Anpanman - Let's hear your AST SpaceMobile story

[00:00:06] Speaker A: This is the AST SpaceMobile Podcast.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: It will just basically come to your phone and be seamless regardless of where you are. We don't want the user even to know that it's connected by satellite. Listen, the opportunity that we have is very, very, very large.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Hey everyone, how's it going? Thanks everyone for joining on Sunday evening. I figured I'd host a space since, uh, Kook is out traveling internationally and he won't be doing a space tonight. And since, um, I'm hosting, I figured we'd start earlier. Um, because whenever Kook hosts, I usually have my headphones on and I'm in bed and I fall asleep. Like halfway through. So, um, I figured I would just do it a little earlier today. But yeah, um, I wanted to talk about a few, I guess, updates, which are quite exciting. And then we can go into, um, inviting folks up to share a bit about their AST SpaceMobile story. I figured since we're at the end of the year, uh, it might be a good time to just get together and just hang out.
[00:01:19] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: But let's start off with this coming week. We've got a number of exciting things going on. First, Bluebird 6 will be launching this Tuesday, December 23rd at 10:24 PM. That will be out of India on an ISRO LVM-3 rocket, M6 mission, I believe. And so that is going to be very exciting. We are going to have a joint space with Katsy, Cook, Tut, and a few others. And so I think we're going to try to start that 1 to 2 hours ahead of time. But yeah, it's just going to be us talking shop and waiting anxiously for the rocket to launch. And so as I mentioned, Over this weekend, if you get a chance to drop by a store, get a Dr Pepper so we can celebrate our good friend Steve Larson, who passed away in 2023. He lived on Dr Pepper. And so that's why we have this tradition of just celebrating milestones and achievements by having a Dr Pepper. Actually, when I was in high school, I basically lived on Dr Pepper as well. And so So when Steve told me that he was into Dr Pepper, right away I knew that he was a good guy. But yeah, so we've got that launch coming on Tuesday, and so that's exciting. And then of course we found out that BB7 was shipped today, or perhaps maybe it was yesterday. And so that's exciting news. The disclosure with some pictures was great that that satellite will be heading to Cape Canaveral. My guess is that it will arrive, probably it's either there already or it'll be there on Monday or Tuesday, and perhaps we'll get some update on the arrival of that satellite, but very exciting. Now it's a matter of figuring out which rocket it's going to be on. I think For, you know, most people will expect that a Falcon 9 will take that satellite up. It could be a dedicated launch. Most likely though, just based off of FCC filings, it's probably going to be a rideshare of some sort. But then I think there is a decent probability that that satellite actually may be on the next Blue Origin New Glenn launch, which would be amazing. Given that that's going to be the second, you know, second time that Blue Origin will be trying to land the booster and there'll be a ton of fanfare and press around that. And so by having the, you know, BB-7 launch on top of that would be tremendous, you know, press and awareness and it would just be great. Can you imagine if we all go down to Florida and not only do we get to see BB-7 go up, But we actually get to see it on Blue Origin New Glenn, which would be insane. That said, if it is going up on the Blue Origin New Glenn, I'm not sure how many of us will be invited because there'll probably be a ton of people there to watch New Glenn launch. And so seats are probably going to be tougher than if it were to just go on a Falcon 9. But either way, it'll be exciting.
[00:04:50] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: I've had a few questions about potential timing and just given that it's shipping down to the Cape this late, I think at earliest maybe a late January launch, but if I had to bet, it'd probably be early February launch. The other thing is that there was a production update and people have kind of gone through the math and we've got some hints that They're now up to 6 satellites of production per month. And so my guess is that we'll probably see a batch of Bluebirds being sent down to Cape Canaveral as early as this week, or perhaps next week. But in an uncanny way, Scott Wiesniewski tweeted out a meme that someone had put together of Santa Claus driving the AST SpaceMobile truck. down to Cape Canaveral. And he said like, you know, there's exciting things happening this week, so maybe we'll get news that there'll be another batch of Bluebirds being sent down. So jam-packed week, it's going to be a lot of fun. What a way to end the year. And so yeah, I'm excited. But yeah, so I did want to host this space to, you know, I whether it's myself or Cook or whoever, we're always talking about, um, AST, of course, and then ourselves or, you know, stories or experiences. But I did want to invite people up to share, um, their story. And so if anyone wants to request to come up, um, it'd be great. You know, this is, you don't have to be a good public speaker. You don't have to do anything. I, you know, I just wanted to hear from others. Um, if folks wanted to share You know, their background and how they learned about AST and then, you know, share a funny experience. Well, an experience, it can be fun, scary, crazy, whatever it is, right? I think we all have a ton of those stories. And then, yeah, just have a conversation and perhaps, you know, if you have a prediction for 2026, you know, feel free to share that. But I know people are probably shy.
[00:06:59] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: But feel free to request to come up. Actually, I'm going to, I'm going to ask Brandon to come up too, see if he's willing to speak. But yeah, feel free to request to come up.
[00:07:16] Speaker G: Don't be shy.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: If we don't have anyone come up, it'll be kind of a boring space. But while I wait for people, Overnight, it looks like the space sector is ripping, which is great. I think I was reading somewhere that the Fed is supposed to inject like $8 billion of liquidity tomorrow. And so I think we've got the Santa rally started quite early here. But yeah, it's gonna be an exciting end to the year. Okay, we've got 4 Requesters coming up, so I'm going to approve. I'll ask you guys to speak in order. Um, hey, let's see. Hey, Justin, you there?
[00:08:02] Speaker D: Hey, can you hear me?
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Yeah, we can hear you. You want to go first?
[00:08:06] Speaker I: Yeah, maybe.
[00:08:07] Speaker D: Uh, sure. Um, I can break the ice a little bit.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Tell us a bit about sort of background, as much as you want to share. You don't have to share too much, but then, you know, how you learned about AST, maybe start there.
[00:08:17] Speaker D: Oh yeah, totally. Well, I'm like semi-docked, so I don't, I feel pretty comfortable sharing a little bit more, but I'm a software engineer by trade, studied computer engineering in college, so had some exposure to like the electronic side of things.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:33] Speaker D: And how I learned about AST, I was living in Midtown Manhattan at the time, and I think you just like end up being surrounded by a lot of finance bros. And one of my roommates, he was, he worked at, he was at Goldman, but he had a few friends who were in private equity telecom. And it was like 2021, mid-COVID.
[00:09:00] Speaker J: Yeah.
[00:09:00] Speaker D: And one of his friends who was in PE, he told him about this company AST, and this was like right after they SPAC'd. And we were talking about stocks and he was like, oh, you should check out this company. I think they're gonna be really big one day. So I checked them out and then obviously my gut reaction was like, cell towers in space, like there's no way this is gonna work.
[00:09:23] Speaker E: Right.
[00:09:24] Speaker D: And at the time there was not that much information, but I was like, I trust his word and other people's DD is a form of DD. So I bought a few hundred shares and it was only like a few years later where I had like an epiphany. at a concert where I was on a few illicit substances that rhymed with Holly that I like had the epiphany that like, you know, like to really make it big in investing, you kind of have to invest in secular growth stories in markets that are going to grow really big. And, you know, like I just remember this company AST and it was, it seemed to be like right after BlueWalker 3 made a successful connection and I was like, oh wow, this thing works and it works pretty well. Yeah. So that started aggressively buying shares and because that was like my big skepticism. So once that was de-risked, I was like, oh, you know, like it works, they'll figure out how to launch it. It's like, it's gonna pan out.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: So yeah.
[00:10:31] Speaker K: Yeah.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: That, yeah, the moment of clarity at a rave.
[00:10:35] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. You know, sometimes, sometimes getting out of your element really changes your mindset.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. That's true. Do you have any, any like experiences here or perhaps like, I guess your moment of clarity might've been your experience, but any, any stories?
[00:10:52] Speaker D: I think, I think that that might've been it. I mean, I had a few where Like, I, I came to the launch super last minute, um, and I like made a quick, like 24-hour day trip down.
[00:11:08] Speaker L: Um, did you?
[00:11:09] Speaker D: I think like, no, I, I, I like biked to LaGuardia from—
[00:11:14] Speaker H: That's right.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: You told me.
[00:11:15] Speaker D: From my office. And I like, I, I biked over at like 6 o'clock at night. I hopped on the flight. I, I like crashed at my friend's place, went to the launch at like 4 in the morning, and then got back on the flight at like 11.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: It's insane.
[00:11:30] Speaker D: Yeah, but it was worth it. I think being there added a lot of conviction, you know, just like seeing the energy and seeing like a bell and all the people that come out. It really shows that it's like, you know, this is a real thing. It's like a lot of people are like supporting it and, you know, that's like really cool to see as an investor.
[00:11:50] Speaker F: Right, right.
[00:11:52] Speaker H: Yeah.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: How did you feel when you saw the rocket go up?
[00:11:54] Speaker D: Oh my God. It was like, my net worth was going up on a rocket. I invited my friend out and my pitch to him, because he wasn't as bought in as I was, but I was like, you know, like if you're there and something goes wrong, you could probably front run the entire market. So that was my pitch to him because he wasn't as bought in as I was. But yeah, it was a really cool experience. Right.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Well, let me ask you this. So how many people do you think own shares because of your, you know, you evangelizing, I guess, you know, the story?
[00:12:36] Speaker D: Well, I actually have a separate group chat of my friends locally, and there are a total of 20 people now.
[00:12:46] Speaker H: Oh, wow.
[00:12:47] Speaker D: Where I just sort of blast news to them whenever it comes out. A lot of them sort of just bought because, you know, like they trust me and they're like, oh, if he's this bullish about something, maybe it's worth buying.
[00:13:03] Speaker H: So, right, right.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, cool. Well, thanks for coming out, Justin. I do remember, yeah, you sharing your story about your moment of clarity at being at a concert. So I guess it comes to us all in different ways, right? Totally.
[00:13:22] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Well, here, let's move on to the next person. Um, if you're done, you can like move or I can move you back down, but there was someone actually who wanted me to ask Nick Brown to come up and speak. So Nick, do you want to unmute? Hey, can you hear me? Yeah. Hey Nick. Yeah, maybe, maybe, um, thanks for coming up. Maybe if you could, uh, share your background, I mean, as much as you want, and then how you learned about AST and then share Yeah.
[00:13:52] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:13:53] Speaker E: Let's see.
[00:13:54] Speaker I: So I'm a firefighter over in Seattle. Excuse me. And during COVID I kind of started getting into investing and was listening to a lot of podcasts and I started off kind of as a value investor and was kind of getting impatient with that, to be honest. So I explored some options and explored some other things and realized that that was probably not the way I was wisest plan. So instead I decided, I was listening to a bunch of guys that were investors that would take a lot of concentrated positions, some speculative plays, some not so speculative. But something that resonated with me was concentrated positions build wealth and then once you're wealthy, kind of diversify. So anyway, I was browsing a ton of subreddits at the time and listened to a lot of podcasts. I just over and over, I just kept hearing his thesis get mentioned as this amazing binary play. So that piqued my interest. I was kind of sort of discovering my style as an investor, I guess, and just dove pretty deep into this company. And the more I read, I know that, you know, Kevin Magus touched on this and Of course you guys have too, but the more you learn about this company, just the more you want to invest. So yeah, it was actually pretty funny. I was supposed to be paying for a wedding at the time, so I took out a couple of credit cards to pay all the vendors and was putting all my spare cash in the ASTS shares instead. So this was—
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Okay, so what year was that?
[00:15:33] Speaker I: That was 2021.
[00:15:35] Speaker F: Oh dear. Okay.
[00:15:36] Speaker I: Yeah, so I definitely have This has been to hell and back.
[00:15:42] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:15:42] Speaker I: But I think I just kind of maintained cautious optimism. And like I said, kind of the more I learned, the more I loved. And I actually, we don't have 401s as firefighters. We have what are called 457s. I'm sure you guys are all familiar with those, but they'll give you a ton of freedom with what you can invest in. You can, you know, they have a couple of mutual fund options and, you know, Vanguard and that kind of stuff. So I was, I went for the self-directed option, but even then it's through Schwab and they still had restrictions on single stock sales.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:16:25] Speaker I: So I said, okay, so how can I figure this out here? So I was like, all right, I'm going to take a loan out of my 457. So I took out $50K out of my retirement fund, Oh man. On top of all the extra cash I was throwing in.
[00:16:37] Speaker F: Okay.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Wait, so you, you, you paid for your wedding stuff on credit cards and then you took out money from your, you took a loan against your retirement account, which you'd probably have to pay like some market rate interest.
[00:16:49] Speaker G: Yep.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Uh, so that you could put it into a regular account to invest.
[00:16:53] Speaker I: Yeah.
[00:16:53] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:16:54] Speaker I: I'm saying this out loud and I'm sure everyone's rolling their eyes.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: No, no, you're probably, I mean, I hear where you're coming from, but okay, keep going.
[00:17:02] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:17:04] Speaker I: So yeah, so yeah, you know, obviously I'm fairly levered at this point and I am very much emotionally invested in both the stock price and the company. But I think it was just one of those things where I had just been So into it for so long and listening to you guys and Pam and Cook and Cassie and just the level of conviction and due diligence kind of allowed me to ride those waves, which was something that was pretty cool. So I appreciate you for that first and foremost and the rest of the guys too. And then of course, of course it went through the funding And then the dilution 2 minutes later, that was probably one of the biggest gut punches of my life.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: So yeah, you're talking about when the company announced the investment from Vodafone, AT&T, and Google. Everyone was like, eh, and the stock went to like $5.66. And then they're like, and we're going to raise $100 million of equity. And then it cratered to like $3.
[00:18:14] Speaker L: Yes.
[00:18:15] Speaker I: Yeah, that was, uh, that was definitely Quite the gut punch. Yeah, it was pretty terrible. It was, and at that point I'd kind of been pitching it to a lot of family and friends too. And so man, oh man, did I feel stupid. But I still, you know, it was still. I remember Cook came out with a. He came out with a Twitter post. It was Twitter at the time. I think I don't think it was X quite yet. He came out with a post basically saying like, "Hey, do you guys want me to keep going or should I just?" That kind of got in the woods for a while.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Those were dark days.
[00:18:47] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker I: Yeah, they were super supportive. Um, of course we, we appreciated his DD regardless. So, uh, yeah, so I mean, long story short, then, um, you know, I had to ride that for a while and then they came out with the, with the AT&T, um, definitive agreement after that one earnings call and it's just been off to the races since. So yeah, I went from levered, stressing, obviously overexposed to a multimillionaire.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: But what was that like? Congratulations. So what was that like? I mean, did your fiancée have any clue what was going on?
[00:19:25] Speaker L: Yeah, yeah.
[00:19:27] Speaker I: I kept her updated. I don't think I sort of downplayed it a little bit. I didn't quite, I didn't tell her. I'll sell that story. I like to call it fancy financing.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:40] Speaker I: I had to tell her some of the fancy financing I was doing. But she knew that we were definitely pretty deep into it.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:46] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: So, I bet emotionally she could tell like if you were crabby one day or not, right?
[00:19:52] Speaker H: Oh, for sure.
[00:19:53] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:19:53] Speaker I: I was like, is it a red day or a green day?
[00:19:55] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:19:57] Speaker I: But yeah, so it's been life-changing at this point. I've had a couple kids during this whole saga. And just knowing that their lives are gonna be changed as well, it's pretty cool. And I got a couple coworkers in it. My lieutenant actually has made about $40K. My dad's a millionaire now. My brother bought about 12,000 shares. He's close to a millionaire. So it's been wild.
[00:20:25] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:20:25] Speaker I: It's been absolutely wild.
[00:20:26] Speaker F: Well, congratulations.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: I'm glad it worked out for all of us.
[00:20:29] Speaker H: I won't be doing that again, but it's been a ride.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, no, it's, Yeah, I think we all, I mean, to varying degrees, right? But we all went through that, or a lot of us went through that period of time, which was like when you mentioned Cook putting that tweet out saying, you know, should I keep going or should I just nuke this account? And this is basically, you know, a sorry note, which of course I felt bad because I, like, I felt personally responsible, right?
[00:21:00] Speaker M: Yeah.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: Because I had conviction. And of course I invested too, but then the stock, the investment didn't work out at that point. And I remember tweeting out as well, like, hey, I'm sorry everyone, but I'm, for better or for worse, I'm sticking to it because I believe in it. And fortunately a few months later we got bailed out.
[00:21:21] Speaker I: Yeah. That was definitely wild. But like I said, I mean, absolutely, internally grateful for you guys and the level of knowledge that came from everyone in the Mob.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a unique group. You know, it's, I think it's cool to hear like people from all walks of life and, you know, there's contributors. And I was just talking to someone the other day about how in those early days it was, there was a high level of responsibility that many of us felt. Because, you know, it's like, oh, I need to keep posting every day about this or kind of remind people about the investment. 'Cause, you know, it was hard to hold back then. And then now fast forward to current time, there's so many people like, you know, like Tanner and Kevin Chen and just all these new people who are posting. which makes life a lot easier. Easier in a sense of like, okay, I don't, one person doesn't have to be the end-all for everything. It's like, oh, everyone's kind of carrying water. Like Redrum posts like, you know, the spaces for everyone and then he has a merch shop and then like I see Spectator down there doing great due diligence. But yeah, it's great. It's great that community's so big.
[00:22:48] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:22:49] Speaker I: Yeah, you're not the kind of final buck, right? There's some other people that kind of share the load a little bit.
[00:22:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:22:55] Speaker H: Yeah, that's awesome.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Well, hey, Nick, thanks for coming up and sharing. I'm sure your story's not unique, but it certainly is exceptional and extraordinary.
[00:23:08] Speaker L: That's great.
[00:23:09] Speaker F: Thank you. I appreciate this.
[00:23:11] Speaker L: Yeah.
[00:23:11] Speaker I: Well, much love to you guys, and I hope to see you at a launch very soon.
[00:23:15] Speaker H: Yeah.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: I think I mean, hopefully, like I was saying before, we'll get, they'll organize something and maybe we'll be seeing each other in Cape Canaveral sometime at the end of January or probably first of February, first week of February. That's my guess. But yeah, looking forward to it.
[00:23:33] Speaker I: Yeah, that'd be awesome.
[00:23:34] Speaker C: Cool.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Thanks for sharing.
[00:23:36] Speaker D: All right.
[00:23:37] Speaker I: Yeah, you bet. We'll talk to you.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: Talk to you later. All right. Let's see. Let's get RMA. Do you want to, Unmute. Army, you still there?
[00:23:48] Speaker J: I am here. Can you hear me?
[00:23:51] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: How's it going?
[00:23:52] Speaker J: It's going well. I appreciate you.
[00:23:55] Speaker G: Yeah, I know.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: I appreciate you too.
[00:23:57] Speaker J: You have no idea. You have no idea.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: How's it going? Do you want to give us a little bit of your background and how you, you got, became part of this crazy mob?
[00:24:06] Speaker J: You invited me to speak. Approximately 3 years ago.
[00:24:13] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:24:14] Speaker J: And I was blocked or I blocked someone. I think that's what you said.
[00:24:19] Speaker L: Yeah.
[00:24:20] Speaker J: This is one of my first ever speaking endeavors here on this platform. But let me just tell you, I'd been an investor since the '90s. Back in, and I'll try to keep this Quick and precise. You can stop me at any time. I was on StockTwits. If you guys can remember Investor777, that was me, the guy that was driving everyone nuts. I was in SPCE. Oh boy. And because of I would say I was fairly successful at that stock, but when Chamath Palihapitiya, if that's his name, him and Sir Richard Branson, they kind of got under my skin because I was noticing how they were manipulating that stock. And every time it had an opportunity to take off, They would just rug pull us. So I gave up on that and went into Redwire and Planet Labs. If you guys can remember back then, what really drew me in was a few people were asking me to take a look at ASTS. Well, before ASTS, we had this SPAC. Now you can correct me if I'm wrong, but was that not NPA?
[00:25:58] Speaker A: Yeah, it was NPA.
[00:25:59] Speaker J: Okay. I was going back and forth and I was trading it because of the volatility. Right now, one of my first investments in ASTS, if you guys could forgive me, I started shorting it. And the reason I started shorting it is because There were a lot of people that kept posting on Fridays those pictures of, uh, you know, the, the ladies that were—
[00:26:30] Speaker A: Oh yeah, on StockTwits.
[00:26:31] Speaker F: I remember that.
[00:26:32] Speaker J: So on and so forth. Well, that really got me upset.
[00:26:35] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:26:36] Speaker J: I, I'm a true believer of the Lord. I love God.
[00:26:39] Speaker E: Right.
[00:26:39] Speaker G: I see.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: I see.
[00:26:40] Speaker J: And I felt horrible for these people.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:44] Speaker J: I was praying for you guys, all, uh, everyone that was involved in that.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: By the way, I, I was not involved in that.
[00:26:51] Speaker J: I just want to be clear.
[00:26:52] Speaker N: Yeah.
[00:26:52] Speaker F: Okay. Sorry.
[00:26:53] Speaker J: I don't mean to say you personally, but many, many people.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: Well, let's be clear that StockTwits is kind of like, it's a zoo. It's a complete zoo.
[00:27:05] Speaker K: Yeah.
[00:27:06] Speaker L: Yes, sir.
[00:27:07] Speaker J: Yes, sir. So what happened after that is I started doing my due diligence. I started following you. And Cook and Cathie, and I really started to realize what an incredible company. So I took all of my funds from SPCE and some of the other gains, not that I put all my funds in it, but I started building a position as it came down. When it got down to around $3.60, cents, I actually went all in and I started to, uh, what did I do at that time? I just, I was posting every day. I was trying to get people to notice this company when it was in the 2s. I believe that's when Katzi said you would be a fool not to. And, and I'm just paraphrasing.
[00:28:09] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:28:09] Speaker J: You'd be a fool not to invest in this company. And I agreed with him. And when it was down to around $2.30, I started selling other stocks and buying it. And at some point, I can almost guarantee you I had more shares than Goldman Sachs. That I can guarantee you.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: By the way, when, when Katzi makes proclamations like that, it's very rare. Like, I think there's been like 3 or 4 times when he's actually come out and said it's time to buy call options. And it's actually worked every single time. But he's not someone to push people into risk unless, yeah, there's something there. So, but go ahead.
[00:28:54] Speaker L: Sorry.
[00:28:54] Speaker J: Yeah. So everyone that knows me pretty much knows who I actually invest in. This is one of the Biggest investments I've ever made in my life, and I'm so grateful for it. I asked a question at a quarterly meeting to Abel, and I just posted it maybe an hour ago, and it was you know basically just asking if Mr. Abel Avalon ever really considered in his visions that he's given us the opportunity as. Believers to be able to reach everyone around the globe. I am, I, I saw that years ago and that's what really hooked me. I prayed about it. I would, you know, follow this stock and everything you guys said and I just fell in love with it. Now, to make it just clear here, the shorts are going to fund this. That's, that's my trademark. They will fund this.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: Well, they have.
[00:30:03] Speaker F: They have been. That's right.
[00:30:04] Speaker J: They have been. I've been, I've been selling puts to them for now a few years and I still sell puts. My last puts that I sold were on, I think Thursday. I was selling $75 puts. What was the price? At 67?
[00:30:25] Speaker A: Uh, yeah, I think that's right.
[00:30:27] Speaker J: Something like that. And I, I just kept saying, thank you. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Right now, people to this day, probably there's a lot that have blocked me, can't stand me. It's okay. I don't do this for myself. The ultimate goal that I have is to be used by God. I was considered, um, and I'll share this. I've been considered physically disabled due to a spinal injury many years ago. There is something God's doing, not only for myself, but for everyone involved here. The, the A stands for something. If you go back to when Um, Steve, Steve, I believe me and Steve spoke a couple times.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: You're talking about Steve Larsen?
[00:31:23] Speaker J: And someone asked him why he doesn't put an A in his name. And they asked me if I would respond to that. And I says, well, you know, it's up to him if he wants to put an A or not. And I called him sir. And he said to me, don't call me sir. My name's Steve. And I laughed, you know, I just want to be respectful to everybody, to be honest with you. And here in the end, I'll cut this off. I'll let someone else speak, but everyone needs to realize there's going to be billions of future investors in this company. We are so early, everyone. Just know that. The shorts are going to fund this. I want to thank everyone for, you know, just supporting each other. I thank the company. They're, they're an incredible company and they have such incredible partners and employees and, and just counselors and you name it. So this company will be a world-renowned known name in the future. That's all I could say. I thank God for all things. And, um, without him, none of this is ever going to work. So he's allowing it to happen. Just remember, Jesus saves. And, uh, don't forget about those who are poor and needy because we are their neighbors. And God has blessed you. So bless those that you can. And thank you for this opportunity to speak, man.
[00:33:01] Speaker F: Thank you.
[00:33:01] Speaker I: Yes.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: Thanks for coming up. Yeah, and those are—
[00:33:04] Speaker J: Yes, sir.
[00:33:04] Speaker A: Those are wise words. Like, I think we all are blessed, and especially heading into this end of year, I think it's a good time to reflect and be thankful. And to the extent you have the means to, you know, to think about the less fortunate, and I've talked about donating to charity, and actually I was thinking of potentially doing a space about that. But, uh, but yeah, something to consider. But, um, thanks for coming up, Army. Amen.
[00:33:34] Speaker J: I appreciate you. Thanks.
[00:33:38] Speaker A: Let's see, let's, uh, bring up Farm Daz.
[00:33:40] Speaker C: Everybody always says Farm Daz. Farm D-A-Z.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: Farm D-A-Z. How's it going, man?
[00:33:47] Speaker C: Because I'm from Arizona. I'm good. How are you, buddy?
[00:33:49] Speaker B: Good.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: Hey, so do you want to give us a little bit about your background and tell us how you got involved and then maybe share an experience?
[00:33:57] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. First of all, thank you for hosting these Spaces. It's a highlight of my week, highlights of my week. And thanks to everybody that's shared so far, really cool stories. And I hope Corey, if you're listening, you'll come up at some point because your story's really cool too. I have multiple brokerages. One of the brokerages I have, the accounts that I have, it was strictly for biotech investing. I'm a clinical pharmacist by trade. I'm specialized in geriatric medicine and Early on in my career, I was involved with some clinical trials. So I saw, I thought, wow, I can get ahead of these medications and these new drugs on the market, invest in these companies and make a butt ton of money. And, and that worked for quite a while until it didn't. I was really big in Viking Therapeutics and woke up one morning, it had gone way, way up on some oral data that was released. And I said, okay, great, I'm gonna take all that money. And at that time, the, the AMC and the GME 2.0 was running wild. And I said, well, why don't I take all that money and try to make it triple, quadruple on AMC and Jamie? And we all know what happened there. They tanked. So I lost literally everything.
[00:35:04] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:35:05] Speaker C: Literally everything that I had gained, like sat on for 5 years. And I kept seeing ASTS on my feed. I think his handle's MWM. He's a buddy of mine and we were, we always, we always shared trade ideas. And anyways, he kept talking about it. And so I was like, I'll look into it. You know, and I was in that 5 minutes of DD camp. I would read a couple things and then I always came to the conclusion, but Starlink. So I didn't invest. And then I started to watch your guys' stock go absolutely apeshit. And I had a bunch of FOMO. And I think I've shared this before. My first purchase I think was at like $36. But I was like, okay, well if I own this now, I better start doing my research because I'm either going to sell it quickly or I'm going to keep accumulating, you know, shares. And right, um, I, I was lucky to find you. I was lucky to find Kook, start reading the, the documents and everything. And my— as the price started coming off the $36 level and back down to like, I think it was like $18.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Yeah, the low was $18.
[00:36:01] Speaker C: The prices came— yeah, the price started coming down, but my conviction was getting higher and higher every single day. So I really started averaging down. So it was really nice in that regard. But, um, I just want to share a couple of funny stories. So I, I I have a pretty big social network, and that's not to be braggadocious. I have gotten a lot of people into this stock, multiple 7 figures worth of money. And it's—
[00:36:25] Speaker A: that's a huge responsibility, by the way.
[00:36:29] Speaker C: It is super annoying because I'm getting texts and phone calls all the time, and they think I'm this guru investor. And I'm like, little do they know, I'm just basically parroting everything you guys say every day. So, there was one day, Corey and I are friends outside of this and, well, we became friends because of this, but we were chatting one day and it was a couple months ago and the stock price was up big, down big, up big, down big. And I texted Corey and I said, Corey, I said, I have a tattoo appointment this weekend and I had a tattoo in mind. And I said, if we finish green today, I'm going to get an AST SpaceMobile satellite tattoo on my leg. And it did it. I mean, it had a run towards the end of the day and it finished green. I think it was just over like 50 or something like that. I don't know, Cory might remember, but yeah. So I went that Saturday and I got that tattoo and it was a lot of fun. So that in and of itself is a conversation starter. I was having lunch in Phoenix the other day and I was sitting next to this couple and they asked me what I did and I said, well, I'm a pharmacist and I also invest and They said, oh, what are you invested in? So I was telling them, oh, I'm so excited about this stock. And I was telling them all about it. So we talked for like 20 minutes and they're like, wow, you seem really convicted. And I said, and I showed them the website so they could see an actual picture of the satellite. And then I pointed down to my leg and the look on their face was just hilarious.
[00:37:46] Speaker K: Crazy.
[00:37:47] Speaker A: It's time to leave.
[00:37:47] Speaker C: So yeah, he's either crazy or he really has that much conviction. So that was a really, it's just been a really fun experience. I've been an investor for a long time and I've never, been in a stock like this, in a community like this. It's just, there's something very, very unique about it. So win or lose, I don't care. I've learned so much. I've had such a fun time doing this. And yeah, shout out to Corey. He and I are both in our fantasy football championship. If he can just finish up his win this week. So good luck, Corey, and maybe you'll come up and share your story. Thanks, Amp.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: How did you, so how did you meet Corey? Because Corey, he lives in a different paid, right?
[00:38:26] Speaker C: Yeah, he had, he had messaged me on, so it was kind of funny too. He had messaged, 'cause I like my anonymity.
[00:38:31] Speaker L: Yeah.
[00:38:31] Speaker C: He had messaged me on, on X or Twitter, I think it was Twitter at the time. And he said, are you a pharmacist? And I said, yeah. And he got, you know, asked me where I worked, what my name was. I said, I don't feel comfortable, you know, telling you all that. I kind of like to keep it private.
[00:38:42] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:38:43] Speaker C: And then I, and I started reading his tweets. I'm like, this is a pretty funny guy. So we started talking, exchanged phone numbers, play Call of Duty. We used to play Call of Duty together. I invited him to my fantasy football league. We, we text all the time. He's a, he's a really great guy. Super cool. And so, It'll be cool if 2 pharmacists can make it outta that life.
[00:38:59] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: No, I, I, I refer to you guys as a, as a pharmacist, so.
[00:39:04] Speaker C: Yeah, you guys got it covered for sure. But again, Amp, thank you for everything you guys do. You, you spend a lot of time on this and it always, you always seem to do a space when I'm working like the tail end of a shift. So it's perfect. It's like when I'm, when I'm ass tired, you come on and I get this bolt of energy. So it's great.
[00:39:20] Speaker A: Well, I'm, I'm glad I can provide some entertainment.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks again for having me. I appreciate it.
[00:39:26] Speaker A: Well, there's a few other people, but I, since Corey's up, maybe, I guess this is an easy segue. Corey, did you, are you there?
[00:39:33] Speaker O: Hey, what's going on?
[00:39:36] Speaker A: Hey, first time hearing you live.
[00:39:38] Speaker O: Sorry, I'm a little sick too.
[00:39:40] Speaker E: You are?
[00:39:41] Speaker A: Well, yeah, but maybe you can start off by telling people if they haven't seen your WallStreetBets like video.
[00:39:50] Speaker J: I mean, you can tell me.
[00:39:51] Speaker G: Yes.
[00:39:51] Speaker O: So, uh, and first I just want to clear— I do want to clarify, I only messaged FarmDass. I'm going to call him FarmDass, but only for feet pics. But he didn't, he didn't cooperate. So, but, uh, but yeah, so, uh, I don't know if people have seen the WallStreetBets video. I didn't— I had no, no association with it.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: I actually got messaged from one of the space mob members because, um, I mean, for those that don't know, there's this— and I, I'll dig it up and I'll, I'll, I'll tweet it again— but there's like this really long— I don't know what kind of show it is, but they did.
[00:40:20] Speaker O: I'll— yeah, I'll make it quick because it's like a roller coaster. So essentially, I've always been a WallStreetBets degen. Everyone plans on or wants to, you know, become a multimillionaire off of a stock. They want to find the next Nvidia. They want to find the next Apple. So, you know, I've got— you know, I was in Bed Bath Beyond, thought I could make some money on that, wound up losing $40,000, was in Bitcoin, all this stuff. So Essentially, what I did is I maxed out my credit cards, $60,000, which I don't advise people doing. And then, I originally started buying Bitcoin in April of 2022, I believe. I bought a total of 3 Bitcoin using $60,000 from credit card loans that I was paying around $3,000 a month in payments. So, I had to pick up shifts, work extra days, all this crazy stuff that I don't advise to do.
[00:41:18] Speaker A: You had just graduated from pharmacy school, right?
[00:41:22] Speaker O: I actually, I graduated in 2017, so I've been trying to make it out of pharmacy the day I graduated because it's, you know, it's, it's pretty boring, pretty monotonous. It's not that glamorous as, as Farm Arizona says. So I've been trying to get out of the rat race ever since. So, I was just driving down the road one day. I'm like, I need to be a little bit more risky with my bets because if I dollar-cost average into the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, I'll never do it. And that's when I had an epiphany like, well, I'm just going to try and use leverage and see if that'll speed things up. Well, I got involved with Bitcoin. As soon as I started buying into that, it tanked. I mean, I'm sure people remember, I think it was June of '22, it tanked down to like $15,000 and I had just put like almost $100,000 into this. So, and I'm still making payments. I'm feeling like shit. I'm like, what have I done? Like, I've just set myself back, you know, I don't know how many years. And that's also when Bed Bath Beyond, I think, was going on as well. So, I got involved with both Bitcoin at the lows, Bed Bath Beyond when it hit bankruptcy. So, I was like in a really crazy space.
[00:42:38] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:42:39] Speaker O: I actually found out about ASTS from just browsing WallStreetBets one night, trying to make my money back off of all of these stupid plays that I have done. So I'm like, there's surely got to be another way to like another play. So I browsed and there's this— and you know how many crappy posts and terrible like takes there are on WallStreetBets. And I just stumbled across this meme. I think it was like Interstellar.
[00:43:05] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:43:06] Speaker I: Yes.
[00:43:06] Speaker O: Where, uh, it said like this one small maneuver is going to set me back, you know, I don't know, 65 years or whatever it is. So I was like, what is this stock? ASTS? Well, that led me—
[00:43:18] Speaker C: was that—
[00:43:18] Speaker H: I think—
[00:43:19] Speaker O: I don't know if you did the meme or someone—
[00:43:21] Speaker A: Somebody else did, but it was like this, this, uh, this maneuver is going to set back my retirement account by 70 years.
[00:43:26] Speaker G: Exactly.
[00:43:27] Speaker O: So I'm like, well, I'm already set back, you know, 10 years, what's another 65, right? So So it led me down to ASTS and the subreddit. Well, then I start digging deeper and reading the Cook Report and reading your due diligence. I think you had made a post on the subreddit, and that's when there was only like 5,000 users, maybe less than that. I read it, and I'm like, this is too good to be true. This is the next big thing. Like, how is no one involved in this? And this was right when they were about to launch Blue Walker 3. I think it was $10 a share or something like that. So I used the little money that I had, bought 2,500 shares. As soon as they launched the satellite, the stock tanked.
[00:44:08] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:44:09] Speaker O: And I was like, you gotta be kidding me. So I mean, I was just like, well, I'm in it, so whatever. The next year went around, you know, I think someone else mentioned they announced the Google thing. I was super excited for one minute and then they did the dilution again. So I was like, You know, um, and then in April during the business update, they announced the delay. I remember like it was yesterday your post saying, hey, I'm sorry everyone for losing money, that's on me. And I'm not gonna lie, I sold out of my 25, uh, shares or 2,500 shares at the time.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:42] Speaker O: And yeah, and I was like, well, I'm just gonna cut it. But then I had like this really crazy gut feeling like if this takes off I would never live— be able to live with myself because I had spent almost 2 years, you know, researching Katzy's due diligence, Cook's daily updates, your daily due diligence, all this stuff. And I knew there was something there because Katzy kept pushing information. I remember like he was getting, uh, satellite— or I'm sorry, uh, frequencies from the FirstNet usage satellites. Crazy stuff. So I'm like, well, you know what, I'm just I'm just going to do it. So funny thing happened. I sold my Bitcoin. So the Bitcoin finally took off. It finally hit like this stop limit. I got stopped out of my Bitcoin, felt terrible, but I was like, well, you know what? I'm going to move it all to ASTS and the rest is history.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: So did you buy back? What price was that?
[00:45:36] Speaker O: I actually went all in around $2.50 or something like that. So, um, yeah, and then just held. And, you know, with your due diligence and Katzi and Cook and Kevin Chen and everyone now, it's just like, this is a once-in-a-lifetime stock. Um, this is not something to trade. This is something you buy, forget about, and don't think about it because I think it is the next Nvidia, next Apple, next Amazon. Don't touch it. Um, like RMA said, we are so early. It's pretty amazing how lucky we are to be able to find this. And for me to find it on a whim of a meme is just incredible. You know what I mean? And then I know of all the stories, I'm sure you've heard them, they're all on Reddit, how people sold at the bottom, never got a chance to buy back in.
[00:46:25] Speaker I: Yeah.
[00:46:25] Speaker O: And they got priced out. So yeah, it's just, we're so lucky to be in this position. And I've messaged you many times. I just want to say thank you for changing my life because, I mean, it's unreal now. It's moved retirement up to many, many years now and we're just so early in the process. So, I want to thank you guys. But yeah, this is a great community and hopefully someone else could share their story. But shout-out to Farm Arizona as well. He's a great guy. I've met a whole bunch of people. Can't wait to meet everyone at the Cape as well. So, hopefully everyone can make it too.
[00:47:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I, I think, um, Corey, you met up with Tut before too, right?
[00:47:07] Speaker O: I did meet up with Tut. Tut is a cool dude. He's actually, he's actually a mummy. He's actually a mummy.
[00:47:13] Speaker A: You guys are out, out, and then, uh, you guys almost got shot or something, right?
[00:47:17] Speaker O: We almost got shot, but, uh, we are good. We were in the bad parts of town, but, uh, we survived to live another day. And, uh, yeah, he's a really cool dude. Cool, down to earth, much cool. You know, he's The man. So everyone, everyone's awesome. Um, but yeah, like, it's been a great ride. And you know, there's no more, uh, how's your little space stock doing? I've tried pitching it and I was made fun of. I was written off. And now people will text me out of the blue, are you still holding?
[00:47:45] Speaker K: Are you still holding?
[00:47:46] Speaker O: And you know, I've been like, yeah, yeah, I haven't sold. So, but, uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's been unreal. Uh, never in a million years would I have Thought this would ever happen to me because everyone wants to be the Wall Street bets, you know, or wants to find that winner early, you know. And we we basically have we have the the golden ticket, and you just got to hold on to it.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: So well, yeah, thanks for sharing, man. Yeah, it's thank you. If you could post post your the video, so people could watch it. It's quite entertaining. I'm like, I'm asking lucky. I I will say. Maybe it was like 2021, 2022. I remember at that time, Kook and I were talking amongst a few other people and we were doing our darndest to try to get more people exposed to AST. And of course, like we made some pretty funny posts on WallStreetBets and we posted positions, did all kinds of stupid things just to try to get like people aware. And then of course people would be like, oh, you guys are pumping. pumping and dumping. It's like, uh, okay, I guess technically we are pumping, but we're not dumping.
[00:48:53] Speaker H: If anything—
[00:48:53] Speaker O: Oh, but the funny thing is now if you try to put the ASTS ticker on WallStreetBets, they won't let you. It's automatically banned. So they group it as a meme stock, which is insane. So if you ever go there, no one can even post their gains. You know, it's still under— I mean, it's, I guess, the most talked about ticker still, but if you try to post gains or things like that, they won't let you.
[00:49:15] Speaker A: So yeah, we had to navigate back then we had to navigate like all these overzealous mods who you had to like be friends with them and then you had to convince them to keep your post up. And then after a while, like I think in 2023, we just kind of gave up on that. But it was, but yeah, we did our best to try to educate people on the name and from time to time, and even to this day, like there's people who post about it. there. But, um, but that is fine. I mean, at least it worked. It got you, or somebody got you.
[00:49:47] Speaker O: Well, and then there was times in the ASTS subreddit, peep, there was so little people there in the chat that you would reply to your own comment. Like, you know, then now it's like, you know, up to 1,000 comments a day. So the, the story has definitely changed. So, but I'll let someone else talk. I don't wanna keep running and rambling. So, but I appreciate you, man. Thank you so much, man.
[00:50:05] Speaker M: Um, thanks, man.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: Let's see. I know Maybe William, do you want to go next? You've been waiting patiently.
[00:50:11] Speaker J: Hey, yeah.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: How's it going?
[00:50:14] Speaker K: What's up?
[00:50:14] Speaker E: Can you hear me?
[00:50:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we can hear you.
[00:50:16] Speaker K: Awesome. Thanks for doing this. Great stories. I'll keep it brief, but I'm a physician in my first few years of my career.
[00:50:26] Speaker A: We got quite a few of you.
[00:50:27] Speaker K: And yeah, I don't know how that happened. I stay away from medically related stocks, so this has been a blessing. But yeah, most of my time holding AST's been during my training.
[00:50:42] Speaker E: Mm-hmm.
[00:50:43] Speaker K: Before medical school, I was a receptionist and I put all my savings in Tesla and then started medical school holding onto that rather than paying off my student loan debt. And then by the time I graduated, it was the SPAC mania. And then I, I put all, all that into ASTS.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: Um, well, you weren't— and so the great thing about medical—
[00:51:10] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:51:12] Speaker A: So you, you were pretty active back then, I assume.
[00:51:14] Speaker K: Um, uh, more than I should have been.
[00:51:18] Speaker H: Yeah.
[00:51:19] Speaker K: Yeah. I, I would say, but yeah. Um, yeah, the medical training is, is busy and that was great because AST was $2 when I was the busiest. So I just didn't check my account, which is what the right thing to do was at that time.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:51:45] Speaker K: So yeah, my, and, and Yeah. And then I kind of was all in at warrants at the lowest point and then rolled into common stock and LEAPS and, and yeah, because being in medicine, my income has increased. I always kind of treated this as like a call option on life and Um, it was great if it worked out and if not, uh, that was gonna be fine too. But the great benefit of this has been, now that it has worked out, I've been able to be a little more flexible with what I choose to do with my life.
[00:52:34] Speaker A: Um, that's great.
[00:52:36] Speaker K: And so there, yeah.
[00:52:39] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:52:40] Speaker K: I, um, and so I won't go into specifics, but I, I changed my job a month or two ago because of the financial circumstances. My account's now over a million, and that's given me a lot more flexibility with my student loans and whatnot. But yeah, now I'm at a point where I can focus on impact and Looking for opportunities where I can do things in my career that will help people that might be more impactful than just working day to day as a physician as I was. But yeah, and that's been a cool thing that I've seen other people do in the space mob, you know, rallying around, you know, someone who experienced an unfortunate injury and Gavin.
[00:53:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:42] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:53:42] Speaker K: Yes. Gavin. So yeah, I felt moved by that and I hope to pay it forward in however I can. And I'm sure a lot of us will keep doing things like that.
[00:53:59] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:54:01] Speaker A: Well, thanks. Thanks for sharing.
[00:54:02] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:54:02] Speaker A: It's I will say that when I was growing up, my parents were friends with many doctors, and I guess doctors are notorious for making bad investments because they're always busy with their profession. And then, you know, they would make investments here and there, but not really keep track of it. And then, you know, over time, I guess the record would be somewhat spotty, but it sounds like you made a good bet. And so that's, I remember talking to people back in 2021 who were, I guess they were skeptical about it and it's like, well, you don't really need to invest that much. You just treat, like you were saying, treat it as a call option and invest some money. And if they really, if AST does hit what we think it will, then a small bit of investment will go a long way. So it's really cool to hear that it worked out for you.
[00:54:56] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:54:58] Speaker K: Yeah. And it's all because of the work that you and Kuk have done. Yeah. And I haven't, I don't know if I'm just not convincing or other people have convinced a lot more people to jump on board, but maybe we're all just too busy to make sense of investments. I don't know why we've bad luck.
[00:55:22] Speaker A: Well, I will say, I've mentioned this before, but it's like people in real life don't know who I am. And so I have not fooled, I mean, my family, I've gotten invested and then maybe like 2 or 3 people at most. But beyond that, I always viewed it as, oh, well, I'm this anonymous figure who's bringing awareness. So that's probably good enough because I think in real life, And farmed as I think for, if you do that in real life, that comes with a lot of responsibility and it's like, yeah, for sure. I don't know if I want to sign up for that because I clearly, I joke about it with my wife about how, and I was talking to this journalist recently about it. It's like in 2023, 2022, it was probably difficult for people to show up to Thanksgiving. 'Cause it's like, oh, that guy's scary. He's the one who got me in this stock. And then of course, 2024, 2023, it's like, hey, thank goodness, you know, where you could have been failing out at all.
[00:56:28] Speaker K: Yeah, I did get a couple family members to buy around $6 before it went down to $2.
[00:56:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:56:35] Speaker M: Did they hold?
[00:56:35] Speaker K: And they did, fortunately. I was just like, just wait and Now I feel vindicated.
[00:56:43] Speaker A: So that's good.
[00:56:47] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:56:48] Speaker A: So, well, cool. Thanks for coming up and sharing.
[00:56:50] Speaker L: Appreciate it.
[00:56:51] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:56:52] Speaker K: Thanks for doing this.
[00:56:53] Speaker H: Awesome.
[00:56:54] Speaker A: Um, let me see who else is there. Who's up here? There's a few people who keep going in and out. Um, let's see, what do we, how about Just Another Nurse? Do you want to speak?
[00:57:07] Speaker M: Hey, man, how's it going?
[00:57:08] Speaker F: Good. How are you?
[00:57:09] Speaker M: Oh, amazing. And this is so cool hearing such a, like, a diverse cross-section of investors and like where everybody's coming from. So thank you for putting this on. And yeah, and I have 2 things specifically I want to thank you on, but I'm going to hold off on that until I get to where it was in my story. But yeah, I got— so when I was much younger, I was a nerd who went to space camp. Always been totally interested in—
[00:57:33] Speaker A: You went to space camp in high school?
[00:57:36] Speaker M: Heck yeah. Space Camp, Space Academy Level 1, Space Academy Level 2. And the— I was gonna be an astronaut, but then ended up in the medical field and as a nurse, obviously. And the fast forward to COVID coming around, and I had gotten into options trading. And I remember seeing everything developing with COVID and realizing that it's gonna be very impactful.
[00:58:02] Speaker N: Yeah.
[00:58:03] Speaker M: And so I started putting shorts on, on SPY, you know, that week before when the market was still doing great. And I'm like, something's wrong here.
[00:58:13] Speaker A: So you and I had the same trade on then.
[00:58:14] Speaker M: Yeah, well, we might have, but then I kept it on too long and I didn't understand that Fed pivot. And then it was like that, the South Park meme, and it's gone. So fast forward a couple, yeah, to 2022, and, um, the, the SPAC craze had come through. And, um, I, I decided, hey, I'm going to apply this knowledge that I've built up over my life in terms of, you know, space and my, you know, my, my interest in it. And I chose 3 stocks, um, that I wanted to get into. Um, Rocket Lab was one, um, Astra was one, and—
[00:58:53] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:58:54] Speaker M: Um, yeah, uh, if I knew he was eating lead paint, I would not have done that. And then AST. And so how I— but I invested in AST using call options and they were not long enough dated and they just bled away as, as I watched, you know, more and more dilution come.
[00:59:11] Speaker I: Right.
[00:59:11] Speaker M: And I completely capitulated and I was like, oh, I'm done with this. And so then fast forward to I've changed jobs, I rolled over my 401 into an IRA and I'm making up my investments and I take a look back at AST. I'm like, oh, it's down to $2. That rains. I'm like, that's pretty much like a call option.
[00:59:31] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:59:31] Speaker M: And, you know, I still believe in the technology. I believed in the mission, you know, in reading up on everything online and everything still looked like it could work. And so I started buying shares and then I started looking at the call options again. And I distinctly remember there were, and I was like, okay, this time I'm doing longer dated call options, right? So I was looking out, you know, 9 months or a year and I was picking up $5 call options for 5 cents. and 5 to 10 cents.
[00:59:57] Speaker D: Oh, nice.
[00:59:58] Speaker M: And so, yep. So I, I bought a couple hundred of those right before, um, you know, before the pivot. And, um, then I rolled, uh, the $10 options and $20 options and then rolled up again to $40. And yeah, I mean, the ride has just been insane. And now I'm in a position that I, I have generational wealth, and it is because of you know, this community that's around here that has formed around a company at a time where we were so lucky to be able to invest in a company that normally would've not been public.
[01:00:36] Speaker C: That's right.
[01:00:37] Speaker M: And it just happens to have been that confluence of COVID and all that money pushing in and allowing these SPACs to occur and giving us that opportunity to get in. And so I wanna Fast forward to the 2 things that I specifically want to thank you on. Um, one is when you were describing, um, it was one of the convertible, um, bond offerings that came out, and you were describing about how this was a good thing for the company. And, um, you know, it's bringing in new investors but in a different way. And that really clicked a light bulb in my head. Um, and I, and I really switched from, you know, regretting the dilution that was occurring there to to embracing it and realizing that this was the next step that the company needs to take. And then also recently, when you had mentioned about how it's okay to, you know, to take some profits as you're, as you're riding up and to, you know, apply each situation to where we're at. So, you know, I was able to, you know, internalize that, kind of look at where my, my positions were. And I mean, now I'm in, I've been able to move some money off, you know, into more rational investments that, you know, provides a retirement, you know, for, for me and my family, you know. And, but now I'm all— and then I was also able to, you know, load back up in. I'm, I'm heavy long now. So I'm very much looking forward to, you know, what we have happen on the, you know, in the next couple months and over this next year. I think this year is going to be pivotal. I think this year is going to be transformational. I'm fully convinced that by the end of 2026, that, I mean, we are just all going to be looking back and going, wow, You know, what did we just watch? And yeah, I mean, it is, this has been life-changing and, you know, I'm thankful for, you know, all of the elders, as I say, you know, the ones that have been there for a while and for Steve, you know? I mean, man, this has been such a ride. So yeah, that's what I got, man.
[01:02:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. It does feel surreal at times. And I've talked about this whole idea that it is a very unique and special moment in time. Like you said, it was a confluence of COVID the Fed pumping liquidity into markets, and then these like early-stage companies with grand ideas. I mean, obviously a decent amount of those were not good ideas or companies that shouldn't have gone public, but out of that whole basket of companies, AST SpaceMobile arose and went public probably 4 years ahead of when it should have. And then we as retail investors got to become venture investors and see how the sausage was being made and had the ups and downs. And then here we are. And I don't think, you know, sometimes people, I mean, there are obviously like a few lucky people who show up as investors right behind the ear at $2, they buy and then Perhaps maybe they held to some extent, but I think building that conviction and going through having to have that level of due diligence and reminding yourself during the difficult times of why you own the stock then galvanizes like your ability to hold it all the way through, even to $100 or $77. And as I mentioned before, which you pointed out too, it's like you do have to look at Like when you make generational wealth or multiple times of your net wealth or what you had before, it always does make sense to take some down, right? Because I think financially that's a responsible thing to do. And then it also helps you ride the rest because you basically have chalked up a win and you've set aside that money. And so I think there's quite a few of you guys that I've spoken to who have done that. And so when you have a drawdown, of 30, 40%, which is typical for growth stocks, you feel fine because you're like, oh, well, I did sell some at whatever level and I'm okay with this volatility. And so yeah, thanks for sharing. I think that it's great to hear that you have done well and you're reloaded because I think I agree with you, 2026, I mean, just the backdrop for space stocks and then I think in particular for AST, given that we're about to launch Commercial Service and there's a whole, I mean, I, the fact that Scott tweeted a meme for the first time, I think that tells you something that there's quite a bit of exciting stuff coming and it's not just going to be launch. I think there's going to be some other things. So, but yeah, thanks for coming. I really appreciate it.
[01:05:16] Speaker M: Yeah, awesome, man.
[01:05:18] Speaker J: Thanks. Let's see.
[01:05:21] Speaker A: Let's see who, Let me just look at the people who are up here. There's one guy who keeps going up and down, but let's see, Jagaloon, do you want to come up and speak?
[01:05:31] Speaker H: Sure.
[01:05:34] Speaker E: All right.
[01:05:34] Speaker F: Thanks for having me on. Can you hear me fine?
[01:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we can hear you.
[01:05:39] Speaker F: Okay, awesome. Well, you know, I ramble a lot, so I was going to say this before I forget. It's very therapeutic rambling. But yeah, first off, just want to thank you for For you know these past five years, I mean you've just been a complete rock and all the stuff that you do. I mean what time is it? So eleven o'clock in New York right now, and you know you have the time to do this. So thank you for all that. You know I have a pretty similar story to other guys have gone on, so I don't I won't go in too much. But I basically got involved back in 2020. You know this is everybody knows. back in the SPAC craze. Um, so I had played around, like there's some that went really well, um, you know, and that I was able to accumulate some capital with that. And then when I saw ASTS come out, you know, this was really intriguing. I saw your DD, I saw Spactori's DD, you know, it's a shame. I don't know.
[01:06:34] Speaker A: I don't know Spactori, by the way. I don't know where that guy went.
[01:06:37] Speaker F: Yeah. I don't know why he just disappeared. Like he was, you know, he had a really great thought process. Um, you know, he had a lot of background with space, but, um, yeah, so I saw that and, you know, similar to William, you know, I was actually a resident. I was, I'm a physician now as a resident in training, which is probably good and bad thing. Um, so I, I basically put everything on the line on ASTS. Um, and I actually, I created this DD document, sent it to my close residency friends and was just like, you know, this is such a great opportunity. You know, companies like this don't come around very often. Like it's like a once in a decade, you know, opportunity, you know, and then fast forward, right? You know, then the interest rates got hiked, you know, the, you know, the stock got destroyed. But, you know, I didn't really have any other great plans at the time. I was just like, you know what? Yeah, I get this time. I'm just going to hold. I still accumulated a little bit, but I mean, it really, you know, it was brutal. I, When we went to family events, because I told everybody about it, you know, it's hard to, you know, face it and be like, how's that? How's your space stock doing? You know, it's like, fuck you. Like, you know, it's like, you know, you know, it's down. But, and then I think the hardest part really was my residency friends. You know, it's just because it's like, you know, you got them involved. So you felt personally responsible. But the stock was down. Um, you know, and they would periodically text me and I'd be like, you know, uh, you know, it doesn't look great, but you know, they'll, they'll be able to pull through. Um, and then I remember that morning, you know, when the Verizon announcement, um, oh yeah. And that was, that was just pretty game-changing. I remember that this was the time, 'cause I, I honestly didn't really open my portfolio much. Like I didn't want to. Um, and then, yeah, so you're tired of that dejection. Yeah, exactly. It's just like, you know, you're already, the stock had been trading at 2, you know, you're already down like 70, 80%. Um, and that's when the time where it's like, okay, you know, like I'm just gonna, this is where like, it seems like a seminal event. So I doubled down basically all of the, um, you know, the capital that I was waiting to use. Um, and then that's kind of, then that's kind of where we're at now. Um, but yeah, I think it's just, it's, you know, I think I had been lurking for a while. I remember too, just seeing after that Verizon news, there's still a slew of bears, surprisingly.
[01:09:03] Speaker A: Uh, you know, come and go. There's always going to be new ones.
[01:09:08] Speaker F: You know, it's like Pivotal Capital seems to be the guy, this guy or that, uh, that other doctor.
[01:09:14] Speaker A: Um, the fake doctor.
[01:09:16] Speaker F: It's totally fake, right? He's like, You know, it's laying his portfolio on the line for $600.
[01:09:22] Speaker A: Meanwhile, we've got like all these doctors and healthcare professionals amongst our investors, which by the way, like the fact that there are so many of you, I didn't realize like doctors and pharmacy folks and nurses are all degens.
[01:09:36] Speaker F: Oh yeah, we are. Because we, this is our only hope. You know, if you, if you actually like think 5, 10 years ahead, like, you know, like if you're in the healthcare profession, Like, excuse my language, like you're kind of screwed if you look at how the everything's going. So it's like, this is your greatest hedge, you know, for finding like unique companies like this. You know, you, you, you think about it like it's, this is really what I respect about Cook is like, you think about a business owner, basically you get to own, you know, a percentage of the company and then they're slaving away. They're doing such great work and you benefit.
[01:10:09] Speaker H: Um, right.
[01:10:11] Speaker A: That's right.
[01:10:12] Speaker F: Um, and so it's like, it's really hard to find that opportunity in healthcare, but, um, yeah, but that's my story. I mean, I, I created an account when I, you know, after I just, you know, I know you guys have done so much work, so I was like, you know, let me try to pitch in and do my part. You know, it pales in comparison to everything that you guys have done, but that's my story. And I just really wanted to kind of get up here and thank all of you guys because the community is so strong thanks to your leadership. To Cooks, to Todd, to Kevin. I mean, there's so many people I could probably name for the next like two minutes, and I don't want them to want them to get the credit too. But it's such a great community. It's such a you know great seminal time for all of us. So I'm just excited and just want to thank you guys all for for everything that you've done and excited for this journey.
[01:11:04] Speaker A: Yeah, and I think it's important to point out like. community is important to us. 'Cause I don't think, for example, for Kook, like having that weekly space is actually therapeutic for him and it actually brings his thought process into focus 'cause he actually, he has to put together this weekly, which takes a lot of time.
[01:11:26] Speaker O: Oh yeah.
[01:11:27] Speaker A: And so it helps him re-underwrite the investment and it's a reminder. And so I think I think for all of us, like just having people around that you can, you know, you have this common interest, this investment, and you can talk about it. Like there's no way I would've held the stock all the way through these years if it was just me, you know, and disconnected from everyone else.
[01:11:50] Speaker E: Oh, for sure.
[01:11:51] Speaker A: I would've gone crazy. I think so. So I think, yeah, no, I think it's a testament to how strong the community is and just you know, when, when you say thank you, it's, it's also people saying thank you to you as well. So, um, so yeah, thanks for coming out.
[01:12:06] Speaker K: Appreciate it.
[01:12:06] Speaker N: Yeah, absolutely.
[01:12:08] Speaker F: Well, thanks again. All right, have a good night, Andrew.
[01:12:09] Speaker A: Yeah, take care. Uh, let's see, Dog Days, do you want to speak next? Is Dog Days ready?
[01:12:17] Speaker E: Uh, sure, sure. Can you hear me all right?
[01:12:19] Speaker A: Can you hear me?
[01:12:21] Speaker E: Okay, okay, awesome. Yeah, so actually, um, yeah, I've got— this is, uh, I'm kind of following on that. This is more like a therapy session for me.
[01:12:29] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah.
[01:12:30] Speaker E: Because I was buying in June of '21 and I think I had some NPA, but then, you know, eventually started buying more, you know, after the de-SPAC. But so yeah, it's a long history. So I'm older than a lot of the people on this that I keep watching on Twitter and seeing things that are happening. I spent 30 years working for a company doing worldwide operations planning for manufacturing distribution. Happens to be the company that started Silicon Valley. And so for 30 years, I was, you know, I wasn't an investor. I was just, you know, putting money into my 401 year after year after year, working as, you know, selling my soul, if you will, the corporate world. Yeah, I hear you. And then in 2007, I just decided, you know what, I've got to do something different. So I started my— left and started my own business. I was there 31 years, started my own business doing fine art printing on aluminum. So it's just one of the artwork type stuff. And so I had all my money in a 401 and moved it to a Roth IRA. And I had knew nothing about investing. and started, you know, first I just bought things like Apple, Google, Amazon, you know, I just, all the big names. And that worked really well for a while.
[01:13:56] Speaker F: Right.
[01:13:56] Speaker E: And then I decided, oh, you know, I should really learn and try to do this on my own. And that's when I learned I'm just terrible at investing. I would tell people, you know, just don't buy what I buy because all my 30 years' worth of savings were up and down. And I think I must have lost it 2 or 3 times. And then I, with the SPACs, I just, you know, I bought a bunch of SPACs and in the end, this AST is the only one I've kept.
[01:14:23] Speaker A: Good choice.
[01:14:23] Speaker E: And I started again, again, I would say, I can't remember whose name I saw first, but I remember Steve Larson very clearly was one of the first people that I followed religiously. And I remember him saying at one point, you know, the more I look into this, the more I think this is going to work. And there were 2 or 3 people, I think yourself and Katzi, and eventually you start connecting. And I was not a big Twitter guy, so I had a Twitter account that I just changed my name. I had my same face, my same dog face, but I took my name off. I thought, well, I should probably not put out there—
[01:15:00] Speaker K: Right.
[01:15:00] Speaker E: Now that I'm going to be a multimillionaire, how much you know what my name is. So I, then I put AZ in my name after talking to Farm DAZ because I'm building a retirement home now.
[01:15:13] Speaker A: Oh, nice.
[01:15:13] Speaker E: In Arizona.
[01:15:14] Speaker K: Yeah.
[01:15:16] Speaker E: So anyway, after all that year, I was losing money, losing money, losing money, and all that investment at one point as the stock was going down. So I bought it 10, then bought it 11, bought it 12. I think I bought it probably 10 again. I thought, oh, and I kept selling all my other stocks that I had bought that were losers. You know, I had a bunch of stuff and the market was going down and I had invested in green energy and the next battery and all this stuff that, you know, takes forever and never happened. And so as all those were dropping, I said, well, I'm just going to keep buying AST because in my mind, what really locked it in my head is I said, I have to quit chasing shiny objects. And 5G to me, you know, and the internet seemed to me to be, you know, key in the future of everything, no matter what it is, autonomous cars or whatever. And so I, that's what kind of locked me in. I said, I'm going to quit chasing shiny objects. And I just kept buying AST. I, and I was selling everything else and it was, I was buying at 8 and 7 and 6 and 5. And 4 and maybe 3. And then I was out of money. I mean, I had bought everything.
[01:16:31] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:16:32] Speaker E: And then it just kept dropping and I had no more money and it kept going lower. But I was so much of a believer and I didn't know what else I could invest. So what I did is I said, well, I have a job, I have income, I can pay taxes. So all those years of investing was now only worth $80,000. So I moved it all from my traditional IRA over at the end of '23 and early '24 into my Roth.
[01:16:59] Speaker A: Oh, that was smart.
[01:17:00] Speaker E: So I converted, you know, 40,000 shares into my Roth IRA because my average then was like $3.14 that I paid taxes on. And I said, okay, I don't have a lot of any more money to spend, but I can do this because taxes will be delayed a year. So I was just some in '23, some in '24, and I was able to cover that. And so that was kind of the foundation. And to be honest, when I had my life savings was down to $80,000, I thought, how am I going to tell my wife? She has no idea.
[01:17:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:17:41] Speaker H: You don't tell her.
[01:17:43] Speaker E: That's it. You know when she found out? At the launch. I tell you what, I don't know if anybody else, you know, I did a lot of praying over all this. Oh, dude, everybody, I don't know, everybody did. A lot of prayer. And I, and so when I, I was in Bend, Oregon, you know, we were doing a weekend away when I got the invite to go to the launch. And I tell you, man, I cried. I, it was, it was just a great moment. Yeah. So my wife did not know about this investment. Until we were at the launch and she was incredibly impressed with the entire event. It was the coolest thing. So then I came clean. And then, so, you know, obviously then it, you know, it took off and things went well. And within, I don't know, within maybe, was it maybe 4 or 5, 6 months, that $80,000 was like $1.5 million. And I thought, okay, I can breathe again. And then once I really felt that commitment and de-risking, then we took my wife's entire 401. She was an RN, emergency room nurse, and we put all of that in.
[01:18:54] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[01:18:55] Speaker E: And so we have been 100% invested in ASTS through all of this. So a lot of gut-wrenching. That's why I say truly, I thank everybody because this true. All the watching on Twitter, all the Kook Weeklies, it really truly is all therapy.
[01:19:14] Speaker I: Yeah.
[01:19:14] Speaker E: It really is. I mean, it's like, how do you— there's just no way to put a monetary value on all of that, all that time, all that therapy. And I do have about 10 people that at least that have— and I was well into, hey, it's already doing well before I even talked to anybody because I was such a lousy investor. But now everybody's excited. Yeah. So that's a good thing.
[01:19:44] Speaker F: Wow.
[01:19:45] Speaker A: That's a crazy story.
[01:19:46] Speaker E: And because I brought my wife to the event, I didn't go looking for anybody to say hi or introduce myself because I just wanted to experience this with my wife.
[01:19:57] Speaker A: Oh, that's great.
[01:19:57] Speaker E: But I'm hoping to make a future lunch. And actually get to meet people. And I was telling Farm Daz, you know, I think I'm building a home only about maybe an hour and a half from where he's at. Maybe you can get an atlas as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe on my butt. I don't know.
[01:20:18] Speaker K: We'll see.
[01:20:20] Speaker E: No, no, that's— I'm sorry, that crooks.
[01:20:21] Speaker A: You can just do a bluebird and And write Kook Bottom on it.
[01:20:26] Speaker E: Yeah, I did. I did post a little leather key tray that a friend of mine— I had a friend of mine make that had the satellite pic and Space Bob across it, but I wasn't sure how to get the rights to do it. See, I was gonna have, you know, him make those available for people, but I just didn't push through with that because everybody's so busy. Anyway, that's kind of my story. I'm very excited. Yeah, I've never thought I'd ever have this kind of money ever, and we haven't even started. That's the real craziness of it.
[01:21:01] Speaker M: Yeah, yeah.
[01:21:02] Speaker A: No, I agree with you. I mean, I think this year is going to surprise folks and we're just kind of getting an inkling of the potential. And so, but yeah, that's an amazing story and you have some really, really great timing on converting to the Roth. But yeah, I will say like if we get to these, you know, stratospheric levels in 2026, do take something down eventually at whatever makes you comfortable.
[01:21:35] Speaker L: But—
[01:21:36] Speaker E: I actually did sell some of this.
[01:21:39] Speaker A: Okay, good.
[01:21:40] Speaker E: Because after talking and truly I had now some money to put down on this home that we're building in Arizona. And I have to come up with the rest of the down payment about the 1st of April. So now I'm watching and I have 4,148 shares that were in the Roth prior to the conversion that I can sell without impacting or having taxes on. And my accountant said, no, keep your other traditional IRA. Don't sell that yet. Do it a little bit at a time so you don't get taxed as much.
[01:22:13] Speaker H: Right.
[01:22:14] Speaker E: So I'm just waiting, hoping it hits maybe $150,000 and then that'll get, that'll give me enough to put the down payment for the, for the new big house.
[01:22:23] Speaker A: So yeah, be, be honest with yourself. You set goals, like you gotta stick with them.
[01:22:27] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:22:28] Speaker A: Does your, does your accountant think you're crazy?
[01:22:29] Speaker E: You know what? My, my bookkeeper who does the bookkeeping for my company was in the meeting and I told Well, actually he said once I told him I converted at $3.14 and today it's at $35, he said, that's probably good news. But my bookkeeper went back and told her husband and he's invested. So he's one of the people that, all those people that have learned from, I'm always just kind of about every few weeks I'll send them a tickler from a screenshot from a tweet that's you know, states, uh, you know, just the big stuff that's happening. Just to keep them— I do, I, I do feel, um, uh, well, I don't want to say guilty. I feel responsible. Um, but a lot of those people I told, you know, was way back at $12. So, you know, if they can't handle the volatility, they can go ahead and get out. But right, uh, I, I do keep sending family, friends and family, a little tickler. Well, cool.
[01:23:32] Speaker A: Well, thanks, thanks, Doug. Yeah, that's a great, great story. And yeah, I'm happy for you, you and your wife, and look forward to seeing you guys in Florida.
[01:23:43] Speaker E: Yeah, I'm hoping, I'm hoping I may be doing a knee surgery about that or knee replacement about the time the next launch happens. So I may miss that one, but in the future I will.
[01:23:56] Speaker A: There are going to be a lot of them. So there will, so we might, we, I was joking with some friends, it's like maybe we should just buy a house down there, just stay there because we're going to be down there so often.
[01:24:06] Speaker E: Well, I even wanted to go to the Waffle House, but I, again, I didn't want to leave my wife. It was like this, with this event was an important, important time for us. And so it's like, gosh, oh well. Anyway, yes, in the future. Cool.
[01:24:22] Speaker A: Well, thanks. Thanks for coming up. And give your wife our best.
[01:24:25] Speaker E: I will.
[01:24:28] Speaker K: Thank you.
[01:24:28] Speaker A: All right, let's see. We've got, we got Johnny B and Endless. Maybe go on that round. Johnny Bangs, do you want to, you want to come up? Oh, I guess he dropped off. Hey, Endless, how's it going?
[01:24:44] Speaker H: What's going on, man? Nice to meet for, well, nice to speak for the first time directly. So, I mean, you know my story. So, I mean, excuse me if I cough at all during this. I've been sick for the past week. My kids are still 9 and 7, so they bring everything home.
[01:25:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:25:01] Speaker H: And, you know, we were, my wife and I were celebrating tonight with a little wine. So I'll try to keep this as straight and narrow as possible. But you know my story. So, I mean, I've been in the industry 20 years, past 7 or 8 years in private equity. Mostly handling secondary transactions with some primaries and most of the major venture-backed unicorn growth companies. So, you know, I've raised a lot of money for SpaceX. I've bought from some of the— I can't obviously, I'm, you know, still licensed rep and still in the industry and that's why I'm anonymous on Twitter. But, you know, I've bought from some of the major shareholders in SpaceX. I've bought from, you know, some of the longest time investors in the company, and my clients have, you know, accumulated a big position. Um, so, you know, I've been in aerospace for, you know, 7 or 8 years or so following SpaceX and just saw the opportunity, uh, with some of these other companies. So, um, you know, that's why, that's why this company interested me, and that's why, you know, AST, you know, drew my, drew my attention. But, you know, kind of alongside that, over the past 10 years, I've been you know, day trading options as a hobby. Made and lost half a million dollars a few times. Became a Rocket Lab investor as sort of a sympathy kind of investment alongside what I was doing with SpaceX and saw them as a public comp with a lot of upside that was executing well. So, you know, bought some short, some mid, some long-term calls on that company, made a couple million dollars and You know, while this was all happening last summer in 2024, actually, my bank was trying to recruit this guy who owned a broker-dealer down in Texas. And he was one of 7 or 8 guys that sit on the State Investment Committee of Texas, and he was responsible for investing Uh, like a billion dollars a year of the state's money into aerospace companies. And so because of all the work we've done with SpaceX, my chairman was like, you know, why don't you, we're going to have dinner at the Yale Club tonight in New York City. Why don't you, why don't you sit next to this guy, get to know him? You know, we're trying to recruit him, feel him out, see if you can, see if you can entice him to come work for us. And when I met him, that was like literally Within a couple of weeks that ASTS went from, you know, 2 to 39 in those 3 months. And it was like right at the tail end of that. So I, you know, I said to him, you know, have you met the management team of AST SpaceMobile? And, you know, is this all hype or is the technology legitimate? And he basically sat with me and said, no, like he met the team, the technology works. And That's when I started taking it seriously. So I was like, okay, hold on. Like, you know, I know Starlink was acquiring customers. I know, you know, this was a big, this was, this was a, you know, a much bigger thing than people realize, right? The future of national defense, the future of data, the future of telecommunications, it's all coming from satellite. So when this gentleman was like, no, the technology works, it's You know, it's, it's serious. You should, you should learn more about it. And I said, okay, let me take this seriously. So that's when, that's when it kind of hit me. And, you know, for the past year, call it 15 months, I've been trying to educate as many family and friends about the company as I can because I know it's gonna change people's lives. And, you know, obviously disclaimer, this is not financial advice.
[01:28:44] Speaker A: Right.
[01:28:44] Speaker H: Um, but But, you know, I, it literally like everybody I know, I mean, I coach my kids' baseball teams. I tell the parents that I coach their kids, like, you should think about this. You know, like this is something that could change your life in 3 or 4 or 5 years. So like, that's, that's like, I just feel like that's the, I don't know why, but that I just feel like that's, you know, I was, I was fortunate enough to come across this. I'm obviously someone that I stare at the screen, you know, as much as you do.
[01:29:12] Speaker F: Right.
[01:29:12] Speaker H: You know, so we're always posting, you know, as quick as we can when we see new information. Like, that's who I am. I'm in a good trader group of friends that, you know, that do the same thing as well. So, you know, you surround yourself with people that have, you know, like goals in their life and similar aspirations. And you know that to break away from, you know, the everyday grind, you have to take risks and you have to educate yourself on certain things. And it's something that always struck me since I was a kid. I mean, I was a professional poker player for 3 years in between my 20-year financial career as well. So, you know, like always taking risk always came early to me. It's something that always piques my interest. So That's sort of my story. From Rocket Lab, the money that I made there, I kind of said, like, hold on a second. I knew SpaceX had this huge launch company, a huge launch business that was growing. And at the same time, in 2019, they launched their first satellite. And that really didn't become— this is what most people don't get— that didn't become a commercial services business. until 2021. So, you know, Starlink really, you know, is 65% or so of the value of SpaceX, and that's really a 4-year-old business, and it's a trillion dollars in June when they IPO, or July, somewhere around there. So, you know, this is what I keep telling people. If SpaceX can grow Starlink into a trillion-dollar business in 4 years with no really you know, very little MNO, you know, direct-to-device services. Like really, what can this grow to in 4 years? And when, you know, when, you know, a lot of these guys are just like technical analysts and they post charts and they're, you know, putting these price targets out, $150, and they really don't understand much about the company, but they're like, okay, wave 3, gonna go here.
[01:31:17] Speaker L: Right.
[01:31:18] Speaker H: You know, and really I look at that and I kind of like, you know, I kind of smirk when I read that stuff because They don't, I don't know if like, you know, maybe some of them like Reformed Trader, good friend, good guy, knows a lot of stuff about the industry, you know, studies the fundamentals also. He's not just a technical guy, but, but, you know, some of these other guys, they're just posting charts and they don't really know what they're, they're actually looking at.
[01:31:43] Speaker B: Right.
[01:31:44] Speaker A: You know, um, meanwhile, I have a, uh, I have a fractal chart.
[01:31:50] Speaker H: Yeah, but yeah, that, but, but you, but you know more than I do about this business, you know, like, and I'm, I'm in this, you know, again, I, I've, you know, my, the clients that I've introduced, I've introduced 3 strategics to SpaceX that have invested multiple times over the last 5 years. And so they probably own like $4 or $5 billion worth of stock at that IPO price. So, so like, you know, these are, these are guys that are in the business and I've mentioned AST to them. I've said like, are you guys worried about this? Like, You know, you guys, yeah, have you guys taken a look at this? I've said it to them and they don't know.
[01:32:24] Speaker N: Yeah.
[01:32:26] Speaker A: And that's the beauty. Like no one really knows, broadly speaking. It's just, just a few of us.
[01:32:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:32:32] Speaker H: They don't know. They don't, they don't realize they, I don't know if they, and they don't want to know or they just, you know.
[01:32:38] Speaker A: Just a few of us and the top global MNOs and Google, you know, just, just a few of us.
[01:32:46] Speaker H: Right, right. It's not like nobody knows, right? I mean, it's out there. There's big investors behind this, behind AFC Baseball. Well, it's not like they're, you know, coming forward with a bunch of amateur investors. So it's odd to me that it's— there's still not, you know, this kind of adoption. I mean, I posted tonight, I retweeted Scott's, uh, post on it. You know, guy has 8,000 followers. I mean, he's the president of a company that could be a trillion-dollar company in 3 years.
[01:33:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[01:33:11] Speaker B: 4 years.
[01:33:11] Speaker H: You know, why does he have 8,000 followers? I mean, SpaceX has 40 million followers on their Twitter, on their X handle. So, you know, that's how early it is, I feel. And it's just crazy. I mean, and listen, this is not to take anything away from SpaceX or any of the investors that I've put forward to them or anything like that. Like SpaceX will be a huge company, right? It will be a multi-trillion dollar company. Like they're going to do great things. You know, we should be more We should be thinking about SpaceX as more of a partner than anything else, right? Obviously they're launching our satellites for us as well. Like this should not be like a winner take all business, right? There's 1,300 cell tower companies in the world. So, you know, there can't just only be, you can't, there can't just only be one, you know, direct, you know, to device satellite company. There can't, it just shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. It's not good infrastructure. to have one company run everything. So, you know, think of it that way. You know, SpaceX is going to do great. Like, you know, AST can do great too. I mean, everybody, you know, there's plenty of room for both of us.
[01:34:17] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I agree.
[01:34:18] Speaker E: I agree.
[01:34:19] Speaker A: And when SpaceX goes public, you know, this summer, it'll be a huge event and draw more attention. So better for everyone. It'll be good.
[01:34:30] Speaker E: I agree.
[01:34:33] Speaker A: But yeah, man. Absolutely. Yeah, no, thanks for your continued posting on AST. And I think, yeah, it's good. It's also good to get your perspective in regards to SpaceX and as someone who's facilitated a lot of those secondary transactions. But yeah, no, I hope you get better, that you recover from your cold. Yeah, it's I, I have kids that are similar ages and there's some, there's a bunch of stuff going around New York. So, so yeah.
[01:35:03] Speaker L: Yep.
[01:35:03] Speaker A: We're, we're at that time.
[01:35:05] Speaker F: And thanks. Thank you.
[01:35:06] Speaker H: And, and, uh, you know, the OG, uh, ASD guys for, you know, you and Tut and, and TKO and Cook, uh, and Tatsy. And you guys are, I mean, you guys are like, you know, satellite, you, you're, you're, I don't know how much satellite engineering you guys are Are privy with, but I mean, the information that you guys give is really awesome, and there's really no other community like this. There's no other. You know, I've never come across anything that's like this, you know, intuitive. And you know, one thing I said to one of my family members tonight that she was like asking me, like you know, I said to her, with X amount of money that her and her husband put in. You know, I was like, it could be this in 3 years. And she like couldn't believe it. And I said to her, well, you know, Facebook, when Facebook IPO'd, it was a, this is just a poor example, but like when Facebook IPO'd in 2012, it was a $104 billion IPO price. I said, you're investing in a potentially trillion-dollar company. You know, I think they invested at like, I think it was, you know, maybe they invested at like $8 billion when they got in was the valuation. I think they bought like in the in the 20s, right?
[01:36:17] Speaker F: Right.
[01:36:18] Speaker H: Something like that. And I said, you know, you investing in a company that could be a trillion dollars at $8 billion. I said, Facebook IPO'd at $104 billion or whatever it was 13 years ago. So think of it like that. I said, the upside is just ginormous. It's so big. It's like, this is the biggest thing. And then it's not only just the upside, but it's the, you know, you think about the margin profile of this company. It's the margin profile of a Meta, 80% or higher.
[01:36:46] Speaker I: Yeah.
[01:36:46] Speaker H: With the scalability of a Netflix.
[01:36:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty good.
[01:36:51] Speaker H: And, you know, you think about that, the power of that and what multiple do you put on that? You know, is it 50 times sales early on? Is it 100 times sales early on? Because you know the sales are going to grow so much as that subscription growth comes in, you know. So it's like, it's, it could really get crazy. And then you think about that and you think about, you know, you know, ex the 7 or 8 million shares that are held short because of the converts, you think about the other 28 million shares that are still short, you know, you know, speculatively short.
[01:37:30] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:37:30] Speaker H: Like, you know, where could this go when the right headline or the right contract or the right You know, it eventually, to your point, one thing you always say that's, that's, that, you know, it resonates is the puzzle pieces just continue to click into place. And, you know, as those puzzle pieces come into place, you know, that short interest is going to get blown out and those institutions are going to see the value. And really like $24 billion or $25 billion is kind of like a floor when you really think about it. I mean, think about the IP, think about the, the spectrum.
[01:38:01] Speaker G: Yeah.
[01:38:01] Speaker H: You know, you think about the cash on the balance sheet and you think about the certainty of how as these launches continue to happen and as this launch schedule continues to play out, the certainty of those contracts behind those launches is going to get more and more certain.
[01:38:20] Speaker F: Right.
[01:38:20] Speaker H: So the cash flow is getting more and more certain as every one of these launches happen. And so like the market's going to have to start pricing that in. And if you're thinking about the market as a discounting mechanism, 6 months, 9 months out, right? 6 months, 9 months out from now, we'll probably have a FirstNet contract. You know, we'll probably have commercial services in the US. I mean, so, you know, the market has to start discounting that now. And that's why I think we can easily trade to $150 or $250. $150, $250 per share in the near term, and then $250 by that SpaceX IPO, because really it's just a valuation comparison. But the cash flows and the certainty of those cash flows really are the underlying— is the underlying driver of what's going to make the stock hit those levels. It's not, you can't just say, okay, 'cause SpaceX, I say this a lot, I just want to clarify this.
[01:39:16] Speaker F: I say this a lot.
[01:39:17] Speaker H: SpaceX is going to hit $1.5 trillion upon IPO in June or July. Elon's birthday is June 28th. Maybe the IPO June 28th. So SpaceX will hit that $1.5 trillion. You can't just say, okay, AST is going to 3.75x, which is what I said, right? Because that's the, you know, $400 billion to $1.5 trillion is 3.75x. You can't just say, you know, SpaceX is going to hit $1.5 trillion because, you know, uh, in, in June or July. So AST should hit you know, $90 billion, which is 3.75, $24 billion. There has to be a fundamental reason behind that, right? The market's not stupid. The market doesn't just, you know, put fluff valuations on anything. I mean, you know, well, you can, you can be, you know, I mean, I'm saying nothing bad about Palantir, but you could, you could trade 100 times sales with 20% growth. But, you know, if you're, if you're a startup, quote unquote, and you have this huge growth you know, in front of you, really, I mean, you know, you can trade at anything.
[01:40:14] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:40:15] Speaker H: So, you know, there, but there has to be a fundamental, you know, the market has to believe it. There has to be a fundamental basis to that. And the fundamental basis is that those cash flows, if you compare what Starlink has done with 8 million subscribers in 4 or 5 years of commercial services, and you think about the scalability of of AST with their MNO partnerships and how quickly they could get to 8 million. I mean, 8 million could come in a weekend.
[01:40:42] Speaker J: Yeah.
[01:40:44] Speaker G: Yeah.
[01:40:44] Speaker H: Once you turn on, once you turn on AT&T and you turn on, you know, Verizon in the US and then you turn on Europe and Vodafone, like, I mean, that could come in a weekend, you know, for them. So, I mean, 8 million subscribers, Starlink spent 5 years acquiring 8 million subscribers. Like this, this is so much bigger.
[01:41:04] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:41:04] Speaker J: No, I, yeah.
[01:41:05] Speaker H: I mean, and I know people aren't paying $100 a month or whatever they're paying for Starlink. Starlink's $80 a month or $100 a month or whatever it is for a subscriber. But, but, you know, but if it's $10 a month, okay. So, you know, you would get, you would have to, you know, it would have to be whatever it'd have to be, you know, 10 times that. But, you know, that could happen really quickly.
[01:41:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:41:28] Speaker H: So if you think about the path at which AST could get to a trillion dollars, it could come quicker than what Starlink did because of those MNO partnerships and that, that model. It's just a, it's, it's, it's really remarkable and it's genius. It's the whole thing.
[01:41:44] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:41:44] Speaker H: Yeah.
[01:41:45] Speaker A: It's, it's, it's, um, you can, the amount of white space here, you can, you can dream pretty big and the, the way that the business model is constructed that it's Yeah, it's almost like a flip of the switch once the constellation's up.
[01:41:58] Speaker H: And that's not including government revenue. That's not including all the first responder stuff. Like, this is, there's just, there's so many, as you know, people used to always love to say about Meta when Meta first went public and they had all the different, they had WhatsApp, they had Facebook, they had Instagram. There's different levers that they could pull. That's the way that they're going to be talking about AST. There's all these different levers. There's government, there's first responder, you know, first responder, government, you know, different buckets, defense, you know, there's a defense bucket, there's, you know, there's the first responder bucket, there's commercial, there's the commercial bucket, you know, there's US, there's Europe, there's Japan, there's all these different levers they can pull. There's Canada, there's Bell, like there's, that's going to be the story. And it's just, to me, it's, I don't, I don't, you know, knock on wood. I don't want to, I don't want to put the cart before the horse. I don't want to, you know, put, put the jinx on anything. But this, like, there's, there's so much in front of this company. There's so many levers they can pull. There's so many things that, you know, you've said it on your Spaces before, how many things add up, right? All these different things you think about, you know, um, Cook actually on his Spaces the other day was, you know, referenced me as as an emotional guy, but he loves me because of it. But he said, you know, he referenced my math about FirstNet and you think about that, it's $15 to $20 billion. And then you think about, you know, Frontline at Verizon, that's another $10 billion. And then you think about, you know, Golden Dome and you think about, you know, this and that. There's just so many different things that add up. And it's just, to me, $25 billion, well, or just put it simply, what Elon paid for EchoStar Spectrum, $22 billion.
[01:43:43] Speaker F: That's the floor.
[01:43:44] Speaker H: Like, yeah, you, you could—
[01:43:46] Speaker E: you—
[01:43:46] Speaker H: why would you ever sell this stock below $22 billion? Yeah, if he paid $22 billion for Spectrum.
[01:43:53] Speaker A: Um, right? Yeah, no, I, I— you, you make great points. I, I mean, I, I think, um, yeah, I think we're all in agreement for sure.
[01:44:01] Speaker H: Um, so that's the floor.
[01:44:03] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:44:03] Speaker A: But hey, Endless, I, I want to thank you. Uh, there's like 2 other people waiting, then I actually gotta go to bed. But thanks so much for joining, man. It's, it's good to hear your voice, um, finally, and to, to hear a bit more about you. I, I, I did know a little bit about you, but, um, but yeah, no, it's cool to, to talk. And, um, yeah, you'll have to come back up at some point again. Um, are you gonna— and yeah, come down to Florida too if, if you have a chance.
[01:44:28] Speaker F: I would like to. It would be great.
[01:44:30] Speaker H: Um, I, you know, I, I do a lot of, of coaching for my kids and if I can get down there and get away for a few days, you know, I'll definitely do it.
[01:44:40] Speaker M: Cool.
[01:44:41] Speaker A: All right, man. Well, happy holidays and we'll look forward to the 23rd, man. We'll all be watching BetaBread.
[01:44:48] Speaker H: Yep.
[01:44:49] Speaker F: Absolutely.
[01:44:50] Speaker H: We're going to, my local friends, we're going to do a poker game that night to just, they're all invested too. So we're going to, we'll play while the launch is happening. Hopefully it goes well.
[01:44:59] Speaker A: Thanks, man.
[01:45:00] Speaker H: Thanks, man. Talk to you.
[01:45:02] Speaker A: Hey, Johnny Bangs, you there?
[01:45:06] Speaker G: Hey guys, can you hear me?
[01:45:07] Speaker A: Yeah, we can hear you.
[01:45:09] Speaker G: Um, okay, cool. I lost connect— I lost connection before. I had to run outside. Um, actually I'm standing in the freezing, uh, cold in order to do this, but, uh, I just want to know about your background and, and how you learned AST.
[01:45:22] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:45:23] Speaker G: So, um, my phone keeps saying I'm losing connection, ironically. It always happens. It just points out a great need for AST to get up and running. But so I invested on the day of DA, actually. I got caught up in the SPAC craze. I'll keep it, I'll keep this story short and sweet, but basically I ran into DA. I remember the exact moment. I was actually on the toilet.
[01:45:48] Speaker A: You just like poop.
[01:45:50] Speaker G: I remember it was before before I was, uh, heading into work. And, you know, I'm flipping through my phone, and that was, you know, those were the days where just headlines were hitting at, you know, 7 o'clock in the morning, and you see SPACs flying up 20, 30%, um, you know, on some of this news. And I remember seeing, uh, AST, uh, NPA, and it really caught my attention. I, I bought a little bit of it, um, just being the degen that I am. And I guess I'll just, I'll throw out that I'm also a pharmacist like Corey.
[01:46:24] Speaker M: Oh my gosh.
[01:46:25] Speaker G: And PharmD Arizona. I know, I think that's been a kind of a theme tonight with having some of these healthcare workers on there, but people. Yes, yes, for sure. So anyways, about the morning of DA, and I was involved in a couple of other, you know, SPACs at the time, but as as they fell out of favor and eventually got exposed, AST really stood above the rest. And as I was learning more and more about the company through all the contributors, great thanks to you guys that really made me hold on for dear life through that great sell-off of, I think, 2021, 2022. And you know, looking back now, what a blessing it was to be able to buy some of those LEAPS whenever the commons were down at $2, $3, $4.
[01:47:20] Speaker O: Yeah.
[01:47:22] Speaker G: And I've always lived very frugally and I've always had a kind of a vision of, you know, I kind of want to get out of the rat race and AST has provided me that. And yeah, like at one point I was down like a couple hundred thousand dollars. On this, and you know that's when everything started to turn around with this AT&T news. I mean, you guys all went through this as well, and you know I sold a little bit after that pop. I think just because you know after a few years getting your ass kicked, you thought okay well it's gonna pop. It just popped seventy eighty percent in a day, and I'm gonna I'm gonna you know cash out a little bit and. going to pull back, and it never did. And then the Verizon news came, and I realized that I made a mistake and went all back in.
[01:48:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:48:13] Speaker G: And it just never looked back. And so I was down 80%, a couple hundred thousand dollars at one point, which was kind of bad timing. I got in a little early, but better early than not at all. But my wife, when she went on maternity leave and left her job to you know, stay at home with our children, she gave me, you know, basically her life savings.
[01:48:37] Speaker A: I thought you were going to say she gave me a lot of shit.
[01:48:43] Speaker G: No, I'm like Kook. I don't have to report the intraday lows, you know?
[01:48:48] Speaker A: She gave you her life savings?
[01:48:50] Speaker E: Wow.
[01:48:50] Speaker G: Well, yeah, it was $20,000, $25,000 at that time. You know, we're relatively young and whatever, so it's what she had. And yeah, she was gonna stay at— she was gonna stay at home with the kids and, you know, I was— I'm gonna keep working. And, um, but she's like, hey, here's, here's what I got. And she gave me $20,000 whenever the stock was at $3.
[01:49:13] Speaker A: And, uh, that's a keeper, man.
[01:49:15] Speaker G: Yeah, yeah. She just totally trusted me with it. And, and I bought a bunch of, uh, LEAPS. And that's kind of how I've been playing it all along is You know, I, there's a lot of Marathon in commons, uh, for sure, but I've, I've been mostly invested in kind of Leaps and rolling this forward all the way up. But I mean, uh, impeccable timing, uh, with that gift. But, um, I'm kind of rambling on, but anyways, it's, I, I mainly wanted to jump on here and, and kind of thank the OG and the contributors and, um, just ready, ready for the next leg up.
[01:49:50] Speaker A: Yeah, no, thanks for coming on. It seems like we've got a lot of pharmacists, pharmacists, doctors, nurses, healthcare workers. I see a theme here, which is good.
[01:50:03] Speaker G: Yeah. Yeah. And my first child was born the week of Blue Walker 3, and then my second child was born.
[01:50:10] Speaker N: I remember.
[01:50:12] Speaker A: Didn't you post about that?
[01:50:13] Speaker G: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You reposted it. So, yeah, yeah, I remember. So my third child is actually due in April, so we'll see. I think there must be big things coming. But I never would've thought whenever she went to stay home with the kids, that's usually a financial stressor. And here I am 3 or 4 years later with more money than I could have ever dreamed of.
[01:50:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:50:42] Speaker G: Now I'm already at my financial goals. Like I never would've thought I would've had this much money, but yet here we are before FM One is even launched.
[01:50:54] Speaker J: Yeah.
[01:50:55] Speaker G: And it's like, well, why stop now? I have so much conviction in this company and where it's heading. Just because I met my goal, I don't want to pull out now. I mean, we're just getting started. So it's pretty crazy to think about where we could be 5 to 10 years from now. So I've, you know, I appreciate everyone for, for, you know, taking me along on this ride. It's been amazing.
[01:51:18] Speaker A: What'd you name your children? Blue Walker 3?
[01:51:23] Speaker H: The first one?
[01:51:23] Speaker G: Yeah, there's, there's a lot of, right, there's a lot of recommendations thrown around. So I'll keep that private though.
[01:51:33] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:51:34] Speaker L: Yeah.
[01:51:35] Speaker A: Just looking. Well, cool. Well, yeah, thanks for coming up. I mean, yeah, that's for your wife to, at the lows, say, here's my life savings, I believe in you, and to go all in. That's a crazy story.
[01:51:54] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:51:55] Speaker H: She's super perseverant.
[01:51:56] Speaker G: Yeah, it's pretty wild.
[01:51:57] Speaker J: Thanks.
[01:51:58] Speaker G: I'll let her know you said that. It'll mean a lot to her.
[01:52:01] Speaker A: This Breadman, this cartoon guy on Twitter said that you're a keeper. Yeah.
[01:52:08] Speaker G: And I listen to, I listen to everything he says, so, you know.
[01:52:11] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:52:11] Speaker A: Well, thanks for coming out, man. It was good talking.
[01:52:13] Speaker G: Yeah, I appreciate it. I hope to meet some of you guys at the launch.
[01:52:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[01:52:19] Speaker E: Let's see.
[01:52:20] Speaker A: So it's almost 12. Prawn, are you still there?
[01:52:23] Speaker L: Hey, Anthony.
[01:52:26] Speaker A: Hey, how's it going? You want to close it?
[01:52:30] Speaker L: You know, I I don't have much to add because, you know, I've had my, the chance to tell my story.
[01:52:36] Speaker I: Yeah.
[01:52:36] Speaker L: I just heard that you asked me if I'd be up in the beginning, but I think I'll close it by— go ahead.
[01:52:42] Speaker A: Actually, hold on one second. There's Kevin. I forgot about Kevin. It's weird, like Twitter, people drop in and out. So Kevin, are you still there?
[01:52:50] Speaker N: Yeah, I'm here.
[01:52:52] Speaker A: Hey, do you want to share your story real quick?
[01:52:55] Speaker N: Oh gosh.
[01:52:56] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:52:56] Speaker G: Yeah.
[01:52:56] Speaker N: I joined in late, but boy, It's been fantastic putting voices to X.com icons here. Yeah, this is the other Kevin in Portland, Oregon. What an amazing—
[01:53:07] Speaker A: There's a lot of Kevins and a lot of pharmacists.
[01:53:10] Speaker N: Yeah, I'm a water resources engineer. That's my vocation. And I kind of restarted my Twitter or X.com profile for my avocation in photography, but it's been commandeered by AST.
[01:53:27] Speaker A: So that happens, it seems.
[01:53:29] Speaker I: Yeah.
[01:53:30] Speaker N: So great to just follow all you guys and gals and wonderful. Real quick, approaching the midnight hour for you there. Yeah, I asked, one of my questions got through to Scott for the Q3 earnings call, and that was, are you still going to have the get-togethers at the launches? And I was hoping he know, really provide some specifics. But yeah, he didn't. But it's good to know FM2 is rolling its way over there. And I had to bite the bullet. My wife and I scheduled a vacation to Florida January 10th through 17th. So my fingers are crossed that maybe the launch could be that week. But hopefully we can or I can get back at some point and actually meet all you guys. Anyway, and I've been posting a bunch of things, but one thing that's kind of close to my heart as an engineer, I like to solve problems and I deal with water and dirt, but now I'm interested in aluminum oxide and the deorbiting problems of a certain company that's deorbiting thousands of satellites. So hopefully, there's more conversation on that, and I'll stop there. Thanks so much.
[01:54:49] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for coming up. Yeah, it's, I mean, to your point, the last thing you talked about, it is something that I've thought about, and I'm hoping eventually that there will be some technology where these reusable rockets, the second stage, when they come back, that maybe they'll bring— I mean, I don't know how possible that is because it it's going to require more fuel for the landing burn, but hopefully they can bring some of these things back instead of all the satellites burning up in the atmosphere. Yeah, if you've got tens of thousands of these things, then that's a pretty big problem versus a few hundred, which I think is, it's still a problem, but it's more sustainable. But yeah, that's something to think about for sure.
[01:55:35] Speaker N: And I did DM Katzi a while ago and understand AST's using more Invar as opposed to aluminum, but It'd be great to know that they're producing a lot less oxide than other companies.
[01:55:49] Speaker A: Right, right.
[01:55:51] Speaker N: Well, hey, thanks again.
[01:55:52] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for coming up. Yeah, so I guess it is getting kind of late. I'll have Piranha close it out. Yeah, how are you doing, man? Oh, good, good.
[01:56:03] Speaker L: Yeah, it was fantastic hearing everyone's stories. Obviously very, very funny, very unique, very inspiring in many ways.
[01:56:11] Speaker A: You know, similar, right?
[01:56:13] Speaker L: Right. They're all pushing pills inside pharmacies and, but, you know, I think it'd be fantastic. You should probably send the recording of this. I don't know if Sonja Bloomberg would have the time to listen to the entire thing, but yeah, yeah, I think it'd give her some great perspective. And I guess I'll close with this. So I had coffee with a Honkwaffle this morning, and he told me that he likes to put on your Spaces every time he runs, and his goal is to keep running until you stop talking. So with that in mind, everyone can hop off, Honkwaffle can stay on, and I'm just going to recite the collected works of Shakespeare.
[01:56:57] Speaker F: Fine.
[01:57:00] Speaker A: Let's do it.
[01:57:02] Speaker L: And Pan, thanks for hosting these Spaces, keeping the community together, and just generally helping everyone in the Space Mob get to know each other better. So you're a fantastic leader, and I think we're all very grateful for you.
[01:57:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm the Jim Jones of the Space Mob.
[01:57:20] Speaker L: Yeah, we love your Kool-Aid, buddy.
[01:57:24] Speaker A: Thanks. Yeah, no, thanks everyone for joining. I wish we could keep going, but Yeah, it's getting late and our daughter, she still has school tomorrow, so she's not out until I think Tuesday. But yeah, thanks everyone for joining. As I mentioned before, we are going to do a joint space on Tuesday evening, and I think we're going to start maybe an hour to 2 hours ahead of time. And so the launch is going to be at 10:24 PM Eastern Standard Time. And so, um, Cook, myself, uh, Tut, uh, Katzi, and a few others will be on. And then, um, as I mentioned before, I think we might get a PR tomorrow, um, or perhaps Tuesday or Wednesday that, that FM2 will be, you know, has arrived in Florida. So that, that's something to look forward to. And then, as I mentioned before, I think we are going to see This is just based off due diligence and speculation, but I would think we're probably going to be pretty close to seeing the first batch of composite Bluebirds shipped to Florida. And so whether that happens before year-end or early January, we'll see. And then aside from that, the work never ends. Like there's, I think there's going to be some big news coming in January, I think in regards to M&Os, So yeah, I mean, it's going to be a pretty crazy time and it's all hitting at the right time. Like we've got a great economic backdrop with interest rates probably going to continue to go down as inflation seems to be somewhat tamed and CPI numbers came in lower. And then you've got like oil continuing to crater. And I mean, obviously there's any number of things that can happen in the world. world to put the market off kilter. But with this administration, I don't want to get political, but it is what it is. Like with this administration having a keen focus on space and it being an area of competition with China and resources, everything being marshaled around it, I think this is going to be a tremendous year for for AST SpaceMobile and for a number of other companies as well. And so yeah, it's an exciting time. I mean, I don't know of any more exciting than I've ever been because now the 5 years that we've been waiting is, you know, now the proof is in the pudding. Like commercial services is going to be launched and you're going to have more MNOs sign up and we're going to Conceivably, or hopefully, some of us are going to be beta testers for the service initially. And then of course, it's going to, as the constellation gets built out, then they'll roll out commercial service. And then we haven't talked about military and of course FirstNet and FirstNet in Europe, just a lot of stuff to talk about, which I think Endless got sucked into the whole, he's clearly super excited. And so He talked about all the exciting things that are coming up, and so I'm not going to repeat them. But but yeah, it's it's a good time. So thanks everyone for joining, and we'll see what tomorrow brings. I think overnight stock's already at eighty bucks, so that's a good start. But but yeah, thanks, and talk again.
[02:00:50] Speaker B: Take care, everyone. Thanks for listening to the AST Space Rover podcast. If you enjoy If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review.
[02:01:05] Speaker A: To catch all the latest news about AST SpaceMobile, make sure to subscribe.
[02:01:10] Speaker B: Thanks again, and I'll see you next time. We're doing something very, very big, and I think with this technology we can really affect a billion lives. AST SpaceMobile is the only company that has proven technology to deliver cellular broadband connectivity directly from space to the everyday smartphone. People will just basically turn on their phone and be seamless regardless of where you are. We don't want the user even to know that it's connected by satellite. Our role is to bring this into reality, always in partnership with the MNOs. Listen.
[02:01:52] Speaker E: Mmm, waffles.