He's Been Quietly Amassing SpaceX Stock for 15 Years

Justin Fishner-Wolfson has spent 15 years quietly doing one thing: scooping up privately held SpaceX stock, and that low-key obsession is about to pay off on a staggering scale. When SpaceX goes public Friday in what's expected to be the biggest IPO ever, his firm, 137 Ventures, will see its stake - now just over 1% - valued at roughly $20 billion, based on the rocket maker's anticipated $1.77 trillion market value, the New York Times reports. The 44-year-old Texas native started watching SpaceX back in 2008, when he was a junior employee at Peter Thiel's venture capital firm and its future looked shaky. He was assigned to check on the company after Thiel's Founders Fund invested $20 million, a stake now believed to be worth billions. Fishner-Wolfson's own firm has never sold a single share since its first investment in 2011. "This will most likely define my career," he says.