Gwynne Shotwell<\/a>, SpaceX\u2019s president, to watch a live video feed from the Marshall Islands of the company\u2019s third attempt to launch a reusable rocket. The ship made it all of two minutes in flight before crashing in flames.<\/p>\n\u201cWhat are you going to do?\u201d he recalled asking Ms. Shotwell. His partners had just poured $20 million into SpaceX, or about 10 percent of their most recent fund. He needed an explanation of what had gone wrong at the launch.<\/p>\n
She remained calm, he recalled. Maybe it was a software timing issue, she suggested. They would have to build another rocket and try again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s it?\u201d Mr. Fishner-Wolfson responded. He returned to San Francisco knowing not much more than he had when he left. But his bosses at Founders Fund were unfazed and stuck with SpaceX.<\/p>\n
The fund\u2019s $20 million investment is now worth billions, according to three investors in the fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody could have expected this 20 years ago,\u201d Mr. Fishner-Wolfson said.<\/p>\n
SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Three years after witnessing the doomed rocket launch, Mr. Fishner-Wolfson struck out on his own and started 137 Ventures, named after the seat his grandfather held at the New York Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n
He invested in other start-ups, such as Uber, but SpaceX was by far his central interest. The 137 offices contain a shrine of sorts to the company. In the entryway, in lieu of a receptionist, sits an enormous used engine from a SpaceX rocket. A crane was needed to knock out a window to get the rocket into the building.<\/p>\n
There have been moments of doubt. About 10 years ago, when SpaceX began raising money for what seemed like an outlandish side project, the Starlink satellite internet service, the venture capital firm, which has 25 employees, debated whether to keep investing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot more risk on the table,\u201d said Alex Jacobson, a partner at 137 Ventures.<\/p>\n
Mr. Fishner-Wolfson, 44, is eager to talk about the business of SpaceX, but he is shy to discuss Mr. Musk, who even after the public offering will maintain a vast majority of the controlling shares. Asked whether he had ever delivered tough feedback to Mr. Musk, he paused for 19 seconds before answering in the affirmative, without providing details.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can say whatever you want to say, and then he\u2019ll either change his mind or he won\u2019t,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s usually a short conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Fishner-Wolfson said he had learned to ignore the newsmaking moments about Mr. Musk\u2019s personal and political life. \u201cWhoever Elon happens to be dating at any given moment is not that relevant to the business of SpaceX,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Fishner-Wolfson\u2019s next decision \u2014 perhaps his biggest yet \u2014 is what to do with his SpaceX stake after the company goes public.<\/p>\n
He has been preparing for that for years, having moved to Las Vegas in 2018 in part to establish residency in a low-tax state, according to a friend who discussed it with him. (He says he moved to be closer to his parents, too.)<\/p>\n
But after spending more time than practically anyone else with SpaceX\u2019s top executives \u2014 and even hosting some at his wedding \u2014 not even Mr. Fishner-Wolfson can predict whether the company\u2019s lofty valuation will hold once its shares go public. SpaceX has been losing billions of dollars, and some of its core businesses like artificial intelligence lag rivals.<\/p>\n
He has settled on a sort of practiced Zen.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Friday, it could quadruple or go down 50 percent,\u201d Mr. Fishner-Wolfson said.<\/p>\n
The question of whether to sell remains out of his hands for the time being. Like other pre-I.P.O. investors, Mr. Fishner-Wolfson and his firm are barred by SpaceX from even beginning to sell shares until just after the first earnings report, expected in August, and will not be permitted to unload all of the shares until six months from the I.P.O.<\/p>\n
He said he would, at the earliest opportunity, distribute to the firm\u2019s investors most of their SpaceX shares, which would allow each to decide whether to sell or hold on longer.<\/p>\n
He said he was in no personal hurry to sell \u2014 he expected SpaceX could be worth 10 times its offering price before long. \u201cIt\u2019s still a company I believe in,\u201d Mr. Fishner-Wolfson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday, when SpaceX shares begin trading in the largest public offering on record, a host of Elon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[229733,18,13779,229734,19,70265,17,5835,11257,140841,6144,133,451,19881,256],"class_list":["post-533953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-137-ventures-management-llc","tag-eire","tag-elon","tag-fishner-wolfson","tag-ie","tag-initial-public-offerings","tag-ireland","tag-justin","tag-musk","tag-private-spaceflight","tag-satellites","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-exploration-technologies-corp","tag-venture-capital"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116745280234808341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}