Capital Factory today announced that Colonel E. Michael “Mike” Fincke, USAF (Ret.), who this month concluded a 30-year career as a NASA astronaut, has joined Capital Factory Deep Tech as Senior Fellow and Senior Commercialization Advisor. Capital Factory also named Keri Waters Managing Director of Deep Tech Commercialization. The appointments represent a significant expansion of Capital Factory’s work with DARPA and the broader federal research ecosystem.

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NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is pictured inside the International Space Station’s Quest airlock prior to the start of the third spacewalk for the STS-134 mission. Credit: NASA

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is pictured inside the International Space Station’s Quest airlock prior to the start of the third spacewalk for the STS-134 mission. Credit: NASA

Fincke is the founding member of the Capital Factory Deep Tech Advisory Board, a body of senior technical and operational leaders providing direct guidance to founders building in the nation’s most critical technology sectors. He will work directly with Capital Factory portfolio companies in space systems and advanced aerospace.

Fincke flew four spaceflights and spent 549 days in space, the fourth-longest cumulative total among NASA astronauts. He performed nine spacewalks totaling 48 hours and 37 minutes and commanded the International Space Station twice, on Expedition 18 and again on Expedition 74, returning to Earth in January 2026. Before joining NASA he was a U.S. Air Force flight test engineer and a graduate of the USAF Test Pilot School, with more than 1,900 flight hours in over 30 aircraft. He holds two bachelor’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree from Stanford University. This month, Fincke was appointed to the faculty of MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics as a full-time Professor of the Practice.

As Managing Director of Deep Tech Commercialization, Waters leads Capital Factory’s growing work with DARPA and the firm’s expanding relationships across federal research agencies and academic institutions. She founded and led Buoy Labs from concept through its acquisition by Resideo (NYSE: REZI), the publicly traded company spun out of Honeywell, and served as Resideo’s VPGM Water, a $320 million business. Waters brings that same hands-on approach to deep tech commercialization: building products, raising capital, finding customers, and helping technical teams turn difficult ideas into durable companies. She serves as a Senior Commercialization Advisor to DARPA-funded teams through Capital Factory’s DARPA Commercial Accelerator and has been a mentor and investor across Capital Factory’s programs and funds. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business.

Waters is also the author of More Energy, Clean Planet, forthcoming from Forbes Books, with a foreword by Fincke. The two have collaborated across several deep tech companies over the past five years.

“The technologies coming out of America’s federal labs and research institutions will define our national security, our economy, and our competitiveness for the next fifty years. The question is whether we can turn them into real companies fast enough. That is the work Capital Factory was built for, and it is the reason we are assembling the strongest bench of advisors and operators in the country. Mike Fincke spent 549 days in orbit commanding some of the most complex engineering systems ever built. There is no one better suited to sit beside a founder and help them build something that matters. We are honored he chose this mission.”

— Bryan Chambers, President and Co-Founder, Capital Factory

“Human spaceflight taught me to be a practical optimist: face the risks honestly, do the work, and keep moving toward a worthy goal. No great mission is completed by one person, or at the moment of invention. It takes people willing to inherit good work, improve it, and carry it forward. Capital Factory Deep Tech is assembling those people around some of America’s most consequential technologies. I am proud to be among them.”

— Colonel E. Michael “Mike” Fincke, USAF (Ret.), Senior Fellow and Senior Commercialization Advisor, Capital Factory Deep Tech; Founding Member, Capital Factory Deep Tech Advisory Board

“What I have always loved about Capital Factory is its instinct for bringing exceptional people into the room and turning their generosity into momentum. Mike embodies that spirit at its highest level. He brings the rigor of an aerospace engineer, the judgment of a mission commander, and the humility to sit beside a founder and work the problem. That is the best of Capital Factory and the best of American science. It is the standard CF Deep Tech is here to set.”

— Keri Waters, Managing Director, Deep Tech Commercialization, and Senior Commercialization Advisor, DARPA Commercial Accelerator, Capital Factory

In August 2024, DARPA selected Capital Factory as one of five regional Commercial Accelerators, and the only one based in Texas, to help move DARPA-funded technologies toward commercial scale. Through the program, Capital Factory pairs senior operators and advisors with the scientists and engineers behind federally funded breakthroughs to build customer evidence, company capacity, and a path to follow-on capital.

The Capital Factory Deep Tech Advisory Board provides strategic guidance across the firm’s federal commercialization efforts; additional members will be named in the coming months.

About Capital Factory

Capital Factory is a leading deep tech venture capital firm headquartered in Austin, Texas. The firm invests nationally from early stage through growth across defense, space, energy, advanced manufacturing, robotics, and the life sciences. With deep ties to government and the national security sector, Capital Factory backs founders with the capital and institutional resources to build companies that strengthen American industry and advance civilization.

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