How did Elon Musk learn enough about Rockets?

In the early 2000’s after becoming “Rich” Elon Musk started developing interests in rockets and space science. Developing these interests, he came up with the idea of making mankind multiplanetary by sending people to Mars. But the biggest challenge for him was, he knew nothing about rockets and space science.

So what did the guy do?

Elon was smart, intelligent, and curious-learner from an early age, and he had a grasp of thinking from the First Principle. So he applied the same principle this time, he started a project called The Mars Oasis Project to send a small greenhouse filled with plants to Mars so that the planet could be resourceful and colonized. Once he had a goal, he started thinking about how to send rockets to do that.

Guess what he did?

After finding out that the US-built rockets were too expensive, he flew to Russia to find rockets for the budget he had. But there too, he found out that he couldn’t get “Enough” rockets on the price Russia was asking for, it was $10 million per rocket, and Elon's budget was $2 million per rocket. So to negotiate the deal, Elon flew to Russia back and forth—three times. But sadly, he couldn’t make a deal. Disappointed, coming back from Moscow in early 2002 on a flight with Jim Cantrell, an idea popped into Elon's mind.

He said: What if we just build the rockets by ourselves?

He opened his laptop and started doing the math on how much a rocket could cost, and he found out that if they’d build rockets by themselves, it’d be 10 times cheaper than what Russian guys were asking for. Now this was the time when he learned everything he could about rockets and space science to build premium, effective, and powerful rockets. He dug deep and read all the textbooks of Jim Cantrell about Rocket Propulsion that he already had borrowed, and studied all the books and resources his eye caught on.

This was the genesis of SpaceX in late 2002.

After many failures, today SpaceX is one of the most successful aerospace companies in the world valued at $350 billion. This is the same company Elon Musk built—from not knowing anything about rockets and space science to—building powerful, reusable rockets that people once thought were impossible.

That’s how powerful reading, studying, and self-learning is.

The point? I want you to learn from the following companies I’m about to share with you so that you can apply the knowledge and learnings to your own work and company, and hopefully, by applying them, you’d be one step ahead on building a better product and company. However, each company offers more than one lesson, but I’m only going to point out one key lesson that I think is worth implementing.

10 companies:10 lessons, let’s dive in!

1. Stripe

Stripe is at the top of the list because it’s my favorite tech company, and for good reason. Stripe did something its competitors couldn’t. That’s why it stood out in the market and companies like X, Amazon, Google, Salesforce, Substack, and so many other big companies use Stripe to manage their finances online. I wrote a piece about Stripe a few months ago where I dug deep about its founding story, financials, strategies, and leadership style, which you can read here absolutely for free.

Well, what actually Stripe is? Here’s how Stripe describes itself:

If you think Stripe is just a payment gateway platform, you couldn’t be more wrong. Because it’s no longer just a platform for accepting payments. It’s an infrastructure for online businesses. Today, businesses use Stripe not just to accept payments online, but also to incorporate business in the US, get funding, get Tax solutions, manage billing and subscription, payout to their customers, contractors, and creators, accept payments in-person, track their finances online, and so many others. Stripe has truly became a financial infrastructure for online businesses.

And that’s the lesson: Go niche, then nicheless.

When Stripe was founded in 2010, it was just a platform for “Developers” to accept payments. Only developers, not big, large businesses or enterprises. And it didn’t have all the features that I just mentioned above. Said differently, it was a very niche product for a specific group of people. But as Stripe grew, so did its niche. Today Stripe is for individuals, solo founders, freelancers, agencies, small businesses, larger businesses, and enterprises.

They serve all spectrum of businesses and people.

And this is the thing you need to understand. Whatever you’re building, when you are a startup, serve a specific group of people. Don’t try to serve all kinds of niches and groups. because it doesn’t work in the beginning as it confuses the customers, and they can’t figure out who actually your product is for. But as you grow, you can expand your reach and niche—go broad, scale, and expand one product at a time. But when you are a startup and if your customer is everyone, then your customer is no one.

2. Apple

Why do people prefer Apple products over other brands?

Despite being so expensive people prefer Apple’s products because of their design, simplicity, packing, reliability, security, and status quo. People have this tendency that once they start using Apple products they don’t go back to the previous brands they were using, meaning the stickiness of Apple products is so thick.

Although Apple products are great in so many ways. But especially for founders and builders, there is one lesson Apple offers, and that is: Human Oriented Design with Simplicity. All the elements are important, and let me tell you each by giving you examples.

Do you remember the moment when the iPod came out in 2001? It changed the way people thought about music devices. “1,000 songs in your pocket.” That’s what Steve Jobs said about the iPod. But its design? Even better! Instead of giving 10 different buttons and menus, Apple just made a circle-type button with a few unique functionalities that people just loved so much.

Second example.

Apple has spent years perfecting the iPhone’s touch screen, animation, and the way the device works. They removed every single thing that was unnecessary, and cut back the features that they thought didn’t make sense. Today, the iPhone is one of the most beloved phones in the world. The design, the animation, and pop-ups, the scrolling system, everything seems just so perfect.

Third example.

Remember the magnetic AirPod snap when closing? That was designed on purpose. For Apple, designing isn’t just about adding a bunch of style, amination, and tools to it, it’s about making people feel something special, emotionally. When designing something, Apple makes sure that they are not missing the human element.

So what’s the main takeaway?

Design with simplicity while adding human elements to it. Whatever you’re building, keep your design as painfully simple as possible, and try to inject the human experience to it. Remember, simplicity, scale, complexity fails.

Design like Apple.

3. Airbnb

The story of Airbnb is about turning adversity into an opportunity.

In this article, I dove deep into Airbnb’s founding story, strategies, financials, and lessons it offers to founders, builders, and investors. I had so much fun writing the piece because I found the company fascinating. Well, what actually is Airbnb? Airbnb is a peer-to-peer marketplace that helps connect guests to hosts and vice versa.

When Airbnb first started, no one believed it would work, because the idea of living in strangers' houses was so strange. But Airbnb proved that everything is possible when done right. The biggest issue living in strangers' houses you know nothing about was—Trust. Why would one person believe in another? It was a huge deal, but Airbnb solved this problem.

Here’s how Airbnb built trust.

The number one thing Airbnb did to build trust was by making the platform transparent. Meaning anyone can see the ratings and reviews of a house or host, which allows potential guests to believe in the service or accommodation hosts offer on the platform. The second thing Airbnb did to build trust was, showing the exact booking prices and costs of a property people on the platform want to book, including fees and taxes.

The traditional hospitality industry always lacked this feature (still lacks!), but Airbnb came along and solved the problem. That’s how Airbnb managed to build trust among guests, hosts, and the platform.

What else Airbnb did for building trust?

Covid-19 was one of the most challenging periods for Airbnb since its launch. The company saw a massive decrease in its revenue, down to more than 70%. Why? Because all the people started finding “Safe Shelters” as the coronavirus was rapidly spreading. So Airbnb had to make some smart decisions if it wanted to save the company.

So what did Airbnb do?

Airbnb refunded more than $1 billion worth of bookings to its customers, this shows immense care for its people. Airbnb also promised to cover $250 million worth of booking and cancellation costs to its hosts on the platform. The Covid-19 was rough, but Airbnb found an opportunity to build trust with its people.

And this is your lesson: Build trust and care for your customers.

The worst thing you can do is to take your customers for granted. If they can’t trust you or your product, they are not going to stick around. So care for your customers and build trust with them. Turn every problem into a potential opportunity for building trust and relationships with your customers. Not many companies do this, so take advantage of it.

4. Amazon

It took Amazon 14 years to perfect the “1-click buying” process.

This shows an immense patience level for improving things over time. Jeff Bezos always knew that he wanted to make Amazon an “Everything Store” but he started with books. When Wall Street wanted profit, he invested heavily in building warehouses and was misunderstood for many years. But he knew that the things he was investing money into would give results in the future, which did when Amazon grew.

When Amazon was growing, he decided to invest heavily into building AWS infrastructure for Amazon’s internal use. Most investors thought he was making a mistake and wasting money on it, but he knew that as more businesses were coming online, they’d need data storage and cloud services facilities, which turned out to be true.

Today AWS is one of the most used cloud-computing platforms in the world.

When Amazon launched Prime in 2005 and started offering free shipping for $79/year, most people couldn’t wrap their heads around thinking how the hell Amazon was going to make money. But guess what, Jeff Bezos knew that it was a long-term investment he was making that’d bring results in the future. Jeff Bezos’ master plan was to build trust with its customers by offering them an affordable price to use Amazon services.

The lesson? Think in decades, not years.

Every single decision and step Jeff Bezos took was—betting on the future, not the present. Amazon never thought of doing things for tomorrow, next month, or the next year, it was always for the next decade. And this is your lesson. Doesn’t really matter what you are building, think in decades, not years. And bet on the future, not today, tomorrow, the next week, or month.

But it takes a patience level and courage, and not many companies can do it. But if you can follow the principle, you’d be so ahead of the game and hopefully dominate your niche.

5. Google

What can we learn from this tech giant?

Google is one of the rarest companies in the world that even 5-year-old kids know about. And why not? Google became a verb, so it makes sense that everyone uses it in their daily lives. When someone says “I just Googled it” we know what the person is talking about.

The interesting thing is though, we only know Google’s successful products: Google Cloud, Google Suite, Google Chrome, Google Meet, Google Maps, Gmail, Play Store, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Photos, and many others. But sadly, what we don’t know is, it also has so many failed projects and products.

To name a few: Google+, Google Reader, Google Jamboard, Google Podcasts, Google Domains, Google Stadia, Threadit, Google Hangouts, Google Duo, Posts on Google, Google Cardboard, Google Cloud Point, Google Home Max, Hire by Google, Google Play Music along with 250+ failed products. Google has more failed products than the successful ones.

The lesson? Don’t be afraid to fail.

The worst thing you can do as a founder or leader is to be afraid of failure. The more afraid you are of failure, the less you try, and the less you try, the fewer successful products you will have on your radar, which is not good if you want to build a successful company. But Google really understands this: “The more we try, the more we fail, the more we fail, the more we will learn, the more we will learn, the more successful products we’ll have.”

This is the same strategy I want you to copy: Don’t be afraid to test your weird ideas, of course, most of them will fail, but the upside would be, they’d teach you valuable lessons so you can build successful products later down the line. And you can clearly learn this from Google, the company not only dominates the internet but also has a successful self-driving car company, Waymo, and a mobile brand, Google Pixel, which is only possible when you’re not afraid of failures.

6. Shopify

I did a deep dive on Shopify this week to understand how it dominated the e-commerce space and became one of the most successful companies in the world. I found the company very fascinating, and studying Shopify personally taught me so many valuable lessons.

Shopify is a Canadian company, so it doesn’t belong to Silicon Valley. But sadly we assume that in order to build a successful company one must belong to Silicon Valley, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Another interesting thing about Shopify is, in the history of tech, the company has raised the least amount of venture capital while becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world. For context, Shopify has only raised $122 million in total VC money in four rounds, that’s all it has got. But we believe that, in order to build a multi-billion dollar company, one must raise a ton of venture capital, which also couldn’t be further from the truth.

Shopify has proven both assumptions wrong.

If you don’t know, Shopify is an e-commerce platform that helps anyone sell their digital and physical products on the platform. Brands like Fashion Nova, Gymshark, Feastable, Kylie Cosmetics, and so many others use Shopify to run their business online.

So what does Shopify teach you? Don’t compete, Collaborate.

When it comes to competition, brands try to pull each other's legs. But Shopify has a different approach. It doesn’t believe in competition, but collaborations. Before Shopify came along in the market in 2006, Amazon and eBay had already dominated the e-commerce space, and instead of competing with them, Shopify collaborated. It not only partnered with Amazon but also TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Oracle, Stripe, and more to help its customers win.

Shopify could have tried to launch and introduce better features or products than what Amazon and social media platforms were offering, but it said “Nope! We’re not going to compete, we’re going to partner with them.” and it worked so well that now brands that use social media to get customers couldn’t live without Shopify.

And this is the lesson: Collaboration is powerful.

I believe competition is good because it helps you improve the product, but it also has so many negative consequences, for example, employees working long hours, toxic company culture, and facing bad allegations from people or the media. But the collaboration has only upsides. Though it’s sad that most companies don’t think much about collaboration (their ego hurts!) But since you’re reading this I want to remind you that you’re underestimating the power of collaborations. Whatever you’re building, ask yourself “Instead of competing, how can we partner with our competitors that will benefit our product?” Think twice.

7. NVIDIA

NVIDIA is a company that no one was talking about a few years ago.

But today NVIDIA’s market cap hovers around $3.5 trillion, making it one of the top, most successful companies in the world. And with that, the company not only gets media coverage for free but also is a leading company in the AI game. The more AI gets popular, the more the demand for NVIDIA’s products increases.

But it's not all an overnight success. NVIDIA was preparing for this moment a way, way long before. When its competitors were stuck making CPUs, NVIDIA focused on making GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) though it didn’t see much success in the early days, but it kept improving and innovating its technologies.

In 2006, NVIDIA launched CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) that’d allow developers to use the parallel processing power of GPUs for general-purpose computing. It became the backbone of machine learning and AI. From there, it kept improving its technologies and stayed ahead in the game, while its competitors, AMD and Intel, weren't even thinking of AI processing and machine learning chips.

The lesson? Ruthlessly Innovate.

NVIDIA is successful not because its products are the best, but because it did something more than a decade ago that really made it prepared to handle today’s technology capabilities, like AI, machine learning, and the high intense video gaming. Said differently, NVIDIA saw something 10 years ago that we have just started seeing in recent years.

The point is, try to bet on the future and innovate things in the field you are building. However, the truth is, innovation is hard because it takes critical thinking, observation, and identifying human needs before it becomes natural. And certainly, not many companies can innovate technologies in the field they work in. But if you can? You really change the world, just like NVIDIA.

8. Uber

Recently I did a deep dive on Uber talking about its founding story, strategies, business model, financials, and all the challenges and controversies it faced for example, breaking laws and regulations, allegations of sexual harassment, going aggressive with the company’s culture, and treating competitors like trash, yet the company is very fascinating.

Can we learn something from Uber? I guess, yes. The company offers so many lessons and learnings, but there is one thing I really want to point out that we all founders should learn and implement from Uber, and that is: Create demand, forget about laws.

Do you know what Uber did in its early days to grow and scale the product?

Uber would try to scale the service in new cities as soon as they could. Because the company strategy under the CEO and co-founder, Travis Kalanick was: Any rules, regulations, or laws can be avoided or won if they just create demand. So when they’d enter into a new city, they try all sorts of marketing tactics and strategies to scale the service as fast as they could so that once they had demand for the service, they could leverage the power they had to fight any legal battle by asking their customers and users to protest and appeal in public, which worked.

The lesson is, Create Demand, Forget About Laws.

If you’re building something that is too controversial, and your product or service breaks some sort of traditional rules or regulations made by a century-old system, you can apply this tactic to scale your product, really fast, globally. But you really need to create so much demand so quickly that people can’t live without your service and do whatever it takes to help you win the legal battle if needed. But to do it, you really need to have an exceptional product or service.

If your community or customer base is bigger than laws and regulations, then ultimately you win.

9. Meta

Meta is also kinda a controversial tech company.

But controversial doesn’t mean we can’t learn anything from it. It’s the opposite, Meta has so many valuable lessons to teach you about building and scaling a product. Though the company has faced many data privacy allegations, but it doesn’t change the fact that Meta is one of the most valuable, successful companies in the world. And when something is most valuable in the world, people can learn a lot from it. There is one key lesson I think founders and leaders can learn from Meta, and that is, “Ship Fast” Philosophy.

Do you remember how Threads was launched by Meta in 2023? It was not good at all. The company faced much backlash from people saying, “This is sh*t” “Twitter clone” "Creepy App” and whatnot. It was all true. How can you ship a product so quickly, so fast, that is probably going to be used by hundreds of millions of users? The company took no more than five months to build and ship Threads. And this might surprise you but this is how Meta thinks about shipping their products.

The lesson? Ship Fast and Move Quickly.

Meta ships a product as soon as they build an MVP (Minimum viable product.) Meta doesn't take time polishing and making everything perfect. They believe in publishing imperfectly and improving the product as they gather feedback from users. That’s how Meta thinks about building and shipping products. And it wasn’t just with Threads, it has always been the same philosophy in Meta—From launching Facebook newsfeed to copying “Snapchat Story” and turning it into the “Instagram Story” feature.

Meta doesn’t ship products polished, and it works. Lesson? You as a founder or builder can do the same, don’t hold yourself back and aim to ship the product once it’s perfect, that’s a delusion because a product is never polished or perfect—no matter how many times you improve or iterate it, there is always something new to improve and make better.

So the better approach would be to build an MVP, ship it as fast as you can, and improve the product as you gather feedback and data. This will save you time, money, and effort building features and things that people tell you to not have.

10. OpenAI

When I say OpenAI, I mean ChatGPT.

Remember when OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022? It took the internet by storm. ChatGPT became so popular so quickly that it hit 100 million monthly active users in just two months! And the reason was simple, ChatGPT was something people had never seen before, so it was obvious for everyone to try and get their hands dirty.

The reason I added OpenAI (ChatGPT) to this list is because I know most of you guys who are founders, builders, and leaders, are mostly building SaaS products for the internet. And the beauty of building for the internet is that it doesn’t take too long to break a record, number-wise. Imagine if ChaGPT was a physical product, it wouldn’t have become what it is today.

But the only reason, the only reason, ChatGPT got so popular so quickly was because it was something people had never seen before when it came out in the market. And when something is just “So good” people can’t help but use it.

And this is the lesson: Build something people have never seen before.

I know it sounds cliche but just think about it.

If you just build a similar product that already exists in the market with a slightly better version, I don’t think you’d break the internet. Of course, you could reach and get a decent user base, and that’s okay though if that’s your goal. But if you’re someone who really wishes to build a product like ChatGPT, aim for something unique or new.

And the way you can do this is by asking this simple question: “Am I building a product people have never seen before? Or a better question would be: Am I building a product my ideal customers have never seen before” If your answer is no, then work on your product—delete it, change it, improve it, do whatever it takes until it becomes a product that the world has never seen before. Truly a powerful way to build an exceptional product.

Thanks for reading, catch you on the next one.