Elon Musk interview by Sky News in the U.K on June 7, 2014

[pete8314]

Do you guys mind that he was asked twice about his founding of Tesla and there was no qualification of that? You have to realize Musk did not found the company. Otherwise, good interview and covers a lot of points.

In fairness though, it was the interviewer that kept saying it. From Musk's point of view (this is a marketing exercise, after all) it would be poor form to correct the interviewer, and detract from the main point of the discussion.

 

[ecarfan]

Do you guys mind that he was asked twice about his founding of Tesla and there was no qualification of that? You have to realize Musk did not found the company. Otherwise, good interview and covers a lot of points.

According to Wikipedia, quote "Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004, joining Tesla's Board of Directors as its Chairman".

To try to correct an interviewer that he was not technically a "founder" and then explain the details of his involvement with Tesla starting just 7 months after it was incorporated is simply not worth the on air time and potential confusion that would likely ensue.

I'm fine with him letting interviewers describe him as a "founder".

 

[Auzie]

Not to brag about it, but:
1. Join Date: Aug 2006
against
Join Date: Jul 2013

Beside those two guys and a business plan there was also a pre-roadster proof-of-concept car payed for and driven for a year by the real to-be co-founder Martin Eberhard. Even before there was a business plan.
That car was the real physical proof that small LiIon cells can work in a car. At that time everybody and their aunt knew electric cars are nonsense, using laptop batteries that burn and explode doubly so.

2. That does not make him a founder. You can define a "modern Tesla" founded by Elon Musk.
You may like him and worship him.

3. That does not change the chain of events that happened ~10 years ago. He came later and brought the bigger part of the money. And much of that money was spent on things he demanded. And then blamed on others.

1. Not sure how your join date overrides my reasoning. My reasoning is based on publicly available information. If there is some inside information that you are privileged to due to your join date, why not share it.

2. I did not say that Elon is a founder. I just attribute Tesla business success so far to him, rather than to original founders with a business plan. I like many people but thanks to Elon I made a lot of money, so the least I can do is give him some credit for that.

3. If he brought in a bigger part of the money, he had every right to make demands. Model S got accolades and acceptance by customers due to high product standards set by Elon.

OT, Slovenia is a small country and my parents could easily be your neighbours.:smile:

 

[Arnold Panz]

As part of Tesla and Elon's settlement with Martin Eberhard when Eberhard sued for defamation, they agreed that both could officially call themselves "founder" (or co-founder) of Tesla. So, legally, Elon is a founder, end of discussion. As a practical matter, he came in very early, but not at the very beginning.

Many on this forum with pre-2009 join dates are very protective of Martin's role in the founding of Tesla, and were upset with how he was terminated from Tesla, and the subsequent blame game that occurred between Martin and Elon/Tesla as to what happened and who was at fault etc. The lawsuit stopped the public dispute on these issues, but even these many years later there are still sore feelings.