Company: Sonder London
Co-founders: Victoria Pearson (Managing Director) and Harry Readhead (Creative Director)
Website: https://www.sonder-london.com/
About Sonder London
We founded Sonder in 2018 to help the founders of technology companies explain why their work matters. Soon, space became our focus. It’s a sector where there is a wealth of talent and ideas, and yet it’s relevance has often been poorly understood (if understood at all) except by a handful of specialists. We were certain that if we could bring our expertise to bear on the businesses in this sector, we could change the way people saw space, and come to understand that it was the backbone of modern life.
There were challenges. We had to broaden the conversation about space so that it become interesting to ordinary people. Rockets, astronauts and SpaceX got most of the attention, and though that was understandable, they represented only a sliver of the industry. Beyond them were companies developing laser communications, space robotics, stealth materials, nuclear propulsion, mega-satellites. We were working with the companies shaping the future, and we needed to get that across at a time when many people had no idea.
We had to get to grips with the complexities of the technology and find the stories that made it sing. We had to show why space deserved a place in the media at a time when other issues were deemed more important. We had to navigate the particular demands of deep tech: long procurement cycles, changing goalposts, sensitive information. Our clients’ work was promising; though we worked with some of the most established companies in the industry, there were some that had yet to achieve ‘flight heritage’ – that is, had yet to go to space and be tested in real-world conditions.
On the other side, we had to get across to the space sector why communications mattered. Yes, the technology was impressive; but if no one knew about it, companies with inferior technology could take the headlines and the contracts. We were combining technical understanding with editorial judgement and an understanding of mass psychology. At the same time, we were challenging the assumption that a complex subject meant writing riddled with jargon and narrow appeal.
Since 2018, we have stuck to our goal of making the founders behind the world’s most exciting technology understood and trusted. We’ve started conversations, shaped debates, and helped to make space one of the most exciting and newsworthy subjects in the world today. Ultimately, we believe we’ve given people good reason to care about what’s happening thousands of miles above them.
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