chelsea102

A friend that previously sold payload delivery for SpaceX and now does so for a competitor recently shared perspective on the Starlink venture. SpaceX sells payload delivery to telecom companies. Starlink is a current competitor to some of these companies and potentially increasingly so (whether through Starlink or other SpaceX ventures) in the future. The most effective way to sell payload delivery against SpaceX is to invoke the fear of further vertical integration and competition from them; SpaceX is otherwise the obvious choice on cost, options, and track record. Not dissimilar from retailers deciding whether to embrace Amazon as a distribution channel or not.

This anecdote proves little. Even if taken as representative, there are valid reasons for a differing level of investment, like:

- importance of quality to the product domain

- differences in talent levels and supply of talent

- differences in company stage and expected future revenue growth