December's Space Dirt 🚀 (month-end)

Happy holidays! I’m saving the usual Space Dirt content for the next issue.

Instead, let’s look back at 2025 through some charts and data points. If you’ve been following along, the results probably won’t surprise you, but I like confirming what my gut tells me about the market.

Plus, what would a year-end issue be without some recaps and a look forward (see Deloitte’s chart at the bottom).

Speaking of looking forward, I love to hear from my subscribers. I’m always looking to better serve the hard tech community, so feel free to offer suggestions for Space Dirt.

Here are some things I’m thinking of doing in 2026:

• Exclusive-ish content. If you’re coming out of stealth, just finished raising a round, or have another newsworthy event, feel free to shoot me a DM, and I’ll be sure to get you in Space Dirt. While your announcement may appear in other outlets, Space Dirt gives you the opportunity to get in front of your peers without getting lost in the news cycle.

• The Founder Five. About 30% of the 2,700+ Space Dirt subscribers are Founders. I thought it’d be good for the community to start highlighting readers through an interview series I’m calling The Founder Five. Basically, I email you 7 questions, you answer 5, and I publish the answers. We could also do a phone call/Zoom if that’s easier.

  One of the things I enjoy about my job is meeting Founders across the whole hard tech ecosystem. Turns out, I hear a lot of familiar themes no matter the niche. The Founder Five will help some people and foster more connections within the industry.

• Advertising and sponsored content. Plus a Job Board, Space Dirt has strong demographics. Almost half of the subscribers are Founders, CEOs, Partners/VCs, or C-suite (~1,300 people). About 15% of the readers are CTOs + engineers. If you’re interested in advertising to this list or posting a job, DM me for rates.

That’s all I have for now.

Happy New Year!

REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS

Personally, 2025 was the best year of my career.

I helped 14 hard tech companies find new space in 2025. From El Segundo to San Francisco to Tempe, Arizona, and plenty of cities in between, I’ve had the privilege of working with ambitious founders solving hard problems that will change the world.

From graduating 1,000 SF stealth startups from month-to-month leases to their first real office lease to helping a 26,000 SF Gundo defense company find flex space, I’ve supported companies’ real estate needs in all stages of the growth cycle.

I look forward to continuing to serve my clients in 2026 and beyond, because my relationship with them doesn’t end when the lease is signed.

And now let’s look back at 2025.

2025's Top 5 El Segundo Hard Tech Leases

CHAOS had a huge year, leading the way with two of the largest real estate transactions in the South Bay and tops in Gundo for 2025.

2025's Top 10 South Bay Hard Tech Leases

Love to see it!

As you know, I share hard tech real estate moves in every issue of Space Dirt. That said, this graph is a perfect example of why I do this exercise: visualizing the transactions helps me remember what’s going on in the market.

STEALTH NO MORE

No charts here, but worth noting: we highlighted over 100 hard tech companies as they emerged from stealth in 2025.

Founders, when you’re ready to announce, shoot me a DM. Happy to help you get the word out in Space Dirt and on socials.

NOTABLE FUNDINGS

Billion $ Cities: 2025’s Top 6 SoCal Hard Tech Fundings by City (and Everyone Else)

I used the cities from my popular SoCal Hard Tech Landscape Map for this. But, I’ll be honest, I don’t think this chart does a good job describing the vibrancy of the hard tech scene in some of these cities. For example, Anduril was the only hard tech company to be funded in Costa Mesa in 2025. Huntington Beach had three companies funded (Karman Space & Defense and Archer raised huge rounds). Meanwhile, the South Bay cities are thriving as a whole.

That’s why I put together this next graph.

Number of SoCal Hard Tech Fundings by City

After realizing the shortcomings of the pie chart above, I put this together.

If you follow the hard tech scene closely, there aren’t any surprises here. I only listed four cities because the next closest was San Diego, which had fewer than half of Hawthorne’s total, with four companies raising rounds in 2025.

And while Long Beach may have edged El Segundo in total fundraising in 2025, El Segundo was once again a hive of activity for VC-backed hard tech companies, clocking in with 23 companies raising VC money.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I could use this same exact graph for next year’s recap.

Note, there’s nothing wrong with the other cities. Companies make their real estate decisions based on many factors - size and rent being two of the bigger ones - but for pure “go where the talent is,” the cities on this chart are hard to top.

Join over 2,700 of the best & brightest in the hard tech community and subscribe to the only commercial real estate hard tech newsletter, Space Dirt!

WHAT I’M CONSUMING (AND ENJOYING!) 

🔮 Deloitte put together this Aerospace and Defense Outlook for 2026. Worth a look.

📖 Lastly, if you want “A curated directory of companies building the future,” check out this awesome resource of said companies, Buildlist, put together by Ryan McEntush and Christian Keil of Andreessen Horowitz.

HOW I CAN HELP YOU

Here are 3* ways I can help when the time is right:

1. Find a new home for your growing business. You're scaling fast, and you don't have time to become a CRE expert. I do this every day.

2. Sublease your space. Outgrown your office, but don't want to pay two rents? I'll help you find a subtenant.

3. Negotiate your lease renewal. Want to make sure you’re getting a fair deal from your Landlord? In my experience, you can never be too sure. Start 12 months out, so you're not scrambling at the last minute.

Strong references available. Let's talk.

*Not an exhaustive list 💪

Thanks for reading.

If you’d like your office and/or manufacturing space or business profiled - or even your city! - let me know. It’s always fun to explore and share the different components of the hard tech industry.

Erik Stiebel
Founder and Vice President
CA DRE License #02080746
424.241.4795 | [email protected] 
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