DailyPost 658
SPACE X; THE START UP OF STARTUPs
SpaceX epitomizes the paradigm shift in entrepreneurship. The standard model is to have an idea of some sort of a Internet thing & make a public announcement so that eager investors fund the thought experiment. The goal is to make as much of money in shortest time; reality has to to set in. Elon Musk and SpaceX belongs to a different genre of entrepreneurship; super audacious!
After the success of the entrepreneurial debut of yellow pages digital and the pathbreaking PayPal, Elon Musk was hit by the brick and mortar bug. Real physical products completely distinct from software products. SpaceX founded by Elon Musk in 2002 was with the goal of reducing space transportation costs& finally enabling the colonisation of Mars. SpaceX despite it’s initial failed attempts, developed successful Falcon launch vehicle family & the Dragon spacecraft family, which both currently deliver payloads into earth’s orbit.
Musk wanter to buy cheap rockets from Russia but in reality found the prices to be prohibitive. He thought he could start a company to build affordable rockets. As per Musk’s calculation, then raw materials costed only 3% of the sales price. By applying vertical integration after producing 85% of the launch hardware inhouse & applying the modular approach from software engineering, SpaceX planned to cut down launch price by a factor of ten & still enjoy a 70% gross margin.
The landmark achievements of SpaceX include first privately funded liquid fueled rocket to reach orbit (2008), the first private company to send a satellite into geosynchronous orbit (2013) and in February this year; the first privately funded payload to escape Earth’s velocity, besides host of other achievements. Making your team trust in you & motivate them at the time of abject failures in the cornerstone of entrepreneurship.Elon Musk is a master of this trade. As on March 2018, SpaceX has over 100 launches on its manifest, totalling $12 billion in contract revenue.
ELON MUSK IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP 2.0!
Sanjay Sahay