May 02, 2025

E160: How a SpaceX Rocket Engineer Became a Top Deep Tech VC

41 minutes

Jamie Gull is the GP/Founder of Wave Function Ventures, a deep tech seed fund, and an engineer turned investor who previously worked at SpaceX during its early, intense years of scaling. In this episode, Jamie and I discuss the high-responsibility culture at SpaceX, how it shaped Jamie’s approach to company building and investing, and what makes a deep tech founder stand out. We also explore why fast iteration matters more than perfect planning, how techno-economics drive investment decisions, and why deep tech’s reputation for being overly capital-intensive is becoming outdated.

Jamie shares firsthand stories from his time working under Elon Musk, his angel investments in companies like Boom Supersonic and K2 Space, and the founding principles behind Wave Function Ventures. If you're interested in the future of deep tech investing, how to identify category-defining founders, or how hardware startups can scale efficiently, this is a must-listen.

Highlights:

Jamie’s experience at SpaceX and the "responsible engineer" framework

How Elon Musk's real superpower is organizational design and culture

Why fast iteration beats careful waterfall planning in deep tech

Jamie's investment thesis at Wave Function Ventures

Why MBAs leading hard tech startups are often a red flag

Understanding techno-economics and how technical feasibility isn't enough

Lessons from investing early in Boom Supersonic and K2 Space

Why the myth of deep tech needing excessive capital is breaking

The role of escalation and decision-making speed at SpaceX

How to distinguish scientific risk from engineering execution risk

Guest Bio:

Jamie Gull is the GP/Founder of Wave Function Ventures, a $10 million seed fund focused on investing in deep tech startups tackling hard hardware problems. Before becoming a full-time investor, Jamie spent over five years as an engineer at SpaceX, working on the Falcon 9 rocket, and later founded two venture-backed deep tech companies: a space deployables startup and an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft company. His second company received eight government contracts and was acquired in 2023. Jamie combines deep engineering expertise with founder experience to help startups scale in hard tech sectors.

Over the last several cycles, prevailing wisdom in the industry has been that hard tech companies couldn’t achieve extraordinary returns. More recently, this has been busted with the dawn of companies like SpaceX, Anduril, Saronic, etc. These companies are solving large, important societal problems, capitalizing on a perfect storm of events, from geopolitical considerations, to capital, to a massive talent influx from SpaceX and the like to government support. This theme, you can call it American Dynamism, Deep Tech, or Reindustrialization, is fueling top talent to launch and build the largest techno-industrials we have seen.

However, investing in these areas requires specialized expertise. Enter Wave Function Ventures. WFV is a new deep-tech focused fund launched by industry veteran and investor Jamie Gull. Jamie possesses the depth and breadth of experience to position WFV to see and win the best deals in this space. He is a former SpaceX engineer who played a key role on Falcon 9 reentry, started and sold his own deep tech company, Talyn Air, that went through Y combinator, has VC experience as a Venture Partner at Pioneer Fund and Next Gen Venture Partners, and has been angel investing in deep tech companies for a decade in companies like Boom Supersonic, Varda, and K2 Space, among others.

Our Podcast now receives more than 300,000 downloads a month. Are you interested in sponsoring an episode? Please email David Weisburd at [email protected].

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Stay Connected:

X / Twitter:

David Weisburd: @dweisburd

Jamie Gull: @jamiegull

LinkedIn:

David Weisburd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweisburd/

Jamie Gull: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-gull/

Links:

Wave Function Ventures: https://www.wavefunction.vc/

Email: [email protected]

Questions or topics you want us to discuss on How I Invest? Email us at [email protected].

(0:00) Episode preview

(2:16) Role and downsides of the responsible engineer framework

(5:52) SpaceX culture and personal growth

(8:43) Jamie's meetings with Elon Musk

(10:38) Introduction to Wave Function Ventures

(12:08) Technoeconomics and founder assessment in deep tech

(19:41) Comparing power law outcomes in deep tech vs. software

(21:36) Analyzing technical vs. market risk in deep tech

(24:39) Second-order effects and Boom Supersonic's origin

(27:16) Asking the right questions in recruitment and investment

(29:28) Rapid iteration's importance in deep tech startups

(32:49) Traits of successful portfolio companies

(36:18) Elon Musk’s approach to organizational design

(39:13) Decision-making and investing strategies at SpaceX and Wave Function Ventures

(41:14) Closing remarks

...more

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By David Weisburd

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