Cashing in on SpaceX: 'Every chance I get, I'll sell a little more'
Following SpaceX's massive IPO in June, thousands of employees have become millionaires, with many now deciding whether to sell their shares. Early employees are navigating the company's staged release of stock as the firm reaches a $2 trillion valuation.
Why it matters
The SpaceX listing represents a historic financial event that has significantly altered the wealth of thousands of tech workers.
Share Save Add as preferred on Google Nathalie Jimenez and Samira Hussain , Business reporter & North America business correspondent The BBC's Samira Hussain explains how some early SpaceX employees could be looking at a very large payday. Andre Lavoie joined SpaceX in 2009 as an engineer, designing the pressure tanks that help power its rocket. He was paid partly in stock - a common trade-off at start-ups as a hiring incentive.
Some 17 years on, those 200,000 shares he was given are worth about $23m (£17m) - and the 63-year-old says he's ready to start cashing them as soon as he can.
"Every chance I get going forward, I'll sell a little bit more," he tells the BBC.
"The shares have been going up so radically it keeps messing up my life plans - you really can't know the future, so it's better to sell early and in intervals."
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