MOONSHOT
"If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough." — Naveen Jain
ONE
INDIA TO INFOSPACE
INT. FAMILY HOME - UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA - DAY (1970)
A modest home in a small town in Uttar Pradesh. No running water. No reliable electricity. YOUNG NAVEEN, 11, sits on the floor doing math problems by candlelight. His father, a civil servant, stands in the doorway watching.
Uttar Pradesh, India. 1970.
NAVEEN'S FATHER
Naveen, why do you study so hard? You could have a good government job. Comfortable. Stable. Like mine.
YOUNG NAVEEN
(looking up from his books)
Father, I do not want a comfortable life. I want an extraordinary life. I read about people who change the world — scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs. They do not come from comfortable lives. They come from hungry lives. I am hungry.
NAVEEN'S FATHER
Hungry for what?
YOUNG NAVEEN
I do not know yet. But I know it is not here. It is somewhere bigger. And I am going to find it.
Young Naveen returns to his math problems. Outside, the sounds of the village — animals, children, the distant hum of a generator. The world is enormous. And Naveen intends to fill it.
INT. IIT ROORKEE CAMPUS - INDIA - DAY (1979)
The Indian Institute of Technology. NAVEEN, 20, has earned a place at one of the most competitive engineering schools in the world. He excels in mathematics and computer science. But his eyes are on America.
NAVEEN
(to a classmate)
India produces the best engineers in the world. But the opportunities are in America. Silicon Valley. Microsoft. The future is being built there. Not here. I am going to finish my degree and I am going to get to America. And once I am there, I am never going to stop building.
CLASSMATE
America is not easy for Indians. They do not give us opportunities. We have to earn everything ten times over.
NAVEEN
Good. Because I am willing to work ten times harder than anyone. That is not a disadvantage. That is my secret weapon.
INT. MICROSOFT CAMPUS - REDMOND, WASHINGTON - DAY (1989)
NAVEEN, 30, has made it to America. He works at Microsoft as a program manager. He is talented but restless. The corporate ladder is too slow. He watches the internet emerge and sees something the rest of Microsoft does not yet fully grasp.
Microsoft. Redmond, Washington. 1989.
NAVEEN
(to a colleague)
The internet is going to change everything. Not just computing. Everything. Commerce. Communication. Media. Education. And the companies that figure out how to organize the internet's information will be the most valuable companies in history.
COLLEAGUE
Bill says the internet is a fad. Focus on Windows.
NAVEEN
(shaking his head)
Bill is wrong about this. And when he figures out he is wrong, it will be too late for Microsoft to lead. But not too late for someone else.
Naveen leaves Microsoft to start InfoSpace in 1996 — a company that aggregates internet content and services for wireless carriers.
INT. INFOSPACE HEADQUARTERS - BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON - DAY (2000)
The dot-com boom. INFOSPACE is worth $31 billion on paper. NAVEEN is a paper billionaire. The company provides search, commerce, and content for mobile phones and internet portals. The stock price is astronomical. But the revenues are thin.
March 2000. InfoSpace. $31 billion market cap.
NAVEEN
(in a board meeting)
We are the infrastructure of the mobile internet. Every carrier in the world needs what we provide — search, directories, content. The mobile phone will be the most important computer in history. And InfoSpace will be the operating system of the mobile web.
BOARD MEMBER
Naveen, the stock is at $1,305 per share. The revenue does not justify this valuation. If the market corrects —
NAVEEN
The market will not correct. The internet is not a bubble. It is a revolution. And InfoSpace is at the center of it.
The market corrects. Violently. The dot-com crash of 2000-2001 destroys InfoSpace. The stock drops 99%. From $1,305 to $2 per share. Naveen's paper billions evaporate. He is forced out as CEO.
INT. NAVEEN'S HOME - BELLEVUE - NIGHT (2002)
NAVEEN sits in his home office. The house is quiet. ANU sits beside him. He has lost virtually everything in the crash. Lawsuits. Investigations. His reputation is in ruins. He is being blamed for InfoSpace's collapse.
2002. The crash. The bottom.
ANU
Naveen. Talk to me. What are you thinking?
NAVEEN
(staring at the wall)
I came to America with nothing. I built a company worth $31 billion. And I lost it all. The media calls me a fraud. The regulators are investigating. The investors are furious. And you know what the worst part is? I was right about the mobile internet. I was just ten years too early. The thing I predicted — mobile search, mobile commerce, mobile content — it is all going to happen. Just not in time to save InfoSpace.
ANU
So what do you do now?
NAVEEN
(long pause, then looking at her)
I start again. But this time, I do not build something that the market wants. I build something that the world needs. Something so big that even a crash cannot destroy it. A moonshot.
TWO
THE MOON
INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MOUNTAIN VIEW - DAY (2010)
NAVEEN sits with a team of aerospace engineers. He has co-founded Moon Express — a company with the audacious goal of landing a private spacecraft on the Moon. Most people think he is insane. He is used to that.
Mountain View, California. 2010. Moon Express.
NAVEEN
The Moon has trillions of dollars worth of resources. Helium-3 for fusion energy. Platinum. Water ice. Rare earth minerals. NASA spent decades sending government missions. But the real exploration of the Moon will be done by private companies. We are going to be the first.
AEROSPACE ENGINEER
Naveen, private companies have never landed anything on the Moon. Only three governments have done it — the US, Russia, and China. You are proposing that a startup do what only superpowers have accomplished.
NAVEEN
The Wright brothers were not a superpower. They were two bicycle mechanics. SpaceX started in a warehouse. Every impossible thing was done by someone who did not know it was impossible. That is what gives them the courage to try.
INT. MOON EXPRESS OFFICE - CAPE CANAVERAL - DAY (2014)
THE LUNAR INVESTOR visits Moon Express at Cape Canaveral. NAVEEN gives a tour of the spacecraft prototype. It is small, elegant, and designed to land on the Moon at a fraction of the cost of government missions.
LUNAR INVESTOR
Naveen, every VC I talk to says this is science fiction. A private lunar lander? Lunar mining? This is a hundred years away.
NAVEEN
That is exactly what they said about private space travel before SpaceX. And about electric cars before Tesla. And about the internet before the internet. Every transformative technology starts as science fiction. The question is not whether it will happen. The question is who will do it first. I intend for that to be us.
LUNAR INVESTOR
What makes you different from the other space startups?
NAVEEN
I have already lost everything once. When you have lost billions, you lose the fear of failure. And a founder without fear is the most dangerous thing in the world. I am not afraid of the Moon. The Moon should be afraid of me.
INT. FAA HEADQUARTERS - WASHINGTON, DC - DAY (2016)
A government conference room. THE NASA ADMINISTRATOR and FAA officials review Moon Express's application to land a private spacecraft on the Moon. This is unprecedented. No private company has ever received permission to leave Earth orbit and land on another celestial body.
Washington, DC. 2016. A first in human history.
NASA ADMINISTRATOR
Mr. Jain, Moon Express is requesting approval to leave Earth orbit and land on the lunar surface. This is — we have no regulatory framework for this. No private company has ever asked for this.
NAVEEN
That is because no private company has ever been capable of it until now. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 requires government authorization for private space activities. We are requesting that authorization. We are not asking NASA to fly us there. We are asking the US government to let us fly ourselves.
NASA ADMINISTRATOR
(reviewing the documentation)
Your mission profile is technically sound. Your payload is within specifications. This is — genuinely unprecedented.
In August 2016, Moon Express receives FAA approval to land on the Moon — the first private company in history to receive such authorization.
NAVEEN
(V.O.)
On that day, we changed the definition of what a private company can do. Not just in space. In the imagination of every entrepreneur on Earth. If a startup can get permission to land on the Moon, then nothing is truly impossible. The only limits are the ones we impose on ourselves.
INT. NAVEEN'S HOME OFFICE - BELLEVUE - NIGHT (2016)
NAVEEN sits with ANU, reviewing a new idea. He has been reading about the human gut microbiome — the trillions of microorganisms that live in the digestive system and influence everything from inflammation to depression to cancer.
NAVEEN
Anu, I have been studying the microbiome for months. The science is clear — most chronic diseases are connected to gut health. Inflammation. Autoimmune disorders. Mental health. Cancer. And the gut is different for every single person. There is no one-size-fits-all diet because everyone's microbiome is different.
ANU
So what is the business?
NAVEEN
Test the microbiome. Analyze the RNA expression — not just what organisms are there, but what they are doing. Then use AI to generate personalized nutrition recommendations based on each person's unique gut biology. It is precision medicine for the microbiome. And it could prevent chronic disease before it starts.
ANU
You went from the Moon to the gut?
NAVEEN
(smiling)
Both are unexplored frontiers. Both have trillions of things we do not understand. The only difference is the scale. The Moon is 240,000 miles away. Your gut is right here — and we know less about it than we know about the Moon.
INT. VIOME OFFICE - BELLEVUE - DAY (2018)
NAVEEN has launched Viome. THE VIOME CHIEF SCIENTIST presents early results to Naveen and the team. Viome's technology uses metatranscriptomic analysis — sequencing the RNA in the gut to understand not just which organisms are present, but which genes they are expressing.
Viome. 2018. Decoding the gut.
VIOME CHIEF SCIENTIST
Naveen, the early results are extraordinary. We are seeing clear correlations between specific microbial gene expressions and chronic conditions — inflammation markers, immune function, metabolic health. The AI is identifying patterns that human researchers would take years to find.
NAVEEN
How many unique microbiome profiles have we analyzed?
VIOME CHIEF SCIENTIST
Over 100,000. And every one is unique. No two guts are the same. The personalization angle is real — the food that is healthy for one person may be inflammatory for another. We can see that in the data.
NAVEEN
This is the vision. Personalized nutrition based on your actual biology, not a generic food pyramid. If we can tell someone exactly which foods reduce their inflammation, improve their mental health, and lower their cancer risk — based on their unique gut biology — we are not a wellness company. We are a disease prevention company. And disease prevention is the biggest market in the world.
THREE
THE VISION
INT. STAGE - XPRIZE GALA - LOS ANGELES - NIGHT (2019)
A gala event. NAVEEN addresses an audience of tech leaders, philanthropists, and visionaries. He is now known not as the InfoSpace founder, but as the moonshot entrepreneur — the man who builds companies around problems so big they seem impossible.
NAVEEN
(to the audience)
People ask me: why do you aim so high? Why the Moon? Why chronic disease? Why not something practical? And my answer is: every problem that is too big for one person is an opportunity for one company. The Moon is a problem. Chronic disease is a problem. Literacy is a problem. And every one of these problems is a trillion-dollar market waiting for someone brave enough to solve it.
The audience applauds.
NAVEEN
(continuing)
I grew up without running water. Without electricity. Without any reason to believe that a boy from Uttar Pradesh could build billion-dollar companies, get licensed to go to the Moon, or decode the human gut. But here I am. Not because I am special. Because I refused to believe that impossible means no. Impossible just means no one has done it yet.
INT. VIOME HEADQUARTERS - BELLEVUE - DAY (2021)
NAVEEN reviews Viome's product expansion. The company now offers gut microbiome testing, oral health testing, and personalized supplements manufactured specifically for each individual user based on their biological data.
VIOME CHIEF SCIENTIST
We now have over 500,000 microbiome samples in our database. The AI models are getting more accurate with every test. We can predict inflammatory responses to specific foods with over 90% accuracy.
NAVEEN
500,000 samples. Every one is a data point that makes the AI smarter. The more people we test, the better our recommendations become. It is a flywheel. Data improves the product. The product attracts users. Users generate data. And the AI keeps learning. Within five years, we will be able to predict chronic disease before it manifests — and prevent it with personalized nutrition. Not drugs. Food.
VIOME CHIEF SCIENTIST
Some in the medical community are skeptical.
NAVEEN
The medical community was skeptical that bacteria caused ulcers. They were skeptical that hand washing prevented infection. They were skeptical that the microbiome mattered at all. Skepticism is the default response to every paradigm shift. We do not need their approval. We need their data. And we are getting it — 500,000 samples at a time.
INT. NAVEEN'S HOME - BELLEVUE - NIGHT (2023)
NAVEEN and ANU sit together. He is reflective. The journey from Uttar Pradesh to InfoSpace to Moon Express to Viome has been three decades of moonshots — some that landed, some that crashed, all that mattered.
ANU
You have built companies worth billions, lost everything, and built again. Do you ever feel like you have enough?
NAVEEN
Enough money? Yes. I had enough money after InfoSpace — even after the crash. This was never about money. This is about impact. When I die, I do not want to be remembered as a wealthy man. I want to be remembered as a man who solved problems. Who went to the Moon. Who decoded the gut. Who made chronic disease optional. The money is a tool. The impact is the purpose.
ANU
And what is the next moonshot?
NAVEEN
(grinning)
I am not going to tell you yet. But it is bigger than the Moon and more important than the gut. It is the kind of idea that makes people say "that is impossible." And you know what I do with impossible.
ANU
(smiling)
You build a company around it.
INT. STAGE - ABUNDANCE 360 SUMMIT - DAY (PRESENT DAY)
NAVEEN speaks at a summit on exponential technologies. He is 64 years old and showing no signs of slowing down. The audience is full of entrepreneurs, scientists, and dreamers.
NAVEEN
(to the audience)
I have a challenge for every person in this room. Pick a problem. Not a small problem. A big problem. A problem that affects a billion people. And then ask yourself: what would it take to solve it? Not to manage it. Not to reduce it. To solve it. When you think that big, the world reorganizes around your ambition. Money finds you. Talent finds you. The universe conspires to help the person who is audacious enough to try.
AUDIENCE MEMBER
What if you fail?
NAVEEN
I lost $31 billion in the dot-com crash. I was called a fraud. A failure. A cautionary tale. And then I got licensed to go to the Moon and built an AI company that is decoding the human body. Failure is not the opposite of success. It is the prerequisite. Every moonshot requires a few crashes. The crashes are not the story. The landing is.
EXT. UTTAR PRADESH - INDIA - SUNSET (PRESENT DAY)
The village where Naveen grew up. The house is still there, though modernized now. Children play in the street. Some have smartphones. The world Naveen left is slowly becoming the world he envisioned. Electricity. Water. Internet. Access.
NAVEEN
(V.O.)
I go back to India sometimes. To the village where I grew up without running water. And I look at the children, and I see myself. Hungry. Curious. Certain that a bigger life exists somewhere beyond the horizon. And I want to tell every one of them — the biggest problems in the world are not obstacles. They are invitations. An invitation to build something. An invitation to matter. I grew up with nothing. And I aimed for the Moon. Not as a metaphor. Literally. Because the only goals worth pursuing are the ones that seem impossible. The possible has already been done. The impossible is where all the interesting work lives.
The sun sets over Uttar Pradesh. The same sun that sets over Bellevue, over Cape Canaveral, over the surface of the Moon. A boy studies by candlelight. The world is enormous. And there is so much left to build.
FADE OUT.
Naveen Jain was born in 1959 in Uttar Pradesh, India, and grew up without running water. He immigrated to the United States, worked at Microsoft, and founded InfoSpace in 1996, which reached a market capitalization of $31 billion before losing nearly all its value in the dot-com crash. He co-founded Moon Express in 2010, which in 2016 became the first private company to receive FAA approval to travel beyond Earth orbit and land on the Moon. He founded Viome in 2016, a health technology company that uses AI and metatranscriptomic analysis to decode the gut microbiome and provide personalized nutrition recommendations. Viome has analyzed over 500,000 microbiome samples and continues to expand its AI-driven health platform. Naveen Jain is also the author of "Moonshots: Creating a World of Abundance" and serves on the boards of the XPRIZE Foundation and Singularity University. He lives in Bellevue, Washington, with his wife Anu.