The Rise Of Elon Musk: A Brief History Of The Innovator And Entrepreneur

Elon Musk was an unlikely choice as the leader of Tesla. The charismatic co-founder and CEO of PayPal had no engineering or auto experience, and he wasn’t even interested in taking on that role. Instead, Musk saw himself as a service provider to his customers — providing them with reliable, affordable vehicles while disrupting the auto industry with electric car innovation. This unconventional path to power soon changed his life and the lives of millions of people around the world. In this brief history of Elon Musk, we’ll trace his transformation from garage inventor to household name to modern innovator and entrepreneur.

The PayPal guy, the Tesla guy, and the changing of the guard at PayPal

In the fall of 1998, Musk co-founded PayPal with a friend and former classmate — and soon, the trio was making millions of dollars in venture capital. As the co-founders of PayPal, Musk and his friend Paul R. Reid grew close to the online payment industry and its users. The pair was especially struck by the idea of building a digital wallet for consumers to make online payments with minimal friction. The digital wallet idea eventually grew into the global phenomenon that is today’s PayPal. After Palmer Luckey, another PayPal co-founder, created the Oculus Rift virtual reality computer program in 2012, Musk was quick to recognize the potential of the technology and its impact on the entertainment industry. Musk has described the purchase of Oculus Rift by Facebook as “the most valuable acquisition in digital currency history.” In 2014, Facebook and Musk formed a partnership to develop a social impact investment fund to fund startups that promote social justice, environmental protection, and equality.

Becomes an early adopter, then a trendsetter with the creation of PayPal

As the co-founder of PayPal, Musk knew the importance of testing an idea before adoption. So after seeing early success with the digital wallet, he turned his attention to the online payments industry and the payment processing experience. Musk’s first innovation for the online payments industry was the PayPal/Venmo hybrid — which he and his team developed based on the idea of a “click-to-pay” button. Once a user clicks on the button, banks and credit unions would immediately process the payment, without the user having to do anything further. The PayPal/Venmo hybrid quickly gained traction among online money transfer users, and by 2016, the service was used by more than 1 billion people worldwide.

Builds Tesla and SpaceX with an intense focus on reliability and safety

Once the PayPal/Venmo hybrid gained wide adoption, Musk turned his attention to improving the payment experience for consumers. He wanted to make it easier for people to buy things with money they already have instead of requiring them to use cash. To that end, Musk created the “Pay with Blood” concept in 2016, which allowed people to pay for services with a drop of blood donations from their favorite victims. As the world’s oldest blood institutes continue to face financial challenges, the idea of helping patients and strengthening the doctor-patient relationship has become increasingly important to Musk’s family.

The birth of PayPal: 'Proceed with extreme caution'

As the co-founder of PayPal, Musk knew the importance of testing an idea before adoption. So after seeing early success with the digital wallet, he turned his attention to the online payments industry and the payment processing experience. Musk’s first innovation for the online payments industry was the PayPal/Venmo hybrid — which he and his team developed based on the idea of a “click-to-pay” button. Once a user clicks on the button, banks and credit unions would immediately process the payment, without the user having to do anything further. The PayPal/Venmo hybrid quickly gained traction among online money transfer users, and by 2016, the service was used by more than 1 billion people worldwide.

Becomes a charter member of the Skynet community with the creation of Autopilot

As the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Musk’s mission is to create a sustainable, long-term profitable company. Tesla’s success is closely tied to its products' success and customers’ satisfaction with the service Tesla provides. To achieve this, Musk has implemented a “zero defect” guarantee on all Tesla products. If a customer brings a Tesla in for service, and it has a defect, Tesla will, at its option, repair it or replace it with a newer, similar model without further obligation.

The birth of Autopilot: “This is not a drill”

Just a few months after becoming CEO of Tesla, Musk became interested in other technologies. He began exploring driverless cars and the concept of automated driving, and soon became an early adopter of the technology. To promote the adoption of automated driving in his home country of Norway, Musk founded a non-partisan organization called the National Research Council of Norway (NRK) to engage the public, stakeholders, and experts to develop a vision for automated driving in the country. In collaboration with the Skynet community and the Norwegian government, NRK produced the NRK Autopilot report, which outlined the state of automated driving in Norway.

Tesla

As the co-founder of Tesla and co-chairman of the Autopilot Task Force at Morgan Stanley, Musk understands the financial impact of new technology. And he has a special interest in the development of self-driving technology. In his role as the financial advisor to Tesla, Musk has access to some of the cutting-edge artificial intelligence research going on at the Bostrom Family Foundation in California. Musk has been using the technology developed at the Bostrom Family Foundation to train his AI software to improve the Tesla vehicle experience.

Wrapping up: What’s next for Elon Musk?

Elon Musk’s story is a great example of the power of innovation and entrepreneurship. The birth of Tesla and the evolution of Autopilot are simply wonderful to tell the story of. In the words of Musk himself, “This is not a drill” when it comes to the future of Tesla and artificial intelligence.