Martin Eberhard is the dot commer who founded Tesla Motors– and singularly failed to bring his vision to fruition. When Tesla's Bored of Directors gave Eberhard the old heave-ho, the man was pissed. Still is. In fact, Eberhard's newly-launched Tesla Founders Blog is laced with more venom than that Egyptian tomb where Indiana Jones freaked. "Okay, I said this blog is not going to be about criticizing Tesla," Eberhard writes. "But I just have to say something about the bloodbath going on over there right now, because it seems to be going largely unreported in the press." It's a highly ironic media dig, given that the press has reported his[former] company's vaporware with wide-eyed obsequiousness, and that Eberhard's blog is destroying that good will. Anyway, the list of 26 fired employees (roughly 10 percent of Tesla's payroll) must mean Tesla's new new production goal is toast. Could this be a total abortion? Nah. But according to Eberhard "axing nearly the entire executive staff, letting the world’s foremost EV motor engineer go, trimming down the service organization before the job of opening the first service center is done, ripping through the firmware team – and doing it by random firings on a daily basis – are all hard to explain." Well, how about this: they were all shit-canned because they failed to produce a car. In fact, it's a sign of Eberhard's arrogance that he can't draw any connection between his own incompetence and the employees fired in his wake. [thanks to everyone who sent the link]
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
what a dickbag. Some people don’t know how to exit gracefully, I guess.
Just another day in Silicon Valley. This kind of stuff goes on all the time here. Can we still call it Silicon Valley when almost all of the factories are gone now and most of the semiconductor jobs are as well?
Many start ups have the Tesla problem. New ideas require creative ideators dreamers inventors etc. But at some point those great ideas have to be turned into a tangible saleable product. Often the heads of new companies don’t realize this or think they can do it with the same people. This is seldom the case. At some point the prototyped idea has to be turned over to the implementors. Often the idea people won’t let go of their “baby” and if the people running the company don’t make them let go there is a big problem.
In well run profitable companies the inventors get to move on to the next big thing. In small startups there usually isn’t any money for the next big thing so they get in the way of the implementors or go away. Or you have to make them go away so you can afford to hire the implementors. I think this is what is happening at Tesla.
It really should come as no shock to anyone who is familiar with the whole “dotcom boom” mentality. I work in a very capital intensive high tech industry that was spawned at the dawn of the dotcom era: Internet datacenters. My company started in ’94, and we grew the “old fashioned” way… we made customers happy, and kept them. We grew slowly and only as revenues allowed. Nobody ever wrote us a big fat investment check to go “build it and they will come…” In 2004 we moved into a facility that was built in 1999/2000 by a VC-funded startup who raised triple-digit millions in investment, built this monument to themselves and promptly went out of business in October of 2001. We moved in for pennies on the dollar three years later.
Out of curiosity I googled around and started reading about the bozos who had built this facility and it was like reading a dotcom stereotype: Arrogant, unruly children in their 20s who somehow managed to convince grown men (who should have been wiser) to part with millions upon millions of dollars to fund a goofy idea with ABSOLUTELY NO HOPE OF SUCCESS because there was just the goofy idea, and a need for gobs of money. No real clear thinking about all the hard work that has to take place between “getting started”, and “getting rich.” You know, basic business stuff like making, managing, process, procedure, selling, customer service, accounting, etc. It was all about some sort of “life as lottery” concept. “If we do this we’ll be billionaires”… which is of course, ludicrous.
Autonomous all electric vehicles are equally ludicrous. Electricity will NEVER be a sole motivator of a car unless supported by a distance infrastructure akin to what railroads have. All these people who think they can somehow change the laws of physics with their smarts are deluding themselves. The electric car can never replace the internal combustion engine. Electricity just can not be made as portable, or as quickly, nor can it be made to run great distances.
While I’m not shocked by Eberhard’s behavior after being sacked, I’m really just amazed that this miscarriage is still going on. The investors and “customers” should have their heads examined. The mainstream press will all turn a 180 soon and be lining up right behind TTAC… shock and recrimination! Just wait… I give it about 90 days.
–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
I read through the comments on Eberhard’s blog and saw a former employee mention he was let go because the Whitestar project was delayed indefinitely. With a big house cleaning while they are supposedly all hands on deck to get the roadster out and news like this it sounds very much like the roadster is not going to be released. Tesla has created some useful technology that can be sold and its obvious the money guys want a return on their investment. My guess is its strip and flip time.
Chuck, I have to ask. What are the names of your current company and the former company? Just the outline you gave would be a great opportunity for a case study.
As far as VC money goes… there are a few realyy good investors out there. Unfortunately most of them are about as ruthless and arrogant as you can find. Too many of them make the mistake of investing in businesses they know nothing about and try to make up for it by offering Draconian terms and screwball ‘advice’ that often results in a bankrupt company. It’s not a mistake that most founders are kicked out of their firms when a VC company is given a substantial stake in the business.
As for Tesla…. it may likely represent the epitome of arrogance at all levels. Or it could just be a struggling company riddled with bad management and low morale. It’s ridiculous to ask a journalist to find out the truth about a company like Tesla because the employees most willing to talk will usually be the ones most eager to badmouth it.
I wish them luck.
Bored of Directors
Freudian or intentional?
Juniper nailed it. The skills and personalities needed to get a company moving during the initial idea stage are often quite different from what is needed to grow a company, which in turn are different from what skill sets are needed if a company eventually becomes large and successful.
My guess is that Eberhard was useful as a dream spinner and early-round fundraiser, but not all that useful in producing a product and getting it to market. And the big wad of investor cash probably led to funds being allocated poorly by directing them to uses that weren’t optimal.
For example, on his blog, he rants about one of the fired individuals held the position of writing the owner’s manual. From my vantage point, this was a dumb hire in the first place, putting someone on the payroll now for something that could have been subcontracted later if/when the car was actually ready for market.
That’s not a knock on the person who was given the job of writing the manuals, but of the manager who made the decision that such a hire was even necessary. In companies large (GM) or small, giving them too much cash without worthy uses for it is a surefire recipe to see it squandered.
I’m guessing that the investors are pretty pissed off that nothing is coming of their investment. And frankly, I can’t blame them.
Hey, guys, don’t worry! I’m sure they’ll get that transmission problem worked out.
If the AFS Trinity system works as advertised, why bother with an EV car at all? You’d get your cake (all-electric operation for a long-enough range) and get to eat it too (make long trips when you want).
Steven Lang, you can find me via email by using my initials @ that domain name you see for my website.
–cg
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
I guess it’s hard to suppress a huge ego.
Next time produce a damn car!