Tesla Motors - The Early Years

[malcolm]

http://www.teslamotors.com/display_data/pressguild.swf

(hey moderators, any chance this post can be made a sticky?)

ETA: New link:

http://webarchive.teslamotors.com/di...pressguild.swf

[dpeilow]

Stuck

[malcolm]

Thanks for that

[vfx]

We have been there from the time Tesla went public. We have a few of these (I'm sure TEG will show us more).
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/tesla...hlight=history
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/tesla...hlight=history
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/news-...hlight=history
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/tesla...hlight=history
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/elect...hlight=history
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/elect...hlight=history

[Chris H.]

Hey Malcolm,

thanks for posting this. It's a good idea to counter some of the revisionist history that EM has been spreading.

BTW, did you notice the error in the date on slide # 15? It says "May 2003: 5 Employees" instead of "May 2004: 5 Employees".

It's getting harder to counter the BS about who started TM, but I'm glad to see that you're still committed to it.

You should change back to your old avatar... it always made me smile.

All the best,

Chris H.

[WarpedOne]

Martin Eberhard, the founder of Tesla Motors, on Tesla Founders:

Yes, Elon is fond of pretending he founded Tesla Motors, but it is not in any stretch of the word true. Elon led the Series A investment round, about 10 months after Marc and I incorporated the company, about 15 months after we conceived of the company. Although Elon put in most of the Series A money, (about 80%), he was not the only investor then, and there were investors before him. This is completely indisputable; you can look up the incorporation papers in the State of Delaware; you won’t see his name on them anywhere…
It was not just garage work we did - we conceived of the Roadster pretty much as it is today (including with a single-speed transmission!) We had established relationships with both Lotus and AC Propulsion. We had the basic layout of the car figured out. We had written a complete business plan for the company, and had been showing it to many prospective investors; Elon was but one of many. No doubt there was a ton of work to do still, and we needed $ to hire people and do that work.
Want to hear more? Wait until my book comes out

If this is not a hint, I don't know what it is!

[ESdude]

http://www.teslamotors.com/display_data/pressguild.swf

(hey moderators, any chance this post can be made a sticky?)

You probably want to add podcast where Marting goes through the slides: Lessons from the Electric Roadster (Stanford Entrepreneurship Corner)

[James]

The grey car with orange racing stripes belongs to Martin Eberhard, one of the founders of Tesla Motors (the other being Marc Tarpenning).

Tesla Founders Blog

I read that Elon now refers to them as "two guys I hired to build a prototype".

[WarpedOne]

I read that Elon now refers to them as "two guys I hired to build a prototype".

Between many things that Elon is, he is also a liar.

[S-2000 Roadster]

Tesla Founders Blog credits Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning as founders of Tesla Motors, Inc. Wikipedia includes Ian Wright as a team member, but not necessarily a founder. What was the name of the company that Elon Musk and J.B. Straubel were working at when Tome Gage or AC Propulsion suggested that they all get together?

It seems like it should be possible to find the Delaware incorporation documents for Tesla Motors, Inc., and simply look at the names of the people listed. Does anyone have a link?