SpaceX also had the advantage of a very wealthy founder willing to pour lots of his own money into the project. This certainly wasn't enough to finance the ent

SpaceX also had the advantage of a very wealthy founder willing to pour lots of his own money into the project. This certainly wasn't enough to finance the entire development up until the first ISS flight, but it did allow him to hire a bunch of hotshot engineers right from the get-go, and probably establish a degree of legitimacy that made attracting more funds, government contracts, etc., somewhat easier. I'd wager that if Elon Musk had decided to fund LFTRs instead of rockets, we'd already have a prototype.