Lessons from Cuban and Musk
Calacanis talks about the lessons he learned from Musk and Cuban:
Maxim Interview
Musk talks about coming along at the right time to start his business ventures:
Yeah, I feel like I’m here at the right time. If not for the Internet, where it’s possible to start with no capital and end up with a valuable company, it would have taken me a long time to build up these other businesses. It’s important to remember that being a good global citizen and a good businessman are not mutually exclusive.
NYT: Not fake
John Broder responds to Musk’s accusation:
My account was not a fake. It happened just the way I described it.
Border also notes that Elon Musk called him before the article went up on the Web, to offer sympathy and regrets about the outcome of his test drive. He said that the East Coast charging stations should be 140 miles apart, not 200 miles, to take into account the traffic and temperature extremes in this part of the country. He also offered Broder a second chance at a test drive in a few months, after additional Supercharger stations come online.
Musk: NYT review is fake
Musk takes to twitter to denounce the NYT review as fake:
NYTimes article about Tesla range in cold is fake. Vehicle logs tell true story that he didn't actually charge to max & took a long detour.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2013
Tesla blog coming soon detailing what actually happened on Broder's NYTimes "range test". Also lining up other journalists to do same drive.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2013
Musk notes in a later tweet that logging is not turned on for normal customers, only for journalists.
Musk, Riley divorce
Musk announces that he and Riley are splitting after just over one year of marriage. Riley moved out of their Bel Air home six months ago. Musk:
We took some time apart for several months to see if absence makes the heart grow fonder, and unfortunately it did not, I still love her, but I’m not in love with her. And I can’t really give her what she wants.
Man on Mars
In an interview with the WSJ, Musk makes the case for an affordable electric car, the likelihood of his company SpaceX sending a man to Mars, and why he isn’t exactly like Iron Man’s Tony Stark.
I’ll put a man on Mars in 10 years
Daimler buys stake, $550 million valuation
German automaker Daimler buys a 9% stake in Tesla Motors for $50 million. The company’s post-money valuation is now $550 million. Daimler also expands its partnership with the company to put electric batteries into Mercedes-Benz vehicles. In a press release, Daimler says:
Tesla is the only production automaker selling a highway capable electric vehicle in North America and Europe.
PayPal founded
PayPal is formed after online point-of-sale payments company X.com buys payments company Confinity. X.com stops its internet banking operations, and a Confinity system that focuses on payments transactions on personal digital assistants becomes the email-based PayPal system. The joint company is renamed PayPal and Elon Musk is its biggest shareholder.
X.com
0 CommentsMusk founds X.com as an internet financial services company. He is company chair while Bill Harris, the former CEO of tax and accounting software creator Intuit.com, is president and CEO. Investment banker John Story also joins the company.
The site goes online in December 1999, and a marketing campaign offering $20 to new customers and $10 for new referrals attracts 100,000 customers in its first two months of operation.
Elon Musk born in Pretoria, South Africa
Elon Musk is born in Pretoria, the eldest child of South African engineer Errol and Maye, nee Haldeman, a Canadian fashion model. He spends part of his childhood in the suburb of Waterkloof and graduates from Pretoria Boys High School.
He reads for many hours a day during childhood and enjoys comic books and J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing. He discusses science and computers with his brother Kimbal, and sister, Tosca, and debates computers with his father, who divorces from his mother. Instead of hiring domestic help, the children do chores, unlike many other wealthy South African families at the time.
I guess I was a bit of an autocratic father – do this, do that…I was a single parent, and they simply had to help out.
He develops the ambition to migrate to the U.S. during childhood, to escape a South African society that he views as oppressive under apartheid.