Draconite

Draconite Draconite™: Supple + bendy at -60°C, radio-transparent + protective at 1,000°C+. Intelligent, unrelenting, sustainable protection for Earth & Space🌍🚀

“The sky was never the limit.”I saw this quote at Farnborough Airshow yesterday, and it totally sums up the mindset that...
24/07/2026

“The sky was never the limit.”

I saw this quote at Farnborough Airshow yesterday, and it totally sums up the mindset that drove me to create Draconite. But the raw reality of walking the floor alone was pretty isolating (epic fail: I’m part of the UK Space Agency’s delegation, but missed the main group because of logistics!).

UNTIL I FOUND MY TRIBE!

I was wandering through the halls in a daze, and out of nowhere: “ALISHA!!!!”

There were my people—Jonathan Errici and Emily Rigby. A few hours later, walking down another aisle: “OMG ALISHA!” Enter Louis Magee FRSA.

That shift changed everything.

Jonathan Errici genuinely seems to know every single person in the space sector. EVERYONE! He took me from table to table, hype-manning Draconite, opening doors, introducing me to key decision-makers, and teeing me up to pitch. If there is ONE person you need in your corner, it is Jonathan Errici. I’m SO grateful for his energy, grace, and connections. THANK YOU.

Special love to Emily Rigby too, and the glorious chain reaction that got me here in the first place: Jonathan via Jack Greenwood via David Saunders via Matt Cameron!

(And for the eagle-eyed among you, you might actually spot Draconite sitting right there on the table in a couple of these photos! It just looks like leather, but the magic is inside—and huge thanks to Tom Turner on that front, as our patent is officially IN! 🎉)

A few key takeaways from the floor:

- The Space Zone was easily the friendliest area at the entire show (and the Scottish presence was absolute top tier—hello Skyrora! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿).

- The Primes were shockingly approachable. I expected brick walls, but places like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Airbus Defence and Space were incredibly welcoming and genuinely open to new tech.

It was the most intense environment imaginable—I’m back with my kiddo today just to watch the planes fly overhead, though I’ll be nursing my feet for the next fortnight!

Pulling out my material sample, showing the testing video, and pitching non-stop alongside people who genuinely have your back made every single step worth it.

The tribe is real and the tech is ready. 🚀✨

Putting this out into the universe so it manifests: SpaceX , you are my absolute North Star. ⭐ (Let’s connect! If anyone...
17/07/2026

Putting this out into the universe so it manifests: SpaceX , you are my absolute North Star. ⭐ (Let’s connect! If anyone has a warm link or introduction, please hit me up.)

I am incredibly excited to be heading to the Farnborough International Airshow next week.

I’m so thrilled to have a number of brilliant meetings already planned with people I genuinely look up to. Everyone from former astronauts building the next generation of commercial space stations, to the absolute pioneers redefining hypersonic flight. (You know who you are! 😉🏾)

But fundamentally, if you want a bio-based, ultra-lightweight material that completely redefines thermal protection, we need to talk. (Hello aerospace! Hello space! Hello defence! 🚀)

I will be on-site on Thursday and Friday with physical samples of our new 0.5cm, leather-like, RF-transparent intumescent membrane. Whether your focus is:

- Missiles & Defence platforms 🎯

- Space vehicles & Re-entry shields ☄️

- Next-generation Spacesuits 👩🏾‍🚀

- Space habitats 🛸
..Draconite delivers high-performance protection without compromising signal integrity or adding unnecessary mass.

On Thursday, I aim to be floating around the Space, Defence, and Aerospace zones. Let's connect, talk shop, and explore the future of flight! ✨

And on Friday, the kiddo and I will be enjoying the spectacular flying displays together—so if you see us, come say hi! ✈️👩🏾‍👦🏾

MaterialsScience DeepTech Hypersonic CommercialSpace BlackInAero WomenInAerospace STEM

Huge thanks to David Alexander OBE, Director of the Rice Space Institute in Houston, for travelling to Dumfries to atten...
09/07/2026

Huge thanks to David Alexander OBE, Director of the Rice Space Institute in Houston, for travelling to Dumfries to attend a private lunch with me, beautifully hosted by South of Scotland Enterprise.

It was a brilliant conversation that covered everything from new frontiers in space to interplanetary civilisations, lunar exploration, and even nuclear power.

I left feeling energised by the sheer scale ahead, but equally grounded by the timeline—space qualification can take a while! It is incredibly humbling to think that a material invented in the wilderness of South West Scotland might yet make it out to space.

It is also brilliant to see that can pull together such strong international bridges. Special thanks to the GlobalScot network for the continued support and connection.

Aerospace

Thank you too to: South of Scotland Enterprise, Jane Morrison-Ross, Michelle Skotzen, Martin Valenti, Andy King

Undaunted: Tackling climate change with innovation

Huge thanks to the team at SETsquared Partnership for inviting me to present at the Bristol Pathfinder defence event las...
08/07/2026

Huge thanks to the team at SETsquared Partnership for inviting me to present at the Bristol Pathfinder defence event last week! 🚀

With only two days' notice and a packed schedule, I dialled in remotely to Bristol—but the distance didn’t dial down the intensity. I faced a robust, sharp set of questions that only benefit us when going to market.

The lovely thing about Draconite is that it is a platform technology. We don't have to be limited to one sector because our material is unyieldingly versatile across:

- Missiles, defence logistics, and hypersonics

-Spacesuits and protecting satellites from extreme thermal environments

-Thermal runaway containment for EVs

-Safe, exceptionally effective passive fire protection for construction, and more.

Thank you for keeping Draconite in the room, helping us get exposure, and pushing us to refine our narrative. Onwards we plot! 🇬🇧✨

Honoured to speak to industry and govt @ South of Scotland Enterprise's inaugural life science roundtable.Alongside the ...
01/07/2026

Honoured to speak to industry and govt @ South of Scotland Enterprise's inaugural life science roundtable.

Alongside the beautiful experience of being gifted advice from peers whose companies are turning over 8-figures, I left thinking: when we grow (and we’re getting there), I want to lead exactly like them. Grounded, deeply ethical, and open. Making a monumental difference on a global scale while remaining genuine, kind, and committed to supporting the next generation of companies.

Huge thank you to the SOSE team and the Scottish Government representatives for a brilliant, collaborative day.

SouthOfScotland AdvancedMaterials Draconite

Let’s look under the hood of a deep tech pitch.The other day, I had the phenomenal pleasure of demonstrating Draconite t...
19/06/2026

Let’s look under the hood of a deep tech pitch.

The other day, I had the phenomenal pleasure of demonstrating Draconite to a major Tier 1 player.

I’m not exactly a slick PowerPoint kind of person. So instead, I did the demonstration that routinely gives my mother palpitations—I held Draconite directly on the palm of my hand, blasted it with 2,500°F of heat, and casually talked about the weather.

(Spoiler alert: My hand is completely fine, Draconite vitrified as intended, and talks are actively progressing.)

So my "pitch deck" was a literal plastic crate containing:

1. A fire extinguisher: All class. Essential in case I accidentally set myself, their engineering team, the CEO, or their boardroom table alight.

2. A robust fire blanket: Backup for item number one. I am highly motivated not to make startup history for the wrong reasons.

3. Two butane torches: One that reaches 2,600°F and one that cranks up to 2,500°F. Nothing brings a thermal performance graph to life quite like a live, high-shear flame!

4. Butane refills: Just in case the executives wanted to have a go themselves.

5. A block of the toxic, incumbent material: My opener. There is nothing like scorching mineral wool under the nose of a Tier 1 to show exactly how smelly, choking, acrid, brittle, and hazardous the status quo is before you show them the not-thought-possible future.

6. A factual one-pager: Knocked up at home while my son was having a playdate. No fancy formatting. No Gamma, no Canva, no graphic designers, and no pitch consultant.

7. Draconite itself: Safely wrapped up, locked down under NDAs, and completely invisible to LinkedIn for now.

There are a ton of these types of meetings ahead of me this summer.

I've learnt that in deep tech—particularly when compared to the explosive metrics of SaaS—progress can feel deceptively slow. But real traction is actually found in the grit of these rooms.

Traction is having global multinationals willing to have these intense conversations. It’s getting world-class engineers saying "Wait... what?!" and having people out of the blue sending email introductions that start, "Hi X, Meet Alisha, she's the one I was telling you about..."

There's a fair amount of buzz linked to Draconite right now (hope to share more publicly soon!) and it's easy to look at...
17/06/2026

There's a fair amount of buzz linked to Draconite right now (hope to share more publicly soon!) and it's easy to look at a frontier technology sitting at the intersection of markets like Aerospace, Defence, Deep Space, Wildfire, and EV batteries and think "wow" 🚀.

But truly, none of this would exist without a brutal, beautiful reality check I received before Draconite was even born.

Today, I had the pleasure of an in-person visit from two incredible supporters: Joanna Gosling and Debbie Tully.

Years ago, I drafted what I thought was a killer grant application (my first!), and sent it to Jo for her confirmatory 'feedback'😅.

Jo took that application and gave it a painstaking, yet incredibly kind, demolition. It was 100% awful.

But crucially? She gave me the "why."

I didn't even apply for that specific grant in the end. Instead, I took every single piece of her criticism, stripped my ego away, and learned how to actually communicate what I hoped to build—and why I *knew* it would be transformative on a global scale if given the chance (and money!) to work on it.

The result? Since that feedback, we’ve enjoyed a near 100% non-dilutive grant success rate and crucially are building impactful traction. I completely attribute that trajectory to her mentorship.

To Jo and Debbie—thank you for visiting us today, thank you for your initial tough love, and thank you for your ongoing support.

Huge thanks to Jack Greenwood and the team at Barclays Eagle Labs and Venture Café Edinburgh for inviting me to speak la...
01/06/2026

Huge thanks to Jack Greenwood and the team at Barclays Eagle Labs and Venture Café Edinburgh for inviting me to speak last week. The architecture was inspiring (oh Edinburgh, how I love thee!!), the founders were formidable, and it was just great to connect with old and new friends the larger ecosystem. It really does take a village to scale. And my village is so, so lovely.

Thank you to everyone who has been a link in the chain so far, and to everyone I met in Edinburgh. Let’s keep building.

Image credit: Moffat.

BarclaysEagleLabs Edinburgh Draconite

Incredibly thrilled (and deeply grateful!) that Draconite has been accepted on to the UK Space Agency Accelerator! 🛰️✨Th...
27/05/2026

Incredibly thrilled (and deeply grateful!) that Draconite has been accepted on to the UK Space Agency Accelerator! 🛰️✨

The goal now is to see how far we can take this tech. We are aiming to prove that a single bio-manufactured platform can master the absolute extremes of spaceflight:

🔥 The Insane Heat of Re-Entry: Transforming autonomously into a 1,500°C+ ceramic shield to enable blackout-free, RF-transparent orbital re-entry shields and hypersonics. 

👨‍🚀 Next-Gen Spacesuits: Serving as a flexible, lightweight, and ultra-protective outer membrane that can withstand extreme thermal threats while allowing astronauts full mobility. 

❄️ The Deep Cold: Operating as flexible, drapeable insulation skins to prevent cryogenic fuel tank boil-off in deep space. 

🌍 Sustainable Exploration: Enabling the mass deployment of eco-benign, zero-trace planetary climate sensor swarms that compost benignly upon impact.

The vision isn't to build the rockets, the hardware, or the spacesuits —it's to be inside everyone else's, empowering the entire industry to perform at levels they haven't achieved before and go further and higher (more cheaply and environmentally responsibly too).

There is a long, long way to go - but as a solo founder, the warm welcome from the UK space community has been entirely mind-blowing. Feeling incredibly grounded, focused, and ready. 🚀 Let's get to work!

👉 https://draconitetech.com

And terrestrial sphere - I see you too (hello construction,hello passive fire!)

Space Agency -Spark

From juggling motherhood + mushrooms to… aerospace? 🚀🌍It is a wild ride, but I’m enjoying the journey as much as the des...
18/05/2026

From juggling motherhood + mushrooms to… aerospace? 🚀🌍

It is a wild ride, but I’m enjoying the journey as much as the destination. What started in a shed in our beautiful corner of remote Scotland is now a bio-manufactured platform technology providing intelligent, unrelenting thermal protection.

I’m saying goodbye to the BlazeBalm name and hello to Draconite™. My 9-year-old actually inspired the name (Draco = Latin for Dragon)—he thinks the membrane looks like a dragon's skin, and he’s spot on! Our world-first membrane is bendy @ cryogenic temperatures (-60°C) and transforms into a tough, radio-transparent + protective shield @ 1,000°C+. It is ready to take on some of the most demanding environments on Earth & Space!

I’ll share more when the second patent is through, but for now, check out the new site here: https://draconitetech.com

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Newton Stewart

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