BUSINESSFORTUNE
Tesla cofounder JB Straubel’s first pitch to Elon Musk failed. Then he turned his ‘hobby’ into a $1.3 trillion success
JB Straubel's initial pitch to Elon Musk for an unmanned hydrogen-powered airplane failed, but he later proposed an electric sports car using lithium-ion cells. Musk invested, leading to Tesla's founding. Straubel became Tesla's CTO, developing its first battery pack and contributing to its growth into a $1.3 trillion company.
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