David Solomon, Goldman Sachs CEO, just won the lead role on what is likely going to be the biggest IPO in history. While other firms were going through normal channels, he reached out directly to Elon Musk on X Chat. Goldman Sachs secured the lead-left position on SpaceX’s IPO, which is targeting a valuation as high as $2 trillion and a raise of around $75 billion.
Most people still picture investment bankers in dark suits making polished presentations in wood-paneled rooms. Solomon has never fit that image. I would bet only some of you who are very well informed knows that the Goldman Sachs CEO is also a well known DJ.
In 2007, while still rising through Goldman’s ranks, he helped the firm win the lead role on Lululemon’s IPO — a deal that ultimately raised $327.6 million — by showing up to the pitch dressed in the client’s clothes instead of a suit.
Back in 2007, when Lululemon was going public, he showed up to the pitch meeting wearing Lululemon clothes, including a maroon blazer paired with their sweatpants. At the time, UBS had tried to stand out by organizing a yoga flash mob in Central Park while wearing Lululemon gear. Goldman took a different approach and sent its team dressed in the brand’s activewear. Goldman won the joint bookrunner role on a deal that raised $327.6 million at $18 per share, and the stock jumped 56% on its first day of trading.
This week he did the modern version of the same thing. Instead of relying only on traditional banking channels, Solomon slid into Elon Musk’s DMs on X to pitch Goldman for the lead role on the SpaceX IPO. It was a direct move in a field where most banks were competing through more conventional routes to secure a piece of what could become the largest IPO ever attempted, with a targeted raise of roughly $75 billion.
The pattern is clear if you look for it. Solomon has a track record of winning high-profile deals by being willing to do things that other bankers consider too unusual. Whether it was helping Goldman land the Lululemon IPO that raised $327.6 million in 2007 by dressing in the brand’s clothes, or sending a direct message to Elon Musk in 2026 for the SpaceX deal, the goal has stayed consistent — stand out to the actual decision maker rather than following standard protocol.
Hey, I’m Don! I LOVE INVESTING. If you do too, then stop, and subscribe below. If you hate investing, probably should also subscribe and I’ll teach you to love it. I set the goal to publish a thoughtful blog every Monday.. 52 of them! Don’ Daily is a recap of the entrepreneurship adventures I collect, as well as the new lessons I’m constantly learning about investing.
He’s putting out some of the most thoughtful investment research on X. And he is NOT trading.
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AI Moment of the Week
Claude found a $500K BTC passphrase
A man who bought Bitcoin in college over a decade ago just regained access to roughly $400,000 to $500,000 worth of Bitcoin that had been locked for more than 11 years. He had changed the wallet password years earlier and spent over a decade trying to recover the funds without success, despite multiple attempts using specialized recovery tools.
He had changed the password years earlier, tried every recovery method he could think of, and even ran **trillions** of password combinations through recovery software. Nothing worked for eleven years. The roughly 5BTC he purchased when Bitcoin traded around $250 per coin remained inaccessible as the price rose sharply over time.
Then he uploaded files from his old college computer and let Claude analyze them. The AI helped identify an older wallet backup file and, more importantly, spotted an error in how he had been running the btcrecover tool. It turned out the password needed to be concatenated with a shared key in a specific way that his previous attempts had missed after years of failed brute-force efforts.
Claude did not break Bitcoin’s encryption or guess the password on its own. It acted as a technical assistant that could read old files and debug the recovery script faster and more accurately than human efforts.
Behavior Correction Update
I’ve set up major guardrails
This week I’m allowing myself no trading, no stop-losses. I made long term investments in quality companies, roughly $350K deployed, and I don’t need to trim the hedges every day.
So I’ve deleted CNBC, X, and other financial Apps from my phone.
I’ve cleared my schedule, and I’m doing nothing this week but sitting alone in a quiet room underwriting 25 companies.
The goal is to enter Friday having made 0 trades, and have in depth and thoughtful price targets for 25 of the top companies I’ve been tracking for the last year.
I did a great job last week of reducing my trading, we did not lose money, however, the distraction was still real. I would get a notification every hour about a stock and then feel compelled to deep dive.
The better mode of operations is ignoring the noise, and just purely hunting for signal.
“When you’re looking for a needle in a haystack, you should first start by removing as much hay as possible.”
4 simple rules I must follow
#1 Never Buy Initial Purchase Above FAIR Price, EVER. No Exceptions.
#2 One Unit only at FAIR price. Wait. Second until only after decline.
#3 No full underwrite and price ladder? You don’t buy.
I’ve added one. #4 Owners Earnings must be about 10%, conservatively estimated.
Investments Last Week
We funded Veeva Systems
VEEV is one of the leading providers of industry-specific cloud software for life sciences. Their Vault platform is widely used by pharmaceutical companies for clinical operations, regulatory information management, quality, safety, and commercial functions. Major companies like Pfizer use multiple Veeva applications across these areas to help manage important parts of the drug development and commercialization process.
In short, this is what I love:
Founded in 2007 by Peter Gassner (still Founder-led, 19 years at the helm)
Double-digit revenue growth every year for over a decade
1,400+ customers: all top 20 life science companies, large pharma, emerging biotechs
83% subscription revenue, which grew 17% YoY to $2.68B in FY2026
$6.56B in cash + ST investments, against just $95M in total debt
$2B share buyback program (first-ever, announced January 2026)
Added to S&P 500 Index on May 7, 2026
Elite 10-year history: Revenue CAGR 23%, Net Income CAGR 32%
Customer retention exceeds 95% with net retention of 120%
