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Sam Serio @RiskAndChips
, 18 tweets, 6 min read Read on Twitter
1/ As many people know, Elon Musk is not the founder of $TSLA. That honor goes to Martin Eberhard. I have heard bits and pieces of the story in the past, but today I went back and dug up Eberhard's lawsuit against Musk for pushing him out of Tesla. In one word... insane $tslaq
2/ 1st, these are all allegations in court. This lawsuit was settled & not taken to trial. Nonetheless, I found some stark similarities between past allegations and current patterns of Musk and $TSLA $tslaq
3/ Ill start off a little out of order, but its worth it. Apparently, this is what happened to Eberhards 1st $TSLA roadster. That is just a taste of what is to come... $tslaq
4/ I thought it was interesting that $TSLA 's basic business model was set from the start. Obviously, it is not a 'super advanced' or proprietary model, but I found it interesting that mass-market was the goal from the beginning $tslaq
5/ After Musk joined, we begin to see the famous attention to detail that brought us the M3 iPad games, door handles, etc. while ignoring much bigger issues like repairs and customer service $tsla $tslaq
6/ We also see that Eberhard seemed to have the ability to see what was best for $tsla, even at personal cost... an ability that many believe Elon doesn't possess $tslaq
7/ After Musk delayed the process of hiring a CFO, they finally hired Mike Taylor as VP of Finance in July 2007. In a move that Musk may have learned from his own experiences at PayPal/X.com, he informs Eberhard (on business trip) via phone that he is no longer CEO $tsla $tslaq
8/ Apparently, Musk did not inform the BOD of this prior to his decision, but after what we know now of Musk's relationship with BODs, this is hardly a surprise $tsla $tslaq
9/ Musk then commenced Phase II of his plan, petitioning Marks to fire Eberhard and then personally getting Eberhard off the BOD $tsla $tslaq
10/ Eberhard was offered a position of the Board of Advisors and was made to sign the severance agreement before he left that day $tsla $tslaq
11/ An interesting line to note here is the non-disparagement clause. We'll come back to that.

We also see here the first instance of Tesla allegedly disguising/mislabeling costs or expenses. $tsla $tslaq
12/ Eberhard then wrote a blog post that $tsla claimed as disparaging and determined that he violated the non-disparagement clause and terminated the agreement. If only Elon and Tesla took disparagement as seriously today... $tslaq
13/ On top of that, Elon continued to call himself founder and creator. He allegedly knew the value of these claims since he protected himself against this very act in his PayPal agreement $tsla $tslaq
14/ Eberhard makes sure to also include his education claims in the lawsuit for good measure $tsla $tslaq
15/ Now we get back to the first production Roadster. As a founder and inventor, Eberhard was to get the first production Roadster. But since Elon is motivated solely by the greater good and protecting the environment, he didnt let Eberhard have the car... wait what? $tsla $tslaq
16/ We see here Telsa's first "delivery hell" and its first go at the delivery shell game. But no fear, Musk gave it to his great friend Antonio Gracias. $tsla $tslaq
17/ We can also see that Autopilot isnt Telsa's first foray of testing products on public roads. $tsla $tslaq
18/ Now, this is not an attempt to say Telsa is worth $0 or Tesla is worth $1T. I just found this story and its alleged connections to current events interesting and thought I should share. Interpretation is up to you $tsla $tslaq
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