Business career
Zip2
| External video | |
|---|---|
 Musk speaks of his early business experience during a 2014 commencement speech at USC on YouTube |
In 1995, Musk, Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded web software company Zip2 with funds from angel investors.[17] They housed the venture at a small rented office in Palo Alto.[42] The company developed and marketed an Internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry, with maps, directions, and yellow pages.[43] Musk says that before the company became successful, he could not afford an apartment and instead rented an office and slept on the couch and showered at the YMCA, and shared one computer with his brother. According to Musk, "The website was up during the day and I was coding it at night, seven days a week, all the time."[42] The Musk brothers obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune,[44] and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch.[45] Musk's attempts to become CEO, a position held by its Chairman Rich Sorkin,[46] were thwarted by the board.[47] Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999,[48][49] and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share.[50][51]
X.com and PayPal
In 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company.[52] The startup was one of the first federally insured online banks, and, in its initial months of operation, over 200,000 customers joined the service.[53] The company's investors regarded Musk as inexperienced and had him replaced with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year.[54] The following year, X.com merged with online bank Confinity to avoid competition.[42][54][55] Founded by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel,[56] Confinity had its own money-transfer service, PayPal, which was more popular than X.com's service.[50][57] Within the merged company, Musk returned as CEO. Musk's preference for Microsoft software over Linux created a rift in the company and caused Thiel to resign.[58] Due to resulting technological issues and lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000.[59][note 2] Under Thiel, the company focused on the PayPal service and was renamed PayPal in 2001.[61][62] In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk—the largest shareholder with 11.7% of shares—received over $100 million.[63][64]
In 2017, Musk purchased the domain X.com from PayPal for an undisclosed amount, explaining it has sentimental value.[65][66]
Education
An ornate school building
Musk graduated from Pretoria Boys High School in South Africa.
Aware that it would be easier to enter the United States from Canada,[27] Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother.[28][29] While awaiting the documentation, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months; this allowed him to avoid mandatory service in the South African military.[30] Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989, and lived with a second-cousin in Saskatchewan for a year,[31] working odd jobs at a farm and lumber-mill.[32] In 1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.[33][34] Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics.[35][36][37][38]
In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley during the summer: at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which researched electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage, and at the Palo Alto-based startup Rocket Science Games.[39] In 1995, he was accepted to a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program in materials science at Stanford University in California.[40] Musk attempted to get a job at Netscape but never received a response to his inquiries.[28] He dropped out of Stanford after two days, deciding instead to join the Internet boom and launch an Internet startup.[41]
You must be logged in to post a comment.