SpaceX Alumni Discover Remote Control Works on Bulldozers Too

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TerraFirma raised $115 million to build remote-controlled construction equipment. Former SpaceX employees figured out you can operate a backhoe from an office. Revolutionary stuff. Nobody in mining or military applications thought of this in the last thirty years.

The company plans to hire more people and build a factory plus a mission control center. Mission control. For excavators. Houston will now monitor whether a Caterpillar knockoff in Nevada can dig a hole without human supervision. One small trench for man.

Remote-controlled construction equipment solves a problem that doesn't exist. Crane operators make $75,000 a year and show up on time. But investors looked at this pitch and wrote a nine-figure check because the founders worked at SpaceX. The business model is "rockets are hard so dirt must be easy."

Venture capitalists see SpaceX on a resume and lose all critical thinking ability. These guys could pitch remote-controlled paintbrushes and Sequoia would term sheet it by lunch. The construction industry has operated fine for decades without joystick jockeys in air-conditioned rooms, but tech founders needed another sector to disrupt into bankruptcy.

Your average retail trader sees this headline and thinks they missed the next Tesla. They'll chase whatever SPAC or private equity vehicle tries to ride this wave. They'll ignore that construction is a margin-crushing commodity business with union labor and government contracts. They'll buy in at the peak because the word "SpaceX" triggered their pattern recognition software.

The funniest part is calling it a mission control center instead of an office. Mission control costs $40 million to build. An office costs $4 million. Investors pay for the naming convention.

TerraFirma will burn through $115 million in eighteen months, pivot to autonomous pizza delivery, and get acquired for parts by Uber. The SpaceX alumni will add "Founded and Exited Construction Tech Startup" to their LinkedIn and raise another hundred million to disrupt dry cleaning.

Photo by Sven Piper on Unsplash