Elon Musk on Time Magazine Cover

[Curt Renz]

Elon Musk is on one of seven different Time Magazine covers this week. He is among their 100 most influential people of 2013.

http://time100.time.com/2013/04/18/cover-shots/slide/elon-musk/

http://time100.time.com/

 

[HVM]

...http://time100.time.com/2013/04/18/cover-shots/slide/elon-musk/...

What is meaning of that 4-finger BEV-gang sign?

 

[jeff_adams]

CEO in a leather jacket. Nice......

 

[Cattledog]

All publicity...

 

[Soflason]

CEO in a leather jacket. Nice......

Rebel with a cause

 

[TD1]

I guess the "four" fingers he is holding up stands for the 4 Companies with a Market evaluation of over a Billion that he founded.
(Paypal, SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity)
any other guesses?

 

[ModestW12]

Seems strange to think that Jay Z has been as influential as Elon, considering Mr. Z is also on one of the covers. Another cover features Li Na, a Chinese tennis player that's been playing rather well in recent years. I suppose from a particular point of view they could also be considered very influential.

I did like the flattering write up by one of Mr. Musk's competitors in the space industry, Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic.

 

[artsci]

Given that Time and whole old Luce empire is going under, being on the cover of a magazine with unsustainably low circulation is hardly the honor is was in Time's glory days. But those days are long gone. Today, given that print magazines are a dying breed, being on the cover of any of them is not worth much of anything.

I would argue the Elon has received many more valuable tributes that the one from Time. They're just latecomers.

 

[ShortSlaver]

Given that Time and whole old Luce empire is going under, being on the cover of a magazine with unsustainably low circulation is hardly the honor is was in Time's glory days. But those days are long gone. Today, given that print magazines are a dying breed, being on the cover of any of them is not worth much of anything.

I would argue the Elon has received many more valuable tributes that the one from Time. They're just latecomers.

Might be, however, I worked with a company associated with Time Inc that served mobile traffic and their various properties (Time, People, SI, InStyle, etc) served a very non-trivial amount of content per month. Still, extremely relevant properties - if, however, useless.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

I guess the "four" fingers he is holding up stands for the 4 Companies with a Market evaluation of over a Billion that he founded.
(Paypal, SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity)
any other guesses?

That was my guess too. I don't think he was showing off his manicure.

The write-up from Branson was very tepid though (he couldn't resist plugging his own Virgin Galactic).

And, yes, I'm one of the last holdouts who still subscribe to Time; got this issue today.

 

[aronth5]

I guess the "four" fingers he is holding up stands for the 4 Companies with a Market evaluation of over a Billion that he founded.
(Paypal, SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity)
any other guesses?

A little nitpicking here but just to clarify Elon Musk did not start SolarCity. But hey 3 out of 4 isn't bad and he is now the Chairman of Solar City which is no small accomplishment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Rive
Lyndon Rive is the co-founder and CEO of SolarCity, a provider of clean energy services that designs, finances, and installs photovoltaic systems, performs energy-efficiency audits, and retrofits and builds charging stations for electric vehicles. Rive co-founded SolarCity with his brother Peter in 2006 and has helped to grow the company to become the largest residential solar installer in the United States, as well as one of the largest solar developers of any kind.

 

[aznt1217]

He actually did found Solar city. The two founders are Elon's cousins. Elon gave them the idea to start SolarCity when they went to burning man together. Elon wanted to do it but had his hands full with Tesla and SpaceX. His cousins started a company that was sold to Dell with a similar concept of leasing software services. Elon said try it out with Solar it might work better... and here we are today.

A little nitpicking here but just to clarify Elon Musk did not start SolarCity. But hey 3 out of 4 isn't bad and he is now the Chairman of Solar City which is no small accomplishment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Rive
Lyndon Rive is the co-founder and CEO of SolarCity, a provider of clean energy services that designs, finances, and installs photovoltaic systems, performs energy-efficiency audits, and retrofits and builds charging stations for electric vehicles. Rive co-founded SolarCity with his brother Peter in 2006 and has helped to grow the company to become the largest residential solar installer in the United States, as well as one of the largest solar developers of any kind.

 

[vfx]

He says he was offered founder status here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uegOUmgKB4E

 

[brianman]

He actually did found Solar city. The two founders are Elon's cousins.

Does not compute.

 

[CapitalistOppressor]

He actually did found Solar city. The two founders are Elon's cousins. Elon gave them the idea to start SolarCity when they went to burning man together. Elon wanted to do it but had his hands full with Tesla and SpaceX. His cousins started a company that was sold to Dell with a similar concept of leasing software services. Elon said try it out with Solar it might work better... and here we are today.

Any interviews I have seen, he has pointedly refused to take credit for Solar City, though he was offered "founder" status, and he is the largest shareholder. At the same time, I have occasionally seen him point to Solar City as an additional company to count towards his total. That makes me about 51% confident that he isn't taking credit for founding Solar City with this hand gesture.

Therefor, I am going to go with it being his best, geeky Dr. Evil impression.

 

[HVM]

...BEV-gang sign?

That remark was not meant to be taken seriously.

And:

 

[Doug_G]

Probably the photographer posed him for the shot.

 

[vfx]

Probably the photographer posed him for the shot.

Photographers doing head shots LOVE the hand by the face.

 

[medved]

He actually did found Solar city. The two founders are Elon's cousins. Elon gave them the idea to start SolarCity when they went to burning man together....

Not only that. He gave them 10 million dollars too.

 

[aronth5]

Lots of interesting information on this topic with Lyndon Rive and his brother always getting credit for founding Solar City in the articles I found. Since they were successful with another start up software company and sold it to help start Solar City not sure why they wouldn't get credit even if Elon gave them 10 million dollars.

This is typical of what I've found. Regardless of who gets credit for Solar City Elon is amazing.
http://beyond438.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/lyndon-rive-green-energy-ceo-solarcity-and-underwater-hockey-player/
In 1998 Lyndon and Russell Rive created Everdream, which serves small businesses that have fewer than 20 employees by providing computer hardware, round-the-clock technology support services, desktop management services, Internet access and free online training for a single monthly subscription charge of about $150. Offerings include application management, software distribution, hardware integration and help desk services. The brothers started selling their services going door-to-door on skateboards and, after securing some seed money, grew the business within eight months into a 100-employee operation occupying a 40,000-square-foot space. The Rives have since replaced themselves at Everdream with another management team so they could start SolarCity, but Lyndon still serves Everdream as vice president.