More about Musk

[edhopper]

And it's not pretty.

Link to tweet

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Keep reading.

[Hugin]

1. The age old axiom...

“Something which seems too good to be true. Usually, isn’t.” Never disappoints.

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

As I realized this, and as I realized that Musk and Tesla were on a trajectory toward increasingly implausible and fraudulent claims (which massively enriched Musk), I realized: TESLA IS NOT AN AUTOMOTIVE STORY, IT IS A CELEBRITY STORY. Faith in Musk personally was what mattered

[QED]

3. The whole thread is worth reading

The similarities between Musk and Donnie TwoScoops are pretty clear.

[2naSalit]

4. Never had me fooled.

I never felt he deserved his celebrity and I hope he just goes away.

[Hugin]

5. One of the main reasons I stopped one day...

And now sit watching shadows on the wall was when the “leaders” of my organization seamlessly switched their supplication from Jack Welch to Musk without missing a beat. It was surreal and straight out of 1984.

All of the string suddenly left my legs.

[oioioi]

6. TSLA 2021 Price to Earnings ratio was 135. Inevitably

the charlatan space cadet will be brought back to earth - hopefully with a resounding thud.

[blueinredohio]

7. How did Musk get all his money to start up his businesses?

Was it inherited?

[Hugin]

8. Not exactly inherited...

His family benefited greatly from Apartheid era exploitation in South Africa.

[KPN]

10. Interesting. Do you have sources on that? Musk strikes me as an immesnsely dangerous

carnival showman. More needs to be outed on him. He should also be subjected to legal scrutiny at every turn. His manipulation of markets has been bold-faced.

[Hugin]

12. It is open knowledge...

The connection between his Dad and an emerald mine being cited on his Wikipedia entry along with his infamous too much money growing up to close the safes quote.

So, if nobody is connecting the dots it’s due to an active PR campaign and denial of the roots of his wealth in preference to accepting the self-made mythology.

[In It to Win It]

11. He co-founded a couple of tech companies in 90s. Admittedly, I'm fuzzy on the details

I didn't bother looking it up so I'm going off of memory.

I remember the first tech company he co-founded was sold to a larger company in the 90s. He got a nice chunk of change there.

He used those earnings to start another company. That company ends up being merged with another company and becoming Paypal. That made Elon Musk an early owner in Paypal. Paypal eventually sells to Ebay. He got a chunk of change from that.

He used those earnings to invest in Tesla and he becomes the brash billionaire bullshitter that we know today.

[EX500rider]

14. Some investors for the original startup

He went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario in 1990 and then the University of Pennsylvania.

His road to being a billionaire started in 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded web software company Zip2 with funds from investors. Musk says that before the company became successful, he could not afford an apartment and instead rented an office and slept on the couch and showered at the YMCA, and shared one computer with his brother.

Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999, and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share.
He took that money and founded X.com & renamed it PayPal in 2001.
In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk received $175.8 million.

[blueinredohio]

15. Thanks I never knew anything about him.

Could care less now but wondered what all the fuss about him was.

[Hugin]

16. One of the big investors in that first venture being his dad. n/t

[JanMichael]

17. Ding ding ding. nt

[Hugin]

18. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that...

Just, please, keep all of the future self-made up-from-the-bootstraps libertarian bullshit to a minimum.

[JanMichael]

19. Again - Ding Ding Ding. Bootstraps my ass.

[EX500rider]

20. Source for that? nt

[Hugin]

21. How about a source for your stuff?

We'll trade.

"Zip2

"In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded web software company Zip2 with funds borrowed from Musk's father. -45--21-

Quote drawn from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_musk

Start with these two and there's an Internet more. He talks about himself, a lot.

-45- https://www.toptal.com/finance/venture-capital-consultants/elon-musks-investments
-21- https://venturebeat.com/2015/04/07/how-games-helped-make-elon-musk-the-real-life-tony-stark/

[EX500rider]

22. Mine was taken from the same wiki 2 weeks ago for another thread.

At the time it did not mention his father, that was added in the last 2 weeks.

[edhopper]

27. Was Musk a "cofounder" of Paypal?

Not that simple.
https://tfipost.com/2021/09/unmasking-musk-was-elon-musk-really-a-cofounder-of-paypal/

[Carlitos Brigante]

9. Sounds more and more like "Elon Holmes". nt

[cilla4progress]

13. That's what I'm thinking..

Of Theranos fame.

Charlatans, one and all.

[barbtries]

23. thank you

read the whole thread. fascinating. my son's best friend worked for musk straight out of college and i hope to get the chance to pick his brain when he comes here for my son's wedding in Oct.

[edhopper]

24. Please report back to us

when you do.

[barbtries]

25. I will.

I have no idea if he reported directly to him or not, but his mother told me at the time he was working 100 hours a week. A WEEK! He didn't stay there too long. the kid is literally a rocket scientist.

[tinrobot]

26. I think Musk is about to go through some things

His celebrity is his superpower, but it will also be his downfall.