Bridgit Mendler’s space company: From Disney Channel star to CEO
Actress/singer Bridgit Mendler attends the 4th Annual Save the Children Illumination Gala at The Plaza Hotel on October 25, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Desiree Navarro/WireImage)
The Disney Channel has a track record of giving several A-list stars their big breakthrough, and Bridgit Mendler’s career is now taking a turn down the road less traveled.
And none other than down a space road, that is.
The 31-year-old announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she’s launching Northwood Space, a startup that will build a data "highway" between earth and space.
Northwood Space
As the space industry booms, Mendler’s company isn’t focusing on the rockets and satellites that get people to space. Instead, it’s focusing on the ground stations that retrieve data from space to bring it back down to earth.
"To meet the needs of today’s space industry, the one-lane rickety road for space data needs to adapt to a ten-lane highway routing continuous traffic across the globe," as Northwood’s website explains it.
The business has already received support, garnering more than $6 million from investors, Mendler said.
She told CNBC in an exclusive interview that she thought of the idea during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"While everybody else was making their sourdough starters, we were building antennas out of random crap we could find at Home Depot … and receiving data from [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] satellites," she said.
She’s co-founding the company with her husband, Griffin Cleverly, and Shaurya Luthra.
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Bridgit Mendler's education
In 2018, Mendler shared on then-Twitter that she was starting a graduate program at MIT with a focus on improving social media.
"As an entertainer, for years I struggled with social media because I felt like there was a more loving and human way to connect with fans. That is what I'm going to study," she wrote.
Her LinkedIn shows she went on to continue her education at MIT to pursue a PhD in philosophy, while also adding Harvard onto her plate where she’s pursuing a PhD in law. Her LinkedIn says at Harvard she’s also served as the co-president of the Harvard Space Law Society.
She told CNBC she also spent time at the Federal Communications Commission’s new Space Bureau, where she "completely fell in love with space law."
Bridgit Mendler's Disney Channel career
Mendler was first seen on the Disney Channel’s airwaves in 2009 as a recurring character on "Wizards of Waverly Place."
She got the lead in her own show the following year, "Good Luck Charlie."
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As most Disney stars do, Mendler also sang in many of the projects she starred in. She released her debut album outside of Disney in 2012 and released various singles over the following years as well.
Fans are still eager to hear more from her, with one commenting on her space company announcement that they’ve been waiting for new music.
"Ever heard of satellite radio?" Mendler responded with the smirking emoji.
This story was reported from Detroit.