collaboration.
At the end of the day, it’s about learning. Team members learn from each other, and bring their unique experience to the table to create solutions to meet customers’ evolving needs.
PERSONAL TOUCH
As Epsilon3 scales, it’s Laura’s intention that every member of the team will continue to be able to get in front of customers regularly. She’s always on the lookout for people who have an enthusiasm for the customer and their experience. On-site visits are also crucial to customer relationships as team members are able to see firsthand how each customer team is functioning, and how the Epsilon3 team can make their jobs easier.
Laura is a Southern California native, a space junkie, and a mom. She has two energetic boys whom she plays all the sports with, and can often be found at the beach jumping waves.
MAX MEDNIK | Co-Founder, COO
“It’s most exciting and rewarding to know we’re helping.”
While many of us were mowing lawns, lifeguarding, or scooping ice cream for cash in high school, Max was interning in the worlds of finance and law. As a co-founder at Epsilon3, Max continues to bring foresight and a strong strategic intuition to the team.
Max is most at home in a startup environment, and Epsilon3 is the 4th startup he’s been involved with. Other than working at Google as a software engineer, Max got his feet wet in the startup world in FinTech and Legal Tech. He’s also long had an interest in the Aerospace and Defense industries, and so when he met Laura he was immediately inspired by her vision and experience.
For Max, it’s incredibly exciting to see how customers are using Epsilon3 software to launch space missions or building new planes. And he’s beyond happy that the Epsilon3 team has a good attitude with plenty of collaboration and positivity to go around. Every person on the team enjoys working directly with customers who are impacting the space industry in significant and inspiring ways.
Max envisions Epsilon3 working with teams in the energy and automotive industries in the near future. Whether it’s nuclear power, electrical vehicles, or anything safety critical, Max would love to see more and more complex engineering teams utilizing Epsilon3’s integrative software.
When he’s not wearing multiple hats as a startup co-founder, Max is spending time with his family in southern California.
AARON SULLIVAN | Co-Founder, Software Engineer
“I want to inspire everyone to do their best in a way that others have inspired me.”
Aaron considers himself a builder. From building model rockets as a kid to building software to help customers achieve their goals efficiently and effectively, Aaron has a passion for software engineering, startups, people, and travel. There’s nothing he loves more than growing something from nothing.
He had a hunch as an undergrad that computer science would be a good fit for him, but just to make sure, he also explored the realms of English, economics, and political science. His gut was right. After all that exploration, he landed back in computer science, and went on to work at Google as an engineer to understand how to build a culture and product that engineers were passionate about.
From there, Aaron accumulated an arsenal of lessons trying to find products and services that consumers really needed to help them innovate and have an impact in their industry. He began his startup path with a truckload of persistence.
The persistence finally paid off when, two years ago, Max and Laura approached Aaron to help them build checklist software for complex aerospace procedures. Almost immediately, Aaron recognized they had seeds with real potential for a SaaS product that would impact not only aerospace companies, but the entire world.
Aaron is as altruistic as they come. He’s genuinely more concerned with customer satisfaction than any financial success. He’s here for the moments when the Epsilon3 team is able to unblock a customer from achieving their goals within tight and stressful deadlines.
Beyond building and managing his team of engineers, Aaron is a travel junkie, a vagabond at heart. He began with internships in Beijing and Germany, and considers San Francisco a second home. And perhaps someday, he’ll find himself exploring the realm of space.
This is the Epsilon3 team. We’re honored to be part of the aerospace community, and hope to continue to build a product that contributes to the rapid growth and success of our customers’ missions.
