Mysterious billionaire sponsors Elon Musk to go to space: pays out of pocket, personally leads the mission
💡Jared Isaacman, Founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments$Shift4 Payments(FOUR.US)
Recently, SpaceX announced that it will conduct the first commercial spacewalk as early as July 31.
This spacewalk is part of the Polaris Dawn mission sponsored by American billionaire Jared Isaacman.
During the five-day Earth orbit mission, Polaris Dawn will use SpaceX's Starlink laser inter-satellite links for communication and wear SpaceX's custom-designed spacesuits, while also conducting a series of experiments.
According to the plan, Polaris Dawn will reach an altitude of about 700 kilometers above Earth, the highest altitude for manned missions since the Apollo moon missions in the 1960s.
Currently, the International Space Station orbits at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.
As a finance blogger, Little Bear's question is:
Who is this billionaire Jared Isaacman?
How did he get so rich?
Looking at his background, this guy is like the protagonist of a CEO novel.
He started working at 14, founded a company called United Bank Card at 16.
The company handled merchant transactions, similar to Lakala in China.
Specifically, it provided merchants with free card-swiping machines that supported all major credit cards.
The user experience was comparable to internet companies—account setup took just a day or two, with low transaction fees.
In China, you might wonder what's so special about this—there are plenty of companies like Lakala.
But in the U.S. over 20 years ago, similar services took about a month to set up, charged for card machines, and had high transaction fees.
So, the company quickly took off.
Later, Jared acquired Merchant Services, the company where he had his first job at 14.
Starting a business and then buying the company where he began—doesn’t that sound like a CEO novel?
After that, Jared acquired a company called Shift4 and renamed the entire business Shift4 Payments, which is now known as the American "Lakala."
In June 2020, Shift4 Payments went public on the NYSE under the ticker FOUR, with a current market cap of about $6.3 billion.
Shift4's financial reports show it serves over 200,000 merchants, processes 5 billion transactions annually, handles over $260 billion in payments, and supports more than 100 payment methods.
(Shift4 Payments' NYSE bell-ringing ceremony)
Besides the American Lakala, this guy also founded a company called Draken International.
This company provides training and simulation services for Western air forces.
For example, it trains pilots and conducts red vs. blue exercises.
In capitalist countries, everything is privatized—even air force training can be outsourced to private companies.
The company owns over 150 aircraft, making it the largest private defense contractor by fleet size. Clients include the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, Air National Guard, British Royal Air Force, and French Navy.
Such companies are capital-intensive and usually don’t have high valuations, but they generate strong cash flow.
In 2019, Blackstone, led by Stephen Schwarzman, acquired a majority stake in Draken International.
The exact transaction amount wasn’t disclosed, but according to Forbes, it was in the nine-figure range.
(Part of Draken International's aircraft fleet)
Through Shift4 and Draken International, Jared Isaacman struck gold twice. Forbes estimates his current net worth at about $2.4 billion.
Beyond business, Jared Isaacman is obsessed with aerospace.
He obtained a private pilot’s license early on and has performed in air shows.
In 2008, he attempted to break the world record for circumnavigating the globe in a light aircraft but fell short by one hour.
In 2009, he tried again and succeeded, beating the previous record by over 20 hours.
With such hobbies, of course, he knows Elon Musk.
In 2021, during humanity’s first private spaceflight, Jared Isaacman served as mission commander.
While flying over Las Vegas, he placed two lottery bets—the first time bets were placed in space.
In the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission, Jared Isaacman will again take the helm as commander.
With a net worth of over $10 billion, he can afford to be this extravagant.
Paying for a few spaceships to go to space? No big deal.
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