Re:Mark Zuckerberg on the next 10 years of Facebook
by mikeash on Thursday July 21, 2016 @01:55PM
(#12138686)
If Musk was after money, he wouldn't have started SpaceX. A rocket company is the dumbest way to make a fortune that you could imagine, short of putting your money in a pile and lighting it on fire. That he's made it work (so far) is miraculous.
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Re:Mark Zuckerberg on the next 10 years of Facebook
by josho on Thursday July 21, 2016 @02:11PM
(#12138798)
Rather, SpaceX is the very definition of what venture capital is supposed to invest in--A high risk / high reward enterprise.
Re:Mark Zuckerberg on the next 10 years of Facebook
by mikeash on Thursday July 21, 2016 @02:21PM
(#12138866)
I don't know, VC is all about high-risk/high-reward, but there are differences of degree. A rocket company is rather higher risk and lower reward than the typical VC fodder.
Even if it was VC worthy, throwing all your money into two companies like that, when you're already rich, is not the sort of thing you'd see from someone motivated by money. The whole point of VC investing is to invest a little money in a lot of them to even out the risk.
Re:Mark Zuckerberg on the next 10 years of Facebook
by mhurron on Thursday July 21, 2016 @02:09PM
(#12138783)
He's running it at a loss with money from other ventures so that when he works it out he is the person you have to go to.
There is no altruism here, he's trying to create an industry where he would be the monopoly.
Re:Mark Zuckerberg on the next 10 years of Facebook
by mikeash on Thursday July 21, 2016 @02:19PM
(#12138849)
That makes little sense. There's no vendor lock-in and SpaceX has no inherent advantage over its competitors, just a greater willingness to push ahead, try new things, and relentlessly streamline. The moment one of the incumbents decides to start imitating them, or some other billionaire with an interest in space (<cough>Bezos</cough>) starts their own version, they'll have competition again, if competition even went away in the first place.
Re:Mark Zuckerberg on the next 10 years of Facebook
by mpbm on Saturday July 23, 2016 @08:27AM
(#12149285)
For what it's worth, I honestly think Musk is just a geek who got lucky enough to be able to pay everyone else to build his toys. I don't think he saw SpaceX as an investment I think he saw it as crazy fun. If it hadn't worked out he would have gone on to build another valuable startup, since he already had a track record at that point. It just happened to work.
Re:Mark Zuckerberg on the next 10 years of Facebook
by jsprogrammer on Thursday July 21, 2016 @02:13PM
(#12138812)
Wouldn't mining trillion+ dollar asteroids make you a fortune?