Chamath Palihapitiya Talks SPACs At Benzinga Boot Camp: 'It Unlocks Access To Growth Companies'

Chamath Palihapitiya joined the September Benzinga Boot Camp on Friday, sharing a wide range of thoughts on SPACs.

Palihapitiya On SPACs: Palihapitiya has been referred to as the king of SPACs. 

His first SPAC offering, Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings, raised $600 million and later merged with Virgin Galactic SPCE, where Palihapitiya is the chairman.

Palihapitiya said he was pushed into SPACs after seeing numerous technology companies failing to go public. 

He said he learned a process called “First Principles” that was taught to him by Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk.

The key to First Principles is to keep asking why — and then unpack and fix the problem, Palihapitiya said. 

The Benefits Of SPACs:  SPACs have a lot of interesting features, Palihapitiya said.

Since they're conducted as a merger, company executives can discuss forward-looking growth and numbers, he said — more so than with an IPO.

“It unlocks access to growth companies to a broad cohort of people that were otherwise shut out,” Palihapitiya told BlockFi’s Zac Prince during the Boot Camp, highlighting the big benefit to SPACs.

When asked what the benefitis for investors who choose a SPAC ran by Palihapitiya, he said potential investors are betting on Social Capital’s decision making and access.

What’s Next For Palihapitiya: Palihapitiya has previously said he plans on bringing SPACs to market with the ticker symbols "IPOA" to "IPOZ." He has two trading and has filed to list three more with the symbols "IPOD," "IPOE" and "IPOF."

Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings II IPOB is merging with OpenDoor.

Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings III IPOC is still searching for a target company.

Palihapitiya also helped finance deals with Trine Acquisition Corp TRNE to merge with Desktop Metal and Fortress Value Acquisition Corp FVAC, whic is merging with MP Materials.

Photo credit: Cmichel67 via Wikimedia.