Jared Isaacman, once a high school dropout living in his parents’ basement in New Jersey, has made an impressive transformation into a tech billionaire and space explorer. His ascent from modest beginnings to becoming a trailblazer in space exploration is truly remarkable.
Historic Spacewalk
On Thursday, Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis took a significant step in the Polaris Dawn mission by venturing into space to test new spacesuits. This event was historic as it marked the first instance of nonprofessional astronauts from a private company performing a spacewalk.
Early Ambitions
“I decided I was going to go to space when I was 5 [years old]. I was pretty calculated about it at that point, it just took me a little while to get it into motion,” Isaacman shared with CNBC Make It in 2021.
Isaacman’s entrepreneurial drive was evident early on. At 16, he dropped out of high school to launch Shift4 Payments, a payment processing company. Despite initial hurdles, the company swiftly gained momentum and emerged as a leader in its field.
Starting Out
Using a $10,000 check from his grandfather, Isaacman started Shift4 Payments from his childhood home’s basement. “$10,000, you know, you needed to build a couple of computers,” Isaacman recounted. “That wasn’t expensive. And, you needed some phones, and that was enough to get you going.”
His first hires included his friend Brendan Lauber, who served as Shift4’s chief technology officer until last year, and Isaacman’s father, a former home security salesman.
Rise to Billionaire Status
Today, Shift4 Payments is valued at $7.4 billion and employs 2,000 people nationwide. “There’s just no way, at that age, you could ever imagine” the company achieving such a valuation, Isaacman reflected. “One of the best times at a startup is when you’ve got the eight people in the basement eating Chinese food and everybody kind of shares knowledge, and you share in your successes and failures together, and you learn together.”
Ventures Beyond Earth
Isaacman’s success with Shift4 Payments propelled him into the billionaire ranks and fueled his passion for space exploration. He financed and led the first civilian mission to space aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, setting a record for the longest civilian spaceflight.
In 2009, Isaacman made headlines by flying a Cessna Citation CJ2 around the world in just under 62 hours, breaking the previous record by nearly 20 hours. Three years later, he founded Draken International, a company that trains student pilots for the U.S. Air Force. In 2020, he sold the company to Blackstone Group for a substantial sum, as reported by Forbes.
Reflecting on Success
Isaacman’s enthusiasm for space exploration goes beyond personal achievements. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m super lucky in life,” he told Bloomberg before the spacewalk. “You know – teenage basement startup, just trying to buy pizza on the weekend, and it’s turned into quite the empire.”
