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Actually SpaceX was 85% government funded according to the guy who gave him the money, Michael D. Griffin. This was front-loaded. Private money was never at ris

Actually SpaceX was 85% government funded according to the guy who gave him the money, Michael D. Griffin. This was front-loaded. Private money was never at risk.

nickpp 3y ago
Any source for this? Wikipedia says: "Musk provided half of his $180 million from PayPal stocks to the newly founded company"
- georgeg23 3y ago
  And the government provided over $1B.. Search for the word 'excessive' https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/C3PO/GriffinMD/GriffinMD_1-12-13.htm https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/hist... Griffin is arguing against himself there in giving all that money-- covering his tail. The important part if you read the contracts is a majority of the money was awarded before SpaceX built any hardware, they just had to present plans and half the money was transferred. Elon never risked his own money as all the costs were covered up front and if they failed they would only lose the other half of the contract. Elon was very scrappy and cheap in the initial builds because he didn't want to risk his own cash.
  - nickpp 3y ago
    So the government wanted the services and was willing to take some risk paying in advance that SpaceX couldn’t deliver? Smart and successful bet in this case, but I guess they tried that with other companies as well and those didn’t deliver?!
    - georgeg23 3y ago
      Agree, the point is that the story of Elon taking personal financial risk with SpaceX is false. For Tesla, besides the huge DOE grant, he had SpaceX loan some of the excess government money to Tesla in the first few years to derisk his investment there as well.
      - nickpp 3y ago
        Well putting half your fortune in a venture is literally taking significant personal financial risk. Besides that, there are plenty of firms taking government money but Elon actually delivered.
        georgeg23 3y ago
        It was a risk free venture.
        nickpp 3y ago
        That is simply false. SpaceX's chances were widely estimated to be quite low at the time.
        georgeg23 3y ago
        If you are following along above, even if SpaceX failed, only the government would have lost money spent. The government contract did not take equity so Elon could liquidate and get all his money back. His cash investment was very little compare to government up front money provided by Griffin.
        nickpp 3y ago
        If SpaceX failed all the money in the company would've been gone.
        georgeg23 3y ago
        They had no debt, and plenty of assets funded by the government. Other failed rocket companies liquidated and return value to investors. Elon only had to recover 10% of the spend to be made fully whole. Read the links above, this is not speculation.
        nickpp 3y ago
  - inemesitaffia 3y ago
    Musk ran out of money, got more from Thiel before getting that 1 billion. Some of us lived through this and remember the contract award for Falcon 9
    - georgeg23 3y ago
      Actually Griffin's COTS government contract was awarded in 2005 (with half money up front), three years before Thiel first invested.
      - inemesitaffia 3y ago
        I'll have to check that
        georgeg23 3y ago
        And... ?

Actually SpaceX was 85% government funded according to the guy who gave him the money, Michael D. Griffin. This was front-loaded. Private money was never at risk.

nickpp 3y ago

Any source for this? Wikipedia says: "Musk provided half of his $180 million from PayPal stocks to the newly founded company"

georgeg23 3y ago
And the government provided over $1B.. Search for the word 'excessive' https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/C3PO/GriffinMD/GriffinMD_1-12-13.htm https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/hist... Griffin is arguing against himself there in giving all that money-- covering his tail. The important part if you read the contracts is a majority of the money was awarded before SpaceX built any hardware, they just had to present plans and half the money was transferred. Elon never risked his own money as all the costs were covered up front and if they failed they would only lose the other half of the contract. Elon was very scrappy and cheap in the initial builds because he didn't want to risk his own cash.
- nickpp 3y ago
  So the government wanted the services and was willing to take some risk paying in advance that SpaceX couldn’t deliver? Smart and successful bet in this case, but I guess they tried that with other companies as well and those didn’t deliver?!
  - georgeg23 3y ago
    Agree, the point is that the story of Elon taking personal financial risk with SpaceX is false. For Tesla, besides the huge DOE grant, he had SpaceX loan some of the excess government money to Tesla in the first few years to derisk his investment there as well.
    - nickpp 3y ago
      Well putting half your fortune in a venture is literally taking significant personal financial risk. Besides that, there are plenty of firms taking government money but Elon actually delivered.
      - georgeg23 3y ago
        It was a risk free venture.
        nickpp 3y ago
        That is simply false. SpaceX's chances were widely estimated to be quite low at the time.
        georgeg23 3y ago
        If you are following along above, even if SpaceX failed, only the government would have lost money spent. The government contract did not take equity so Elon could liquidate and get all his money back. His cash investment was very little compare to government up front money provided by Griffin.
        nickpp 3y ago
        If SpaceX failed all the money in the company would've been gone.
        georgeg23 3y ago
        They had no debt, and plenty of assets funded by the government. Other failed rocket companies liquidated and return value to investors. Elon only had to recover 10% of the spend to be made fully whole. Read the links above, this is not speculation.
        nickpp 3y ago
- inemesitaffia 3y ago
  Musk ran out of money, got more from Thiel before getting that 1 billion. Some of us lived through this and remember the contract award for Falcon 9
  - georgeg23 3y ago
    Actually Griffin's COTS government contract was awarded in 2005 (with half money up front), three years before Thiel first invested.
    - inemesitaffia 3y ago
      I'll have to check that
      - georgeg23 3y ago
        And... ?