Luke Nosek, Founders Fund partner leaves to launch SpaceX-focused fund

[Space Ghost 1962]

Founders Fund partner leaves to launch SpaceX-focused fund

Luke Nosek is leaving Founders Fund, the venture capital firm he co-founded more than a decade ago with Peter Thiel.

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

Thanks for opening this discussion.

This may have more impact on how much and how soon SpaceX does new projects and expands its capabilities than most realize. Money makes the world go round. With a special fund to gather money for SpaceX projects, like the comm constellation and ITSy. SpaceX could have the funds to do very rapid (for the space business) developments of these systems.

[docmordrid]

This must have been a carefully planned move, quantifying potential investor interest long before registering and going live. The account won't be empty long.

[AncientU]

This must have been a carefully planned move, quantifying potential investor interest long before registering and going live. The account won't be empty long.

Does SpaceX have to 'open' access to sources of funding when they make an offering, or can that be at their discretion?  Basically, what is the guarantee that SpaceX will fund through Nosek?

SpaceX statement, per spokesman John Taylor: "While we wish Luke well in his new endeavors, there is no guarantee of future investment allocations in SpaceX or any other companies associated with Elon."

[docmordrid]

AIUI Fidelity is the conduit for private stock sales by employees & stakeholders, so perhaps there. The last report I read pegged the share price at $96 and change in early 2016, up 25% from the previous round.

[Robotbeat]

Musk has hinted on Twitter about finding some sort of way to allow people interested in spaceflight for its own sake to invest in SpaceX without requiring SpaceX to go public.

[Herb Schaltegger]

Very interesting news. Dovetails with the job opening SpaceX posted some months ago for the General Counsel position. Among the requirements was expertise with securities law, executive compensation/benefits and the like.

[ArbitraryConstant]

So is this to fund SpaceX without SpaceX having to go public, or is this to fund new satellites for SpaceX to launch?

[jpo234]

So is this to fund SpaceX without SpaceX having to go public, or is this to fund new satellites for SpaceX to launch?

I would guess that this is financial infrastructure to channel money to SpaceX.

[Space Ghost 1962]

Wrong. It is what it says it is. SX Fund. Means funding things outside of SX, that interact with SX.

Close to a decade back, there was an iPhone fund. It bootstrapped companies to do iPhone apps. Same deal.

[jpo234]

Wrong. It is what it says it is. SX Fund. Means funding things outside of SX, that interact with SX.

Close to a decade back, there was an iPhone fund. It bootstrapped companies to do iPhone apps. Same deal.

Thanks for the clarification.

[MechE31]

This must have been a carefully planned move, quantifying potential investor interest long before registering and going live. The account won't be empty long.

Does SpaceX have to 'open' access to sources of funding when they make an offering, or can that be at their discretion?  Basically, what is the guarantee that SpaceX will fund through Nosek?

SpaceX statement, per spokesman John Taylor: "While we wish Luke well in his new endeavors, there is no guarantee of future investment allocations in SpaceX or any other companies associated with Elon."

Every investor in SpaceX is vetted by the company before being allowed to buy. If you don't give open access to what they ask for, they probably won't let you buy.

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

Hmmm.

Remember the speculation that if you get the launch costs low enough new applications for launch would emerge. But always in that statement was the caveat that only if there was money invested in the new space industries.

I think we are seeing the beginning of the expansion of space usage to many new applications for space not yet attempted.

Even though the eventual increase in number of launches per year will mostly go to SpaceX that does not mean all of them. Any successfully competing low cost launcher like NG possibly would also benefit. With launch rate increases that increases the internal funds and incentives to make launch even cheaper.

This could end being a very big snowball rolling at first a gentle slope that then turns into a steep decline.

[su27k]

Wrong. It is what it says it is. SX Fund. Means funding things outside of SX, that interact with SX.

Close to a decade back, there was an iPhone fund. It bootstrapped companies to do iPhone apps. Same deal.

The article says it is for funding SpaceX itself, at least initially:

His next role will be leading something called Gigafund, a new investment firm that initially will be focused on raising capital for Elon Musk's SpaceX
...

the idea behind Gigafund is to ensure that the space exploration company won't have debilitating capital constraints.

[Semmel]

Wrong. It is what it says it is. SX Fund. Means funding things outside of SX, that interact with SX.

Close to a decade back, there was an iPhone fund. It bootstrapped companies to do iPhone apps. Same deal.

Is a fund for X always to provide money to stuff around X? I am not a finance person, honest question!

In this case, is that fund for subcontractors to develop new and better technologies that is needed by SpaceX? Or is it to fund payloads that get launched by SpaceX? Or is it to fund applications of payloads, launched by SpaceX?

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

Wrong. It is what it says it is. SX Fund. Means funding things outside of SX, that interact with SX.

Close to a decade back, there was an iPhone fund. It bootstrapped companies to do iPhone apps. Same deal.

Is a fund for X always to provide money to stuff around X? I am not a finance person, honest question!

In this case, is that fund for subcontractors to develop new and better technologies that is needed by SpaceX? Or is it to fund payloads that get launched by SpaceX? Or is it to fund applications of payloads, launched by SpaceX?

I believe it maybe all the above.

[su27k]

More on this: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/reported-spacex-investors-talk-is-light-on-details-heavy-on-love-for-its-future/

No real news, except this guy really loves SpaceX.

[jpo234]

More on this: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/reported-spacex-investors-talk-is-light-on-details-heavy-on-love-for-its-future/

No real news, except this guy really loves SpaceX.

He’s also launching an investment firm called Gigafund that will help Musk’s SpaceX raise capital.

seems to clearly imply that the raised money is directly for SpaceX, not just for an ecosystem around cheap launches.