SpaceX alums are branching out and shaping the startup economy

Post by moneywoes » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 2:56 AM UTC

outside1234 wrote: post #28

ben_w wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 3:05 AM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #74

Robotbeat wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually yes. SpaceX doesn’t pay a ton in salary, but their equity options have been incredibly valuable, so overall compensation has been good. If they’ve been around for a while and have had time for their shares to vest, they’re probably millionaires. SpaceX is worth a ton of money, and even tho SpaceX is private, they do regular private sales so employees can sell their shares. The early employees in particular h…

That sounds great indeed. Didn’t think of private sales that let you cash out your entire portfolio (or even a large fraction of it) were practiced. Anyone here have an idea of current spacex valuation?

Post by schrectacular » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 3:13 AM UTC

preommr wrote: post #5

Makes sense, not a lot of space companies to begin with, much less with people that have a startup mentality. Feel like the culture at Boeing or NASA is going to be very different from the one needed for a pioneering startup. And even then it's only a handful of investements, with how much liquidity is/was in the market not surprising that people got a few million for moonshots given how the potential for a whole new…

Post by hindsightbias » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 3:19 AM UTC

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…

Post by sangnoir » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 3:25 AM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #66

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…

Incumbents like Adobe , Meta or Google were allowed to reach their size by letting them kill or buy the competition every time something else was rising. As long as regulators won't do anything about that, the next startup challenging an incumbent is just poised to be bought("congratulation on your exit!") and killed. Figma is the latest example of this.