# An investment inquiry turned into Inspiration4 within weeks

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/an-investment-inquiry-turned-into-inspiration4-within-weeks/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Jared Isaacman](https://realalpha.app/people/jared-isaacman/) · Jared Isaacman is founder of Shift4, pilot and commercial astronaut. · Commanded Inspiration4, the first all-civilian orbital flight, and founded Shift4 payments; now runs NASA.
- Host: [David Friedberg](https://realalpha.app/people/david-friedberg/) · CEO, Ohalo · Founded The Climate Corporation, sold to Monsanto for about $1.1B in 2013.
- Show: All-In
- Episode: [Jared Isaacman: What went wrong at NASA | The All-In Interview](https://realalpha.app/v/6YdOjoaQTOQ/), Jun 4, 2025
- Moment: 9:26 to 12:40 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/an-investment-inquiry-turned-into-inspiration4-within-weeks/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/6YdOjoaQTOQ/?t=566

## Quote

> “And I had no idea I was going to have an **opportunity to be the first**. I assumed there was a lot of people in front.”
> — [Jared Isaacman](https://realalpha.app/people/jared-isaacman/) at [10:17](https://realalpha.app/v/6YdOjoaQTOQ/?t=617) · All-In

## Takeaways

1. SpaceX was not taking new investors when Isaacman called.
2. The call led to an offer to discuss a human spaceflight mission.
3. Inspiration4 was conceived within weeks and flew ten months later.

## About this segment

Jared Isaacman called SpaceX seeking a chance to invest, but the conversation turned into a human spaceflight mission. Inspiration4 took shape within weeks, flew ten months later and raised $250 million for St. Jude.

From “Jared Isaacman: What went wrong at NASA | The All-In Interview”, Jun 4, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/6YdOjoaQTOQ/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[9:39](https://realalpha.app/v/6YdOjoaQTOQ/?t=579) I'm a huge space enthusiast. Let's go through that. So you met Elon. Did you get involved as an investor in SpaceX along the way? How did the Inspiration4 mission come to be? In 2020, I did hear that, you know, SpaceX was doing another one of its secondary rounds and I was connected through, you know, I think it was Citi. And I wound up speaking to the CFO at SpaceX. And he's like, no, look, the funding round is closed. And, you know, we're kind of pretty selective on who we let in. And I was like, okay, great. Well, hey, you know, back in 2008, I actually got the first offer to pilot the first Dragon spacecraft, which is wild to think about, like 2008. And even if I can't be an investor at some point or another. I'd love to have an opportunity. And he was like, well, can't be an investor now, but we could talk about a human spaceflight mission. And I had no

[10:32](https://realalpha.app/v/6YdOjoaQTOQ/?t=632) idea I was going to have an opportunity to be the first. I assumed there was a lot of people in front. And man, it was what a privilege to be able to do that, be part of mission design and select a crew of inspiring individuals and raise a quarter of a billion dollars for St. Jude. And it was just a successful mission. It helped open the door for a lot of other commercial missions to come so awesome experience so in 2021 you commanded inspiration 4 which was the first all-civilian space flight using the spacex crew dragon yep and that was just truly like a momentous mission it was just so beautiful to watch and i remember it was also like a tough year because it was a year after covid so it was so great to see that happening but i had assumed and i think a lot of people had assumed that you were like a big investor in spacex or really tight but it just

[11:20](https://realalpha.app/v/6YdOjoaQTOQ/?t=680) happened within a one and a half year or year period that you kind of went from hey i'd love to put some money into spacex to oh i can participate and command the inspiration for and get out there into space like that's not a year and a half days days but i like literally from that phone call in you know october um inspiration four was born a week or two later we did a like like a ceremonial signing at the Crew-1 launch, which is wild too.

[11:51](https://realalpha.app/v/6YdOjoaQTOQ/?t=711) And it speaks to the confidence of SpaceX that they were ready to sign up for the first commercial, like the first civilian mission to orbit before they even... returned operational capability uh for human spaceflight to nasa now they did demo two of course with bob and doug but crew one had not flown when spacex said we're gonna get this done and then 10 months later we were in orbit and it was an incredible experience and obviously we followed it up with a whole development program with polaris and um and flew a second mission as well so yeah so just going back you said you were made it you were given an offer to pilot a crew