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SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

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Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#21

Post by ben_w »

eldenring wrote: post #6
echelon wrote: post #3

I wish it was more like this at existing companies. Why everyone isn't leaving Adobe, Meta, and Google to found their own AI / generative media startups astounds me. If you work in our incredibly lucrative field, you may be able to afford a few quarters of leaning into risk. Startups are like a brush fire. Old incumbents have so much legacy code and cruft that nimble upstarts killing them is healthy . The "SpaceX dia…

Huh? pretty much every one of the recently successful AI startup employees (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) have had stints at Google Brain.

OpenAI is roughly 375 people, I don't know how big Anthropic is but I assume similar.

I think the person you're replying to is wondering why the other 25 million of us aren't doing the same.

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#25

Post by MPSimmons »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #22
cyanydeez wrote: post #10

[flagged]

From people I've talked to, SpaceX pay isn't any better than "old-space" companies (even before you look at the hourly breakdown) and their equity isn't very liquid.

The equity is liquid enough.

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#26

Post by ben_w »

onethought wrote: post #18
jsemrau wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the opening paragraph "Earlier this week, Elon Musk — Grimes’s ex-boyfriend, the pancake-haired chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX and also the man who joked about starting a “TITS” University on Twitter — was named Time’s Person of the Year for 2021." I think it's safe to assume a certain bias.

Tokyo Institute of Technology is already a thing.

Given the language difference, that's a bit like someone in Tokyo saying they meant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Mune instead of 胸

(Although I may be showing a certain degree of misunderstanding of my own given how different languages slice up reality in different ways, and 胸 may not mean quite what a literal translation suggests…)

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#27

Post by outside1234 »

elbigbad wrote: post #4
echelon wrote: post #3

I wish it was more like this at existing companies. Why everyone isn't leaving Adobe, Meta, and Google to found their own AI / generative media startups astounds me. If you work in our incredibly lucrative field, you may be able to afford a few quarters of leaning into risk. Startups are like a brush fire. Old incumbents have so much legacy code and cruft that nimble upstarts killing them is healthy . The "SpaceX dia…

My company immediately sues anyone who leave to join a competitor, and even more viciously attacks I would assume if someone were to actually start a competing business.

Move to California, that shit don't fly here

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#28

Post by outside1234 »

ben_w wrote: post #21
eldenring wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? pretty much every one of the recently successful AI startup employees (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) have had stints at Google Brain.

OpenAI is roughly 375 people, I don't know how big Anthropic is but I assume similar. I think the person you're replying to is wondering why the other 25 million of us aren't doing the same.

The money at FAANG is really hard to beat on a risk adjusted basis (though that risk factor is increasing with the layoff spree).

From a financial perspective it is much more probable to become a millionaire through a FAANG than a startup right now.

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#29

Post by tenpies »

elbigbad wrote: post #4
echelon wrote: post #3

I wish it was more like this at existing companies. Why everyone isn't leaving Adobe, Meta, and Google to found their own AI / generative media startups astounds me. If you work in our incredibly lucrative field, you may be able to afford a few quarters of leaning into risk. Startups are like a brush fire. Old incumbents have so much legacy code and cruft that nimble upstarts killing them is healthy . The "SpaceX dia…

My company immediately sues anyone who leave to join a competitor, and even more viciously attacks I would assume if someone were to actually start a competing business.

So do Elon's companies:

https://www.engadget.com/tesla-sues-engineer-dojo-trade-secr...

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-lawsuit-supercomputer-...

https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/tesla-sues-former-employee...

---

I think the key is that these startups aren't competing with SpaceX, but are rather SpaceX-adjacent.

There is also a uniqueness to the industry that SpaceX operates in, in that everyone is basically the US government, or the US government with a layer of paint. SpaceX isn't exactly going to sue the hand that feeds it, even if it's wearing a Boeing-logo glove.

Re: SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

#30

Post by Tuna-Fish »

tenpies wrote: post #29
elbigbad wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My company immediately sues anyone who leave to join a competitor, and even more viciously attacks I would assume if someone were to actually start a competing business.

So do Elon's companies: https://www.engadget.com/tesla-sues-engineer-dojo-trade-secr... https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-lawsuit-supercomputer-... https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/tesla-sues-former-employee... --- I think the key is that these startups aren't competing with SpaceX, but are rather SpaceX-adjacent. There is also a uniqueness to the industry that SpaceX operates in, in that everyone is basically t…

The two big ones, Relativity and Firefly, are definitely direct competitors.

As to the lawsuits, generally don't take any of your employers code or data with you when you leave, and you'll be fine.

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