
Tesla’s Elon Musk: “I ran out of cash” - terpua
http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/27/elon-musk-personal-finances/
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faramarz
I admire this guy so much, Hope things pick up for Tesla.

It's a float issue. not like he's totally broke or financially incapable of
taking future risks in his capacity with Tesla.

~~~
DaniFong
His ex, Justine Musk, says in her post 'golddigging'

<http://moschus.livejournal.com/140610.html>

"For those who want to know the extent of my golddigging, this is what I asked
for, from my ex-husband and the father of my five children Elon Musk, who is a
billionaire* and utterly brilliant.

* albeit with cash/liquidity issues, which I would work with him to work around"

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metaguri
He is an inspirational dude. I can't find a direct quote, but when I read the
article posted here some time ago
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458090>) I got the sense that he wants
to change the world, and potentially going broke doing it is an unfortunate
but permissible side-effect. Given the various posts about "what to do with my
millions" today, I think what Musk has chosen to do with his capital provides
a poignant perspective.

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mturmon
"messy divorce":

<http://moschus.livejournal.com/141570.html>

Suddenly, everyone is broke:

<http://moschus.livejournal.com/140610.html>

~~~
lionhearted
Interesting to see this a few days after the "taking the awkwardness out of a
prenup discussion" -

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1374169>

I commented on my personal views there -

"[Community property is fine if] no one stands to lose besides you, but I feel
like it'd be personally pretty irresponsible of me to enter into a situation
where divorce could ruin not just my business and life, but my staff,
suppliers, clients, and people who count on me. Some people might say, "But if
you have a great marriage and pick the right woman it wouldn't happen!" To
that I say... Everyone thinks that way and quite a few of them turn out to be
mistaken... I don't think my judgment is infallible, and I refuse to put other
people's lives and livelihood unnecessarily at risk."

I'm starting to think there's a societal shift in that direction. LeBron James
is one of the most successful and high profile athletes on the planet, has two
children with his girlfriend while unmarried, and he doesn't get any flak for
it. His Wikipedia page just says:

"James has two children with his high school sweetheart, Savannah Brinson. The
first, LeBron James Jr., was born on October 6, 2004,[70] and the second,
Bryce Maximus James, on June 14, 2007."

I think there's a bit of a generational gap. I see a line around people who
were born roughly before or after 1970. People who came of age in the 1980's
or later seem to be much less fazed by the idea of a man not merging finances
in the traditional way.

I'm not entirely sure why, maybe some sort of view taking hold that you're
doing incredibly important things, then the traditional economic marriage
arrangement means you stand to lose a lot. Combine that with the fact that
even someone trying their best and generally upholding their end of the
marriage bargain can be divorced against their will and I think some people
are seeing it as a bad arrangement to get into.

I think about this sometimes, but I haven't fully flushed it out in my mind.
Anyone else have thoughts on the topic?

~~~
Zaak
I find your comment significant:

> ...even someone trying their best and generally upholding their end of the
> marriage bargain can be divorced against their will...

"No-fault divorce" could be called "unilateral divorce" since one party can
dissolve the marriage regardless of the other's actions or wishes.

I see it as yet another thing that dissuades people from forming lasting bonds
with each other. I wish I knew what could be done to reverse the trend.

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jacquesm
Messy divorces are one very good reason for extremely strict shareholder
agreements in startups.

Startups can definitely cause bumps in your relationships with others,
including your spouse and a messy divorce with a large enough block of shares
at stake in a startup can kill the startup, at a minimum it will kill the
chance of finding funding until the whole thing has played out and that can
take years.

Elon Musk is the best thing that happened to electric cars since the early
1900's, it would be a pity if this divorce caused that to be torn apart.

How does this all relate to SpaceX, is there any chance of fall-out in that
direction ?

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neurotech1
I agree completely with the need for shareholder agreements.

As for SpaceX, they almost certainly have a milestone payment after the Falcon
9 test flight in the next few weeks. That and they'd make a good investment
for anyone who would like to use their services in the future, both satellite
and manned space flights.

Edit: They are due $5m in payments after the Falcon 9 flight.

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barmstrong
Interesting. I just read Tony Hsieh's book (CEO of Zappos) and he has a
similar story where he actually almost went broke at one point (down from
maybe $100m net worth) trying to keep Zappos alive as it's sole investor when
everyone else backed out.

Of course, he ended up selling it to Amazon for over a billion, so it worked
for him. Hope it also works out for Elon. It's a testament to how much he
really believes in the company.

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hristov
Hehe, nothing like divorce case to make a billionaire plead poverty. If, God
forbid, Melinda ever divorces Bill, I expect him to argue that those Microsoft
shares are really not worth the paper they are printed on.

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FlorinAndrei
Wow, did you know Elon Musk has a cameo in Iron Man 2? I didn't either.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/fullcredits>

Elon Musk ... Himself

~~~
arohner
Yeah, so did Larry Ellison.

Iron Man 2 gave me a new motivation for making my startup successful. "I want
my startup to be successful so I can be in the movies some day!"

~~~
stumm
Tony Stark's character was supposedly modeled after Musk.

~~~
MikeCapone
How is that possible? Isn't Iron Man from the 1960s?

~~~
alex_c
The movie's interpretation of Tony Stark is inspired by Elon Musk.

~~~
MikeCapone
I'm not sure I see it (and I met Musk briefly at the Detroit Auto Show and
I've been following him for years), but that's possible.

What's your source on this?

~~~
alex_c
Jon Favreau:

[http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1...](http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1984685_1984745_1985495,00.html)

I don't really see it myself, but I don't know much about Elon Musk. If I had
to guess, I would've said Sir Richard Branson.

~~~
MikeCapone
Yeah, I remember thinking about Branson during the film (if you haven't read
Branson's autobiography, it's a blast - definition of a 'page-turner').

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mkramlich
I think what he's doing with Tesla and SpaceX are very important for the
country and really the world, so I hope enough folks with deep pockets can
step up to the plate and help out his/their cash situation. We need more
companies/endeavors like Tesla and SpaceX.

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pedalpete
I don't see why the personal finances of a CEO should be disclosed in a public
offering.

What is the risk to the public/shareholders?

Would his personal finances ever be of discussion in the boardroom?

~~~
andrewljohnson
Read the article...

Musk participated in every single funding round for Tesla, until the last one.
The fact that the company no longer has a source of investment that it has
depended on since its inception is pertinent.

And since Musk has so much money invested and such a big chunk of the company,
I'm sure his personal finances have come up more than once in the board room.

