In October 2005, Peter Diamandis, founder of the X PRIZE Foundation, invited Lee Stein to Las Cruses, New Mexico to attend the first X PRIZE Cup event.  While at the event Lee had an experience which proved to change his investment and philanthropic focus.

Lee met Dumitru Popescu, President of ARCA, the Romanian Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association, a non-governmental organization, that promotes innovative aerospace projects.  At first it seemed funny, a Romanian space team...it sounded very much like the Jamaican Bobsled team. Soon Lee learned that ARCA joined the Ansari X PRIZE Competition in 2002 and since then it became one of the leading teams.

Lee found Dumitru and his team’s story to be fascinating. The raw spirit of opportunity and innovation was admirable, but was most intriguing for Lee was the fact that the ARCA team had invented a composite engine for their rocket launch, but had not filed any intellectual property protection due to capital constraints. The challenge was compelling: Figure out how to get capital to competitors so that others could follow in Dumitru's steps, but do so with the opportunity for financial gain.

So began the journey to develop risk mitigation methodologies which could be applied to solving future prize competitions for the benefit of those without access to financial markets.