Tesla’s Elon Musk: “I ran out of cash”

I admire this guy so much, Hope things pick up for Tesla.<p>It's a float issue. not like he's totally broke or financially incapable of taking future risks in his capacity with Tesla.

He is an inspirational dude. I can't find a direct quote, but when I read the article posted here some time ago (<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458090" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458090</a>) I got the sense that he wants to change the world, and potentially going broke doing it is an unfortunate but permissible side-effect. Given the various posts about "what to do with my millions" today, I think what Musk has chosen to do with his capital provides a poignant perspective.

"messy divorce":<p><a href="http://moschus.livejournal.com/141570.html" rel="nofollow">http://moschus.livejournal.com/141570.html</a><p>Suddenly, everyone is broke:<p><a href="http://moschus.livejournal.com/140610.html" rel="nofollow">http://moschus.livejournal.com/140610.html</a>

Messy divorces are one very good reason for extremely strict shareholder agreements in startups.<p>Startups can definitely cause bumps in your relationships with others, including your spouse and a messy divorce with a large enough block of shares at stake in a startup can kill the startup, at a minimum it will kill the chance of finding funding until the whole thing has played out and that can take years.<p>Elon Musk is the best thing that happened to electric cars since the early 1900's, it would be a pity if this divorce caused that to be torn apart.<p>How does this all relate to SpaceX, is there any chance of fall-out in that direction ?

Interesting. I just read Tony Hsieh's book (CEO of Zappos) and he has a similar story where he actually almost went broke at one point (down from maybe $100m net worth) trying to keep Zappos alive as it's sole investor when everyone else backed out.<p>Of course, he ended up selling it to Amazon for over a billion, so it worked for him. Hope it also works out for Elon. It's a testament to how much he really believes in the company.

Hehe, nothing like divorce case to make a billionaire plead poverty. If, God forbid, Melinda ever divorces Bill, I expect him to argue that those Microsoft shares are really not worth the paper they are printed on.

Wow, did you know Elon Musk has a cameo in Iron Man 2? I didn't either.<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/fullcredits" rel="nofollow">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/fullcredits</a><p>Elon Musk ... Himself

I think what he's doing with Tesla and SpaceX are very important for the country and really the world, so I hope enough folks with deep pockets can step up to the plate and help out his/their cash situation. We need more companies/endeavors like Tesla and SpaceX.

I don't see why the personal finances of a CEO should be disclosed in a public offering.<p>What is the risk to the public/shareholders?<p>Would his personal finances ever be of discussion in the boardroom?