Thursday, June 11, 2026

How Hollywood trained Bridgit Mendler for life as a space founder

Bridgit Mendler, co-founder and CEO of Northwood, at Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2026 in Aspen, Colorado.

Stuart Isett/Fortune

All eyes are on tomorrow’s SpaceX IPO, but while we wait, my colleagues were in Aspen, Colorado for Fortune‘s Brainstorm Tech this week with another space entrepreneur: Bridgit Mendler, the Disney Channel star-turned-CEO. (Her best-known show was Good Luck Charlie.)

Mendler, now 33, attended undergrad at the University of Southern California but dropped out without completing her degree. She went back to school at MIT, earning a master’s in humanity and technology and later earned a JD from Harvard Law School, where she was president of Harvard’s space law society. She cofounded Northwood in 2023; the company is working to provide ground infrastructure for space missions.

The company recently closed a $100 million Series B round led by Washington Harbour Partners and Andreessen Horowitz. Its flagship product is called Portal; it uses a network of smaller, individual antennas that work together as a single system designed to replace traditional parabolic dishes.

Onstage with Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell, Mendler shared her philosophy of the space economy. “For a long time, the space economy has existed, but it’s been pretty niche,” she said. “The economics are switching. You can see that that is leading to adoption and market share from major parts of the economy like telecom.”

Her view is that space networking should be a shared resource, akin to how cloud infrastructure supports tech startups (and Northwood aims to provide this shared layer).

It’s a fascinating turn for a former Disney star. Mendler has seen the pros and cons of coming from such a headline-grabbing background into entrepreneurship; Northwood earned attention when it launched for the novelty of her transition from entertainment to hard tech. But Mendler undoubtedly had to prove herself to be taken seriously, too. She argues that her Hollywood background is actually a “traditional” one to become a space CEO; both require a high risk tolerance and beating significant odds.

Fair point. You can watch Mendler’s full interview here.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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