A few weeks ago, Jared Isaacman became the first civilian in history to carry out a spacewalk, during a mission aboard the SpaceX spacecraft. We decided to celebrate that by revisiting our two-part interview with him from earlier this year.
In business, there’s success, and there’s potential. Success is an achievement, but true greatness lies in tapping into untapped possibilities. Today’s guest has harnessed their business’s potential to make a lasting impact on a global scale.
In this episode, we’re featuring an interview recorded in January at ICR’s annual conference in Orlando. It’s a fireside chat hosted by Morgan Brennan, who was kind enough to step in to ask all the pressing questions. Morgan is co-anchor of CNBC’s 4P.M. show Closing Bell Overtime. Over the last 10 years, she has held various on-air roles with CNBC and was previously co-anchor of Squawk on the Street and Squawk Alley. We’re thrilled to feature her as our host today.
Morgan sat down with Jared Isaacman. Jared is an entrepreneur, a business leader, an accomplished pilot, AND he’s also an astronaut. He’s the founder of both Shift4 and Draken International. Under his leadership as CEO, Shift4 has consistently pushed boundaries, developing cutting-edge payment technologies that empower businesses across countless sectors.
Draken International is an aerospace defense company that provides tactical aviation services for all branches of the US military. In 2021, he made history by commanding Inspiration4, the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit. And later this year, he’s going to return to space as commander of the Polaris Dawn mission, which is a partnership with SpaceX.
Highlights:
- How Jared got his start in payment processing and technology (5:10)
- Jared tells the origin story and inspiration behind founding Shift4 (7:09)
- Jared describes Shift4’s recent public listing accomplishment (8:41)
- Shift4’s current verticals and growth opportunities in payment processing (10:32)
- How Jared transitioned from payment to piloting (12:26)
- How Jared got the opportunity to make space history (14:09)
- Jared describes the process of assembling the Inspiration 4 mission and crew (16:22)
- Jared’s upcoming Polaris Dawn space mission (19:07)
- Jared discusses their partnership with SpaceX (21:09)
- More on Shift4’s team and board members (23:38)
- Jared shares his biggest lessons in leadership (24:33)
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If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you’d like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, marion@lowerstreet.co.
