Bridgit Mendler says Hollywood rejection helped prepare her for space startup risk

Bridgit Mendler says the repeated rejection she faced as a child actor helped prepare her to run a space startup. The former Disney Channel performer, now founder and CEO of Northwood, told Fortune that the ability to accept long odds is common among space-company leaders.

Speaking at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech Conference in Aspen, Colorado, Mendler said she views her career path as less unusual than it may appear. Space CEOs, she said, often share “a very high tolerance for risk,” adding that risk has also shaped her own life.

Mendler, 33, is known to many viewers for roles in Disney Channel projects including Good Luck Charlie and Lemonade Mouth. In the technology sector, Fortune reported, she is building Northwood, a space company that recently raised $100 million in Series B funding, according to a LinkedIn post from Mendler.

From auditions to Northwood

Mendler told Fortune she began acting at 11 and faced rejection “hundreds of times” while trying to build a career in Hollywood. She said those years included failed attempts to win roles at Disney before she later became one of the network’s recognizable stars.

A Prime Video biography says Mendler auditioned unsuccessfully in 2007 for the lead role in Disney’s Sonny With a Chance, Fortune reported. That part ultimately went to Demi Lovato.

Mendler told the Fortune panel that those early setbacks helped her handle the uncertainty of entrepreneurship. She said many space CEOs work against difficult odds and need enough risk tolerance to keep going.

She also said she had grown up wanting to “be everything,” which made her move into a different field feel more natural to her. Fortune reported that Mendler grew up around Washington, D.C., and moved to the West Coast with her family as a child.

Education outside the expected path

During her Disney years, Mendler enrolled at the University of Southern California to study anthropology, Fortune reported. While balancing acting work and a reduced course load, she left the school in 2016.

Two years later, Mendler applied to a master’s program at MIT despite lacking both an undergraduate degree and coding experience, she told Fortune. She said she appeared before a tenured MIT professor seeking admission under those circumstances.

Mendler later took MIT PhD courses and graduated from Harvard Law School with a JD in 2024, according to Fortune. She co-founded Northwood in 2023.

Mendler told Fortune that the space economy has long existed as a specialized market, but said the economics are changing. She pointed to adoption from areas such as telecom as one sign of broader demand.

She also urged people not to wait for permission before pursuing interests outside their current field. Mendler told the Fortune panel that she entered new spaces without an invitation and said people may overstate the downside of trying something new.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.