HOW RIVIAN PLANS FOR STUFF THAT DOESN'T EXIST YET

Summary from the TLDR Founders newsletter

Rivian needed a new factory for its cheaper SUV, so it built the car in the old one and pocketed $2.25 billion. Its CFO's rule is to wring every last drop out of what you already own before you pour concrete, the hardware version of staffing for the work you have, not the work you hope to get. The new model pulled profitability forward instead of pushing it out, because sharing the factory spread fixed costs over more cars and made the older lines cheaper too. Revenue tripled in two years while operating costs held flat. Sometimes the cheapest way to grow is to not build the new thing.