Gwynne Shotwell had doubts about an IPO for years. Not moral doubts. Not strategic doubts. Just doubts. The kind you have about whether that gas station sushi is a good idea, then you eat it anyway because you're already in the parking lot.
She spoke exclusively with CNBC ahead of the highly anticipated IPO. Exclusively. As if there's a line of financial journalists camped outside SpaceX headquarters begging for rocket company gossip like it's a Taylor Swift album drop. CNBC got the exclusive. Congratulations to them on their Pulitzer consideration.
The message for investors is not specified in the headline. Could be anything. "Buy our stock." "Don't buy our stock." "We launch rockets and you give us money and maybe that works out for you." The possibilities are endless when you're the second-in-command at a company that straps explosives to metal tubes and calls it innovation.
Retail traders are currently updating their Excel spreadsheets with a new column labeled "Shotwell Sentiment Factor." They're dividing her years of doubt by the number of letters in her message, then multiplying by the phase of the moon. This is called technical analysis. This is why they lose money.
SpaceX has been private for two decades while normies with Robinhood accounts watched from the sidelines like kids pressed against the glass at a pet store. Now the door might open. Now they might get to buy shares at exactly the wrong price after all the smart money already positioned itself. It's beautiful, really. The circle of life, but for portfolios.
Shotwell changed her mind about the IPO. People change their minds. Happens every day. Your girlfriend changed her mind about you. Your boss changed his mind about that raise. Shotwell changed hers about letting dipshits speculate on rocket company valuations. At least she had the decency to wait until the company was worth enough to really f*ck up your retirement account.
Photo by Sven Piper on Unsplash
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