How Elon secured a $108B contract with $5,000 (steal his secret)"

$5,000 in the bank. 12 days on the clock. Boeing breathing down his neck.

Before Elon Musk landed his legendary $108 billion NASA contract, he was literally screaming himself awake at night.

Here's the untold story of how he pulled off the impossible... and the simple framework you can steal to dominate your own market.

Picture this: 2008. Elon had just walked away from PayPal with $176 million.

Instead of buying a yacht and disappearing to Ibiza, he did something most people thought was insane...

He bet everything on rockets.

SpaceX wasn't just bleeding money - it was hemorrhaging Elon's entire fortune. 

His ex-wife Justine Wilson later recalled finding him in bed, literally screaming from the stress and agony of trying to build something the world said was impossible.

Then came the moment that would either make or break everything.

SpaceX's latest rocket had just exploded on the launch pad. Again.

Boeing - the 100-year industry veteran with unlimited resources - was now the overwhelming favorite to win NASA's next contract.

Elon had exactly 12 days and $5,000 left in his account.

Not enough for payroll. Barely enough for coffee.

But somehow, he had to build and launch a rocket that would prove SpaceX belonged in the same conversation as Boeing.

What happened next defied every expert prediction.

Not only did Elon successfully launch that rocket in 12 days...

He didn't just save face...

He didn't just prove the doubters wrong...

He actually WON the NASA contract. Over Boeing.

Now, if you think Elon won the contract because he deployed a rocket into space…

You'd be wrong.

The real reason Elon beat a century-old aerospace giant with virtually unlimited resources wasn't luck, timing, or even superior engineering.

It was something much simpler. Something you can apply to your business today to create an "unfair" advantage that makes competition nearly irrelevant.

I've personally used this framework to double conversion rates and cut customer acquisition costs in half.

The secret? First Principles Thinking.

And, if you use it effectively, you can quite literally take over marketshare as competition will be non-existent.

First Principles Thinking is the concept of breaking down something to its core, foundational building blocks.

It’s a principle that allows you to get to the ultimate source of truth, and by doing so you can find unique gaps that give you an edge in the marketplace.

Essentially, it’s a train of questions you ask that take you straight to the source so you never assume anything.

And since most people assume things to be true, we can find “profit gaps” that our competitors are simply overlooking. 

While Boeing was trapped by "how things have always been done," Elon was asking a fundamentally different question:

"What if we ignored everything we think we know about rockets and started from scratch?"

Here's exactly how it worked:

Traditional aerospace thinking: "Rockets are expensive because rocket parts are expensive. You need specialized materials, custom manufacturing, and you can only use them once."

Elon's first principles breakdown:

• What is a rocket, really? → A tube that holds fuel and oxidizer

• How much does a rocket cost? → The price of the raw materials eg: 2 tons worth of steel

• What materials do we actually need? → Same ones used in cars and airplanes

• Why can't we reuse them? → No physical law prevents it

• What if we made them land instead of crash? → Suddenly rockets become 100x cheaper

While Boeing was optimizing within existing constraints, Elon was eliminating the constraints entirely.

Result: SpaceX launches became 90% cheaper than Boeing's. Game over.

You see, Elon won the contract because he found a way to launch rockets at a 90% discount in comparison to his competitors because he leveraged first principles thinking.

And here’s the thing…

You can do the same to increase your conversion rates, and cut your fulfillment costs in half (even sometimes 100% with artificial intelligence).

Let me give you a real world example of a product I’m working on.

Per my email yesterday I’m currently working on an Ai sales intelligence platform.

Here's exactly how to apply first principles thinking to identify the AI opportunity that made me walk away from that $50M equity position:

The Industry "Truths" I Questioned

While building performance marketing teams, I noticed everyone accepted these assumptions:

Here's exactly how to apply first principles thinking to identify the AI opportunity that made me walk away from that $50M equity position:

The Industry "Truths" I Questioned

While building performance marketing teams, I noticed everyone accepted these assumptions:

Industry Truth #1: "You need expensive conversation intelligence platforms like Gong ($5K+ annually) to analyze sales calls"

First Principles Question: What does conversation intelligence actually cost to deliver?

Core components: AI transcription + pattern analysis + insights generation

Real costs: OpenAI API credits (~$0.10 per call) + subject matter expertise (one-time setup)

Artificial markup: 5000x pricing for enterprise "positioning" and VC-funded growth

Breakthrough: The same intelligence can be delivered for a fraction of the costs to underserved markets

Industry Truth #2: "AI note takers are just basic call recorders"

First Principles Question: What is call recording actually for?

Surface assumption: Getting meeting notes and transcripts

Deeper purpose: Identifying patterns that predict buying behavior

Core insight: The difference between a $15/month recorder and valuable intelligence isn't the recording - it's the pattern analysis

Breakthrough: AI that identifies winning customer avatars, buying triggers, and objection patterns

Industry Truth #3: "Sales intelligence and marketing intelligence are separate functions"

First Principles Question: What are both sales and marketing really trying to understand?

Sales intelligence goal: What language and approach makes prospects buy

Marketing intelligence goal: What messaging and targeting makes prospects respond

Fundamental truth: Both are trying to decode the same customer psychology

Artificial constraint: Treating them as separate when they're two sides of the same coin

Game-changing insight: One AI system that turns sales conversations into marketing assets

The Profit Gap I Discovered

While everyone was optimizing within the "sales intelligence" box, I asked a fundamentally different question: What if sales calls contain the most valuable marketing intelligence in your entire business?

This first principles breakdown:

What is sales intelligence really? → Understanding what makes prospects buy

What is marketing intelligence really? → Understanding what messages make prospects respond

What's the fundamental truth? → Both are trying to understand the same thing: customer psychology

What if we eliminated artificial separation? → One AI system that turns sales conversations into winning marketing campaigns

Key takeaway: Your highest-converting sales calls contain better marketing intelligence than any focus group, survey, or A/B test.

Side note: Understanding the true costs of fulfillment allows me to deliver on the promise at a much cheaper cost than my competitors, effectively increasing the conversion rates and cash collected (without breaking the bank).

That’s it for today’s email,

Malcolm.

P.S: Me and DT Thomas stayed up until 2am yesterday cooking on this new product - it’s actually insane. I’ve never seen a value stack like this before. We’re throwing all of our sauce into one core product. More updates on this tomorrow.