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> What kind of PR effort do you need when every CFO you hire keeps leaving? It's really gotten to a point where all the Musk-haters now believe their own bulls

by dnomad 8y ago

> What kind of PR effort do you need when every CFO you hire keeps leaving? It's really gotten to a point where all the Musk-haters now believe their own bullshit. This post (and many others in HN's bi-weekly anti-Musk thread) is a classic example. Tesla had had a grand total of two CFOs since Musk took over. > Could it be that that person is being pushed to stretch things a bit here and there to make them look better? Could it be that that person is an alien sent from Venus to stop Musk from returning to Mars? See, it's easy to ask stupidly leading questions and spout completely baseless speculation. What's more difficult is actually examining the facts and drawing a rational conclusion.

matwood 8y ago
>See, it's easy to ask stupidly leading questions and spout completely baseless speculation. What's more difficult is actually examining the facts and drawing a rational conclusion. In the first quarter of this year, the company lost Morton’s predecessor, Eric Branderiz, and Susan Repo, who was treasurer and vice president of finance. CFO Deepak Ahuja retired in 2015, only to return in 2017 after his successor, Jason Wheeler, quit after just 15 months. A rotating door of financial executives screams financial problems. Please tell me what rational conclusion I'm supposed to draw?
- airstrike 8y ago
  It's a public startup company with ~$45bn of market cap. A lot of people want to jump on the hypetrain but once they realize it takes actual work to get this company from Elon's wild dream to a steady-state market leading EV manufacturer while working under pressure from an obsessive man and near limitless public scrutiny, they immediately jump ship.
  - rchaud 8y ago
    > but once they realize it takes actual work to get this company from Elon's wild dream If what you claim was true, Musk is not good at picking people. CxO level hires are not people who managed to breeze through an HR phone interview, they are vetted by the CEO himself.
    - airstrike 8y ago
      Yes, Musk has no experience running a company this big -- he's clearly bursting at the seams -- so it's not surprising that he's not good at picking people. He's also known to be obsessive and I don't think anyone has ever described him as a great team player, so it's not surprising that he picks terrible teams.
- dnomad 8y ago
  Yeah that's not a rotating door of anything. Both those executives were with the company for 2-5 years before they decided to leave. Wheeler was almost certainly fired because Musk wanted Ahuja back. Consider that the announcement of Ahuja's return occured one day after Wheeler's announcement. Sorry, this entire narrative you have invested in of executives running for the hills just has no relation to reality.
  - matwood 8y ago
    And the head HR person. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/another-tesla-executive-leaves-this-time-its-hr-boss-gaby-toledano-report.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/another-tesla-executive-leav... > Sorry, this entire narrative you have invested in of executives running for the hills just has no relation to reality. TSLA supporters thinking everything is fine are the ones that have no relation to reality.
    - smolder 8y ago
      So then short the company and make your money? Why do you have to publicly trash talk them so hard if your analysis has merit?
      - matwood 8y ago
        I was long TSLA for a long time and made good money. I sold them off in the $350s once I decided they still had a very long road ahead, and they were already priced to execute perfectly. I've shorted them off and on, but shorting requires more time than I have to spend watching stocks right now. Other problems with shorting is that the market can stay irrational longer than I can stay solvent. TSLA has a huge fanboy level following that ignores any financial metric. I almost entered another short after the $420 tweet, but I thought no way would Musk commit fraud and lie. > Why do you have to publicly trash talk them so hard if your analysis has merit? I also do not think pointing out facts is trashing them. Again, all of this bad news and press is of TSLAs/Musk own doing. Stop over promising and under delivering. Stop acting crazy in public. Stop losing $700M+/quarter. Stop committing what looks like fraud.
- whamlastxmas 8y ago
  It doesn't scream financial problems, it screams difficulty. Tesla is under a microscope, it gets lots of criticism, and it's an inherently volatile place to work because it's doing something new and uncharted. These (often) millionaires in these positions don't want to be associated with a potentially failing business and don't have the stomach to deal with the uncertainty. It says more about them than it does about Tesla.
hi5eyes 8y ago
CFO and Chief of HR both left? coincidence? must just be the shorts and their propagandizing https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/another-tesla-executive-leaves-this-time-its-hr-boss-gaby-toledano-report.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/another-tesla-executive-leav...
- mgiannopoulos 8y ago
  Chief Accounting Officer != CFO

by dnomad 8y ago

matwood 8y ago

>See, it's easy to ask stupidly leading questions and spout completely baseless speculation. What's more difficult is actually examining the facts and drawing a rational conclusion. In the first quarter of this year, the company lost Morton’s predecessor, Eric Branderiz, and Susan Repo, who was treasurer and vice president of finance. CFO Deepak Ahuja retired in 2015, only to return in 2017 after his successor, Jason Wheeler, quit after just 15 months. A rotating door of financial executives screams financial problems. Please tell me what rational conclusion I'm supposed to draw?

airstrike 8y ago
It's a public startup company with ~$45bn of market cap. A lot of people want to jump on the hypetrain but once they realize it takes actual work to get this company from Elon's wild dream to a steady-state market leading EV manufacturer while working under pressure from an obsessive man and near limitless public scrutiny, they immediately jump ship.
- rchaud 8y ago
  > but once they realize it takes actual work to get this company from Elon's wild dream If what you claim was true, Musk is not good at picking people. CxO level hires are not people who managed to breeze through an HR phone interview, they are vetted by the CEO himself.
  - airstrike 8y ago
    Yes, Musk has no experience running a company this big -- he's clearly bursting at the seams -- so it's not surprising that he's not good at picking people. He's also known to be obsessive and I don't think anyone has ever described him as a great team player, so it's not surprising that he picks terrible teams.
dnomad 8y ago
Yeah that's not a rotating door of anything. Both those executives were with the company for 2-5 years before they decided to leave. Wheeler was almost certainly fired because Musk wanted Ahuja back. Consider that the announcement of Ahuja's return occured one day after Wheeler's announcement. Sorry, this entire narrative you have invested in of executives running for the hills just has no relation to reality.
- matwood 8y ago
  And the head HR person. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/another-tesla-executive-leaves-this-time-its-hr-boss-gaby-toledano-report.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/another-tesla-executive-leav... > Sorry, this entire narrative you have invested in of executives running for the hills just has no relation to reality. TSLA supporters thinking everything is fine are the ones that have no relation to reality.
  - smolder 8y ago
    So then short the company and make your money? Why do you have to publicly trash talk them so hard if your analysis has merit?
    - matwood 8y ago
      I was long TSLA for a long time and made good money. I sold them off in the $350s once I decided they still had a very long road ahead, and they were already priced to execute perfectly. I've shorted them off and on, but shorting requires more time than I have to spend watching stocks right now. Other problems with shorting is that the market can stay irrational longer than I can stay solvent. TSLA has a huge fanboy level following that ignores any financial metric. I almost entered another short after the $420 tweet, but I thought no way would Musk commit fraud and lie. > Why do you have to publicly trash talk them so hard if your analysis has merit? I also do not think pointing out facts is trashing them. Again, all of this bad news and press is of TSLAs/Musk own doing. Stop over promising and under delivering. Stop acting crazy in public. Stop losing $700M+/quarter. Stop committing what looks like fraud.
whamlastxmas 8y ago
It doesn't scream financial problems, it screams difficulty. Tesla is under a microscope, it gets lots of criticism, and it's an inherently volatile place to work because it's doing something new and uncharted. These (often) millionaires in these positions don't want to be associated with a potentially failing business and don't have the stomach to deal with the uncertainty. It says more about them than it does about Tesla.

hi5eyes 8y ago

CFO and Chief of HR both left? coincidence? must just be the shorts and their propagandizing https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/another-tesla-executive-leaves-this-time-its-hr-boss-gaby-toledano-report.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/another-tesla-executive-leav...

mgiannopoulos 8y ago
Chief Accounting Officer != CFO