I was an early SpaceX employee. My equity helped me pay off student loans, buy a home, and make risky career moves.
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Josh Giegel joined SpaceX I worked there for 3 years in 2009. He says the equality he received was “liberating.”
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Giegel’s SpaceX capital allowed him to make a down payment on a house and help pay off his wife’s student loans.
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“Equity also allows me to take a lower salary in my startup,” Gambit said, which means he can hire more people.
The article, as told, is based on a conversation with Josh Giegel, the 41-year-old co-founder of artificial intelligence startup Gambit, who lives in Los Angeles. Edited for length and clarity.
I was doing my master’s degree at Stanford, finishing my master’s degree, and I wanted to get a doctorate.
I worked at NASA One of the women I worked with last summer was a Stanford graduate and she said, “You’re going to be so bored with NASA. Why don’t you check out this little space company in Los Angeles called SpaceX?”
I applied and was interviewed in the two weeks between the third flight and the fourth flight. hawk 1. I interviewed Elon; at that time he was still interviewing just about everyone. I remember turning to my advisor and saying, “There is nothing on this planet I would rather do than what he just described.”
My Master’s degree finished at the end of 2008 and I started in 2009.
I was on a driving force analysis team of four or five people. Our challenge was: How do you design the first reusable rocket engine? A very small group of us were responsible for the initial things. in Falcon 9.
I started there when I was 23 and left when I was 27. This was some pure immaturity. I knew I wanted to start a company one day, and SpaceX was growing like crazy. I wanted to be a part of the founding team. I still love the company; I almost came back two or three years later before starting my own company.
IPO pretty cool. I’m on a bunch of threads with guys who were there around the same time, and a few of them are still there. It’s so nice to see how much you’ve grown.
When I went there they offered, there was an equity component. I remember the HR woman who discussed this with me said: “We think this could be worth $250,000-$300,000 someday in 10 or 15 years.” I distinctly remember him saying, “You can get a nice down payment on a house in Los Angeles.”
We all laugh about it now. But there was a saying back then: The fastest way to become a millionaire in space is to start as a billionaire.
Buybacks have been quite regular for the last 10 years. We would go out for a bit now and then. For example, we paid off my wife’s debt. student loans a few years ago. We made the down payment on the house.
