Rick Prostko

Multi-stage technology investor.
The mind finds its greatest joy in proving the impossible wrong.

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

@spencerpratt This 💯. Takes collective effort by individuals AND the Govt to prepare. At the very least control what you can control.

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

@QuincyEdmundLee This is the way "...Work on things that matter, that you are passionate about and that fill you with energy. Then give it your all, and yourself the gift of optimism." Congrats!

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

"No great thing is created suddenly." — Epictetus
Seven years ago we bet on a group of humans who refused to accept the word impossible. Today @SpaceX lists on Nasdaq. Proof that with enough belief and determination, you can literally reach the stars.
https://t.co/2CxJfNjz7W

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

@Suhail @elonmusk 💯 Lose enough times and it stops breaking you... it starts fueling you. The hatred of losing is where ambition is born.

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

We first backed @SpaceX in 2019 as @OTPP's inaugural venture growth investment.

Today it debuts on the Nasdaq at ~$1.75T ($SPCX)

7 years. Multiple follow-ons. One extraordinary SpaceX team.

Congratulations SpaceX. Ad Astra! 🚀🚀🚀

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

@KTmBoyle @Saronic Two U.S. aviators floating near the strait of Hormuz for several hours before an unmanned Navy vessel brought them home. Wow. That is courage, training and technology meeting the moment. Hats off to the crew and the rescue team.

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

Coming on the heels of last week’s @tryramp announcement, today’s news reflects the pattern we are focused on at TVG: backing exceptional founder-led platforms solving mission-critical workflows with durable growth, operating discipline and clear market pull.

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

Today we announced TVG team's investment into @NinjaOne. @salsfer, Chris Materese and team are building the unified IT operations control plane for the AI era: cloud-native, automation-first, and trusted by nearly 40,000 customers globally. @OTPPinfo is proud to support them. https://t.co/4uqjUP4lCb

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

What stood out to us: product velocity, customer trust and a platform approach to a fragmented market. As IT environments become more complex, the need for cloud-native automation and unified endpoint operations is only increasing.

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

@DrJoelGator @jmover Yes. This 💯

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

Engineering = Magic

[World of Engineering @engineers_feed]

Voyager 1 is 24 billion kilometers from Earth.

It communicates with us using a 23-watt transmitter.
Less than a refrigerator light bulb.

The signal takes 22 hours to reach us, traveling at the speed of light.

By the time it arrives, it's 20 billion times weaker than the power of a digital watch battery.

NASA's Deep Space Network picks it up using 70-meter dish antennas cooled to near absolute zero to reduce electronic noise.

The engineering required to hear a 23-watt signal from 24 billion km away is arguably more impressive than the spacecraft itself.

Launched 1977.
Still transmitting.
Still being heard.

We built something that works perfectly, 47 years later, in conditions no one has ever tested in.

That's what engineering for the long term looks like.

[Adeo Ressi @adeoressi]

I organized an intervention to stop Elon from starting SpaceX. Here is the story...

Twenty five years ago, Elon and I sat in a car on a dark stretch of Long Island highway, two neurodiverse geeks staring at the night sky and wondering what came next. We had both experienced substantial exits and felt the weight of possibility ahead of us.

When I joked about 'space' while gazing upward, neither of us imagined we were planting the seed for what would become the largest IPO in history. We spent the next two hours debating why space was so hard. In the end, rockets are fuel and metal. We also debated where to go, and it was crystal clear that Mars was the only real destination.

Upon returning to NYC, we embarked on a global tour of space, meeting space agencies and luminaries worldwide. This opened our eyes to an industry stuck in bureaucratic thinking. If things continued at that pace, it was clear that we would never explore space in our lifetime.

So, we launched Life to Mars to show the world that two ambitious young men (29 and 30 years old), could send life to Mars without any government backing or support. We planned to send and grow plants on Mars, though some were pushing us to send mice.

We had a $50 MM budget that rested on our purchase of two Russian ICBMs for $7 MM each. We assumed one ICBM would fail, and we would learn and fix everything before launching again. When Elon went back to actually buy the ICBMs, the Russians tripled the price, bringing out launch costs from a total of $14 MM to $42 MM.

Our ambitious Life to Mars plan was no longer viable.

As you might imagine, Elon was not pleased. So, he decided to start SpaceX and create his own Mars rockets. Now, this is a crazy idea, both now and at the time, so I organized a large panel of top space experts, and we ambushed him at the Georgian Hotel one morning. It was set up like an intervention for an alcoholic, but for space.

Elon looked me in the eye when leaving the room and said, "I am going to do this." The intervention failed. Elon was committed. The rest is history.

I am excited to see this IPO after 25 years of hard work. What SpaceX has done is a testament to human will and overcoming insurmountable obstacles. It's nothing short of amazing.

Congratulations, E. Amazing.

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

@alt_w_v_g ⬆️ this 💯

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

@LargeFamDad Amen. Incredibly well said.

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

@tferriss @photomatt Thank you for resharing this. Required reading. 🙏

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

Few tools move the needle for small business owners like @GustoHQ. @joshuareeves and team have built something truly special, serving 500k+ businesses and strengthening communities across the country. Proud to be an investor backing a team that’s making a real impact. 🙌

[Gusto @GustoHQ]

You told us what slowed you down. So we set out to fix it.

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

@RonConway @Katie_Roof Ron,
Sending along prayers for you and your family. 🙏

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

Welcome home Integrity!!

[Rick Prostko @Prostko]

https://t.co/eHZALvuejD