硅谷風投大佬愛上造火箭

????史蒂夫?尤爾韋特松不記得他究竟是先有了這種愛好，還是先產生了投資興趣。但他的確記得，2005年，他和兒子開始擺弄火箭模型，他們隨后第一次趕赴內華達州的黑巖沙漠，觀看了一場DIY（自己動手）火箭盛會。

????“我們看著這些碩大的火箭，當時就想：‘這些玩意太瘋狂了，我絕不會做這種事，瘋子才會這么干，”尤爾韋特松說?！皶r間快進到今天，我們現在做的正是這種東西?！?/p>

????尤爾韋特松是硅谷風投基金德豐杰投資公司(Draper Fisher Jurvetson)的合伙人之一，他花了大量的工作時間來思考技術如何顛覆市場，怎樣才能找到最新穎、最有望改變現有范式的初創公司。但并非巧合的是，他同時還是SpaceX和PlanetLabs這兩家公司的董事，后者是一家小型低成本地球成像衛星制造商。（德豐杰公司是這兩家公司的投資者。）

????尤爾韋特松長期以來一直在培養自己對太空和航天的興趣，他在德豐杰公司總部(位于加州門洛帕克市）的辦公室散落著多年來收集的源自阿波羅時代的美國航空航天局(NASA)物品。過去十年，他和他的兒子們把他們對加州中央谷和黑巖沙漠的癡迷轉化成了具體的行動，在每隔幾個月舉辦的DIY活動上建造、發射體積更大、更復雜的火箭。

????“孩子們的個頭越來越大，火箭的體量也越來越大，”尤爾韋特松說?！拔覀円恢痹谂d致勃勃地挑戰極限，看看我們究竟能夠制造出多大多快的火箭?！?/p>

????這種愛好非常契合尤爾韋特松的投資興趣，以及21世紀的技術（特別是太空技術）發展潮流。自從他在過去十年的中期開始設計、制造他的第一支火箭以來，移動設備的迅猛發展已經迅速地（有些人會說非常殘忍地）降低了芯片、傳感器和其他電子產品的價格，以至于現在任何人都有能力制造一支極富技術含量、能夠精確測量速度、高度和方向等指標的火箭?，F在，尤爾韋特松父子在動手打造（也有可能摧毀）火箭之前，能夠使用火箭設計軟件進行詳盡的仿真模擬。而就在短短幾年前，這也是大多數DIY火箭愛好者不可想象的事情。

????尤爾韋特松說，同樣是這些技術力量，再加上聯邦政府的政策改變，正在推動許多私人太空發射和衛星公司進入太空。這種正在發生的轉變不僅在改變可能性，同時也在改變經濟上的可行性?！昂荛L時間以來，太空領域并沒有明顯的創業機會，”尤爾韋特松說?！皬?995年我開始做這行，直到2005年或2006年，我還沒有發現任何一家看起來值得拜訪的公司?，F在大不一樣了，有一大批公司值得考慮?！?/p>

????一些追求這些機會的人本身就是火箭愛好者，盡管“愛好者”或許并不是一個完全正確的詞匯。尤爾韋特松是在火箭試驗場第一次遇到PlanetLabs公司的運營團隊——幾位前美國航空航天局的科學家。無論出于什么原因，火箭技術也對其他的硅谷技術型創業者具有強大的吸引力。繁忙的日程和進入壁壘使得他的一些同事保持著一種觀望態度，“但每當我向任何一位高科技企業家提起火箭技術時，他們總是說他們非常想進入這一領域，”尤爾韋特松說。其中一些人已經在這樣做了：除了他的兒子，Nest公司業務發展副總裁埃里克?查爾頓也經常跟尤爾韋特松一起發射火箭。

????問起他的愛好，尤爾韋特松立即給出了熱情的回應，時而聊起他已經建造好的火箭，時而描繪一張路線圖，洋洋灑灑地列舉正在軌道上浮現的無數機遇。他認為火箭發射和衛星行業正在經歷一個迅速的轉型時期。他的語言深入淺出，但又不乏火箭科學術語，讓人覺得他非常了解相關技術，知道所有這一切的運行機理，而且深信所有這一切在不久的將來就會變成現實。尤爾韋特松講了一個故事：他和兒子曾經把一支火箭的速度提升至2.5馬赫（即時速約1,900英里），但尾翼隨后脫離，造成了嚴重故障。他說：“天空中在那一瞬間好像舉辦了一場舊貨甩賣活動，整個火箭都散了架，重新變成了零部件?！?/p>

????他說：無論是對于應用程序、軟件和服務來說，衛星層依然有大機會，但只有當每磅貨運的發射成本大幅降低之后，這一切才能成為現實。

????“這就好比只有當更多的光纖廠建立起來之后，互聯網才會變得更加經濟可行，”尤爾韋特松說?！巴瑯?，當SpaceX和其他公司降低進入天空的成本之后，更多的衛星創新才會出現，甚至有可能提供覆蓋整個地球的高速寬帶。軟件和服務層面想必會賺到大錢?！?/p>

????Steve Jurvetson doesn't remember which came first, the hobby or the investment interest. But he does remember going out to Nevada's Black Rock Desert with his son for the first time in 2005 to witness a do-it-yourself rocketry event after he and his son began dabbling in model rockets.

????"We saw these enormous rockets, and I remember thinking 'That's just crazy stuff, I would never do something like that, that's nuts." Jurvetson says. "Fast-forward to today, and we're doing exactly that kind of stuff."

????As a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital fund Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Jurvetson spends his working hours thinking about how technologies upend markets and seeking out the most novel, potentially paradigm-shifting startup companies he can find. But it's no coincidence that he also sits on the board of both SpaceX and PlanetLabs, a maker of small, low-cost earth-imaging satellites. (DFJ is invested in both companies.)

????Jurvetson has long cultivated an interest space and spaceflight, and his office at DFJ's Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters is littered with Apollo-era NASA artifacts he's collected over the years. For the last decade, he and his sons have acted on that fascination in California's Central Valley and the Black Rock Desert, building and launching ever larger and more sophisticated rockets at DIY events held every few months.

????"The kids got bigger, the rockets got bigger," Jurvetson says. "And we've had a really fun time pushing the envelope with how big or how fast we can build a rocket."

????It's a hobby that dovetails nicely both with Jurvetson's investment interests as well as the broader arc of technology -- especially space technology -- in the 21st century. Since he began designing and constructing his first rockets in the middle of the last decade, the tremendous leaps and bounds of mobile devices have rapidly (some would say brutally) driven down the prices of chips, sensors, and other electronics to the point that anyone can now make a rocket imbued with technologies that allow for precise measurements of speed, altitude, and orientation. Jurvetson and his sons can now run detailed software simulations on a rocket design before they build (and potentially wreck) it, something that was unthinkable for most DIY rocketeers even a few years ago.

????These same technological forces, plus a change of heart for the federal government, are democratizing access to space through private space launch and satellite companies, Jurveston says. That ongoing shift is transforming not only the art of the possible but the art of the financially feasible. "There were not obvious venture opportunities in space for a long time," Jurvetson says. "From when I started in 1995 until 2005 or 2006, I didn't see anything that looked even worth a first meeting. Now it's very different -- there are a whole bunch of them."

????Some of the people pursuing those opportunities are rocket hobbyists themselves -- though "amateur" might not be exactly the right term. Jurvetson first met the team of former NASA scientists that now run DFJ-backed PlanetLabs on the rocket range. For whatever reason, rocketry maintains a strong allure for other Silicon Valley technologist-types as well. Busy schedules and something of a barrier to entry keep some of his colleagues on the outside looking in, "but anytime I mention it to any tech entrepreneur, they say how much they want to get out there," Jurvetson says. Some of them do: Aside from his sons, the person with whom Jurvetson launches most often is Erik Charlton, vice president of business at Nest.

????Ask him about his hobby and Jurvetson enthusiastically responds, careening between a discussion of the rockets he's built and a road map of the myriad opportunities emerging in orbit, where both the space launch and satellite industries are going through periods of rapid transformation. He uses layman's language sprinkled with the jargon of a rocket scientist, hinting at a deep technical understanding of how all this works -- and how it all will work someday in the not-too-distant future. Jurvetson tells a story about the time he and his son pushed a rocket to Mach 2.5 -- approximately 1,900 miles per hour -- before a fin separated and caused a critical failure. "It was an instant yard sale in the sky, the entire thing shredded back into the components it was made of," he says.

????There remains big opportunity in the satellite layer -- for applications, software, services -- that only comes when the cost-per-pound of launch cargo decreases, he says.

????"The analogy would be when fiber optic plants got more built up and made the Internet more feasible," Jurvetson says. "Similarly when SpaceX and others create cheaper access to space, you'll have more satellite innovation, maybe even broadband for the entire planet. And presumably big money would be made in the software and services layer."