{"id":"8627e72c-b1ae-4704-b4f8-9bb16505d933","slug":"jacob-balaj","name":"Jacob Balaj","bioBrief":"Jacob Balaj is the Co-founder & CTO of Hop Aero (YC S26). US Marine Corps (MV-22 avionics) → SpaceX (Falcon 9/Heavy, built booster refurbishment program) → Virgin Orbit (LauncherOne) → Masten Space Systems (led systems integration on NASA CLPS lunar lander) → SpinLaunch. A decade of making rockets fly on schedule.","priorExits":null,"nationality":null,"verificationPosture":"reported","aliases":[],"sources":[{"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/hop-aero","title":"Hop Aero — Y Combinator","sourceName":"Y Combinator"}],"reviewStatus":"unreviewed","createdAt":"2026-07-28T21:20:47.184Z","updatedAt":"2026-07-28T21:20:47.184Z","educations":[],"companyRoles":[{"id":"70a313ef-8252-4566-bc17-56e4bc3f6c43","personId":"8627e72c-b1ae-4704-b4f8-9bb16505d933","companyId":"63348d1e-1f0b-41a1-9e4a-7b2193c5c627","role":"cto","roleTitle":"Co-founder & CTO","startDate":null,"endDate":null,"currentRole":true,"roleBasis":"verified_secondary","createdAt":"2026-07-28T21:20:47.942Z","company":{"slug":"hop-aero","name":"Hop Aero"}},{"id":"c6f85fd1-94b0-4cf5-8b7e-0709dd3da1b1","personId":"8627e72c-b1ae-4704-b4f8-9bb16505d933","companyId":"63348d1e-1f0b-41a1-9e4a-7b2193c5c627","role":"founder","roleTitle":"Co-founder","startDate":null,"endDate":null,"currentRole":true,"roleBasis":"verified_secondary","createdAt":"2026-07-28T21:20:48.704Z","company":{"slug":"hop-aero","name":"Hop Aero"}},{"id":"7fec85e4-b72a-480f-846d-8e71a7936ed6","personId":"8627e72c-b1ae-4704-b4f8-9bb16505d933","companyId":"937bc1b7-8eaa-45f6-bcd7-8de1bcf1f685","role":"engineer","roleTitle":"Integration & Test Engineer (Falcon 9/Heavy)","startDate":null,"endDate":null,"currentRole":false,"roleBasis":"verified_secondary","createdAt":"2026-07-28T21:21:02.083Z","company":{"slug":"spacex","name":"SpaceX"}},{"id":"40d0ff89-d6b3-4436-a7f0-cb91d45285aa","personId":"8627e72c-b1ae-4704-b4f8-9bb16505d933","companyId":"566c117f-b399-4968-9fd5-2aa338eb83c5","role":"engineer","roleTitle":"Integration & Test Engineer","startDate":null,"endDate":null,"currentRole":false,"roleBasis":"verified_secondary","createdAt":"2026-07-28T21:21:06.506Z","company":{"slug":"spinlaunch","name":"SpinLaunch"}}],"boardRoles":[],"investorRoles":[],"foundings":[]}