The REAL story of how Elon 'stole' Tesla

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Discover the untold story of Tesla's origins and the controversy over Elon Musk's role as a founder. We dive into the early days with Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, the dramatic takeover by Musk, and the lawsuit that followed. Who are the true founders?

Watch and decide for yourself.


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Sources:

[slidebean]

So, is Elon a founder or not? Drop your thoughts below! 🍿

Now, if you're a founder yourself, let Caya and our team of experts help you master the art of fundraising.

[theultimatereductionist]

I'm sick of assholes who know nothing about hard physical sciences spouting "question the science" but NEVER allow anyone to question history or law/legal definitions. Law/legal definitions are NOT some absolute like evolution or Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) or what people PHYSICALLY did in the past. Science is not a subject. Science is simply collectively all methods of knowing things. When you find your car keys, you are doing science, though at a far far less formal level than professional scientists do. So, if one can "question the science" then we can question history and question the law=politics and question definitions of ownership.

[AhmedBalfaqih]

How about a new term. A cofunder? Just drop the letter O.

[dscarty]

Same could be said of Bill Gates with Windows (DOS was someone else’s idea that Gates beat IBM to). And of Steve Jobs, the Apple operating system is modified Unix (though Jobs did make sure the Beos wasn’t used). Musk brought the energy, talent and money that was needed to drive Tesla forward as a successful company. Very unlikely under the “original founders”.

[Pehz]

I like the question you pose at the end. It's primarily an informal title (like "leader"), so it makes sense that people would disagree on what it means. But everyone agrees on the essence of the title: someone who was involved with the company in a significant way early enough to be a major influence on the company. So how late can a person join a company before they no longer count as a founder? Is "late" measured by time, by the development of the company's vision, or by employee count? If you are influential enough on the company, does that make up for being a bit later? If all you contributed to the company was a name but not a vision, can you still count as a co-founder? What if you contributed a vision, but it was entirely scrapped later on?

There will probably be some popular answers to these questions. Possibly even some formally recognized answers. But I think you can't ignore that there's still some subjective element to the title.

[mixmax]

You know who didn't forget? Sam with OpenAI. Elon got played on that and became poopypants

[ManfromNowhere]

If this and if that. Truth is - companies are only able to survive based on how passionately involved a person is - no matter the type of idea, project, or who founded it. Apple without Steve Jobs would’ve most likely died like Blackberry or Nokia. Kudos to the original founders of Tesla who started the company but Elon took it to another level, that cannot to denied either.

[honesty_-nohe]

He did not found it but he DID save it. They were bankrupt and had no supply chain nor serious plans to scale up. Watch the movie THE FOUNDER it was the same with McDonalds.

[daveb]

This completely ignores that Martin was removed for committing fraud, and that they didn’t begin development until after Musk was already on board. The prototype had been built by an entirely different company without their involvement. So they didn’t actually build anything until Musk got involved.

[markthomas]

Im interested that with all your analysis 2 points eluded you. First if all there were infact 4 people involved. The one you missed is JB Strauble. Thats a very big ommission and a man that is now well known as CEO of Redwood. So how come his name was not in your analysis. Strauble and Musk also approached AC Propulsion and this is how the four men became involved (4 not 3). Devond point ...As the company continued to struggle through the Financial Crisis cost audits revealed that Eberhard had not declared the full cost of the Roadster with cost being roughly double that which he informed the board. He had infact misrepresented the finances to the Tesla Board. Thats certainly a giring issue and thus it was at this point that Eberhard was fired for misrresenting finances. Unit losses were infact roughly 100% Thereafter yes other CEOs were apponinted and were unable to bridge the margin gap. It was in fact Musk who reengineered the Roadster to a marginal profit. It was also Musk that invested every final cent he had to manufacture thecwaiting list of cars promised. So there you ho. A vouple of corrections for your viewers to condider. Night night poppet!!

[imfreakingawesome]

imagine having an idea with a friend, running into two people with the same Idea, deciding to work together, spending millions from your own pocket, and then slowly over the next 20 years turning the company into a trillion-dollar giant (at its peak) and people are here asking if you were a co-founder.

[KillroyX]

@2:37. There is a bid difference between 10% EVs on the road and 10% of Sales. 

California did surpass 10% EV sales at one point.

It will take a while to replace the fleet on the road with any powertrain.

[absolon]

Tesla would have been another one of the many failed EV companies without Elon. Eberhad and Tarpening would not be known to the wider public.

[monkeysezbegood]

Without Elon Tesla would be a tiny company doing bugger all. Elon made Tesla.

[fahmyboy]

Bro. Your videos are top notch. Your thumbnails are holding you back

[ZorroComputers]

I feel sorry for those two. They seems to be cool dudes.

[Vysair]

I thought everything already came to light widely after the Twitter buyout

[macoy]

this story is missing a lot of detail. Mark Eberhard was lying about how much the Roadster was going to cost

[pashkaS]

Ideas are worthless, seeing them through is what brings value. Without Elon there would be no Tesla, so yes, he is the founder.

[ron]

Funny how everyone misses that Martin and Mark had the money to fund tesla from a previous liquidation event for a company they had sold but CHOSE NOT TO - simply because they lacked the belief and will. Elon had the belief and willed Tesla into what it is today, no matter what anyone says. If that's not being a founder, I don't know what is.