how can a first time entrepreneur actually receive substantial investment without putting in such a large personal investment?
Normally that would be plenty impressive, but I don't think that is a particularly impressive resume for somebody looking to start a rocket company. The connection between Paypal and space exploration isn't exactly strong, even with an undergraduate degree in physics. I suppose he could also put "hassled Russians for a decommissioned ICBM" on his resume too though. ;)
Paypal wasn't exactly some trivial event in his life, it IPOed in early 2002 and made him (and his investors) fabulously wealthy. It was also one of the first successful IPOs in the wake of the .com bubble bursting.
Musk made ~$25M from shares that were sold in the IPO, and his remaining stake of the company (10 percent!) was worth somewhere near $150M.[1] I'd say that's a pretty impressive resume.
It's a bit easier to start a rocket company when your net worth is in the 9-digit range and you just made a bunch of investors a ton of money in your first project.
Elon is an all-in kind of guy, but has his hands full. More Elons please.
it's an honest question and I think about this all the time. If you can solve the funding issue, I would bet a lot more people will choose the more ambitious projects. What can a spaceship company accomplish with $100k?
Here's the first product of Boeing, which built the bottom stage of the Saturn V:
Elon Musk seems like the counterexample because he started with so much capital and credibility. But he was very obviously thinking steps from the start. Each one risky. Build engine. Build high end car. Buildlower end cars. Maybe then build parts for other manufacturers.
Most big goals are reached in steps. The more difficult and risky the goal the more steps there are and the bigger and riskier they are likely to be but they are still steps.
If your goal is building spaceships you could start by doing something useful with satellites as a step 1. This could be a kickstart-able sized undertaking.
https://www.google.ie/search?q=site:https://www.kickstarter....
Obviously if you are trying to push the boundaries of what a cold start startup can possibly achieve, you are going to find yourself on the difficult-impossible border region but that's the point, isn't it?
If your life's work was geared toward making money for investors someday in case you encounter capital, and you were not going to let a lack of capital keep you from starting your pressing research anyway, a number of decades would be expected to have elapsed before you had the most attractive technology you could offer up for investment into.
For those things that truly require decades before maximum fruition, there is no substitute for decades, just do it.
-Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability.... We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.
-Pretty much everything will come to him who hustles while he waits.
--TAEdison
Design a better pump. Build a VTVL hopper. Work on a GPS that will work at high altitude / high acceleration. There's a whole group of new-space companies out there. Solve one of their pain-points.
It's only in hindsight that it was reasonable to start a car company in Silicon Valley at all.
The Tesla Roadster was first shown to the public in July of 2006. By that time, Tesla had already raised (and spent) nearly $60M. Before they sold the first Roadster, they had raised $145M including $40M of Elon's own money.
Plowing $150M into a car company before making a sale isn't remotely reasonable.
Why not? After all, it resulted in Tesla.