How Elon Musk Made One of the Best Hires in Tech History

SpaceX is the most valuable startup in the U.S., and Gwynne Shotwell is the person who makes it run.

Shotwell is SpaceX’s president and COO, coordinating the complex, high-stakes process of designing, building, and launching rockets and spacecraft. Under her leadership, SpaceX has developed reusable rockets, become the first private company to send humans to the International Space Station, and grown its reported valuation to more than $200 billion.

Shotwell has become one of the most important hires in modern Silicon Valley history, but she nearly wasn’t. Twenty-two years ago, when SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk offered her a job as vice president of sales, she came close to turning him down.

Back then, SpaceX looked like the many space startups that had flamed out over the years, and Shotwell wasn’t confident it would be any different.

But Musk ultimately convinced her to take the leap, and today’s founders can learn a lot from
what he did (and didn’t do) to help Shotwell overcome her doubts.

Here’s how Musk made his pitch, and what founders can learn from it. The following account is based on the books “Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX” by Eric Berger and “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson, as well as Shotwell’s 2021 commencement speech for Northwestern University.

How Musk Recruited Shotwell

In 2002, Shotwell had worked in the space industry for more than a decade, holding engineering, management, and sales roles at Aerospace Corporation and Microcosm. Musk, meanwhile, had sold his first startup, the business directory and map company Zip2, for $307 million and recently been pushed out of his second, a financial services company that became PayPal after merging with a competitor.

As he considered what he wanted to do next, Musk, who had long had an interest in space, learned that NASA had no apparent timetable for going to Mars. After attending a dinner hosted by the Mars Society, a non-profit that promotes efforts to send humans to Mars, Musk decided to make it his life’s mission to establish a colony on Mars and founded SpaceX to build the rockets he would need to make it happen. One of Musk’s first recruits was Hans Koenigsmann, a friend and coworker of Shotwell’s at Microcosm. After Shotwell got lunch with Koenigsmann to celebrate his new job, he told her she should meet Musk.

Shotwell wasn’t looking for a new job, but she accepted Koeningsmann’s offer and spoke to Musk for 10 minutes about his plan to lower the cost of building and launching rockets. She found Musk captivating, and was impressed by his detailed understanding of the aerospace industry and his ideas for making rockets less expensive. She also gave Musk blunt feedback on his sales strategy, saying she thought the consultant he had hired to lead business development wasn’t up to the job.

The next day, Musk’s assistant called Shotwell and said Musk wanted to discuss hiring her as SpaceX’s vice president of business development. Shotwell was nervous, and had plenty of reasons to say no: She had two young children, was going through a divorce, and understood the long history of failed space startups. She was looking for stability, and joining an unproven rocket manufacturer was as far from stable as she could get. Her first instinct was to decline Musk’s offer.

But over the next three weeks, the job became more appealing to her, until one day, she realized she had to accept. She described her thought process in a 2021 commencement address for Northwestern University:

“When I was considering joining SpaceX back in 2002, I was struggling with the decision and drawing it out for weeks. It seemed so risky for me personally to join this little startup in an industry where none had ever succeeded. At the time, I was a part-time single mother, and this was just too far out of my comfort zone. I was driving on the freeway here in L.A. when it finally hit me: I was being a total idiot. Who cares if I tried this job and either I failed or the company failed? What I recognized at that moment was that it was the trying part that was the most important.”

She called Musk, told him she’d been an “idiot” for taking so long to make her decision, and accepted his offer.

What Founders Can Learn

There are a number of lessons founders can learn from the way Musk recruited Shotwell. Here are the four biggest:

1. You never know when you’ll meet your next star hire

It’s easy to become fixated on your dream candidate and view anyone else as a consolation prize, but you never know when you’re going to meet the person who’s the best fit for your role.

Musk didn’t have Shotwell at the top of his list from day one — he met her by chance at a moment when she wasn’t looking for a new job. But he kept an open mind and quickly recognized the qualities that would make her a successful hire.

Your first choice may not want to join your company, no matter how strong your pitch. Or you might realize they’re not as good a fit as you hoped. Give yourself every opportunity you can to meet your next star hire, and don’t be discouraged if they aren’t immediately enthusiastic about working for you.

2. Lead with your mission

The best hires are going to be drawn to your company’s mission. Having strong investors and a generous compensation package can strengthen your pitch, but the opportunity to solve a big, exciting problem is what’s going to make a candidate choose you over a more established company that can offer a higher salary and more job security.

What stood out to Shotwell during her first meeting with Musk was his plan for transforming the space industry and the deep knowledge and passion he had for the problem he wanted to solve. That’s what convinced her to take a chance on a risky startup at a time in her life when she wasn’t looking to take a risk.

3. Value honest feedback

Shotwell was direct in her criticism of the consultant Musk had hired to lead sales. Musk could’ve viewed her evaluation as a personal attack and written her off as a cynic. Instead, he took her feedback seriously and considered it with an open mind.

While the accounts of Shotwell’s recruitment don’t give much detail on what she told Musk or the exact impression he left on her, it’s not hard to believe he saw her candor as an asset. Leaders need people who will be honest with them — otherwise, they may not recognize a major problem until it’s too late.

4. Move fast, but be patient

Musk moved quickly to recruit Shotwell after meeting her, but he didn’t force her to act with the same urgency. She was making a difficult decision, and he gave her the space to determine what was best for her.

Musk could’ve let anxiety or frustration get the best of him. He could’ve viewed Shotwell’s deliberation as a sign she couldn’t move fast enough for a startup.

Instead, he was patient and let Shotwell sell herself on joining the company. Of course, you can’t wait forever for a candidate to make up their mind, but giving them a little flexibility can help build trust and lay the groundwork for a strong partnership.