Jared Isaacman: Path to Polaris Dawn

We continue our column “Outstanding People in Space”. This article is dedicated to Jared Isaacman — a man whose path to success is worthy of becoming another inspiring example for millions of people worldwide. Who is Jared Isaacman? Entrepreneur, billionaire, philanthropist, jet pilot, astronaut, and spaceship captain all in one. Learn the dizzying story of an American genius rising from the basement to cosmic altitude.

Jared Isaacman: Facts

• Age: 41
• Nationality: Jewish
• Citizenship: United States
• Education: Bachelor of Arts/Science, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Real Time Net Worth: 1.73 billion $
• Source of Wealth: payment processing, contract air services to the armed forces
• Main Achievements:
  • Business: Founded and leads Shift4 Payments, a payment processing company that processes more than $200 billion in payments annually. Also founded Draken International, which operates one of the world’s largest fleets of private fighter jets.
  • Aviation: Set a world record for round-the-world flight in a light jet, flying in 62 hours, 20 hours faster than the previous record.
  • Spaceflight: Sponsored and commanded the Inspiration4 mission, the first private spaceflight with an exclusively civilian crew.
  • Philanthropy: Has made significant donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and is active in philanthropy
• Awards: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2011, the Horatio Alger Award in 2012, Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2022
• Marital status: married, has two daughters.

Beginning of the Ascent

Jared Isaacman was born on February 11, 1983, in New Jersey into a large Jewish family. Like many other boys of the time, his interest in the sky and space emerged at an early age. In kindergarten, he told his teacher that he would definitely fly into space, and she replied that she would be watching. Looking ahead, let’s say that Jared kept his promise, but we don’t know whether the teacher kept hers. 

How Did Jared Isaacman Make His First Money?

In high school, Jared discovered that he had a good understanding of computer hardware, and together with his best friend Brendan Lauber, he decided to open a computer repair and maintenance shop. The business was called Deco Systems and was based right in the basement of Jared Isaacman house. To attract clients, Jared took a summer job at a computer and appliance company called CompUSA, and when clients came in with particularly serious problems, he gave them his business card and promised help. One of these clients was the CEO of the payment company Merchant Services International (MSI), Mario Parisi. He was so impressed by young Isaacman’s talent and skills that he offered him a permanent job. Without thinking twice, 16-year-old Jared passed his GED, dropped out of school, and went to work as a full-time IT expert at MSI.

“I hated high school,” Jared admitted. “I watched my older brothers and sister, and it seemed to me that they were having a much better time. I wanted to grow up faster.”

How Did Jared Isaacman Start Shift4?

During his six months at MSI, Isaacman not only learned the ins and outs of the financial payments, but also saw their weaknesses. Still in the same basement of his parents’ house, together with his constant partner Lauber, he developed a plan to improve the payment system. This is how in 1999, United Bank Card, Inc. was born.

Isaacman and Lauber managed to greatly simplify payment processes for merchants. Unlike other companies, they distributed card terminals for free; besides, creating the service took only one day instead of a month. The focus on small and medium-sized sellers did its job. In two years, the number of new United Bank Card customers grew from three hundred per month to 2800!

In 2012, Isaacman and Lauber rebranded the United Bank Card as Harbortouch to better reflect the company’s point-of-sale and payment technologies. Until 2017, the company was actively expanding through the acquisition of other payment operators and merchants, including Merchant Services Inc., where Jared worked as a teenager.

Business expansion leads to another rebranding in 2017, when Isaacman gives his company another name, Lighthouse Network, while Harbortouch is separated as a subsidiary. That same year, Lighthouse Network profitably acquired payment gateway provider Shift4 Corporation, and Isaacman rebranded the company again, calling the company Shift4 Payments. In 2020, Shift4 went public on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $345 million in IPO. Today, Shift4 Payments operates primarily in the restaurant, hospitality, retail, and e-commerce industries, processing several billion transactions a year.

Isaacman’s Path as an Aviator

While still developing the United Bank Card, Isaacman started to burn out. The business took a lot of time and energy, and Jared needed a hobby to distract himself. Fortunately, the money he earned allowed him to once again explore his childhood dream of space. But Jared knew that the way there lay through the sky and, so, received a private pilot’s license. He purchased a Cessna Turbo 182 light aircraft and later upgraded to a more powerful twin-engine Beechcraft Baron, logging a total of over 850 hours of flight time.

The hobby did not remain a hobby for long. The entrepreneurial spirit was not long in coming. Having mastered the profession of a pilot, Jared realized that buying his own aircraft for business is a great way not only to improve his flying skills but also to save on jet chartering. And Cessna Citation CJ2 became the first Jared Isaacman’s private jet.

Round-the-world Flight Record on the Second Attempt

In 2008, Isaacman attempted to break the world record for flying around the world in a light jet. However, his Cessna Citation CJ2 was an hour late due to airport delays in Japan and India.

Isaacman did not give up and, on his second attempt a year later, he completed the entire route in 61 hours and 51 minutes, beating the previous record by almost 21 hours.

Following this achievement, Jared received an Experimental Type ranking, allowing him to fly the L-39 Albatros and A-4 Skyhawk fighters, which led him to form his aerobatic squadron, the Black Diamond Jet Team, with which he took part in several dozen air shows. Around the same time, Jared received an advanced degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University so that he would have the opportunity, if he chose, to join the Air National Guard or Air Force Reserve as a pilot.

Drakken International

Participation in the Black Diamond Jet Team and entrepreneurial instincts led Isaacman to the idea that he could provide the American government with 4 or 5 aircraft in the air for the price of one F-16. Thus, in 2012, Drakken International, a private military company, emerged at Nevada’s Lakeland International Airport, providing tactical fighter aircraft under contract services to various clients, including the US Air Force and the French Navy.

In four years, Drakken capitalization reached $6 billion, and the number of Jared Isaacman planes exceeded 100 fleet units. In 2019, the entrepreneur sold his stake in Drakken to Blackstone for a nine-figure sum. It was a damn good investment.

Jared Isaacman’s Mig 29

Selling Drakken didn’t mean that Jared lost his passion for the sky and jets. In 2020, it was made public that Isaacman became the owner of the legendary MiG-29 UB fighter. He bought it from the assets of Microsoft founder Paul Allen, who died in 2018. The aircraft was created in 1989 and, after the collapse of the USSR, was in service with the Ukrainian Air Force. In 2005, Ukraine repaired and demilitarized the aircraft and put it up for sale. As the new owner of the MiG-29 UB, Jared said that it was the best aircraft he had ever flown.

Jared Isaacman And Elon Musk: Collaboration at Space Altitude

Having conquered the sky, Isaacman was one step closer to his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. The beginning of the 21st century’s third decade was marked by a boom in space tourism. Private aerospace companies SpaceX and Blue Origin made space flight possible for people without special training, and Isaacman did not fail to take advantage of this. In 2021, he turned to Elon Musk and bought an entire passenger flight into Earth orbit from him.

Inspiration 4

Only the lazy did not learn about this. The Inspiration 4 mission was the first orbital spaceflight in history in which all four participants were not professional astronauts. Isaacman was the sponsor and commander of the mission, which launched on September 16, 2021, and ended three days later. He paid for the flight in full and used it to raise donations for childhood cancer research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Jared and his wife Monica personally donated $125 million to the hospital, while contributions from SpaceX founder Elon Musk ($55 million, and many others ultimately brought the total figure to over $243 million, far exceeding the original $100 million goal.

Each crew member was assigned an individual call sign for communication. Isaacman’s call sign was “Rook”. The word has two meanings in English, and both befit Isaacman. The rook is a skillful and hardworking bird, translated from Latin as “raven that bears fruit.” In chess, a rook is a piece that plays a strategic role and can move long distances across the board. This call sign was likely chosen to reflect Jared’s role as mission commander and his ability to lead the team to achieving their goals.

And the mission goals were achieved. The team collected critical data to study the effects of spaceflight on untrained human health and performance, and successfully splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cape Canaveral on September 18, 2021. During the mission, the alarm sounded only once and, as it turned out, was related to a toilet malfunction.

Polaris Dawn

Just five months after the success of Inspiration 4, Jared Isaacman and SpaceX announced their new joint project — Polaris Dawn. This will be an expanded version of Inspiration 4, including several space flights. The Polaris program sets very ambitious goals. On its first mission, the Falcon 9 rocket will launch Crew Dragon to an altitude of approximately 700 kilometers above Earth, where the crew will undertake the first-ever commercial spacewalk attempt using extravehicular activity suits developed by SpaceX.

It seems Jared Rook Isaacman has found his element, where he’s feeling 100%. Well, let’s wish him luck and keep our fingers crossed.

Recipe For Success Is to Handle Fear

When Isaacman was asked about his recipe for success, he replied that handling fear came first. “If you’re flying an airplane, and it stalls, it’s going to hit the ground if you do nothing – so you remove fear of hitting the ground from the equation, then do what you need to recover.” He also emphasized that preparation, skill set, and the ability to cut out unnecessary risks were equally important.

“A few of my air show buddies started riding motorcycles. I tried it for two days, and thought, ‘I’m going to kill myself on this thing.’ It’s not compatible with my skill set.’ You have to know your limitations.”

You might want to take the advice from Jared Isaacman and it will help you achieve more than you imagine. We at Orbital Today wish you good luck in your endeavours, and continue to work for you every day!

References and Additional Information:

• An Interview With Jared Isaacman
  https://photorecon.net/an-interview-with-jared-isaacman/
• Basking Ridge’s Isaacman – A High School Dropout Who Went to Outer Space https://www.mrlocalhistory.org/baskingridebillionaire/
• Polaris Dawn private astronaut mission slips to mid-2024
  https://spacenews.com/polaris-dawn-private-astronaut-mission-slips-to-mid-2024/
• Jared Isaacman
  https://www.influencewatch.org/person/jared-isaacman/
• Jared Isaacman^ from business aviation to space
  https://www.avbuyer.com/articles/aircraft-ownership/jared-isaacman-from-business-aviation-to-space-113574
• The first all-civilian mission to orbit
  https://inspiration4.com/