Tesla's Founders On Elon Musk And The Early Days

CNBCCited 3× on HN, 2021–2022

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interview · general · evergreen · 2021–2022 on HN

CNBC interview with Tesla founders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning about starting the company in 2003, the battery idea, the Roadster, and Elon Musk's role.

Cited to settle the question of whether Musk was a Tesla founder and to show how the Roadster pitch won his investment.

3 comments from Hacker News

@jjoonathan2022-12 · in “Twitter Suspends PG's Account”

> Tesla existed before Musk. So I've watched the Eberhard interview [1] and the Musk counter-interview [2] and I'm still not decided on this. Did Eberhard do a bunch of useful early-day heavy-lifting only to get elbowed out by Musk once things were ticking along and it was time to take credit? Or was he incompetent and un-invested, forcing Musk to reluctantly take back the reins? I'd love to hear an insider opinion, but I'm not going to go digging. I've already spent far too much time today litigating other peoples' bullshit founder drama, lol. [1] ▶ this video [2] link

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@FartyMcFarter2022-04 · in “Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources”

> According to elon basically him, jb and martin eberhard founded tesla which was a holding company that acquired AP propulsion (i think it was called) and the basic IP. That's not what the actual founders say though: ▶ this video They say he was not a founder within the first minute of the video.

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@dundarious2021-07 · in “Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin”

Here the founders describe how their Roadster concept was integral to their pitch to Musk to become a Series A investor. ▶ this video

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