Being a startup and having cash to pay employees well are not mutually exclusive. In fact they appear to have raise 2.37 Billion: https://www.crunchbase.com/or

Being a startup and having cash to pay employees well are not mutually exclusive. In fact they appear to have raise 2.37 Billion: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/tesla-motors#/entity https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/tesla-motors#/entity