Musk: Time to tackle dealer dispute - YouTube
When was the last time you had a conversation with a "financial type" that had any vision or any interest in truly adding value? It took the first startup for me to realize that venture funding was a waste of time if there was a snow ball's chance of accomplishing the goal without them. You end up trying to convince people with a short time frame to think longer term. My time was much better spent actually accomplishing what I set out to do thus the second start up did not involve outside funding and did quite well.
I guess I agree with a lot of the Europeans when they look at the US and think why are these people so focused on chasing money for money's sake. I prefer Elon's approach-
Do the job well, add value and the money will come.
Get the majors on board to achieve critical mass thus improving life for everyone. There is more than enough room for Tesla to thrive as one or more of the majors will likely not be around in the future. Following the train of thought just a bit further, if none of the majors follow you, you will be relegated to a niche product with narrow acceptance and no real room to grow.
Lastly, when was the last time market cap was tied to reality? I take the NASDAQ daily volume and divide it by the whole population of the US and quickly realize each and every american is not trading that much stock every day. It is a market of machines and not people thus valuation is loosely tied to reality if at all.
Of course, Elon says it best towards the end of the interview when he talks about why he is not taking SpaceX public. He says something like it is hard to talk to financial types about a company that wants to go to Mars and will pay off really big in twelve years when those people will have gone through two career changes by then......
Is it not the tail wagging the dog when people that will go through two career changes in twelve years (I know, I'm being literal here) have this much impact on how and which companies are funded? Just think about how this is thinning our corporate DNA not to mention the depth of our vision.
