Peter Sellis

ministri technici, intelligentia artificialis

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

Good math, but not all quite there:

First, SpaceX pays fairly average, but for more than a decade they have offered regular (~bi-annual) liquidity to employees. To live comfortably (especially to have a family) in LA County, most employees would have sold a little bit here and there, if not a lot (e.g., if they were the sole earner in a household).

Second, critically, because there is no double trigger (in order to facilitate the liquidity), most people default to "sell-to-cover" — i.e., ~40-50% of their holdings are immediately sold to cover the taxes on vest. Remember these vests are W-2 events. In order to not do this, the employee would need to come up with significant cash (because the taxes are paid against the price at vest, not the price at grant) — especially later on.

However, two things make SpaceX particularly awesome IMO:

1. They gave employees the option to choose stock or options along the way. Someone who took options and paid the taxes with cash would have done very well.

2. They gave stock to everyone. There are a bunch of highly skilled workers that we on X never think of, like Tube Benders, Orbital Tube Welders, Cleanroom Technicians, etc. that are going to make significant fortunes.

Maybe it's overly quixotic, but this last point is underrated part of @elonmusk attacking physical problems, not just software ones, with 100x thinking: a bunch of people in the types of jobs America needs and romanticizes (for good reason) will be rewarded with the kind of wealth that really would not be possible at any other company they would have chosen.

An incredibly positive story that, if you can't see it in that light, you should look inward.

[Andrew Benson @AndrewBenson]

SpaceX millionaires 4,000 x $1mil , 400 x $100 mil

Every employee who joined before the first succesful launch made (unless they sold early) more than $100 million.

SpaceX lists June 12 at ~$1.75T.

Work backward from the cap table. At $1.75T, clearing $100M takes ~0.0057% of the company.

- 2002–2008, first ~500 in: joined at a ~$50M company. Held to $1.75T = a 17,000x. The core of the club — maybe 150–250 left holding

- September 2008, SpaceX has first successful launch

- 2010–2016: joined at $1B–$10B. Needs a senior grant — directors, principal engineers, early Starlink. ~100–200

- C-suite + board: Shotwell, Johnsen past $1B. A layer of SVPs below them clears $100M on equity, not salary. ~20–40

- Post-2016: joined at $20B–$350B. To hit $100M you'd have needed ~0.4% of the company. Impossible for an employee. This is the millionaire tier — almost none reach $100M

The tally:
~400–500 at $100M+
A few dozen above $500M
A handful of billionaires past Musk

Same building. Same mission. Two orders of magnitude apart — set entirely by what year you walked in.

Early isn't a strategy. It's a date stamp.

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@ashwahi the italics were not necessary but tyfys

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

Can you imagine how bad this had to be to reach stat sig levels versus the background rate of diarrhea?

[Polymarket @Polymarket]

BREAKING: CDC investigators officially identify Taylor Farms lettuce supplied to Taco Bell as a suspected source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak sickening thousands.

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@Grimezsz I hope this begins your Peggy Guggenheim arc.

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@basedalexandoor 11 Yans and 1 Zuck

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@andrewchen we are so back

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@andrewchen So you’re long Discord?

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

“(CEO, Robinhood)” is doing Vlad kinda dirty ngl

[Moneyball Investing 🌌 @moneyballinvest]

@business

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@leo1yu @stanleybystan this building has good mojo

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@KenWattana got into tons of arguments in this building from 2015-2017

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@brentviatweets @katiedwyer she’s honored

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

He’s 100% correct. The good thing is that everyone realizes this. You know how? Because every consumer founder will remind you every time you meet them.

[signüll @signulll]

building b2b software is 1000x easier than building consumer software. possibly even an order of magnitude greater than this.

it is unbelievably difficult to land consumer software at scale.

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@wbuxtonofficial You’re bringing back SPEED with Varsha and Hobbes?

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@tacooghost @spencerpratt the most american piece of furniture

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@MaxNPalmer

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@rhunterh ugh what a banger

[Jill Tucker @jilltucker]

And you wonder: How much is a magical world worth?

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@typesfast see you on there

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@scottbelsky Renewing my vows here

[Peter Sellis @petersellis]

@AnjneyMidha @nikesharora lemme know if you need my skincare routine, big dog