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But Tesla is a good example of starting reasonably. The Roadster was mostly a Lotus Elise and the batteries were off-the-shelf notebook batteries, for example.
by pbreit 13y ago
But Tesla is a good example of starting reasonably. The Roadster was mostly a Lotus Elise and the batteries were off-the-shelf notebook batteries, for example.
- skybrian 13y agoThat's oversimplifying the problem. Even if you use some common parts, it's still designing a new car. Even if you use proven battery tech, it's using it at a different scale. It's only in hindsight that it was reasonable to start a car company in Silicon Valley at all.
- mikeyouse 13y ago> But Tesla is a good example of starting reasonably. The Tesla Roadster was first shown to the public in July of 2006. By that time, Tesla had already raised (and spent) nearly $60M. Before they sold the first Roadster, they had raised $145M including $40M of Elon's own money. Plowing $150M into a car company before making a sale isn't remotely reasonable.
- sillysaurus3 13y agoPlowing $150M into a car company before making a sale isn't remotely reasonable. Why not? After all, it resulted in Tesla.
- snowwrestler 13y agoTrue, but Fisker took more than that, and then went bankrupt. Car companies can fail like any other startup. Tesla itself very nearly failed.
- prawn 13y agoYC and VCs are used to that. Not every investment is made assuming it will be a homerun.