Mendler has co-founded Northwood Space alongside business partner Shaurya Luthra and husband Griffin Cleverly. The startup is on a mission to bring the benefits of space to the masses through innovations in space communications technology. The startup is designing ground infrastructure from first principles to accelerate the mass adoption of satellite technology.

In 2020, Mendler completed her graduate degree at MIT and commenced her Ph.D. studies with MIT's Center for Constructive Communications and Social Machines group. As of 2022, she was enrolled at both Harvard Law School and MIT.

In an interview with CNBC, Mendler explained that she “completely fell in love with space law” during the time she spent at the Federal Communications Commission’s new Space Bureau, which leads her to where she is today, co-founding Northwood.

Northwood Space

Mentioned above, the startup is on a mission “to bring the benefits of space to the masses through innovations in space communications technology.” So how does it aim to do this?

To complete this mission, Northwood Space will “challenge assumptions about how space and earth (and other celestial bodies!) should connect,” mentioned the startup’s website.

Northwood is constructing a data highway between Earth and space to address the demands of the contemporary space industry. The existing, inadequate one-lane road for space data must transform into a “ten-lane highway”, facilitating continuous traffic flow worldwide.

Data-intensive space applications are increasingly hindered by a bottleneck in throughput capacity on the ground.

The fundamental elements of ground architecture have remained largely unchanged since the 1960s. The industry norm involves custom manufacturing processes, extensive construction and fine-tuning periods, resulting in systems that offer limited capacity and are prone to frequent failures.

Shared infrastructure has consistently been crucial in scaling communication technologies to widespread adoption, whether through shared towers for cellular technology or shared points of presence for the Internet.

The website continued: “As previous generations of communications technologies reached the masses, they led to step changes in human progress. Telegraph networks led to the centralisation of stock prices and real-time journalism. Cell phones freed communication from the constraints of space. The internet democratised access to information. The way that our generation can contribute to this story is by truly blanketing the earth in connectivity through space and expanding our connection out into a new frontier.”

In layman’s terms, Northwood Space is aiming to mass-produce ground stations. Also known as teleports, ground stations are the large and circular antennas that connect to satellites in space.

The startup has already attracted high-profile venture investors, and announced a hefty seed funding round. On X, Mendler stated: “So excited to announce our $6.3M seed led by Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Also Capital, Long Journey Ventures, BoxGroup, Humba Ventures.”

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