All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX, shared insights into her early days at the company, highlighting the importance of customer service and the challenging market conditions that allowed SpaceX to emerge. She noted that the company's success was not guaranteed, especially given the entrenched competition and the impact of 9/11 on the aerospace industry.
“SpaceX should never have existed, right? If the other launch providers were great, then a new entrant can't make headway, right? Because they were so entrenched. So we should have never made it.”
“But turns out, you know, customer service wasn't great. Rockets were incredibly expensive.”
“And then the other piece was 9/11. Um, at that time, the military was desperately looking for someone who could come in and do rapid launch.”