Krishna Pribadi
From Merlin to VO2 Max
Hosted by Jeff Ward · Former VP of Avionics & Software, SpaceX
Transcript has been lightly edited for readability. Timestamps reflect the original recording.
SFX 0:35
We have liftoff.
Jeff Ward 0:38
So, the price of admission, as always, is, like, what's your SpaceX story? And, reeling the real way back, what did you do before you went to SpaceX?
Krishna Pribadi 0:46
Yeah, so, before SpaceX, I worked in the motorsports world. I've worked at Harley-Davidson for the motor company for the factory as an engineer, as a test engineer. Did a lot of testing, a lot of development, benchmarking of competitor motorcycles. I know motorcycles pretty well. And then, that was a period of, like, four something years, four and a half years. And then I moved on to another lesser-known company, smaller company. They were a supplier for Harley-Davidson. Hayes Performance Systems. They do brakes and suspension systems for bicycles and motorcycles. And the two years that I was there, I did development for a brake system for BMW. And, yeah, worked on basically benchmarking the Brembo brake system and all the other brands out there, the Japanese ones and some Chinese ones, and basically developed a better brake system. Yeah.
Jeff Ward 1:42
Did you train for that? Did you do a degree that got you into that? Or did you just get into it from interest?
Krishna Pribadi 1:51
I had gotten into racing. So, I mean, backing up further, like, after high school, first I started out with computer science. And I thought I liked that. And then I got into, like, motorcycle racing. I went to a racing school and got my racing license. And I started competing. I had read a book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. It was a very inspirational book for me. It's a classic from the 60s, right, about philosophy. Less about motorcycle maintenance and more about philosophy and a way of thinking. And just motorcycles and that book sort of inspired me to go study mechanical engineering. So that's what I did.
Jeff Ward 2:34
So you were an M.E.,
Krishna Pribadi 2:35
Yeah, I was an M.E..
Jeff Ward 2:36
A mechanical engineer, when you went into the motorcycle industry? And how did that lead you then from that to SpaceX? Like, I know that some of the guys that were propulsion experts at SpaceX were into motorcycles, but how did you end up, like, finding your way into aerospace?
Krishna Pribadi 2:54
So, you know, after having some pretty good success in the motorsports world, I was actually getting bored. And I was just looking for something new, something bigger, and something bigger for humanity. And I started looking for jobs that needed my skill sets with testing and development. You know, familiar with data acquisition and just, you know, testing hardware, right? So SpaceX kept on popping up a lot on the searches. I forgot which job search engine I used at the time. But, you know, I think it was Indeed, right? Yeah. And, yeah, SpaceX came up a lot. And I applied for the job. And I got a phone call a couple days later and just totally aced the interview. When I visited the Texas Test Facility in McGregor, Texas, near Waco, I was just so sold on it. Just seeing all the hardware there, I was just like, this is amazing. Like, I want to, like, I want to be here. I want to be a part of this.
Jeff Ward 3:54
It would seem to me that with motorcycles, it's very much right in front of you, right? You can, you got the bike there and you can race it or drive it or ride it. But with Rockets, did it seem different? Like, going to Waco, yeah, there's a ton of hardware and interesting things, but you don't get to go to space or you don't get to always every day see the rocket. Did that change your view of your engineering?
Krishna Pribadi 4:16
No, because, you know, I'm still an engineer and I like looking at data. And there's a lot that you can learn from seeing failure modes and watching the graphs and watching the numbers. When you're there and you see the fire of coming out of, like, an M1D engine, I mean, that's pretty visceral.
Jeff Ward 4:34
Right. When was it that you joined SpaceX?
Krishna Pribadi 4:37
January 2013. Okay. Yeah, January 2013.
Jeff Ward 4:41
So what was going on down there at that time? Uh...
Krishna Pribadi 4:45
So, I started out at SpaceX as a, uh, test operations engineer, uh, testing M1D engines, and this was the, I want to say the 147k-pound thrust engines, uh, that were single-digit serial numbers that eventually went into the Flight 6 first stage. So that was my introductory to SpaceX.
Jeff Ward 5:07
Falcon 9. First stage engines.
Krishna Pribadi 5:10
Yeah, this was the very first OctaWeb.
Jeff Ward 5:14
Okay, so pretty early on.
Krishna Pribadi 5:15
Yeah, very early on, right? Yeah, I started- when I started there, I wasn't part of the, uh, the campaign, the testing and testing campaign of, uh, Flight 5, but I was there for the Flight 5 launch.
Jeff Ward 5:25
Right. So, was you- where, does that mean you were down there when they were testing the Grasshopper, too?
Krishna Pribadi 5:30
Yes, I was there for the Grasshopper, as well. So, you know, I started- let's see, I was with Flight. I tested M1D with- M1D, followed those engines, integrated them to the rocket. We tested the rocket, and that was a very painful campaign because that rocket was in the test stand for, like, six months, right? With all kinds of leaks, and You know, we were trying to figure that all out. Uh, that was definitely interesting. Uh, painful, but interesting.
Jeff Ward 5:57
Yeah, it's hard to keep that in mind now with these things basically coming off an assembly line in perfect shape, how it was at the beginning when you were trying to dial everything in and each one was handcrafted.
Krishna Pribadi 6:09
Right. Yeah. Yeah, and to add to, like, the challenge, it's like we had the tripod, and the rocket was on the top of the tripod. And, you know, you had to wear safety harnesses, and yeah, that was an extra layer of challenge.
Jeff Ward 6:24
For sure. Did you always work at the Texas side, or did you work at California's?
Krishna Pribadi 6:27
The most part, yes. I visited California a lot, but for the most part, I was in Texas.
Jeff Ward 6:33
Was there a difference between- was there, like, a different Texas culture, do you think, between there and Hawthorne?
Krishna Pribadi 6:41
Yeah, for sure. I mean, Texas, the Texas people, I would say, definitely, like, very hands-on and, like, let's just get this thing through and, like, fix it and make it work. And-
Jeff Ward 6:58
Because it was kind of an outpost, in a way.
Krishna Pribadi 7:00
Was an outpost, yeah. We definitely, I think we felt, like, a bit of, like, the sideshow or stepchild, and We didn't have-
Jeff Ward 7:09
Dispatching people there.
Krishna Pribadi 7:10
Yeah.
Jeff Ward 7:10
It's like you'd wake up in the morning and somebody- You need to go to Texas.
Krishna Pribadi 7:13
We didn't have enough- It always felt like we didn't have enough resources. Yeah. But we did always get a lot of, like, reinforcements from Hawthorne.
Jeff Ward 7:21
Right. Yeah, it was one of the problems were happening, and my guys would have to wake up and pack a bag and get out there and help fix stuff.
Krishna Pribadi 7:28
Yeah. I remember when we were testing the first stage, Flight 6, we had two sets of engines. And I remember after we had to go through the dev part of the campaign, and then we had to swap out engines with the rocket and the tripod, which had never been done before. And they sent armies of people from Hawthorne to help out.
Jeff Ward 7:50
Yeah, it's a sort of standard SpaceX method of operation, which is that when something goes wrong, you, like, team everybody up on it.
Krishna Pribadi 7:56
Right. Which, in a way, is, like, it's good and bad.
Jeff Ward 8:00
Exactly. What would you say is the bad part of that?
Krishna Pribadi 8:03
Ah, people don't know where things are, and, you know, just kind of getting in the way. And procedures are supposed to be all the same, but, you know, we don't know who's who and who's doing what, and it can be a bit chaotic.
Jeff Ward 8:17
Yeah, it's like, what was the threat always in engineering is we'll get you some help. And you don't really necessarily want help. What you want is time. Exactly. Yeah. And in that time that you were down there, you know, what would you say was, like, your quintessential SpaceX moment? Do you have one in your mind?
Krishna Pribadi 8:37
Oh, yeah, quite a few. So, I mean, I did M1D testing, first stage testing. I actually got to work on F9R Dev1 before it blew up. That was probably one of, like, the most awesome experiences was working on F9R Dev.
Jeff Ward 8:54
So, which was R Dev?
Krishna Pribadi 8:55
Uh, that was the first stage that was a successor to Grasshopper. Yeah. That did the vertical takeoff and landing, and, you know, that was, it was fast and loose. Yeah.
Jeff Ward 9:08
Made fast progress, too.
Krishna Pribadi 9:09
Yeah, fast progress, and, you know, we didn't have to deal with issue tickets. We were pretty good about documentation in a OneNote, but, um, it was a pretty well-oiled machine, I would say.
Jeff Ward 9:19
Right. And what was the demise of that stage? I'm trying to remember, because there's the blooper reels out there of everything that had to do with reusability, but.
Krishna Pribadi 9:28
The 3K, uhm, 3000 meter altitude test flight with three engines, and, I think one of the side engines had a clogged, uhm, port for the chamber pressure sensor. And, uhm, it basically was clogged. It read low. It was low, so the closed loop throttle throttled up and gave it more thrust, and it went unstable.
Jeff Ward 9:55
Alright, so that's the one that sort of flipped over. The thing that literally switched over.
Krishna Pribadi 9:57
Yep, and then blew up. Now, the funny thing is, we actually talked about that failure mode months before. I think that, I think that flight failure occurred, I want to say in August or September, kind of like later in the year, but I think we talked about it in the Blockhouse in April. Like that exact, like, failure mode. And we said, "We could probably use our igniter pressure sensors as like redundant chamber pressure sensors."
Jeff Ward 10:23
So, alright. But there's always the could have, you know, there's always the thing you might have, might have done. So you were there participating through the development of the reusable first stage, and were you still at SpaceX when the first landing occurred?
Krishna Pribadi 10:39
Oh, yeah. I remember that, like. That was one of my best memories. Yeah, flight 21. Right. And I remember the whole campaign of flight 21, too, and coming back from, I think that was CRS-7 mission failure. was, that was awesome.
Jeff Ward 10:57
And where were you when they landed that stage? Were you in Florida or were you in--
Krishna Pribadi 11:01
Was in Texas in the cafeteria.
Jeff Ward 11:04
Did you guys get the full video experience and-- Yeah.
Krishna Pribadi 11:08
Yeah. Yeah, everybody was there.
Jeff Ward 11:10
Right.
Krishna Pribadi 11:10
It was great.
Jeff Ward 11:12
And I think that people, you know, in the outside world kept seeing it fail, and, you know, expected it never to succeed. And we started out with Falcon 1 with parachutes and cork and all sorts of crazy ideas for getting the stage back. How did you feel when you guys actually got it back?
Krishna Pribadi 11:29
I mean, that was like the best feeling ever. We were jumping up and down like children.
Jeff Ward 11:34
And did you ever think that it would come to what it has come today? It's like a routine operation multiple times a week.
Krishna Pribadi 11:41
I think after seeing it land back several times, especially after Falcon Heavy landed the two boosters, I was feeling like, yeah, this machine, like this company, this team, this culture, we have a lot of momentum. Like it's definitely destined for like amazing things. And it really became solidified when I saw Block 5 like get built. Block 5 was just-- that's such an awesome rocket. Right.
Jeff Ward 12:07
What were your main roles during that time? Were you running tests? Were you building engines or?
Krishna Pribadi 12:13
Test operations, yeah.
Jeff Ward 12:14
And what does that mean for the person who's not familiar with it?
Krishna Pribadi 12:16
Yeah. So test operations, depending on what team you're on and what system you're working with. So my role, I was primarily mostly with the first stage, testing the first stage. So that is understanding the requirements from the various REs to accept the rocket. And so that includes like receiving the rocket. If there's any open work from California, close that out. Getting into a proof test. So structurally proofing the rocket. And then going through a variety of full system functional tests like actuating the TVC, the thrust vector controllers, and gimbling the engines. And then, you know, firing the rocket and then doing a bunch of leak checks after that, inspections and weld inspections and fixing the rocket because it always breaks in some way.
Jeff Ward 13:09
Right. As far as you know, is that still the sort of flow of things right now, even though there's such a high rate of production,
Krishna Pribadi 13:18
Yeah, I'm not sure, I haven't followed up with them in a while, I have friends that still work there on those teams, but I know they still, you know, fire the stage, yeah, and they want to go through a full duration, or as close as possible to a full duration.
Jeff Ward 13:33
In the time that you were down there, and working at SpaceX, did you have interaction with Elon?
Krishna Pribadi 13:38
Once.
Jeff Ward 13:39
Once, okay, that's a minimum, but is it memorable, or is it not?
Krishna Pribadi 13:43
Memorable.
Jeff Ward 13:43
Okay, go.
Krishna Pribadi 13:44
Very proud of it. So, this was actually during the Flight 21 campaign, and, um, you know, I think Elon was offering spot bonuses, so my one interaction with him, he pulled out a thousand dollars cash out of his pocket and gave it to me.
Jeff Ward 13:57
All right, do you remember what you did?
Krishna Pribadi 13:59
Oh, yeah, absolutely, yeah, I was, um, so we were, we had to replace all of the spherical bearings on the rocket, so basically we had to, like, disassemble the rocket and put it back together, and I think we had to do that for, like, all the rockets in the fleet.
Jeff Ward 14:10
Everything that was in production.
Krishna Pribadi 14:11
Everything that was in production, right, because we kind of, like, were grounded at the time, and, like, once we figured it out, it's like, yeah, we got to swap out all the spherical bearings, right, and there was, like, I want to say, like, 150 of them on the rocket. Like, every single COPV that's inside the tank, like, those were, you know, held by, you know, struts and spherical bearings, right? So we had to go inside the tanks and replace them, and that's a confined space, so that was kind of, like, a bottleneck for work to be done there, and we were just using our toolbox, so. And this is not going to sound too glorious, but I was like, man, this work is going really slow. These guys are, like, you know, we have to, like, we have what's called the sponge log, which is basically a log for your tools that you bring into a confined space, and to make sure you bring them back out. So you have tool accountability and part accountability, so that was taking a very long time for them to, like, you know, scan, barcode scan each one of those tools, and they needed, like, 15 different tools to do their job. So I said, hey, guys, let's just make a separate toolkit, and you just need to, like, sponge log in the one toolkit. So I did that, and that actually, like, saved us a couple days.
Jeff Ward 15:19
A couple days was probably a lot if you're going through the entire fleet.
Krishna Pribadi 15:21
I mean, you know, I'm not going to say the number, what our burn rate was at that time, but, you know, it was a big number.
Jeff Ward 15:28
He was aware of that, and he, like, took out his $1,000
Krishna Pribadi 15:30
Gave it.
Jeff Ward 15:31
And I like it.
Krishna Pribadi 15:33
Yeah. I still have one $100 bill. I should frame it.
Jeff Ward 15:36
Okay, yeah, that sounds like something that you want on your wall.
Krishna Pribadi 15:39
Yeah.
Jeff Ward 15:40
Were you test operations all the time that you were at SpaceX?
Krishna Pribadi 15:43
Most of the time, I would say. I was there for six years, for a good five and a half years, and then later, towards the last six months, I transitioned to Raptor, and I was working as a test equipment engineer, designing stuff on the test stand.
Jeff Ward 15:58
Yep. How did you come to move on from SpaceX?
Krishna Pribadi 16:03
It was a multifactorial decision. I was, you know, there for six years. I was tired of living in Waco. I didn't want to live in California. I didn't want to live in Florida. And I was going through a very tough, like, relationship breakup. Life was just, I needed a break. I was like, it's time to move on, time to, like, take care of myself. So I just wanted to, like, not work.
Jeff Ward 16:33
And it's an intense workplace, and the stuff that you were doing was particularly intense, and probably I got the sense that it just accelerated. when you decided to stop doing it, did you have something lined up that you wanted to do
Krishna Pribadi 16:49
No.
Jeff Ward 16:49
Next, or did you just want to pull the plug?
Krishna Pribadi 16:50
I just wanted to pull the plug, yeah. And I just wanted to take some time off and take care of myself, heal myself, and actually, like, spend some time with family and, you know, friends and rebuild relationships that I had been ignoring for a while.
Jeff Ward 17:04
How did that turn out for you?
Krishna Pribadi 17:06
It was great, yeah. You know, reconnected with aunts and uncles and cousins and friends that, you know, that only, like, maybe got a call from me, like, once a year or so.
Jeff Ward 17:16
That sounds really restorative. And did you do that, did you, like, travel around to meet people and to see people and visit?
Krishna Pribadi 17:23
A little bit, yeah. A bit, yeah. That was 2019, so I did travel around a bit, did a road trip, kind of like I did this year. Yeah, I did a road trip and just took my time.
Jeff Ward 17:38
Would you say that SpaceX gave you the means to do that? This is one of the premises of the podcast originally, was like, oh, people got all these share options and then they had all this leisure that they could do stuff with. Would you say that was part of the
Krishna Pribadi 17:51
At that time in 2019, no, not quite. I mean, I had savings and I don't have children and it's not like I have any dependents, right? So it's just my money.
Jeff Ward 18:03
Yeah. So
Krishna Pribadi 18:05
I was just, yeah, using my savings and living very frugally.
Jeff Ward 18:09
And, and then the question that comes to my mind is, like, what was it that you took away from SpaceX? What would you say was your takeaway that enabled you to, like, become the person that you are now and do the things that you're doing now? Was there one or was it perhaps that's too simplified a question?
Krishna Pribadi 18:24
It is probably too simplified a question. I learned so many things from SpaceX. I mean, you can only imagine, like, spending six years there, right?
Jeff Ward 18:31
Right.
Krishna Pribadi 18:33
I mean, you know, focusing on, like, first principles.
Jeff Ward 18:35
Right,
Krishna Pribadi 18:36
Uh, extreme ownership.
Jeff Ward 18:38
Yeah.
Krishna Pribadi 18:38
Extreme ownership, I think, was, like, the biggest takeaway.
Jeff Ward 18:40
What do you mean by extreme ownership?
Krishna Pribadi 18:42
Extreme ownership, owning a system from top to bottom and being responsible for, as much as you can feasibly possibly be responsible for,
Jeff Ward 18:55
What's the advantage of that you see?
Krishna Pribadi 18:59
The advantage to that, I would think, is just situational awareness, and you're not blindsided by unknowns. You have more control of the situation.
Jeff Ward 19:11
So you're not handing off from person to person. you remain constantly aware of what's going on.
Krishna Pribadi 19:17
Right. Yeah, it's less risk for things falling through the cracks.
Jeff Ward 19:22
Has that experience that you had there enabled you to do what you're doing now, would you say?
Krishna Pribadi 19:28
Yeah, for sure. So after SpaceX, I took a little bit of time off, nine months or so, and then I joined a startup, a UAV, cargo UAV startup. And at the time, I was only, I was like, the second employee.
Jeff Ward 19:42
Right.
Krishna Pribadi 19:42
It gave me the courage experience, because I had the experience of going through product development. And although we had an army of people at SpaceX to, like, distribute responsibilities, I felt pretty empowered to tackle any problem, whatever it was, even though I've been, like, you know, primarily a nuts and bolts kind of guy, a hardware kind of guy, like, you know, dealing with primarily, like, fluid systems and structures. You know, working on a UAV that has, like, electrical systems, you know, I owned batteries and power harnesses and avionic systems and, you know, totally had the courage to just, like, let's just, you know, go forward, develop a test program.
Jeff Ward 20:27
The confidence that you took away from SpaceX that you could take complete ownership of something and create it from nothing.
Krishna Pribadi 20:35
Right, yes. And having, like, awareness of how to create acceptance programs, development programs, you know, having seen that on a much larger vehicle with over a million parts, the UAV was, I want to say, like, 20,000 parts, right?
Jeff Ward 20:51
What company was that, the UAV company?
Krishna Pribadi 20:54
Skyways, yeah.
Jeff Ward 20:55
And what were they doing,
Krishna Pribadi 20:56
We were building fully autonomous cargo UAVs with an electric VTOL system for vertical takeoff and landing and fixed wings and a heavy fuel engine to cruise. So it had over a thousand mile cruise range. I mean, primarily the target client customer would have been shore to ship type services for, say, for example, oil drilling or any kind of, like, shipping service or, like, the military, DOD, critical cargo, 50 pounds and under, replace a helicopter.
Jeff Ward 21:32
And how did that company turn out? Are they still going or?
Krishna Pribadi 21:35
They're still So I was with them for three years. So I was there until June 2023. And we got through our Series A funding and won DOD contracts and went through two generations of aircraft. And, yeah, the company, I helped grow the company to, like, over 20 people.
Jeff Ward 21:57
And what made you decide to move on from that one?
Krishna Pribadi 22:00
Just got tired. Yeah, it was. Long hours. Yeah, I wanted to just take care of my health, take care of my relationships, and, you know, I just felt pretty burned out.
Jeff Ward 22:12
And is that what you're doing now? So that was about a year ago,
Krishna Pribadi 22:14
A year.
Jeff Ward 22:14
Little over a year ago. And what are you doing now? Like, what would you, what has that last year been for you?
Krishna Pribadi 22:21
Yeah, so like what I did in 2019, like, last summer, I spent quite a bit more time just really reconnecting with my family. So I'm half Indonesian. I was, I grew up in Indonesia. So I went back to Indonesia where I grew up and did the whole, I guess what you would call, ancestry thing.
Jeff Ward 22:40
Right.
Krishna Pribadi 22:41
You know, meet aunts and uncles and uh, my, I guess what you call it, like, great uncle. So my grandfather's youngest brother, cause he's like the last one of that generation that's still alive. And I just wanted to get some stories from him about the family and his siblings and my grandfather, cause I don't really know their story cause they passed away a long time ago.
Jeff Ward 22:59
Right.
Krishna Pribadi 23:00
You know, and went to go like, find my great grandfather's grave and that was pretty fun. So it was really important to, you know, reconnect.
Jeff Ward 23:10
Do you think that's a cycle for you, that you'll do that for a while? Do you have a sense that you're going to come out of this year and into something new?
Krishna Pribadi 23:20
Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. So, you know, I was traveling last year to go back home to Indonesia, came back to America. And, you know, since last fall, much of my focus has been on something outside of like mechanical engineering or aerospace. And I've really been focused on health and fitness and longevity. What are the things that we can do to minimize our risk and stack things in our favor to increase our lifespan?
Jeff Ward 23:48
And do you think you've found some there, is there some consensus or some interesting?
Krishna Pribadi 23:54
Oh yeah.
Jeff Ward 23:55
Things?
Krishna Pribadi 23:55
Yeah. Yeah. And I think the big thing, my big, the big thing that I've learned, the most important thing that I've learned is like health and longevity are really not, shouldn't be divorced from athleticism.
Jeff Ward 24:09
So that's the core of health and longevity for you is,
Krishna Pribadi 24:12
For me. And I think for everybody.
Jeff Ward 24:14
Is right
Krishna Pribadi 24:14
Yes. Or some amount of it, they should take some amount of it, some portion of like concepts of athleticism and practices and athleticism. Maybe you're not training to be in the Olympics or training to be in Ironman, but there are concepts and techniques and you can apply that to your life to really improve your health.
Jeff Ward 24:36
So dig one level deeper than that. When you say athleticism and these concepts and techniques, like what's, what's a good example that, because I dabbled around in different things and you know, that's different from training.
Krishna Pribadi 24:49
Yeah. I'll say like probably like the most important metric that you can measure. That's a marker for your longevity is your ability to utilize oxygen and you can, that can be measured. And when you go to your doctor for your annual checkup, it's not measured, but you really should know what your VO2 max is.
Jeff Ward 25:10
Right. And do any of the estimates that you can get from your Peloton or your Apple watch come close to giving you the information that you need?
Krishna Pribadi 25:18
I would say depending on your specificity, maybe within five to 10%, my personal experience is like I wear a Garmin watch and I have a Garmin computer on my bicycle and I have a power meter on my bicycle. And when you're on the bicycle, it can calculate your VO2 from your power meter.
Jeff Ward 25:37
Right.
Krishna Pribadi 25:38
It'll estimate it, but I would say it's like about 8% off.Low.
Jeff Ward 25:43
And is it something that you can improve and maintain or is it something that declines with age?
Krishna Pribadi 25:49
It is something you can improve. You can't always improve it. There is a ceiling. There is a ceiling, but it will decline with age. If you train, if you've never trained and you train, you can raise it. But if you don't do anything, it will decline.
Jeff Ward 26:07
That makes sense.
Krishna Pribadi 26:07
Yeah. And I believe everybody should know what it is and they should try to increase it above the, you know, 50th percentile.
Jeff Ward 26:16
Right. I don't remember what mine is from my Peloton. I'll have to have to go back and see where they thought I was.
Krishna Pribadi 26:22
Yeah. This is one of the charts that I could show you. So, for example, like one of like my personal goals, and I like to say this to other people to inspire them. I like to be in the upper 95th percentile, two decades younger. So if I hit my numbers there, I'm like functioning like a 20, you know, 20 years younger.
Jeff Ward 26:44
So do you do other things? Do you have other parts of your discipline that you think are helping you to maximize your health and your enjoyment of life as well as your longevity? Like, do you not drink
Krishna Pribadi 26:58
Oh, I'll drink some beers. Yeah. I'll have some beers. A couple.
Jeff Ward 27:01
It's a, it's a current discussion at my house, you know, because we know scientifically it's just not good for you.
Krishna Pribadi 27:05
No, but it makes you happy.
Jeff Ward 27:06
Right. So, which is good for you. That's the.
Krishna Pribadi 27:08
Just don't overdo it.
Jeff Ward 27:10
Right. Okay. I like that. Sort of, sort of approached you. Do you think this is going to lead you to something like career wise, assuming you are looking for something next?
Krishna Pribadi 27:21
So I did start a, start a coaching business, Tanaga Labs. It's still in stealth mode. I haven't really gone public with. But I got a couple of clients, but there's two sides to it, right? There's like. The pure athletic, like human performance side to it. And there's the wellness side to it. But I want to be able to serve both. And I want to do it one-on-one and less of, I don't want to make an app out of it. I really enjoy the
Jeff Ward 27:45
You want to talk to people, it sounds like.
Krishna Pribadi 27:47
I want to talk to people and understand their challenges, what they're going through, and, and give them the confidence to be able to navigate those challenges.
Jeff Ward 27:55
It sounds like that's part of who you are, is this interaction with human beings.
Krishna Pribadi 28:00
Yes, I love it.
Jeff Ward 28:00
Was with rockets and motorcycles and bikes. When you pulled up here, you got two bikes on the back of your truck. And I gather that over the last few months, you've been out supporting motorcycle racing as well. And is that something you see continuing going forward?
Krishna Pribadi 28:14
Um, we'll see. So I've been doing, I've been a race engineer supporting a professional motorcycle racing team in the Moto America Superbike series.
Jeff Ward 28:23
Right. So you're reviewing tons of data,
Krishna Pribadi 28:25
Tons of data. Yeah. Like on the fly, like come off the track and immediately start going through it.
Jeff Ward 28:30
And is that a job or is that, uh.
Krishna Pribadi 28:32
That's, that's a job.
Jeff Ward 28:33
Right. So you, so you have something to like keep food on the table.
Krishna Pribadi 28:36
So, you know, you know, answering your question. Yeah. I've been traveling and I've been on a road trip for the past two months. And part of the motivation was to drive up to those races and, uh, enjoy my time between those two races up in the Northwest and do a bunch of like bicycling and hanging out with friends.
Jeff Ward 28:54
Sounds like a good way to have spent the summer.
Krishna Pribadi 28:56
It's great.
Jeff Ward 29:00
So what do you think is next?
Krishna Pribadi 29:02
Yeah. So one thing that I want to do is after being in this racing series and getting calibrated with the motorcycle racing series, getting calibrated with, you know, some of the top players. Like I spent three days riding bicycles with the current champion. I just picked his brain and have a good understanding of like where he is. So I have a pretty good understanding. I've talked to a bunch of people in the paddock and knowing what their fitness levels are and how they train. And there's a lot of opportunity there to like really like race the sport. So I am putting together a training program for motorcycle road racing in America to like race the sport.
Jeff Ward 29:40
I will be fascinated to watch how this evolves. I don't think I realized the connection between, you know, pedal bikes and motorcycles.
Krishna Pribadi 29:46
It's yeah. The specificity isn't exactly like on top of each other, but there's enough overlap. And for sure, the cardiovascular component is there.
Jeff Ward 29:57
That makes some sense. I, yeah, it's an interesting insight. I appreciate you taking me on this tour and it's been fascinating to hear about the technical elements and the human elements. And I love, it's coming together. So I'm fascinated by that.
Krishna Pribadi 30:11
Yeah. And that's why I kind of like, I like motorcycle racing is like this place to come to meet interesting people, but it's like this fun blend of like the human factors and the machine factors.
Jeff Ward 30:23
Okay. So what tip would you offer to young people who want to get into tech startups?
Krishna Pribadi 30:28
Well, the intentions first need to have the intentions, right? Do your homework. But I would say, and when you go through interviews, just know your first principles. I've interviewed so many, like recent graduates or younger adults that are in college and they're ready for their internships and they just don't know their first principles. I mean, you know, basic physics, know your first principles.
Jeff Ward 30:54
Okay. So know your first principles. And what was your most important takeaway from SpaceX? We already discussed this a little bit, but anything?
Krishna Pribadi 31:02
Yeah. The extreme ownership. I think that's,
Jeff Ward 31:08
I'm going to concur with that, especially true at internship level. The more you can own as an intern, the more you learn and the more likely you are to get invited.
Krishna Pribadi 31:15
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Jeff Ward 31:18
Absolutely. And then you can go for what's your career lesson or your life lesson, or you could have one of each. It's up to you.
Krishna Pribadi 31:27
Life lesson. I would say, take care of yourself, take care of your mental health, take care of your relationships first. I think if you don't, you're not going to be a very happy person or you'll regret it.
Jeff Ward 31:43
I love that. And I love that as a place to stop. Thanks for stopping on your trip to come and visit me and be my first like face-to-face interview. I really appreciate it. And thanks for your time and your insights.
Krishna Pribadi 31:54
Yeah. Thank you so much, Jeff. I really enjoyed being on this interview here. I was really looking forward to it. So yeah, thank you for having me.