In 2004, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos met for a meal to discuss space.
It was one of their few in-person interactions.
That conversation perfectly captures the different approaches they've taken to space (and why SpaceX has pulled ahead of Blue Origin).
Here's the story 🧵
1/ For Bezos, the path to the meeting began in 1999 when he and famed sci-fi author Neal Stephenson watched the film "October Sky" (about NASA engineer Homer Hickam)
After the viewing, the Amazon founder told Stephenson he always wanted to start a space company...
2/ ..and Stephenson said "why don't you start today?"
Stephenson -- author of classics such as "Snow Crash" -- was hire #1 and put together a team of thinkers and engineers.
Blue Origins was incorporated in Sept 2000. Bezos checked in one Saturday a month to talk shop.
3/ Around the time (2001), Musk was part of a space advocacy group called Mars Society.
To create buzz, he pursued a project to send rats/plants to Mars to prove that it was possible.
Musk even flew to Russia to buy 3 "refurbished ICMBs" but balked at the price ($24m total).
4/ Instead, Musk decided to build his own rockets. He incorporated SpaceX in March 2002, ~18 months after Bezos and Blue Origin.
He funded the venture from a cash windfall after eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5B.
5/ From the start, SpaceX was much more publicly visible.
Musk's attempts to win NASA contracts (competing w/ Boeing and Lockheed Martin) included wild stunts.
In Dec 2003, he rolled a SpaceX rocket down Independence Ave in DC and gave a speech at the Air & Space Museum
6/ Not long after -- in 2004 -- the two met to talk space, with very different missions in mind:
◻️ Blue Origin: "Preserve the Earth” by going “to space to tap its unlimited resources and energy”.
◻️ SpaceX: Colonize Mars and "make humanity a multi-planetary species"
7/ While SpaceX had yet to launch a rocket into space, it was testing engines in Texas and Bezos wanted to pick Musk's brains. It was a very technical chat.
Musk was unimpressed with Bezos' progress.
8/ Like really unimpressed ("dude, we tried that")
9/ Why did Bezos ignore Musk's advice?
His history at Amazon clearly shows 3 things:
◻️vast patience
◻️trailblazing its own path
◻️constant experimentation
If Bezos was wrong, he wanted to find out on his own.
10/ Further, in 2004, Blue Origin was very much a side project.
Bezos kept expenses to a minimum and wanted a lean team (~70) believing that constraints led to innovation.
He enshrined the philosophy in a "Welcome Letter" that all Blue Origin employees receive:
10/ The "Welcome Letter" and notion of patiently pursuing a long-term objective is further encapsulated in Blue Origin's:
◻️motto = "Gradatim Ferociter" (step by step, ferociously)
◻️coat of arms = a pair of turtles (AKA the tortoise vs. the hare) heading to the stars
11/ Conversely, SpaceX's motto is "Head down. Plow through the line" Musk's aim of creating a multi-planet species (eg Mars) requires urgency.
(Bezos is more focussed on creating a space economy for millions of people)
SpaceX's first successful launch came 4yrs after they met.
12/ Clearly, Bezos' "tortoise" approach was losing.
Headcount
◻️ 2010: SpaceX (900) vs. Blue Origin (275)
◻️ 2017: SpaceX (5k) vs. Blue Origin (1k)
Blue Origin's New Shepard would finally touch the edge of space in Apr 2015, ~7 years after SpaceX.
13/ Meanwhile, SpaceX owns the public's imagination and wins government contracts:
2012: 1st spacecraft sent to ISS
2016: 1st vertical lancing on ocean platform
2017: 1st re-used rocket
2018: Falcon Heavy (largest rocket in operation) launched
2020: 2 astronauts sent to ISS
14/ In April 2017, Bezos said "enough", announcing he would sell $1B of $AMZN a year to fund Blue Origin.
A few months later, he hired Bob Smith -- an aerospace exec from defence contractor Honeywell -- as Blue Origin CEO.
Blue now has 3.5k employees (vs. SpaceX @ 9.5k).
15/ Blue has aggressively poached SpaceX employees, often 2x-ing their salary:
"I think it’s unnecessary and a bit rude,” Musk says of the practice.
In April 2021, Blue Origin challenged a $2.9B contract NASA awarded to SpaceX. Musk taunted Bezos with this tweet and image:
16/ Now, Bezos will fly to space on July 20 with his brother and 2 other passengers.
Last week, he donated $200m to the Smithsonian Institute to promote science and space research.
While Bezos ignored Musk's advice at in 2004, these moves are right out of Musk's PR playbook.
17/ Musk himself booked a space flight on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
No date is set but the two hung out the morning before Branson went to space on July 11 (beating Bezos by 9 days).
No word if Musk and Bezos will brunch before Bezos' flight (unlikely).
18/ With Bezos retiring from Amazon and all in on Blue Origin, the battle between the world's 2 richest people may just be starting ($205 Bezos vs. $160B Musk)
To win the Space Race, it's looking like Bezos is ditching Aesop's tortoise.
Next step: Become Blue Origin CEO?
19/ If you enjoyed this, FOLLOW @TrungTPhan for other baller business stories and some really dumb memes:
Apple’s first CEO was named — you can’t make this up — Michael Scott.
When Apple went public in 1980, he owned 5.6% of the company ... compared to Steve Jobs (15.0%) and Steve Wozniak (7.9%)
More on Markkula, who owned 14% of Apple at IPO:
◻️First outside check ($250k in 1977)
◻️Was one of first 3 employees and owned up to 30% of Apple
◻️ Big early contributions and actually hired Michael Scott businessinsider.com/the-first-10-a…
In 1981, Absolut Vodka launched the longest-running ad campaign ever.
The Swedish brand produced 2k ads over 25 years, all in the same format. Its success -- with help from Andy Warhol -- is a testament to simplicity and the persuasive power of repetition.
Here's the story 🧵
1/ Absolut Vodka was founded in 1879 by Lars Olsson Smith.
The brand would become a Swedish staple but didn't venture outside the country's borders for a century.
In 1979, Absolut entered a crowded US vodka market with no brand equity and a plain-looking product.
2/ While vodka brands competed on taste, ad agency TBWA advised Absolut to market itself on the aesthetics of its bottle (designed as a 19th-century Swedish pharmacy vial).
The first ad -- in 1981 -- was the bottle matched w/ a pun ("Absolut Perfection"). No models. No celebs.