Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Astro Teller has a legitimate claim to the title of the “coolest job in tech.”
He’s the “captain of moonshots” at X, the Moonshot Factory, which is Alphabet’s in-house incubator for radical technologies aimed at huge global problems. He’s kind of the Willy Wonka of Google. Since 2010, Teller—whose grandfather was the famed physicist Edward Teller—has been turning sci‑fi ideas into projects like self‑driving cars (Waymo), delivery drones (Wing), and many more.
In this episode of Office Hour, we get into how Teller actually runs the Moonshot Factory day-to-day—how his team decides which wild ideas to back, how quickly they kill the ones that don’t work, and how they actually go about trying to turn the survivors into the next Waymo.
Fast Company is the world's leading progressive business media brand, with a unique editorial focus on innovation in technology, leadership, and design.
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Astro Teller has a legitimate claim to the title of the “coolest job in tech.”
He’s the “captain of moonshots” at X, the Moonshot Factory, which is Alphabet’s in-house incubator for radical technologies aimed at huge global problems. He’s kind of the Willy Wonka of Google. Since 2010, Teller—whose grandfather was the famed physicist Edward Teller—has been turning sci‑fi ideas into projects like self‑driving cars (Waymo), delivery drones (Wing), and many more.
In this episode of Office Hour, we get into how Teller actually runs the Moonshot Factory day-to-day—how his team decides which wild ideas to back, how quickly they kill the ones that don’t work, and how they actually go about trying to turn the survivors into the next Waymo.
Fast Company is the world's leading progressive business media brand, with a unique editorial focus on innovation in technology, leadership, and design.
Follow us on:
facebook.com/FastCompany
twitter.com/FastCompany
instagram.com/fastcompany
linkedin.com/company/fast-company
