Elon Musk

In 1999, Musk was deciding what venture to start next. He decided that he wanted to disrupt the financial industry. He founded a company called X.com with a friend whom he had met at Scotiabank, Harris Fricker. He envisioned X.com as “a one-stop everything-store for all financial needs” (74).

At X.com, Musk continued to use a demanding management style characterized by bouts of emotional detachment and rudeness. His cofounder and other employees demanded that he step down, but because Musk held a controlling interest, he prevailed, and Fricker quit. Musk convinced the head of Sequoia Capital, Michael Moritz, to invest in the company.

X.com was in competition with a company called Confinity which had a payment service called PayPal, founded by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel. The two companies decided that it would be more beneficial to merge than compete. After contentious negotiations, the merger succeeded, essentially giving each side in the deal a 50/50 split.

Levchin started to find Musk difficult and dispiriting to work with. He told a few colleagues that he was ready to quit, but instead they encouraged him to fight back. Thiel agreed. Theil, Levchin, and others decided that it was “time to dethrone Musk” (83).