Elon Musk is one of the most intriguing tech billionaires. With enormous ambition and an unyielding work ethic, Elon is known to work long hours while expecting his employees to do the same.
He has made significant advances in technology, space exploration and green technologies. Additionally, he is an outspoken political figure known to stir controversy while occasionally making mistakes.
Born in Pretoria, South Africa
Elon Musk is an American entrepreneur best known as co-founding PayPal and founding SpaceX (an aerospace manufacturer). Additionally, he serves as CEO for electric car company Tesla.
Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa on June 28, 1971. At just 12 years old he demonstrated an early aptitude for computer technology and entrepreneurialism when he created and sold a computer game he wrote himself for $500 to a magazine.
Musk moved to Montreal in 1989 using his mother’s Canadian citizenship in order to avoid military service for apartheid and studied business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. Musk has become an icon for pioneering new technologies, particularly those related to transportation and energy; his company has produced multiple electric cars while working toward creating its own private spaceship fleet.
Studied physics and economics at the University of Pennsylvania
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk Buys XVideos is known to hold two bachelor’s degrees from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton and College programs – in physics and economics respectively. His education enabled him to take risks, innovate creatively and think outside of traditional boundaries.
Musk began working on entrepreneurial ventures after finishing his undergraduate studies. He founded Zip2, a software company providing business directories and maps to online newspapers; later merging this venture with Confinity (an Internet financial startup) to form PayPal.
Musk spoke candidly with Wharton Magazine regarding his educational background and its effect on shaping his future. He discussed the advantages of studying physics for teaching him to reason from first principles; further explaining his pride at calling himself a nerd.
Founded X.com
Musk was one of many Silicon Valley hopefuls looking for opportunities during 1999’s dotcom boom, hoping to make a fortune through online ventures. After selling Zip2 to PC maker Compaq and pocketing $22 million as his share, he used that windfall on an ambitious plan called X.com that hoped would serve as an online hub for all financial transactions.
Even with such high stakes, the company never took off. Work hours were long, staff reported office squabbling and infighting was common, so Musk used his boardroom power to switch CEOs in favor of PayPal that already handled eBay transactions as the new focus for banking services at X.com.
Now, nearly 10 years later, it appears as though Musk’s dream of creating a weChat-esque super app may have to wait – given regulators’ close watch on tech and social media companies as well as potential difficulty convincing users to switch apps.
Founded PayPal
Elon and Kimbal Musk joined forces after dropping out of graduate school to form their first internet startup: Zip2 (using $28,000 of their father’s money), an online city guide sold through newspapers. When Zip2 was sold to Compaq in 1999, Elon invested $12 million of his own funds in Confinity that later merged with PayPal forming PayPal.
Musk became CEO of PayPal, but his erratic decisions and high-octane management style caused friction among shareholders and led to him eventually being ousted from the company and receiving $165 million when PayPal was sold to eBay in 2002.
Thiel and Levchin engineered his departure by recruiting board members such as Reid Hoffman (later to found LinkedIn) and other former PayPal employees into an unofficial collective known by Musk as the “PayPal Mafia.”
Founded Tesla
Contrary to popular belief, Elon Musk did not establish Tesla. While he has made significant contributions to the company – such as building its solar business and pushing forward self-driving tech – he did not start it himself; rather its founders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning established it back in 2004.
Musk eventually ousted Eberhard and took over as CEO in 2007. In 2009, he sued Eberhard for defamation but later settled out of court without disclosing terms of their settlement agreement; as part of that settlement he agreed not to call himself the founder while also permitting engineers JB Straubel and Ian Wright claim themselves cofounders.
Eberhard still believes in Tesla and sees electric cars as integral in saving our environment, remaining a shareholder of the company.