On this day in 2009: Daimler acquired nearly 10% of Tesla for $50 million.

That stake would be worth $50 billion today.

Here’s how the deal helped save Tesla…🧵 First, let’s go back to 2008 financial crisis.

Elon Musk nearly had to pick between saving either Tesla or SpaceX.

Last minute funding kept Tesla going, but Musk was financially tapped out.

On this day in 1997: Amazon went public.

$1,000 invested in the IPO…

… would be worth $2.5 million today. Amazon was less than 3 years old when it went public.

Bezos had worked at a hedge fund and wanted to start an Internet company.

“Web usage was growing at 2,300% a year.  So I decided to find a business that made sense in the context of that growth.”

Jony Ive was born this day in 1967.

Some products he designed include:

2016: AirPods
2015: Apple Watch
2010: iPad
2008: MacBook Air
2007: iPhone
2004: iPod Mini
2002: iMac G4
2001: iPod
2000: G4 Cube
1999: iBook G3
1998: iMac
1993: Newton MessagePad Here’s Ive on what Steve Jobs taught him about the power of focusing:

“Focus is not this thing you aspire to…or something you do on Monday. It’s something you do every minute.”

Netflix just sent out its last red envelope.

The company officially ended its DVD-by-mail service after 25 years.

While that era is over…

…the business launched what would become one of Hollywood’s biggest disruptors. You’ve probably heard the late fee story.

At 36, Reed Hastings started Netflix partly out of frustration from $40 in Blockbuster fees.

Here’s how he once explained it to Fortune.

“Here’s to the crazy ones…”

Apple’s “Think Different” commercial first aired on this day in 1997.

Apple was nearly bankrupt at the time.

Here’s more on the campaign that was part of Apple’s turnaround… 🧵
Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, after being away for 12 years.

He quickly realized the company was 3 months away from going broke.

Aside from the hard decision to drop most Apple products to re-focus…

…he made peace with Microsoft…

…and…he needed a new ad campaign.

1.4 million iPhones were sold in the first year.

Today, it’s roughly 1.4 million every 2 days.

But early on, there were lots of skeptics… 🧵 Firstly, less than a year before the iPhone was unveiled, there were still some strong views that Apple would never launch a phone.

Amazon is one of the fastest growing businesses in history.

Within two years, it will likely generate more revenue than any other company in the world.

Here’s more on what we learned in the latest quarterly results. Let’s start with sales.

Double digit revenue growth is the norm for Amazon.

Q2 of last year was the one exception since Amazon’s IPO.

2023: +10.8%
2022: +7.2%
2021: +27.2%
2020: +40.2%
2019: +19.9%
2018: +39.3%
2017: +24.8%
2016: +31.1%
2015: +19.9%
2014: +23.2%
2013: +22.4%

This was SpaceX’s website 20 years ago.

Here’s a look at other early websites. 🧵 Uber:

10 successful companies that once faced the threat of bankruptcy… 🧵 Example one: Apple.

Steve Jobs returned in 1997, 11 years after being fired.

Jobs later said Apple was 3 months away from going broke.

Aside from the hard decision to drop most Apple products to re-focus…

…he made peace with Microsoft.

Walmart sells millions of products.

But one item is easily its best seller.

Bananas.

It sells more than a billion each year.

Here are the top selling items at some other big businesses… Costco’s top seller?

Toilet paper.

It sells more than a billion rolls per year.

The X era has begun at Twitter

Elon Musk says the bird logo will be replaced by an X.

For Musk, it’s the continuation of a story that began 25 years ago.

Here’s a brief history on that... 🧵 Let’s go back to 1999.

After selling his first company…

…Musk set out to disrupt banking.

And the X identity was born.

But its time as a standalone brand would be short-lived.

Instead, X became part of another brand.

Age when their business launched?

Jeff Bezos: 30
Oprah Winfrey: 32
Reed Hastings, Netflix: 36
Doris Fisher, Gap: 37
Vera Wang: 40
Eric Yuan, Zoom: 41
Sam Walton, Walmart: 44
Adi Dassler, Adidas: 48
Bernie Marcus, Home Depot: 50
Charles Flint, IBM: 61

Here are their stories 🧵 Jeff Bezos started Amazon at age 30.

His reason?

"I came across this startling statistic that web usage was growing at 2,300% a year.  So I decided to find a business that made sense in the context of that growth.”

Tesla just reported the biggest quarter in its history.

In its second quarter, the company generated nearly $25 billion in sales.

That leaves it on track to top $100 billion in revenue for the first time this year.

Let’s break it down. Here’s how revenue in Q2 has grown:

2023: $24.9 billion
2022: $16.9 billion
2021: $11.9 billion
2020: $6.0 billion
2019: $6.3 billion
2018: $4.0 billion
2017: $2.8 billion
2016: $1.3 billion
2015: $955 million
2014: $769 million
2013: $405 million
2012: $27 million

Some of their first jobs?

Steve Jobs: assembly line worker
Jeff Bezos: McDonald’s cook
Oprah Winfrey: cashier
Warren Buffett: gum salesman
Elon Musk: lumberjack
Michael Dell: dishwasher
Barack Obama: ice cream scooper
Ray Dalio: golf caddy

Their stories below and a few more… At age 12, Steve Jobs called HP co-founder Bill Hewlett and asked him for spare parts.

He got the parts and also…a summer job on HP’s assembly line.

“I was in heaven,” Jobs later said.

In 1999, Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to sell Google for $1 million.

They were rejected (by Excite).

They then considered selling for $750,000.

They were rejected again.

Here are early rejection stories from 5 other famous companies… In 2000, Netflix wanted to sell itself to Blockbuster for $50 million.

“They laughed at us,” says Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph.

Netflix is now worth $195 billion.

Snapchat launched on this day in 2011.

But it was originally called Picaboo.

Here are a few more famous businesses that originally had different names… 🧵 Google was originally called BackRub.

Amazon was founded this day in 1994.

Jeff Bezos got started in his garage.

Here’s more on the journey... 🧵 Bezos was working at a hedge fund and wanted to start an Internet company.

“Web usage was growing at 2,300% a year.  So I decided to find a business that made sense in the context of that growth.”

Tesla was founded this day in 2003.

20 years ago, it was unclear if the company would ever sell one vehicle.

This year, it may sell 2 million.

And revenue may top $100 billion.

Here are 8 key moments from the past two decades… 🧵 Let’s start in late 2008, five years after the company got started.

Elon nearly went broke saving the business.

The economy was collapsing and he nearly had to pick between saving Tesla or SpaceX.

A last minute funding round helped Tesla forge ahead.

The iPhone was released this day in 2007.

You may remember the hype.

But there was also lots of skepticism.

Here’s more on how it played out… 🧵 Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone earlier that year.

Here’s the moment you may recall:

Pizza Hut got started on this day in 1958.

It was founded by two brothers in Kansas.

They were still in college.

Their first location?

A 500-square-foot brick building.

Here are a few more Pizza Hut tidbits… 🧵 Let’s start with the name, which was selected somewhat randomly.

Their sign had space for 8 letters.

They knew they wanted “Pizza.”

That left 3 letters to form a word.

Microsoft bought LinkedIn this day in 2016.

It paid more than $26 billion in cash.

It was Microsoft’s biggest deal ever.

And there were plenty of skeptics.

But LinkedIn’s user base has since grown by more than 100%.

Here’s more on the deal… 🧵 At the time, Microsoft was hungry for a piece of the consumer web.

So, it has to pay a near 50% premium to beat out rivals such as Salesforce, Facebook and Alphabet to seal the deal.