Startup Ventura is honored to welcome Sean Herwaldt to our Board of Directors.
Sean joins the board as a former SpaceX operator. He spent more than five years there, rising to Global Supply Manager and playing a pivotal role in some of SpaceX’s most ambitious programs, including Falcon Heavy and Starlink, which he helped scale from zero to more than one million terminals worldwide. This past June, the company made history by completing the largest IPO ever, raising $75 billion and vaulting past a $2 trillion market value in its first day of trading. Behind milestones like these stand years of operational discipline: keeping a rocket company supplied means solving hard problems under constant pressure and building the planning systems and supplier relationships that let ambitious teams actually ship. That is exactly the kind of operating experience early founders need in their corner.
His path reflects the kind of hands-on background our board is built on. Before SpaceX, Sean worked in supply chain and operations for major manufacturers including Owens Corning and Caterpillar, learning how real things get built and moved at scale. As head of operations at NOVOS, he led new product development and customer experience and scaled distribution from a single channel to global omnichannel. Today he leads delivery operations as a Director at Curri, the last-mile logistics company headquartered right here in Ventura. He has built global operations on the largest and the smallest of budgets, and he knows what it takes to build something and see it through, from the ground floor up.
“I attribute the success I have had in my career to the numerous mentors I have had along the way,” Herwaldt said. “I am beyond excited for the opportunity to pay that back here in my backyard and contribute to the builders in our community.”
What Sean brings to Startup Ventura is more than a resume. He feels strongly about building a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem in Ventura, so founders with big ideas can build them at home instead of leaving to do it somewhere else. That belief is the entire reason we exist.
We could not be more excited to have him help guide what comes next. Welcome, Sean.