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SpaceX investor's thread

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Johan

Ex got M3 in the divorce, waiting for EU Model Y!
Feb 9, 2012
7,510
10,025
Drammen, Norway
I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread where we could put news, rumors etc. regarding future investment oportunities in SpaceX. I'm absolutely thrilled with the progress SpaceX is making and how they have been able to win contracts and deliver the way they have. With Elon's unique ability to combine science/engineering and innovative thinking while at the same time handling the buiniess side of running a company I can't really see how SpaceX will not be a commercial sucess? And I think it's a question of "when" rather than "if" SpaceX will go public? And to put it this way: if TSLA is the stock of the decade then SpaceX may be the stock of the 21st century.

As a back-drop I'm a TSLA shareholder, with a core position that I'm planning on holding for a very long time and a trading position where I've already made some nice money (currently sold, waiting for the right moment to buy back in). When SolarCity (yes I know, not comparable to Tesla nor SpaceX but still some of the same properties especially when it comes to innovative thinking and the buiseness side of things) had their IPO I was very eager to get in on this. I contacted Goldman-Sachs' representatives in London and in Norway but never got any response. Then the IPO happened at $8 per share, I put in a buy order the first day before market open at $10.50 but it never filled and after a week or so the stock was trading at $18, now at $16.50. So my point is, when the SpaceX IPO is happening this time I'm not missing out! That's why I though that any news and rumors we can gather to be a little bit ahead of the rest we can use to our advantage when the IPO gets nearer.
 
Personally, I wish that SpaceX would go public. I would like to be able to invest some money just as a show of support, regardless of the volatility or short-term earnings potential. Long-term, I think (and hope) that SpaceX will be a huge winner, both financially and for the good of mankind.
 
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While I would love to invest in this company, I heard Elon say in many recent interviews that although SpaceX could go public right now, he doesn't want it to. He thinks if the company is public then it would be hard to get things accomplished and they would never reach their main goal because of all the investor bullshit. Keeping it private, they are able to do what they want when they want.
 
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There is actually a lot of chatter about SpaceX going public.

"An email response from SpaceX CEO and resident Tony Stark, Elon Musk, confirms a regular employee liquidity program and pegs the valuation of the latest round in the neighborhood of $4 billion to $5 billion."

http://pandodaily.com/2013/03/20/dfj-led-a-30m-shareholder-liquidity-round-that-valued-space-x-between-4-5-billion/

Indeed very interesting! I know that a lot of people say SpaceX will never go public, it's easier to manage a privately held company etc. etc. But looking at Elon's track record it's clear that it's more a question of "when" than "if". He believes in going to the stock market for raising large amounts of capital. And this business will get very capital intense at one point or another (is already).
 
While I would love to invest in this company, I heard Elon say in many recent interviews that although SpaceX could go public right now, he doesn't want it to. He thinks if the company is public then it would be hard to get things accomplished and they would never reach their main goal because of all the investor bullshit. Keeping it private, they are able to do what they want when they want.

In the interviews I've seen he has been interested in going public in the relative near term. My understanding is that Elon will own an outright majority even after going public, so he won't be constrained in any real way.

The main reason they will go public is to make their employees rich off of their stock options. As it is they have a lot of millionaires struggling to get by on mid range engineer salaries.
 
From Elon's tweet yesterday, it seems like he doesn't want to do an IPO for SpaceX because he does not want to have investor pressure.

However, I would not at all mind doing a investment with very long-term restrictions from my IRA - e.g. can't be traded for 15 years except when legally forced (death or insolvency), and no voting for first 15 years.

It's an investment in humanity more than anything else.

I've never seen anything structured like that though - is there such a thing?

- - - Updated - - -


Well... if I actually read Elon's other replies first:

Jeremy Goldkorn:
@elonmusk Why don't you launch 10 Year Mars Fund: Minimum investment term is one decade?

Elon Musk:
goldkorn We don't need cash (right now), but I wd like to find a way for those who care to participate. Will consider.


That would be insanely cool.
 
Running a private company is much easier in many ways than a public company (I think Musk has found that out the hard way with TSLA). And since SpaceX's main customer for now the US Gov (which is about the easiest customer there is), I'm not sure there is much need to go public. I would guess that they will stay private for quite some time as they iterate their tech and build the business, and then maybe when it is time to make the push for Mars etc they will think about going public at that time.
 
I am not sure if this should be its own thread, but I wanted to ask if anyone else has or is considering investing in SpaceX shares. I am investigating it right now and shares are going for between $47-53 per share ($18 one year ago) with about 120 million shares outstanding ($6 billion market cap).

They are not public of course but can be purchased (I am working with the website Sharespost who are very helpful). Anyways, just wondering if anyone has gone down this street before with SpaceX and could share their experience.
 
I am not sure if this should be its own thread, but I wanted to ask if anyone else has or is considering investing in SpaceX shares. I am investigating it right now and shares are going for between $47-53 per share ($18 one year ago) with about 120 million shares outstanding ($6 billion market cap).

They are not public of course but can be purchased (I am working with the website Sharespost who are very helpful). Anyways, just wondering if anyone has gone down this street before with SpaceX and could share their experience.

Uuuh. I had thought in investing in SpaceX a while ago, but never considered that I could actually buy not listed company shares. I had even contemplated writing them that I'd only like a handful of shares if I could buy them from some employees or what not :) But if there is a way I would be interested. Can you clarify a bit more? I think SpaceX will one day be worth 10-100x what they are today so definitely would like to be part of that. And holding shares in SpaceX would be just also a monumental thing in itself that I would really like to do it. Not going to be able to spring for more than 100-200 shares right now though and not sure they would do such a small transaction.
 
Well the first few links are about SpaceX and from there it deteriorates into how to buy shares overall ;) That's why I was curious about pz1975 possibly having found a way to actually buy them. I mean I'd hope that in the worst case Elon would be friendly enough to part with 200 shares for a true believer in the company future as it has zero material effect on the company or his stake ;) But it may well be that the paperwork involved is order of magnitude above the reasonability to buy a couple hundred shares :)
 
I think unlisted companies have a limit on the number of shareholders they can have. That makes it pretty hard for them to trade. Also, sometimes shareholders in non-listed companies have to sign various agreements about who they can sell to. But hey, I'm with you, please tell us if you do succeed in buying in.
 
I think unlisted companies have a limit on the number of shareholders they can have. That makes it pretty hard for them to trade. Also, sometimes shareholders in non-listed companies have to sign various agreements about who they can sell to. But hey, I'm with you, please tell us if you do succeed in buying in.

Ah indeed I had forgotten the max owners clause. And considering that SpaceX is now at the level of thousands of workers no clue how many are given stock options. Wasn't it 2000 owners before you had to take the company public? I remember some kind of discussion on that though I also remember some remedies and that the number was one reason new startups had issues because they don't want to go public too early, but the owners list grows fast. But I think there was some change because I also remember a recent article that VCs had their funds locked in various companies because they wouldn't go IPO as the limitations on the max owners were lifted or alleviated somewhat. So the VCs can't get their investments back to invest in new ventures.
 
Mario,

I asked my contact about SpaceX shares and he said the minimum investment is $50K so one cannot pick up 100-200 shares. I am still going through the process of getting some shares and will write an update once it is done to let you know how it turned out.