E160: How a SpaceX Rocket Engineer Became a Top Deep Tech VC
How I Invest with David Weisburd
The Responsible Engineer at SpaceX
This chapter explores the concept of the 'responsible engineer' at SpaceX, emphasizing the heightened accountability engineers face throughout the rocket production process. It contrasts this intense culture with traditional aerospace practices and discusses the challenges of maintaining such standards within the organization. Personal experiences highlight the demanding environment and the impact of leadership meetings on team dynamics and accountability.
Highlights:
- Jamie’s experience at SpaceX and the "responsible engineer" framework
- How Elon Musk's real superpower is organizational design and culture
- Why fast iteration beats careful waterfall planning in deep tech
- Jamie's investment thesis at Wave Function Ventures
- Why MBAs leading hard tech startups are often a red flag
- Understanding techno-economics and how technical feasibility isn't enough
- Lessons from investing early in Boom Supersonic and K2 Space
- Why the myth of deep tech needing excessive capital is breaking
- The role of escalation and decision-making speed at SpaceX
- How to distinguish scientific risk from engineering execution risk
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Guest Bio: Jamie Gull is the GP/Founder of Wave Function Ventures, a $10 million seed fund focused on investing in deep tech startups tackling hard hardware problems. Before becoming a full-time investor, Jamie spent over five years as an engineer at SpaceX, working on the Falcon 9 rocket, and later founded two venture-backed deep tech companies: a space deployables startup and an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft company. His second company received eight government contracts and was acquired in 2023. Jamie combines deep engineering expertise with founder experience to help startups scale in hard tech sectors.
Over the last several cycles, prevailing wisdom in the industry has been that hard tech companies couldn’t achieve extraordinary returns. More recently, this has been busted with the dawn of companies like SpaceX, Anduril, Saronic, etc. These companies are solving large, important societal problems, capitalizing on a perfect storm of events, from geopolitical considerations, to capital, to a massive talent influx from SpaceX and the like to government support. This theme, you can call it American Dynamism, Deep Tech, or Reindustrialization, is fueling top talent to launch and build the largest techno-industrials we have seen.
However, investing in these areas requires specialized expertise. Enter Wave Function Ventures. WFV is a new deep-tech focused fund launched by industry veteran and investor Jamie Gull. Jamie possesses the depth and breadth of experience to position WFV to see and win the best deals in this space. He is a former SpaceX engineer who played a key role on Falcon 9 reentry, started and sold his own deep tech company, Talyn Air, that went through Y combinator, has VC experience as a Venture Partner at Pioneer Fund and Next Gen Venture Partners, and has been angel investing in deep tech companies for a decade in companies like Boom Supersonic, Varda, and K2 Space, among others.
Our Podcast now receives more than 300,000 downloads a month. Are you interested in sponsoring an episode? Please email David Weisburd at david@weisburdcapital.com.
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Stay Connected: X / Twitter: David Weisburd: @dweisburd Jamie Gull: @jamiegull
LinkedIn: David Weisburd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweisburd/ Jamie Gull: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-gull/
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Links: Wave Function Ventures: https://www.wavefunction.vc/ Email: info@wavefunction.vc
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Questions or topics you want us to discuss on How I Invest? Email us at david@weisburdcapital.com.
(0:00) Episode preview (2:16) Role and downsides of the responsible engineer framework (5:52) SpaceX culture and personal growth (8:43) Jamie's meetings with Elon Musk (10:38) Introduction to Wave Function Ventures (12:08) Technoeconomics and founder assessment in deep tech (19:41) Comparing power law outcomes in deep tech vs. software (21:36) Analyzing technical vs. market risk in deep tech (24:39) Second-order effects and Boom Supersonic's origin (27:16) Asking the right questions in recruitment and investment (29:28) Rapid iteration's importance in deep tech startups (32:49) Traits of successful portfolio companies (36:18) Elon Musk’s approach to organizational design (39:13) Decision-making and investing strategies at SpaceX and Wave Function Ventures (41:14) Closing remarksThe AI-powered Podcast Player
