Hacker News Reader

Comment by turbobooster | Hacker News Reader

What did Elon do to make Tesla earn so much money that the original founders couldnt do? Is it just about debt loans needed?

View on HN

Tesla wasn't earning any money at all until two years ago. Until then it was coasting by on debt and selling carbon credits.

The whole 2010s was a debt driven economic cycle. Very cheap money for those who can dream up a use for it. And some people are great at selling dreams.

He's very good at pushing people to work overtime.

Is it like Steve Jobs and his workers took who the abuse because they were paid well? Or they had Stockholm syndrome?

It is more the latter than the former, plus wanting to have name X on the CV.

Games industry follows a similar pattern.

Actually make a production car that people could buy.

He bought into a car company that made no cars. The people trying to imply he bought his way into the auto industry are trolling just as much as Elon does all while complaining about Elon trolling. Sure he wasn't a Founder of Tesla in the technical sense, but everything important that happened, happened after he bought it.

Over-promise on what they could deliver and how fast they could deliver.

He sold cars. Turned Tesla into an absolute hype monster.

Marketing. He's a one man marketing department. Some might say that that's all he is, but apparently it goes a long way.

The original founders were not making a mass market car.

Suckering people to believe that the company will go to the moon. Or in other words, generate hype.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com