Scott Nolan - SpaceX, Founders Fund, and Rebuilding American Uranium Enrichment - [Invest Like the Best, EP.467]
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What is the guest’s background and why is he relevant to the conversation?
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Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy and this is Invest Like the Best.
How did Scott Nolan’s experience at SpaceX and Founders Fund shape his view on building breakthrough companies?
This show is an open-ended exploration of markets, ideas, stories, and strategies that will help you better invest both your time and your money. If you enjoy these conversations and want to go deeper, check out Colossus, our quarterly publication with in-depth profiles of the people shaping business and investing. You can find Colossus along with all of our podcasts at Colossus.com.
Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of Positive Sum. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Positive Sum. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Clients of Positive Sum may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. To learn more, visit psum.vc.
My guest today is Scott Nolan. Scott has led a fascinating career. He was employee number 35 at SpaceX, helping develop some of their critical early systems. He then went on to more than a decade investing at Founders Fund, where he invested in SpaceX and many other of the defining companies of this generation. More recently, he started a company incubated that Founders Fund called General Matter. The topic of today's conversation is his time investing at Founders Fund, and more recently, his Decision to build this company full-time. General Matter is attacking one of the most interesting bottlenecks in the United States, the enrichment of uranium to create power in nuclear power plants. We don't do any of that in the United States today.
We've outsourced it overseas for years. Scott and General Matter are seeking to reverse that through the enrichment of uranium here in the United States. We touch on all aspects of what he learned, both as an investor and already building this company. In its early years, please enjoy my conversation with Scott Noel. Scott, I think an interesting place to begin our discussion is actually with a worldview type question, which is how you figure out what to work on. If I just plot your CV over time, you worked at SpaceX very early on, you've been critical of the founders fund success. Now you've started your own business and are basically devoting your time to that. And even the path between those things looks very interesting.
Like when you switch from one to another intrigues me. And so I'm curious both from your perspective. perspective and maybe from the founders fund perspective too, since that was a shaping experience for you.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the guest’s background and why is he relevant to the conversation?
0:01–1:32
2
How did Scott Nolan’s experience at SpaceX and Founders Fund shape his view on building breakthrough companies?
1:32–3:53
3
What did Peter Thiel teach Scott about avoiding trends and spotting hidden opportunities?
3:53–7:07
4
How does the “avoid trends” concept help investors find under‑appreciated problems?
7:07–10:31
5
Why is uranium enrichment the bottleneck for the next wave of advanced nuclear reactors?
10:31–18:34
6
What are the three nuclear‑fuel “cliffs” and how do they affect the U.S. energy outlook?
18:34–28:37
7
What is General Matter’s North‑Star metric and how does it tie to customer value?
28:37–42:23
8
How does Scott Nolan build a great, enduring company while tackling a highly regulated, capital‑intensive industry?
42:23–1:16:13
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
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