Tesla nearly died more than once: the 2008 financing closed at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, hours from bouncing payroll, and in 2018 they had to hit 5,000 Model 3s a week or go bankrupt.
"So I got a deferment at Stanford and thought I'd give it a couple quarters, and if it didn't work out, which I thought it probably wouldn't, then I'd come back."
"when something is important enough you do it even though flowers are not in your favor"
"I thought that the most likely outcome was failure"
"all three companies almost died in 2008"
"I'm standing behind that guarantee with all of my assets"
"But if that fourth launch had not worked, then SpaceX wouldn't be around."
"6 pm, December 24, 2008"
"we would definitely be dead"
"if something is important enough used to try even if you probably outcome is failure"
"three rocket failures in a row"
"in 2008 it was basically the choice of either Tesla's going to go bankrupt"
"We had maybe about a week's worth of cash in the bank or less"
"for the beginning we were in in really Dire Straits"
"I actually thought we would fail"
"When I started SpaceX, I thought the odds of success were very low"
"SpaceX, which I thought maybe had a 10% chance of success"
"we would have gone bankrupt like 2 days after Christmas"
"we came very close to both companies not succeeding in 2008"
"that two-year period was super bad"
"maybe 10% chance of success"
"we actually closed the financing round on Christmas Eve uh 2008"
"SpaceX and Tesla maybe had a 10% chance of success"
"put together the parts for one one final launch and and it worked"
"Tesla Almost went bankrupt"
"Tesla will be profitable & cash flow+ in Q3 & Q4, so obv no need to raise money."
"An accurate one is high time we became profitable. And you know, and the truth is like you're not a real company until. Until you are, frankly."
"We've got barnacles on barnacles, so there's going to be a lot of barnacle removal."
"It's been an amazing amount of hard work and sacrifice by some very talented people to achieve this outcome."
"Complexity is the devil. Words can’t express how hard we are working on the Model 3 production ramp & trying to get to profitability."
"Ford & Tesla are the only 2 American car companies to avoid bankruptcy. I just got home from the factory. You think this is an option. It is not."
"when i started spacex i i only thought there was maybe a ten percent chance"
"i always thought we would fail"
"if that one hadn't worked would have been that would have been it for us"
"if it had not worked, Space X would've died"
"While many other companies are cutting back on investment, we are doing the opposite. We are absolutely pedal to the metal on new products and expanding the company"
"it has caused us to look closely at our cost structure and, and to be more efficient as a company. One always has to do that in a crisis."
"the right move is actually to continue to expand rapidly, continue to invest in the future in new technologies, even though it is risky."
"almost both companies went bankrupt frankly 2008 was a tough year"
"Ford and Tesla are the only US car companies that have avoided bankruptcy."
"SpaceX & Tesla would probably have died, since both narrowly escaped bankruptcy in 2008."
"I feel we're in a very strong position to get through a recession because we really don't have any debt and we've got over $20 billion of cash"
"I think we'll probably have a pretty difficult recession this year."
"the company could have easily gone bankrupt"
"Ralph Nader, you are lying – shame on you! I personally provided almost all Tesla funding, based on my proceeds from PayPal, from Series A in 2004 until Series C in 2007. In late 2008, I gave Tesla the last money I had. It was that or the company would have died. We closed that funding round at 6pm on Christmas Eve. If we had not closed that round, Tesla would have gone bankrupt 2 days after Christmas. I gave my last money thinking Tesla would probably still die, not thinking that it would be lucrative. The first meaningful government funding Tesla received was in Q2 2010 from a loan under the vehicle efficiency lending program. Tesla paid back that loan early with interest. Taxpayers actually made a profit. @CommunityNotes"
"Tesla is growing, I believe faster than any company in history that has, that has, that makes a large complex manufactured object."
"the only way to actually succeed for newcomer to succeed is to have a product that is so compelling that people are willing to pay a premium over the incumbent product."
"it was incredibly difficult to keep Tesla alive"
"the difficulty of going from a prototype to volume production is like 10,000% harder to get to volume production than to make the prototype in the first place."
"if we had not closed that financing round, we would have bounced payroll two days after Christmas."
"That is why there have not been new car startups that have been successful for 100 years, apart from Tesla."
"Yeah, I was running on very little sleep for several days due to extreme work requirements. Worth noting that Tesla was very close to bankruptcy in 2017."
"I thought SpaceX and Tesla both had >90% chance of failure, but worth trying anyway"
"to the best of my knowledge, no EV company is even profitable."
"There were so articles about how Tesla was definitely going bankrupt!"
"the co actions U almost killed Tesla"
"We probably were on the ragged edge of death at least maybe a dozen times."
"there's no more vertically integrated car company than Tesla."
"The sheer audacity of the WSJ/NYT lies is astonishing! WSJ claimed that I was being fired from Tesla and failed to include that the board flatly denied it!"
"Gave I gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all"
"When I talked to Gates in person, he said “experts tell me a long range electric semi truck is impossible”. However, when I asked what his assumptions were about battery energy density and vehicle energy consumption per mile, which are the two numbers needed to determine range, he did not know either number! I also offered to let him take one of our semi trucks for independent testing, but he declined. Not sure what more I could have done. 🤷♂️"
"we closed the financing round at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve 2008"
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