/biz/ - Business & Finance

Oh, you.

paypal

>tesla
>cheap ass battery cells
>promotion of feminojewish gypsy values

>>755742
>tesla

So he's made some luxury cars for price insensitive customers. That's not a revolution. Where are the mass-market models?

>cheap ass battery cells
Hasn't happened yet.

>First company was a web development firm which made a Yelp progenitor, acquired by Compaq for $350 million
>After that, founded a online payment services firm which ended up merging with the company that made Paypal, acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion
>After that, founded SpaceX and Tesla Motors, with a current combined valuation of around $17 billion as well as being some of the most advanced privately-owned tech organizations on the planet

sure are some epic memes there :^)

>>755723
This.
Paypal was a great idea. Right time, right place.
After e-commerce took off paypal was bound to make good money.

Zip2, which he sold for over $300M was pretty shit. Without that stroke of luck I doubt he would be where he is today.
Kind of reminds me of Mark Cuban and broadcast dot com. How the fuck that sold for 5.7B is just confusing. How yahoo even had 5.7B to throw at something like that is even more confusing.

The smartest decision he made was to buy some hair. pic related.

>>755748
So much jelly in 1 post, holy shit, I fell off the chair.

Take it easy, man. Slow down.

>>755747

he's good at getting money for products that don't make money

>>755751
Don't worry m8. Im sure there is some kind of autism welfare program that can help you buy a real chair.

>>755718

His name sounds like a bottled men's fragrance or cologne.

9785145069 9785145069 9785145069

>>755718
1- American youth needed a role model. His strikes of luck created a great opportunity to create hope for American entrepreneurs.
2- Wall Street needed to create a figure that people speculate on. Wall Street's profit is not from people investing, it is from people trading.

Space X, Tesla & Solar city are at least 30 years away from profitability and people are trading while they know it is a bubble.
If Warren Buffet invest in his companies, I'll take back everything that I said.
Smokes & Mirrors

>>755774
Elon's Musk by Elon Musk.

>created Zip2, a company that was acquired for a few hundred million $ when he was like 25 or something
>founded paypal, $1B+ company, which enhanced e-commerce
>founded SpaceX, first private aerospace company to compete with government space programs, and is about to colonize another fucking planet
>founded Tesla, the only electric car company to successfully disrupt an extremely competitive industry
>Musk is one of two people in the history of man kind that has founded 3 different billion-dollar companies

>>755742
Feminojewish gypsy values? I feel like I need to know more.

>>755751
this

>>755829
you forgot

>was born into millions

as his first and greatest achievement

>>755718
Overrated hack for liberal-minded geeks

>>755911
so? there are tons of faggot kids born into millions who don't get into UPenn, or a Stanford Ph.D program, or start a company worth over $1B+ three different times.

When he and his brother rented only an office, no apartment, and slept in the office while essentially working 24/7 to start Zip2, most people can do that, you don't need millions. When he got $180M from Paypal, he invested literally 100% of his money (100M to SpaceX, 70M to Tesla and 10M to SolarCity), he had to borrow money for rent. Anyone who hates on Elon Musk is a jelly faggot who doesn't understand anything about hard work, vision and actual business. I bet you faggots have "independent business owner" or "President and CEO" of your shitty Amway or faggot start-up where your only customer is your mom's friends when they come over for book club and you venture out of the basement, and in reality you bag groceries at Trader Joe's you fucking cunts

>>755823
That's an interesting take on it. I think it would be neat for Musk to achieve all his goals, but at the moment, he seems like more of an extremely clever marketer than a technological revolutionary. It kind of annoys me when I see everyone talking about him and his ventures as if they have changed humanity already, and aren't willing to take a step back and realise that he hasn't really done a whole lot as of yet.

>>755751

How was it jelly? Nobody under 30 knows what Zip2 and Broadcast dot com are because they're defunct. I would say it's a pretty lucky break to sell your software company at the height of a bubble. If I was in the meeting where that Snapchat guy turned down the $2B buyout I would've hnnnng'd into the next dimension. I'll eat my words if I'm wrong, but Snapchat won't be relevant in 5 years.

Also it's amazing how you can age 15 years with lots of money and end up looking 10x better >>755748

SpaceX is dropping the price to orbit by a lot and is the first completely private company in space.

Tesla is doing for electric cars what Ford did for normal cars with the Model T. Breaking the car dealership cartel. Is also dropping the price of lithium batteries by a ton.

Solar City is making home solar energy easy and affordable.

he's the new steve jobs, he learned how to create a brand for himself with Tesla and SpaceX

since the latter does government contracting, he's more or less permanently rich now

>>755934
the only government work SpaceX does is hauling groceries and trash to and from the ISS.

Though Musk is currently suing to make national security space launches a competitive market.

>>755920
>Elon Musk was rich, but he did his thing like he was poor! GENIUS
>now, about you... you're just poor hahaha loser

Nice argument.

>>755928
No cunt knew about macintosh until they rebranded and rose from the grave, just becausd they dont know about his esrly achievements doesnt really mean jack shit. Its not like you know every stock buffet bought in his early life to get where he is now, you just know he played the right cards and ended up on top. As did musk, in his own way. The specifics are irrelevant, money is all thst matters and you're salty as fuck because he has more than you and because he is reverse aging.

>>756170

Calm down you autistic freak. I like Elon Musk and his companies. I don't know why you are comparing Apple rebranding to selling off companies for 100 million+ that are now worth exactly $0

>>755920
This guy rekt'd the whole thread and its participants.

/thread

>>755928
Snapchat is literally a useless meme app and will be replaced by something more innovative any day now..

Dumb nigga should of took the money and ran

>>755718
He was born into a life of privilege...

I think you should know how then things go....
psst... they're easy.

>>756180
The jelly runs strong in you m8. Stay salty and maybe make your own thread when /you/ sell literally anything for 1000$ let alone a few hundred mil.

>>755745
electric cars are a joke, the fact that people actually buy them just show how reality doesn't matter anymore
Unless you get electricity almost exclusively from renewable resources (not gonna happen for a long long time) how could electricity be better for the environment?
Do hippies really think converting coal (the dirtiest natural resource) to electricity (a very inefficient energy conversion), and then using massive amounts of electricity to power a car (also inefficient) is somehow "green"
people are so dumb

>>755748
Why did he not embrace his baldness?

>>756266
>Unless you get electricity almost exclusively from renewable resources (not gonna happen for a long long time) how could electricity be better for the environment?
you are aware that he invests in solar power correct? clean energy is the whole fucking point

>>756269
yeah I know that's his whole end game, but I saw like 5 priuses on my drive home from work and it annoyed me

>>756269
everyone wants sustainable energy but doesn't want to pay for it
all the environmentalists wanted to close our local coal plant and replace it with a solar farm, until they realized solar energy is 10-20 times more expensive than coal

I do like what he's doing, but anyone who buys his cars for any other reason than to subsidize his company is an idiot

>>755823

Spacex is already profitable. What are you talking about

>>755718
The real Imputentant Rage

>>755823
spaceX became profitable when they landed that nasa deal
all the commercial launches inbetween the nasa launches are just icing on the cake now

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.uha

>>756355
Back to /b/ with you

>>755718
>paypal changed how the world saw ecommerce
>SpaceX will privatize space exploration and resource gathering
>Tesla is blowing the fuck out the US auto industry*
>Solar City is giving people affordable solar solutions on the small scale, where it has the greatest strength
>battery superfactory incoming

*to be quite fair, the US auto industry needs to die, and it's on the last of it's legs. It's an old, proud buffalo that broke his leg too many times. Now there's a bunch of natives chasing it off a cliff. The herd will be stronger without him.

So yeah, the guy's not a meme. He's a billionaire entrepreneur who is making a killing off being a decent human being. He's also advancing our technology. Most of the sociopaths heading up corporations would gladly burn our planet to get an extra buck. Musk is showing them that we can profit while earning money. And that our lifestyle is shareable with the whole planet.

Go ahead, call me a faggot.

>>756396
Fag

>hating on elon musk
>not being either retarded or b8

pick one nigger

>>755718
your moms an entrepreneur

>>756246

I'm not ragging on Musk you retarded faggot

It took skill to build Zip2, but if you don't think getting a $300 million offer for an internet city guide takes a little bit of luck then I don't know what to tell you

>>756268
Because nobody would have taken him seriously and he wouldn't be where he is today. He looks like your average basement dwelling neckbeard in that picture.

>>756436
Luck is when opportunity meets preparation. "Luck" is being born with all the tools to succeed, which are a lot less than you think, and a lot less thN you were likely born with. "Skill" is,the hours of hard work and vision, using the tools you were given (by luck or other means) and creating and opportunity where A) you know you can create a successful business and B) you know there are companies with lots of money looking to shell out lots of money for your services in your medium (I.e. The Internet). YOU, a little,faggot bitch beta, were actually born with luck. And while you are sitting here waving you tiny dick around criticizing Elon, the "lucky" people are coding and working their ass off to create their own tangible success. Just like Elon did while your faggot father was blowing his load into your ugly whore mother and birthing you out her asshole. This level of stupidity, and lack of,self awareness that you possess is exactly why you will always be a fucking pleb who blames "luck" on anything great, because you have no idea what it's like to take real control of your life and really be a man, and create your own opportunity. Normally I would tell you to kill yourself because you're hogging up perfectly good oxygen, but Elon Musk is colonizing other planets and creating a safer environment on earth, so a shortage of oxygen is no longer an issue. Fucking faggot.

>>756439
this, looks DO matter.

>>756440
damn, this pasta surely tastes good.

>>755718
Le Reddit maymay car company. I'm going to laugh my ass off when it fails to generate any profit before it goes bankrupt.

Peter Thiel foundered PayPal.

Musk foundered X.com (which was offreing/planning a similar service)

- the two merged, but, this continual historical claim "Musk found PayPal" is highly dubious. PayPal also basically bought their success - $10 a signup, and $10 for a referral - /biz/ter NEETs would have a field day scamming that setup now, and indeed, many actually did, back in the days.

Apart from that tho, arguing Musk is not a success, nor (at least, slightly) a visionary, is just jelly or stupidity. That he maybe had advantages to help make it happen, so be it - you cannot argue, he actually does achieve / make things happen.

>>756396

Most convincing argument I've head since entering the thread, not so sure how Tesla is fairing compared to other car companies tho

>>755718
I think getting people to agree on what exactly constitutes “revolutionized” is going to be difficult but at the very least Musk has disrupted a number of industries. Whether or not these disruptions turn into revolutions will take some time to play out.

IMO, Tesla’s biggest accomplishment so far has been to produce and market a car that most buyers would consider nice regardless of it being electric or not. Prior to Tesla, and perhaps the Chevy Volt which isn't pure electric drive, EVs had considerable drawbacks that resulted in them being niche products for a very small dedicated customer base. Tesla has shown that EVs can be cool, luxurious and sporty. You can argue that this is more marketing than revolutionary engineering but it's nonetheless a really big deal. I would bet that most people who test drive a Tesla S would consider it to be a nice car even if they weren't aware that it was electric. Again, this is a huge deal.

>>755745
Like most everything else that involves enormous capital costs, you first target the price insensitive customers while you build up economies of scale allowing you to drive down costs and bring about mass market products. You are aware that there was a time when only large companies and universities could afford computers? Hell, you don’t have to go back too far to a time when flat screen plasmas cost $20k.

>>756266
Retard alert. Retard alert.

You do understand the inherent efficiencies in large scale energy production right? Even the most “dirty” coal plants in the US are significantly more “clean” on a per kWh energy production basis than the comparable use of individual combustion engines. This doesn’t even take into account newer coal plants that do a better job at sequestration and other cleaner sources of energy like natgas, solar, wind, nuclear.

Also, you might not be aware of this but the gas in your mom’s minivan doesn’t just magically appear out of thin air without any corresponding environmental impact. Even discounting tailpipe emissions, or the general horrible job that ICE cars do of turning petroleum into kinetic energy, you need to account for the impact of extracting, shipping, refining, and final transport of fuel to the pump. This isn’t to say that EVs are zero emission or without any environmental consequence, no human activity is, but they are much better suited to take advantage of large scale power generation and distribution advancements.

Hybrids in many ways offer the worst of both worlds. They still rely on petroleum infrastructure while also adding the cost, both environmental and financial, of EV battery tech. They need to die already.

It isn’t often brought up but one of the biggest benefits of pure EVs is the huge burden that is lifted by not having to design a car around large immovable constraints like the engine, transmission, driveshaft. Battery packs are relatively modular and are much easier to design around. Most people don’t consider this but one of the biggest safety concerns when design a car involves finding ways to keep the 300-400lbs hunk of solid iron sitting 2 feet from the steering wheel from entering the passenger compartment during an impact and turning everyone into spaghetti.

SpaceX is doing some really cool things in both design and execution. Reusability actually does have the potential to completely change the space launch landscape and open entire new markets. Musk has also brought some much welcome change to the way aerospace companies are traditionally run. One of the reasons space hardware is so expensive it that it has usually followed the tried and true defense contracting methods of production that heavily rely on outsourcing large amounts of your entire build process. This subcontracting brings with it huge inefficiencies that add enormous costs to aerospace/defense contracts. Of course, it has traditionally made sense for the large defense contractors to spread their projects amongst as many congressional districts as possible. As you can imagine, this really helps them when it's time to vote on appropriation bills, not so great for taxpayers though.

I feel like many of the people saying how Tesla & SpaceX haven’t really done anything don’t have a proper understanding of how difficult it is to execute these kind of large scale and long term projects. In many ways, the fact that you have young upstarts like Tesla and SpaceX impacting two entrenched industries can already be considered “revolutionary”.

With regards to Musk personally, yeah, the dude has definitely had some good luck but he has also taken chances that I don’t think most people would and he has certainly worked his ass off. I don’t think many people would sink their entire $200-$300 million fortune into a space launch venture. Actually scratch that, no one would or has, except for Elon Musk. There are far safer investments.

>>756652
I’ve worked some really crappy shifts at SpaceX and have seen Musk at all kinds of odd hours. The guy really does work like a maniac. I absolutely love what I’m doing but I can honestly say that if you gave me a couple billion dollars worth of equity, I’m not sure I wouldn’t just cash out and go relax on a beach somewhere while getting my dick sucked. The fact that Musk is still putting in crazy hours is certainly inspiring.

Based Musk is based.

>>755718
lol looks like som1 shorted on tsla

>>756654
>>756652
>>756651
>>756650

Thanks for the excellent reply. I suppose my definition of 'revolutionary technology' would be when it becomes affordable for middle-class consumers, or, in the case of SpaceX, when it becomes competitive enough for businesses to incorporate it into their operations (which would presumably raise living standards for the population). I just feel that Tesla's vehicles don't quite fit this category yet. The electric car seems to be where the internal combustion automobile was in the late nineteenth century: a nice plaything for the wealthy, but not realistically accessible for most people (the base model Model S retails for around $120,000 AUD while a brand new Mercedes can go for around $80,000 AUD). Now, I certainly hope that Musk releases a mass-market model and I hope it succeeds, but there's a big difference between manufacturing and selling a luxury car with novel technology to largely price insensitive customers in a niche market, and manufacturing and selling a cheaper model that has to not only be affordable, but competitively-priced against existing internal combustion automobiles, a highly entrenched technology. We shouldn't be too hasty to assume that simply because Musk has achieved the former, that he will, by extension, be able to achieve the latter. I don't feel that simply "making it cool" is a solid enough foundation to build the EV empire that Musk wants.

Also, do you actually work for SpaceX? That's cool as fuck.

>>756650
Thanks for the detailed response.

What's it like working at SpaceX?

>>756654
What do you do at spacex?

>>756762
>Based Musk is based.
can you go into more detail about working/what you do at Space X?

>>756651
>>756652
>>756654
c'mon now, Elon... it's time for bed.
and don't sue me, like you sue anybody who says something bad about your bullshit schemes.

You are by far and away the best marketing agent I have had the displeasure of witnessing.

>>757561
>>757561


That's true I don't belive in tesla for one second but I belive in TESLA stock because of the 300k its made me over hte paste couple years . keep up the good work elon and I may retire at 35

>>756762
I agree that both Tesla and SpaceX have a long way to go in order to truly change their respective industries but I feel like people often expect these kind of revolutionary changes to happen overnight, when in fact they can take a very long time and require a good amount of luck.

There is definitely also a kind of survivorship bias that exists wherein only those companies that thrive long term are given credit for certain advancements or revolutions. While this is perfectly natural, it often completely dismisses the contributions of those companies/people that don't last, many times through no fault of their own.

It wouldn't take a very long string of bad luck to put SpaceX out of business. In fact, its almost happened multiple times in our short history already. I believe the same can be said for Tesla.

If SpaceX closed down tomorrow, I wouldn't consider what Musk/SpaceX have done to be irrelevant. At the very least he's laid out a blueprint for others to try and emulate.

I sometimes wonder if Musk gets too much credit for what he's doing, but then I think about all the other billionaires in the world who really aren't doing shit with their money. Sure some give enormous amounts away to charity, but while great, that doesn't carry the same kind of risk that Musk's ventures do.

I'm surprised the Tesla S is so expensive in Australia compared to an equivalent Mercedes. I've heard they are very well priced in some EU countries but I could very well be wrong.

>>756762
>Also, do you actually work for SpaceX? That's cool as fuck.
Yes, I've been working at SpaceX for a few years now. It is indeed cool but not without its downsides.

>>757374
I don't want to get too descriptive with my work but I help manage our production/manufacturing process departments. I basically work to ensure our hardware meets standards and to try and streamline our production.

>>757553
That's a fairly broad question and I'll try and come back to it when I'm not so tired and can think of something worthwhile to write.

If you anons have any specific questions let me know and I'll try and answer them the best I can.

>>757561
Pretty sure Elon has better things to spend his limited free time doing than posting on an anonymous Chinese cartoon imageboard. I on the other hand, not so much.

Do you think Elon Musk smells musky?

>>757654
Always. And most people have to pay $90 a bottle for that smell.

>>756268
He really needs to embrace it and shave his fucking head. I think he would gain meme points

>>757635
They are very cheap for companies because the (kind of retarded, as electric cars get a score of 0 which is of course false too) way of measuring CO2. A low score here usually leads to the car being 90% (or in some countries even 150%) tax deductable for companies.

Buying one for private use is a lot more expensive (starts at around 85-90k for a naked entry-version) and it won't give you the aformentioned tax cuts.

Once governments will start cutting on these ridiculous tax breaks (like they are doing already for solar in a lot of countries) teslas will lose a lot of popularity unless the mass-market model will have some serious advantages compared to what BMW/Mercedes/Audi and the likes will bring to the market in the coming years.

>>755718
Neither did Jobs innovate anything. It's just marketing. The method applied being "cult of personality".

>>757786
He'd look too much like an evil bond villain. I think he's going more for the Tony Stark look.

>>757796
>Neither did Jobs innovate anything.
I really really really like this meme

>>755829
>to compete with government space programs

SpaceX is not viable absent NASA shovelling billions in virtually no-strings-attached cash at them.

>is about to colonize another fucking planet

Lol. No. Absent an Apollo-like investment (~5% of GDP), we're decades away from even putting a man on another planet, let alone establishing a permanent colony.

>successfully disrupt an extremely competitive industry

ttm profits of major automakers:

Toyota: $18bn
Volkswagen: $11bn
Honda: $5bn
GM: $3.5bn
Ford: $3bn
...
Tesla: (-$400mm)

Nice disruption, faggot.

>3 different billion-dollar companies

Irrelevant. Gates founded a company selling shitty software for rip-off prices and was a hundred times as successful. Jobs convinced hipsters to buy Unix in an aluminum case and that company is worth three-quarters of a TRILLION dollars. Total success what matters.

>>758503
Yeah, I'm no Applefag but this one is getting old.

>>755968

That's still government contracting though. He correctly made the step from the consumer world (paypal) to government/enterprise work with SpaceX.

>>758661

>SpaceX is not viable absent NASA shovelling billions in virtually no-strings-attached cash at them.

Neither are many other industries, including freight companies like Union Pacific or BNSF that move bulk items for the DoD. Same for most US aerospace comapnies, including Northrop-Gunmann, Boeing, and Lockheed. Same for most gun companies, Colt, Bushmaster, Glock and Beretta all make most of their money making guns for the military market.

Government contracting is big business, and more importantly extremely profitable in the long term. Just look at how long AT&T was able to maintain their monopoly because their subsidiary, Bell Labs, built radars and radios for the navy.

>Total success what matters.

What "matters" is profitability and SpaceX is profitable as of 2012. And given how it undercuts ULA, it'll likely continue to be profitable for the foreseeable future. SpaceX is creating an ROI for it's investors, that's all that matters.

>>755928
The Snapchat founder is a spoiled retard who doesn't even know how to program, all he does is party.

>>756440
>Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

>using quotes in a real life context, ever
Whatever, literal plebs using quotes to guide their entire life path just makes things easier for me.

>>759405
An intelligent response, what a nice change from all the usual faggotry.

He reminds me of Harrison Wells

>>759405
>Neither are many other industries, including freight companies like Union Pacific or BNSF that move bulk items for the DoD. Same for most US aerospace comapnies, including Northrop-Gunmann, Boeing, and Lockheed. Same for most gun companies, Colt, Bushmaster, Glock and Beretta all make most of their money making guns for the military market.

Right, but nobody makes retarded claims that Boeing or Beretta are "disrupting" the DoD, or that BNSF is going to "replace" the interstates.

There's literally nothing wrong with being a government contractor, but you don't get to be one and simultaneously pretend that you're a heroic entrepreneur saving humanity instead of a putz at the whims of some 30ish purchasing officer in a cheap suit making $45k. Read any major contractor's 10-k and they'll be a line to the effect of "98.x% of our business comes from government contracts that can be terminated at their discretion for any reason, and we're fucked if they do". Musk should't get a pass from this, but for some reason he does.

>>757649
I'm an industrial engineer working for volvo right now. Can you hire me?

>>760581
What kind of work do you do at Volvo? Are you more industrial design or manufacturing engineering?

Where are you located?

We actually employ quite a few people from automotive backgrounds. I know a number who used to be at BMW before joining us. They're very good at setting up/streamlining production processes.

>>755718
Wired and edgy faggots invested all their savings into tesla. That's why were constantly bombarded w/ self driving shit cars

>>757635
Yeah, absolutely. We shouldn't be critical of "failed" engineers usually because they make major contributions to the ultimately successful product regardless. My OP wasn't really meant to put down Musk, but more his fanboys (or I dare say, his cult) who act like he's already revolutionised technology while, like you said, his companies still have quite some way to go. I think it's great what he's doing and I definitely admire his vision and the immense drive he has to achieve it.

I'm generally quite reserved when I see the "next big thing" in technology; usually, there tends to be some glaring problem that its layperson proponents have conveniently ignored (e.g. LFTR). So while I'm quietly excited about the prospect of consumer space travel, driverless EVs, and high-capacity lithium batteries, I won't allow that excitement to lull me into thinking that the implementation of this technology will be effortless and won't run into significant challenges.

>>755748
What has Elon Musk done!!!! He has managed to destroy male pattern baldness with only his mind to sport a lion sized mane of hair in 2015. That's amazing.

>>760989
My degree is industrial & systems engineering. I manage process flow, materials, work layout, quality, and other day to day tasks for a large portion of the chassis line.

I've been here for almost a year and plan on staying another but I want to get the hell out after that.

>>760989
And I'm located in Virginia.

>>755748

If he was that bald in 1999, how the fuck does he have more hair now?

>>761650
>>761275
It's very simple. For every Tesla Musk sells, he flies to Africa and takes a starving child. He has the childs hair removed, bleached, and chemically straightened. Over time, he adds that hair to his own, and with more Tesla's being sold he becomes more and more powerful/hairy. Soon, Ape Musk will be upon us and the new age will begin.

>>755748
It's due luck and connections and being born on wealth, same as always. Only deluded amurricans that think they'll make it big defend those morons.

>>755718

People who've bet against Musk have generally lost their money doing so. He's not a meme in that sense, but he's definitely been picked up by the internet as the next Hype Entrepreneur, and Musk definitely plays into that perception of himself.

>>761726
Yeah, cause no one poor or middle class has ever become wealthy due to hard work and determination.

Not saying luck has nothing to do with it or that being born into wealth won't make things easier, and I certainly don't think that we should worship at the feet of the rich but you sound really bitter.

I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you aren't a great success yourself.

>>761717
Kekkington McKekkers

>>761717
Avengers: Age of Musk
Here's a spoiler for you: Musk wins

Meme, easily. He couldn't even answer that indian who wanted to be vice president.

>>755718
Electric car that doesn't suck balls, there will be a not-rich-people model coming out soon, battery cells that work very well.

Created Paypal back in the day.

Space industry stuff, helping restart the age of space travel in an age when NASA doesn't really do shit and we rely too much on Russia's ancient rockets.

>meme entrepreneur
So, what have you done with your life, OP?

>>755823
I don't know much about Solar City, but SpaceX already has like 5 billion dollars in contracts with NASA, they are very profitable right now. Tesla isn't some slouch, either.

>>762647
/thread

>>755748
hahahaha, man that picture made me laugh, didnt know elon musk used to be that goofy looking.

But creds to the man, paypal is a huge company but i dont like his tesla cars, they are not revolutionary before they get this super cheap batteries as hes talking about

He plans on releasing battery cells for home this year, just got $1bn in funding to start producing satelites for a space-based internet (I remember reading about google wanting to use blimps to get internet to different parts of the world, this is putting that to shame and opening communication to space), they plan on selling tge satellites comercially after producing them as well - new sources of revenue for both spacex and tesla, and his hyperloop idea is getting off the ground

Yeah he seems legit

And this is a good book

>>756650
Isn't it time you invited him to the thread?

>>760989
If you get back to this thread please email me. Working for SpaceX or Tesla would be a dream.

Carvethesnow98 @ gmail

>>763238
I got the book too, didn't start it yet. I bought Zero to One at the same time, been reading that first. If you like Musk's work and mindset you would love Zero to One

>>763410
Zero to One has literally nothing to do with Musk's mindset, but I read that too

>>755920
Holy shit

>>755718
>everything is a meme

>>763509
>Zero to One has literally nothing to do with Musk's mindset

apparently you didn't understand a word you were reading

>>756599
They are going to make a ton selling powerwalls once the gigafactory is up and running. For anybody who doesn't know about batteries, its an amazing price considering its capacity and size.

>>755718
he literally got lucky with paypal and then spent his millions wisely. he probably blew 10% of his paypal money on luxury shit (houses, cars, etc.), put 80% in a trust so he never has to work. and the rest he invests in startups (like Tesla)

just like 50 cent, got lucky with his music, then spent his money wisely by investing it and got lucky with vitaminwater

>>763509
Wow you are fucking retarded

>>764307
>>764704
The book is by Peter Thiel, I know it's easy to get the two confused
Musk is only briefly mentioned

>>764701
false. read the thread

>>763509
I read that book too! One chapter resonated with me in particular - the one about definite and indefinite futures. I've been an indefinite optimist my entire life without realizing it. Now I notice the trend everywhere I look. It drives me crazy.

>>755825
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxkg7QrIqQ8

>>765077

>>755718
He's an asshole and I'm going to sue his shitty website in small claims court for allowing some fag to scam people for two years (including me)

Fuck gaypal

>>765167
How did you get scammed?

>>764938
Peter Thiel merged with Musk's X.com and they have been business partners and friends since, learning how to create businesses the same way and using the same school of thought in all of the "paypal mafia's" businesses. It's the mindset and thought process.
>briefly mentioned
there's an entire chapter devoted to cleantech and how Tesla and Elon Musk ran train on the cleantech industry so don't give me that bullshit, you didn't even read the fucking book

Elon Musk is the single greatest entrepreneur of our generation. If you cannot accept that, then you are either fucking stupid and you don't fully understand his greatness. Either way you should shove a glass tube up your dickhole and smash your dick with a hammer

>>765167
>getting scammed online.
>calling others fags

>>766355
If I remember correctly, that was the thread dedicated to the importance of distribution, only using clean tech as a case study for how otherwise worthy buinesses, with a need, can fail due to shitty distribution, mostly talking about said companies, and briefly mentioning Elon's companies as a(n unexplained) model of success
The book with it's moral of monopoloy and lack of competition, comes nowhere near entering the mindset of Elon who heads two companies in some of the most entrenched industries on the market (you fucking moron)

Incidentally I remember reading Elon's shameless circle jerk quote on the back (something like "if you want to learn to make a billion dollar company, read this book") and wondering if he even read it
It's a good book though

>>767328
Also, Elon's goal with x.com was to create an online, non-branch bank. Contrary to the moral of Zero to One, he wanted to go up against the banking industry
Elon's mindset is to dive head first into old, entrenched industries that have lost their way, and carry them kicking and screaming into efficient modernism

>>766357
>implying mark zuckerberg isn't globalizing internet and made 20b in 2 years, pleb.

>>761523
Sorry for taking so long to respond, I work some crazy hours.

It sounds like you have relevant experience for some of things we are doing especially as we try and ramp up production and QC as our manifest grows.

Is your current job at Volvo your first out of college? Without going into too much detail, what caliber engineering program did you graduate from? How was your GPA? Were you involved in any engineering clubs/projects beyond what was required for school?

Why are you interested in switching to aerospace and SpaceX in particular?

Do you know much about rockets or the general launch business? Do you know, in very general terms, what some of SpaceX's goals are and how we intend on accomplishing them?

>>764701
>put 80% in a trust so he never has to work
I'm obviously not privy to Musk's personal finances but from what I've heard/read, he put no where close to that percentage in any kind of trust or liquid investment. I'm sure he had enough stashed away that he would never have to worry about being "poor", but from what I know the guy really did put almost all of his money into Tesla/SpaceX.

An interesting piece of info is that during 2007 when he was going through his first divorce he actually had to borrow money from friends to cover his living expenses. In California divorces the wealthier spouse has to pay for both parties legal expenses during settlement disputes. According to Musk's own writing on the topic he was spending about $170k per month for a period of 24 months during his divorce covering both his and his wife's legal fees.

Tesla and SpaceX were both in pretty troubled states at the time and he couldn't/didn't want to give up his equity in the companies. The guy really was almost broke during that time.

This is probably what impresses me most about Musk. From my interactions with him he does seem to be aware that while he has worked really hard he has also gotten lucky and yet he keeps willing to take more big risks.

I grew up dirt poor and was always aware of my family's money problems. Consequently, I'm a huge fucking cheapskate now and hardly spend on non essentials. I'm sure this would change if I had a couple hundred million in the bank but even then I doubt I would be spending luxuriously, aside from some nice vacations. With that being said, I don't think I could handle the psychological affects of possibly losing massive amounts of money. Musk seems to have zero concern about this. He either really doesn't care about money or is hugely arrogant and feels his bets will always pay off, or most likely a combination of the two.

>>767328
>comes nowhere near entering the mindset of Elon who heads two companies in some of the most entrenched industries on the market

This is something that is too often overlooked. Musk isn't building a fucking app or social network, the dude is trying to take on two of the most entrenched capital intensive industries there are. These are the last industries you would want to invest a majority of your net worth in if you're even remotely risk averse.

I feel people discount the difficulty of manufacturing, particularly if you can't just outsource all the labor to Foxconn.

>>761260
I agree that his fanboys can be overzealous in their praise of him, especially since most of them aren't particularly knowledgeable about what exactly Tesla/SpaceX are trying to do and why it is so difficult.

On the other hand, for those that have worked at his companies or are knowledgeable about the industries he's trying to disrupt, what he has done so far is already pretty impressive even if he ultimately fails in his more ambitious goals.

The irony is his fanboys would probably be the first to forget him and move on to the next meme entrepreneur if he does end up failing, even if that failure ultimately leaves a better blueprint for the next person to improve upon.

>>768730
>>768730
Bare with me, I'm typing this out on my phone.

>Is your current job at Volvo your first out of college? Without going into too much detail, what caliber engineering program did you graduate from? How was your GPA? Were you involved in any engineering clubs/projects beyond what was required for school?

Yes, this is my first job out of college. I graduated from Virginia Tech, we have a highly ranked IE program. My in major GPA was a 3.2. I did not participate in any engineering related clubs, but I've always been one to do my own thing (work on cars, build wooden boats, create a start up).

>Why are you interested in switching to aerospace and SpaceX in particular?

I interned at Volvo the summer before I took the full time position so I already had an in here. I had interviews with Rolls Royce and Lockheed Martin. They were taking too long to get back to me so defaulted to Volvo. I don't know if it applies but I hold a top secret department of state security clearance. I've always had an interest in aerospace and firmly believe our future lies beyond earth. The products you build in aerospace are far more interesting than what I build.

>Do you know much about rockets or the general launch business? Do you know, in very general terms, what some of SpaceX's goals are and how we intend on accomplishing them?

I use to build rockets as a kid, but I don't know a ton about real rockets. I do know a little about the launch business and SpaceX is at the forefront of creating a world where launches will be affordable to a larger spectrum of businesses and institutions. I'd love to be apart of bringing that ability to market.

>>768730
Also, in terms of ramping up production I feel I can offer a unique perspective. Here at Volvo we are manufacturing heavy duty truck trucks. We get large orders from companies like UPS and small one truck orders from mom and pop shipping companies. the customer has the ability to customize every aspect of the truck, therefore we have a ton of variation between trucks on the production line. Even with all the variation we balance fairly well and the line never stops because of model mix /variation. We have gone through multiple line rate increases in the past year and have managed fairly well.

at last... decent thread.

>>755748
He looks like a young Bond villain here.

>>768831
>Bare with me

and thus you have begging for a job on 4chan

>>759405
I would disagree Bushmaster and Glock, at least in terms of the military market. The US military does not use Glock pistols in an official capacity, and all new AR-15s are manufactured by FN Herstal. The money for small arms (other than M4s) is in the civilian market. That's why Colt is in such a shitty place right now, they don't build anything consumers want ,they don't market to consumers, and the gov't stopped buying their products in large quantities. Glock works because they build a shitty $300 gun and sell it for 5-600. They're practically cruising on name recognition alone at this point, they haven't released released anything innovative since their first gun. Recently, they released their first single stack 9mm handgun 5 years late, overpriced, and significantly larger than their competitors.

100m or so gun owners is a much, much larger market than pretty much any police sale. It's the reason Beretta has been so desperate to have the Army adopt their M9A3. Military adoption means exposure and civilian interest. The military barely uses pistols and doesn't need that many, but the recognition and exposure provided by military service is important for seizing the civilian market.