#AIS: Bestie AMA with Valor's Antonio Gracias

**Jason Calacanis** (0:18)
Antonio, Elon had a moment of reflection and he was talking about 2008 He was talking about the imminent collapse as he felt it of SpaceX and Tesla at the same time in December 25th. And he said there were just a handful of people who came out there and put their careers on the line for him.
Yourself and Steve Jurvetson specifically mentioned and Ira and it was a particularly poignant moment for him. He was getting a little choked up about it. Tell us about that bet you made in 2008, and the potentially career ending bet for you to bet in an electric car company at that moment. Take us back to that decision.

**Antonio Gracias** (1:02)
Yeah, well before I do that, I just want to say that I left my wallet backstage because the last time I was with the four of you, I lost a lot of money, and I realized that I better leave all the cash somewhere where you can't get it, and then you also made me cry. So I might cry again now.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:22)
Of joy?

**Antonio Gracias** (1:23)
I mean, no, no, it was more like humiliation. We're playing poker.

**David Sacks** (1:28)
Wait, wait, wait, you pulled a Palmer Lucky?

**Antonio Gracias** (1:30)
Yeah, so if I cry again this time, it will be from a sense of just gratitude for those moments that we got to share. So for us in particular, because you know, our strategy is so operational, I was there working on supply chain in the factory and on sales in that period, along with my partner Tim Watkins and three or four of our supply chain people. And we had a major problem in the supply chain, the cost for way to control, and you know, Elon was doing engineering on the very expensive parts. We were doing the, I call it the B parts, the A and the B parts.
And man, it was brutal.
But it was very clear to us that, and remember, it was also the middle of the financial crisis, right? So we had to treasure our portfolio. We had to decide, we did have a lot of capital at time. These are tiny funds, $120, $300 funds. Where our capital go, where our people go, more importantly, where our operating people go, and where I would go. And we decided to focus on Tesla because, first, we really did believe in Elon when most people didn't. And we saw in him something very special, which I think you probably saw here yesterday, that not only is he a brilliant, brilliant engineer, one-in-a-hundred-year engineer, he's a man of deep conviction and deep passion, and deep compassion. What he is doing is really trying to bend the arc of humanity for all of us, because he really cares.
And that came through to us, and we wanted to be on that mission with him. And so we were privileged enough to be there in a moment in time that it mattered, and it was really hard, man. I mean, we had clients, I actually had a client say to me, how do I know this isn't DeLorean? And I said, look, I can tell you for a fact, we are not selling cocaine out of the back of the factory in the cars.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:15)
DeLorean being the famous back to the future car, where the owner was trafficking cocaine to underwrite the car.

**Antonio Gracias** (3:23)
I may live in Miami, but even Antonio Gracias, we're not selling cocaine for sure. Yeah, but no, it was a crib betting event for us, and it turned out right, it was the right thing to do.
Yeah, for me, it was, I'm just deeply grateful for these experiences.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (3:39)
I mean, you really doubled down because you didn't just do Tesla, you also were there in some really critical moments at SpaceX as well.

**Antonio Gracias** (3:46)
We were, although I tell you, we doubled down at the time in Tesla, we put more money in Tesla in the middle of the financial crisis and then helped lead a convert round there that was really tough for us to do and then put more money in SpaceX. But I tell you, operationally, like in terms of capital stack, I think there were other people around, and SpaceX is also running out of money, and so we put money into SpaceX.
Operationally, we worked at SpaceX over the years, but it was never as existential in terms of the operations as it was at Tesla. I mean, Tesla was truly, I think, truly existential, and because we were operating guys, and I myself had been a factory manager, I worked in auto parts, in auto parts factory. I'd run industrial facilities myself. We could kind of uniquely add value there. In the rocket factory, you know, we were just less valuable.