Space as a Financial Frontier
What is shifting to make space investing much more interesting
Every science fiction fan eventually stumbles across The Foundation Series, a legendary series of books where Isaac Asimov paints a vision of the future.
In one of the books:
Several centuries after the events of Second Foundation, two citizens of the Foundation search for Earth, the legendary planet where humans are said to have originated
This idea: that one day we will be a two-world species, is so core to all space nerds’ dreams. We want to make it out to the stars & that starts with bases on planets.
The biggest constraint has always been simple: access to capital
Until SpaceX succeeded, the space space was deemed largely uninvestable. Now that the company is buying back its own shares & saving Boeing from its demise, investors are clammering to get into all kinds of space businesses.
A lot of the space companies are private & require special privileges to access, but a few are not. There is one in particular where the founder has amazing vibes:
Rocketlab’s fantastic Kiwi CEO talking about Space Services
The stock has been punished since it floated but the company itself is making huge progress.
Their launch frequency is going up significantly and they have grown the craft business rapidly—exciting stuff!
Book My Launch as a button.
So cool!
Even Space is filled with morons
Crypto is 80% morons. AI is 30% morons. Space feels much lower than that. But you still have to watch out for total douches. For example, the CEO of Intuitive Machines (LUNR).
Now let’s contrast this brilliant man with this dude:
Here is my red flag radar going off:
Typical American phenotype
Overweight bulging gut
Wearing a suit in an engineering hall
I don’t need to know anything else about this man to know that I do not want to invest in his company. This is it. And, with a quick Google search we find:
On August 20, 2024, Stephen Altemus, CEO and 10% Owner of Intuitive Machines Inc (NASDAQ:LUNR), executed a significant transaction by selling 1,295,992 shares of the company.
Absolutely textbook.
Avoid like the plague.
Space People are about to be backable
As with all industries, it comes down to the people. I have always been hunting for the best people in each space.
In fintech, I found Patrick Collison at Stripe.
In crypto, I found Vitalik Buterin at Ethereum.
I want to keep searching out these individuals because they are backable.
Before Elon, space was a fool’s game. This magazine came out 20 years ago:
Boeing is fledgling, SpaceX is dominating. The market is flourishing.
Now it is high risk & high potential.
Ending with a pun.
Watch this Space!