Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, hosts of the Acquired podcast, discuss SpaceX's remarkable journey, focusing on its transition from a scrappy startup launching rockets from a remote Pacific island to a major player in space exploration. They highlight SpaceX's successful bid for NASA's ISS resupply contract, which was a pivotal moment for the company, securing its financial future and enabling a shift from a primarily government-funded entity to a diversified business with commercial and government clients. The discussion also touches on SpaceX's innovations, such as vertical integration, reusability of rockets, and their ambitious Starlink project, which aims to provide global broadband internet through a constellation of satellites. With the upcoming Crew Dragon mission to the ISS, featuring astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, SpaceX is set to solidify its place in history as the first private company to send humans to space, marking a new era of space travel.
"Today we are talking about SpaceX, the company that will this very week, be attempting to launch humans into space as a private company and make the United States a spacefaring nation for the first time since the end of the space shuttle program, which, unbelievably, was a decade ago."
The quote highlights the significance of SpaceX's upcoming launch, marking the first time since the shuttle program that the U.S. will send humans to space through a private company.
"They're the first private company ever to launch a rocket to orbit, recover it, and reuse it."
This quote summarizes the groundbreaking achievements of SpaceX in the field of rocket engineering and space exploration.
"So what is the business? Who pays them and for what? And what's with all these satellites that they've been launching recently?"
The quote poses critical questions about SpaceX's business structure and the nature of its satellite launches, indicating a need for a deeper understanding of the company's operations.
"Our most recent episode was a crash course in fundamental startup concept pricing with Patrick Campbell, the founder and CEO of ProfitWell."
This quote introduces the additional content available to subscribers, focusing on valuable insights into startup concepts and pricing strategies.
"Pilot is the one team for all of your company's accounting, tax and bookkeeping needs, and in fact, now is the largest startup focused accounting firm in the US."
The quote emphasizes Pilot's role as a key service provider for startups, highlighting its growth and the trust placed in it by major investors.
"So Elon, obviously, was born in South Africa. He grew up with a pretty insane family, and even in an even more insane time, to grow up in South Africa with apartheid and all the terrible violence that was happening there."
The quote provides context for Elon Musk's early life and the tumultuous environment that influenced his drive and determination to succeed in the United States.
"With SpaceX, musk is battling the giants of the US military industrial complex, including Lockheed Martin and Boeing. He's also battling nations, most notably Russia and China."
This quote encapsulates the competitive landscape that SpaceX entered, pitting Musk against established aerospace corporations and international powers.
"I think we can build this rocket ourselves."
Elon Musk's determination to pursue space exploration through his own means is captured in this quote, marking a pivotal moment in the founding of SpaceX.
"I'm going to fund this all myself."
Elon Musk's commitment to SpaceX is highlighted in this quote, indicating his willingness to invest his personal fortune into the venture.
"Classic. Classic. It may have been the beginning of the Elon timeline, because in software, you can ship that fast a little harder in hardware."
This quote illustrates the contrast between the rapid pace of software development and the slower, more complex nature of hardware projects, highlighting the origin of Musk's optimistic timelines.
"So they decide they're going to name this first rocket, the Falcon one, after the millennium Falcon, of course."
This quote explains the inspiration behind the naming of SpaceX's first rocket, linking it to a cultural icon known for its speed and agility.
"We're going to make 90% plus of this rocket in our own factories, which is wild."
This quote highlights SpaceX's strategic decision to take control of the majority of its production process, emphasizing the unconventional nature of this move in the aerospace industry.
"With a cost plus, literally there's the cost of what it costs to make something, and then the contractor makes a percentage profit on the cost."
This quote criticizes the cost-plus model for its inherent inefficiency and perverse incentives, which SpaceX aims to disrupt.
"The big players, the governments, the big satellite guys, the Department of defense, NASA, they're also interested in what you're like."
This quote reveals the strategic shift in SpaceX's business model to cater to larger entities with significant demand for launch services, expanding beyond the initial focus on small satellites.
"SpaceX is in this for the long haul and come hell or high water. We are going to make this work."
This quote from Elon Musk, following an unsuccessful launch, demonstrates his determination and long-term commitment to SpaceX's success.
"They have won. Their two winners. Two companies get the contract. They split the contract."
This quote signifies the momentous occasion when SpaceX is awarded a major NASA contract, validating their approach and ensuring their viability in the space industry.
"Statsig is a feature management and experimentation platform that helps product teams ship faster, automate a b testing, and see the impact every feature is having on the core business metrics."
This quote explains the primary function of Statsig as a platform that aids product teams in enhancing their development and testing processes while also assessing the impact of their features on important business metrics.
"Statsig lets you make actual data-driven decisions about product changes, test them with different user groups around the world and get statistically accurate reporting on the impact."
The quote emphasizes Statsig's capability to facilitate informed product decision-making based on data, enabling testing across diverse user demographics and providing precise impact reports.
"Customers include Notion, Brex, OpenAI, Flipkart, Figma, Microsoft and Cruise Automation."
The quote lists several high-profile companies that utilize Statsig, indicating the platform's widespread adoption and trust across different industries.
"Also, Statsig is a great platform for rolling out and testing AI product features."
This quote highlights Statsig's suitability for AI feature management, suggesting that it is an ideal tool for companies working with AI to manage and optimize their product features.
"They can now ingest data from data warehouses, so it works with your company's data wherever it's stored, so you can quickly get started."
The quote reveals Statsig's compatibility with different data storage systems, allowing companies to integrate with Statsig without overhauling their current infrastructure.
"SpaceX has received $7.7 billion in contracts from NASA for launches."
This quote provides a specific figure on the financial support SpaceX has received from NASA, demonstrating the significant role of government contracts in SpaceX's revenue.
"Developing the sum total, the Falcon nine, which we're about to go into the story of, and the dragon, that cost about $400 million of NASA's money and about $450,000,000 of SpaceX's money to go and develop that."
The quote details the shared development costs between NASA and SpaceX for the Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule, highlighting the cost-saving benefits of SpaceX's methods.
"It's a win-win because it costs the taxpayers a lot less to get these missions done."
This quote encapsulates the mutual benefit of SpaceX's contracts with NASA, which have allowed for cost-effective mission completions while also enabling SpaceX's growth.
"The goal has really been build a really extravagant machine to do one thing where price is basically no object."
The quote reflects on the traditional approach of the space industry, which SpaceX challenged by introducing cost-effective and iterative rocket development.
"You have DirecTV, who sort of owns and operates tons of satellites in order to provide their service."
This quote mentions the types of commercial satellite operations that ULA failed to capture, highlighting their focus on government contracts and lack of adaptability to new market opportunities.
"Now, China, like China and their Long March rocket space today. Ben, correct me if I'm wrong, but is a two horse race between SpaceX and China, and it's crazy."
This quote positions SpaceX and China as the main contenders in the contemporary space race, emphasizing the global scale of competition and innovation in the industry.
"It's genius. And so you might think, my gosh, that's so many satellites that must be really far in the future. Well, they launch 60 at a time, and they've done this, I think, three times now."
This quote explains the rapid deployment of satellites by SpaceX, indicating that a satellite-based internet is not a distant future concept but a developing reality.
"For SpaceX, I don't know what their costs are. Call it 40 million. So it's that sort of big fixed cost investment to get them up there. But they can run a profitable business, and we can all, or a lot of people get their Internet from Starlink."
This quote highlights the significant initial cost for SpaceX to send satellites into orbit but suggests the long-term profitability through providing internet services.
"Back to the vertical integration they have the advantage of. It benefits all sides of the business."
This quote emphasizes the strategic advantage SpaceX gains from vertical integration, benefiting both its internal business development and its position as a primary launch provider.
"But I think it's in many ways precisely because of that resource constraint and having to build this profitable business that they've figured out how to disrupt the industry."
This quote suggests that SpaceX's limited resources have been a catalyst for its innovative approach and success in disrupting the aerospace industry.
"The way this section works is big company buys little company, we grade. In hindsight, how good of a use of capital was it for big company to buy a little company? Was it as good as Instagram or as bad as AOL and issue a letter grade? The way that we do that in this world where there hasn't been a transaction yet is talk about what would an a plus be or what would an f be, and maybe what would a c look like."
The quote outlines the framework for evaluating business decisions and acquisitions, which can be applied to assessing SpaceX's pursuit of the Mars economy as its ultimate success metric.