You will have a hard time finding two companies that are more popular today: SpaceX and Tesla. And yet, the two were not far away in the past. Both were originally unknown and were actually on the verge of bankruptcy together. Today we'll learn what Elon Musk did before other US CEOs: He saved two companies at the same time and brought both of them to a multi-billion dollar valuation.
In the early 2000s, Elon Musk achieved what the entrepreneur would dream of achieving: he successfully sold his company for a billion dollars. He received $ 165 million, and North is where most people call it Quiet, but for Elon, it was just the beginning. He wanted to change the world for the better, and one of his ideas was to send greenhouses to Mars to promote space exploration for the public interest and increase NASA's budget. The idea was clearly ambitious, especially as Ebon did not want to spend more than $ 20 million on it. Now at the time, sending just 500 pounds of Torbit could easily cost $ 30 million, but Elon had a plan. He traveled to Russia, where he tried to revive intercontinental ballistic missiles by Tobu. But the lowest-priced Russians gave Hewes an $ 8 million piece for the rocket, about 50% above their budget. Upon his return from Moscow, Elon returned some of the napkins: he discovered that the raw material used in the making off was about 3% of the final sale price.
Immediately, Elon knew what he had to do: if he wanted to send anything to Mars, he would have to make himself a vertically-integrated company. To that end, he read several books on Rocket War on the Cold War, and in June 2002 he included Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX Short. Then he set about recruiting the right people who could make his vision a reality: his ideal candidate was young, single, educated, and already for SpaceX to sacrifice his social life. Elon's recruitment strategy was very straightforward: he basically called on anyone to fit that profile, from fresh aerospace graduates to rising stars at Boeing and Lockheed Martin. At first, people thought that Elon was making pranks, but within a year he gathered some talented engineers from America.
Together they will design almost everything SpaceX: from engines and rocket bodies to even small details like circuitry. In many cases, engineers can manufacture more robust components at a fraction of the regular price. These components would be used to build the Merlin engine, which would turn on Elon's first rocket, the Falcon 1. Development was far from smooth, but still not progressing. But then, Elon decides to take the ancestors. In early 2004 he participated in the financing of a new electric car company called Tesla. Elon personally invested more than $ 6 million and in turn became chairman of the company's board. Right off the bat, Elon started hijacking the Spencer from SpaceX. The company's logo, for example, was created by the same people who created the logo for SpaceX. And of course, Elon was quick to use the occasional hiring strategy used to assemble the SpaceX team. This time, however, instead of poaching employee Boeing, he was hiring Apple. Before long, the Tesla team was working on the first electric car Tesla Roadster. Back at SpaceX, engineers had seen 60 hours of work hours, while Elon was promising a very ambitious timeline. His original estimate was to launch Falcon 1 in November 2003, just 18 months after the company was founded. Of course, that estimate was pushed back, and the Falcon didn't stop until 1 March 2006, when it spent a total of 41 seconds in the air before crashing violently. Like SpaceX, 2006 was a big year for Tesla. In July, Tesla Roadster made its first performance and recorded 100 pre-orders on its first day. But, like Falcon 1, the actual production is not happening very well. Tesla's CEO at the time was Martin Eberhard, and like Elon, they were promising unrealistic deadlines. At first, there was an idea to distribute Roadsterin in early 2007, but a growing series of production issues pushed the release date for further away. In the end, the roster project of Martin's mismanagement evicted him from the same company he had founded, leaving everything to Elon. With full responsibility for both companies, the tension was beginning to pile up. Elon saw the second failure of the Falcon 1 rocket, which did not complete its 2007 flight.
At Tesla, Elon struggled to fix Mesbibe by Eberhard, and in fact, production of the Roadster did not begin until March 2008. But then, things got worse: In August, Elon made his third Falcon 1, which never made it to class. Just a month later the wife publicly announced her divorce. Both of Elon's companies were struggling to make a viable product and were making fast money. In fact, by the end of October Tesla had only $ 9 million left to fund the entire company. The salary was delayed and Elon was faced with a choice. He had already spent $ 70 million on Tesla and $ 100 million on SpaceX. With all he had left, Elon had to risk both to fund and secure the future of a company or to protect it from everything and gambling.
Luck gave Elon very little time to think: Falcon 1's fourth possible final flight was coming to a close. On 28 September, Elon agreed to the occasion of her feast to survive. He was standing at the SpaceX control center waiting in the land. Then, the rocket took off and clapped in between. SpaceX finally delivered a working product: the Falcon 1 became the first privately developed rocket to orbit around the Earth. But Elon was not yet clear: if the company behind it goes bankrupt, the commercial product would have no meaning. In a frantic scuffle, Elon had to find a funding solution for both of his companies before the end of 2008, and the timing couldn't be worse. One of the largest US banks, Lehmanbroz was demolished and the global economy was headed for disaster.
Meanwhile, Elon was raising all the personal money to save Tesla: he destroyed some of his remaining possessions and got his cousins to pitch. But investors have not been able to get on board and December was crawling in December. Managed to scrape together $ 20 million, another $ 20 million from various investors, and $ 50 from German car company Daimler. A few days before Christmas it seemed that only Tesla was going to make it, but then on 23 December Elon received a very unexpected call: Nashad gave SpaceX $ 1.6 billion to restart the International Space Station Awarded with a contract of. Then, on Christmas Eve, Tesla Sauda Gawith. Elon had successfully saved the bankruptcy of both companies. In subsequent interviews, he recalled these last days in December in painful detail: he admits that it was the most intimate breakdown and that, honestly, any lesser man would be given a lump sum. Despite the struggles that Elon is probably facing today, it is worth knowing that he surpassed the impossible ten years ago.
Now, this story is a brief chapter of Elon Musk's Intehai journey.
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