START pod: Chris Bakke, Founder with exits to X, Indeed, and Zillow

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Chris Bakke never pitched Elon. He just posted good ideas in public for nine months straight.

Laskie was sourcing engineers on Twitter while everyone else lived on LinkedIn.

Along the way Chris started tweeting his own takes on how Twitter should fix recruiting.

Not as a pitch - just because he had strong opinions about what was broken.

Elon liked one. Then followed him. For the next nine months Chris kept the takes sharp on purpose, knowing exactly who was watching.

Then the DM came. A phone number and a note to call that Saturday. His wife was sure he was getting catfished.

He called anyway, and Elon picked up on the first ring.

Six minutes later it was an invite to dinner at the Tesla Fremont factory that week.

Deal closed in 45 days - Elon's first acquisition at Twitter

Then Twitter became X, X got acquired by xAI, xAI got acquired by SpaceX.

Chris came out the other side holding SpaceX shares

None of it happens if he builds quietly. The ideas did the outreach for him.

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🎙️ Chris Bakke, Founder with exits to X, Indeed and Zillow on Fondo START

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02:08 Building Laskie as a recruiting startup in the COVID remote-work wave
03:24 The thesis: reverse-arbitrage engineering talent outside the US
04:41 Why being in an exponentially growing space matters more than anything
05:17 The Twitter takes that got Elon to follow, then DM
06:33 What it's like getting a DM from the richest man in the world
07:06 The Saturday phone call and the Tesla Fremont dinner
08:29 Why you never take the acquirer's first number
09:14 Using optionality as leverage
10:48 Selling from a point of weakness as the hiring market collapsed
11:22 Two years at X and xAI, and a deal around $50M
12:05 The acquisition chain: shell company to Twitter to X to xAI
13:19 SpaceX deal, and the shares he kept

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Visit www.chrisbakke.com to learn more