SpaceX: big innovation thinking & good development habits to take into your startup

The?Space Exploration Technologies Corporation?- SpaceX - is known to us all as Elon Musk’s company with their goal of the colonisation of Mars. He’d always been interested in space, and checked out NASA's website, looking for plans for humans going to Mars. He didn't find any. So, Musk came up with his own.

In early 2001,?Musk donated $100k to the Mars Society.??He gave a plenary talk at their fourth convention where he announced?Mars Oasis, a project to land a greenhouse?and grow plants on Mars. Unable to get cooperation from either US or Russian space agencies, Musk announced he would start a company to build the affordable rockets they needed.

The rocket builds started in 2008, but SpaceX’s Starship miracle happened this week: imagine a 400ft steel skyscraper launched into space, then seven minutes later, a segment of the skyscraper returns to earth and is caught by mechanical chopstick-like arms, settling on the ‘Mechazilla’ 500ft launch tower. The stuff of science fiction and Star Trek, but it’s not, that’s what happened with the fifth launch of Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.

The test flight on 13 October was astonishing. The company talks about reaching a cadence of more than one launch a day, it says its factories could build 1,000 Starships a year. An incredible achievement, probably the most insane thing I’ve seen in 2024 (for reference: I’m on my fourth attempt at Duolingo Welsh and can still only say helo, bore da, sut wyt ti)

Why is this important? A key metric for the space economy is the cost to send payload into space. Here is some basic maths: Saturn V which launched Apollo XI in 1969 was $15k per payload pound. SpaceX’s current workhorse re-usable workhorse rocket is $1.2k. Starship could get that number down to ~$100. A cheaper cost of transportation completely transforms what can be done in space.

SpaceX was founded to revolutionise space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. In 2026, the next time the planets are aligned for such ventures, SpaceX will send five uncrewed Starships to Mars. Crews will follow in 2030. They hope to be sending hundreds of Starships and tens of thousands of people at every biennial opportunity. Some of the journeys will have return legs, as Starship uses fuel that is in principle easily synthesised on Mars, but the main purpose is settlement.

SpaceX looks set to pursue its goal until it achieves something like it, or tragedy strikes, or other forces intervene. Potential settlers can expect a hard and torrid time. Efforts to set up new societies from scratch have failed in more welcoming places, and clearly local Martians would exacerbate the risks.

Space X showcases the focus needed to literally, get a startup off the ground. Here are ten key lessons from SpaceX to apply to any startup strategy – five ‘big thinking’ principles, and five ‘good practice habits’, here’s my take.

Big thinking principles

1. Don't start with a product, start with a problem SpaceX didn't start off building its own rockets. Musk travelled to Russia to buy a refurbished ballistic missile. The problem was the Russians had no respect for Musk, so they offered him their rockets at a ridiculous markup. I wondered what it would take to build our own rocket, said Musk. A few years later, SpaceX had done just that.

2. Do your research Musk needed to prove he was serious. He read everything he could get his hands on, from Soviet technical manuals to John Drury Clark's iconic book Ignition!?Musk knew that other entrepreneurs had dabbled in rocket science?and failed, so he studied what they had done, learning from their mistakes to avoid repeating them.

3. Embrace challenges Musk's original plan was to inspire the public, leading to more funding for NASA. But the more Musk learned, he realised NASA had problems beyond funding. I looked at the horses that NASA had in the stable. And with horses like Boeing and Lockheed, you're screwed. Those horses are lame. I knew Mars Oasis would not be enough. Musk began to think bigger.

Not everyone was as enthusiastic. Musk called a meeting of twenty prominent aerospace engineers who were encouraged to attend by Mike Griffin, who would later become senior administrator of NASA. Musk announced he wanted to start his own rocket company. There was a lot of chuckling, people saying things like Save your money, kid, and go sit on the beach. But Musk wouldn't give up easily. He searched to find the believers, who embraced a challenge rather than shrank from it, optimists rather than pessimists.

4. Pursue ambitious goals, thinking long-term Musk is renowned for setting ambitious goals and thinking long-term. His endeavours all revolve around solving significant problems for humanity. As a founder, it’s important to think beyond short-term gains and focus on creating products that have a lasting, positive impact on users, products that truly matter. SpaceX’s engineers were aligned in their desire to make spacecraft that would change the course of history.

5. Foster a culture of innovation and calculated risk-taking Musk is known for his daring - some would say reckless - attitudes at times, but his approach is driven by experimentation, collaboration, and calculated risk-taking. In a startup, it’s essential to create an environment where your team feels empowered to explore new ideas, challenge existing thinking, and take risks in pursuit of ground-breaking solutions to drive product success and stay ahead of the competition.

Back in 2023, the spectacular explosion of SpaceX's Starship fourth rocket minutes after it soared off its launch pad on a first flight test is a vivid illustration of a ‘successful failure’ business formula that serves all startups well. Rather than seeing the fiery disintegration as a setback, the dramatic loss of that rocket accelerated development based on lessons learned. Much better this testing unearths the problems now, rather than when in commercial deployment.

Good practice habits

6. Make the requirements less dumb. Musk’s philosophy is simplicity and lean, and thus?your requirements are definitely dumb, it does not matter who gave them to you. His approach is to ‘question the question’, to test assumptions, pointing out that requirements from a ‘smart person’ are often the most dangerous since you might not question them enough.?As a founder, seek absolute clarity and justification on why you believe a feature is needed.

7. Delete as part of the build process If you’re not adding things back in at least 10% of the time, you’re not deleting enough. Musk suggests starting lean but warns that the bias will be to add things in case. He goes further, arguing that each requirement or constraint must be accountable to a person, because you can ask that person about its relevance and purpose.

SpaceX once believed they had a 51% chance of success, terming this their ‘escape velocity’, an interesting mindset, which means it take the least amount of capital in a broad definition that will get valid results. This more rationed capital leads to better lean thinking, better testing leads and ultimately to more rapid and efficient development.?

8. Simplify or optimise the design Possibly the most common error of a smart engineer is to optimise a thing that should not exist.?SpaceX emphasises the importance of working through the two steps above before trying to optimise. To do this effectively, each engineer needs to take a holistic view of the project.

The ’build, measure, learn’ agile ethos at a juncture when cash, quality and time are determinants in startup growth and survival offers a way to deliver the right product at the right time and in the most time and cost-effective way possible. As part of Musk’s five ‘big thinking principles’ and five ‘good pactice habits’ shapes a strong methodology to building a minimum viable business, not just an MVP.

9. Accelerate cycle time and testing SpaceX embraces the drive to go faster but warns against efforts in the wrong direction: if you’re digging your grave, don’t dig faster.?They advocate an accelerated agile approach, but only after the first three practices of his process are satisfied to ensure that you’re moving faster in the right direction.?

It means SpaceX saves time and money in the long run and takes less time to identify and correct engineering flaws by taking more risks in the development process rather than keeping a large team working trying to get it perfect before it’s in the hands of paying customers. The risks of a single flight test were small in comparison to the ambitious gains at stake.

10. Embrace interdisciplinary thinking SpaceX’s approach to product design is characterised by merging knowledge from different disciplines, combining engineering, creativity, business, and psychology. As a founder, fostering interdisciplinary thinking allows you to approach problems from various angles and uncover innovative solutions.

Summary

Whether you believe that we’ll walk on Mars or not, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more ambitious goal. We’ve been stargazing since Babylon, and SpaceX is a venture harnessing humanity’s obsession with the cosmos. It feels like everything they’re doing is happening now and in the next few years will see folks strapped into their racket seats, on their way to Mars.

If you showed the latest iPhone to Jobs in 1976 when he and Wozniak were selling the first Apple computer, what would they say? Adopt the five ‘big thinking principles’ and five ‘good practice habits’ above into your startup philosophy and you’ll go far. Those who dismiss SpaceX as nerdy bravura should contemplate the sky above their heads. Seemingly impossible things don’t stay that way forever.