Tesla Motors is a successful startup that designs and manufactures electric vehicles like the Tesla Roadster and Model S. It has been successful for five key reasons: 1) Its visionary CEO Elon Musk who envisioned mass-producing affordable electric cars, 2) Its innovative battery technology that maximized existing lithium-ion batteries to achieve greater range than competitors, 3) Good timing as it focused on electric vehicles when competitors were distracted, 4) Its Supercharger network that alleviated range anxiety, and 5) Thinking differently by focusing on the battery/powertrain first rather than adapting electric technology to gasoline vehicles.

1. Technology Entrepreneurship (E145)
Dr Chuck Eesley, Stanford University
Stanford University
Esfandiar Khaleghi
Research-Design Engineer
www.esfandiar.co
Assignment 1.
Why are start-ups successful?

2. Why are start-ups successful?
For this first assignment, we'd like you to choose a successful local start-up, describe the business, and list 5
reasons why it’s successful. Our goal is to come up with a global catalogue of successful start-ups so that we
can begin to see what attributes successful start-ups share. For this reason, it will be helpful for you to think
beyond the obvious when analyzing your chosen start-up's success: lots of start-ups formed around great ideas
fail, so having a great idea isn't the only factor in a start-up success. And investors lose a lot of money in start-
ups with great ideas, so having funding also isn't a slam dunk. What made your start-up successful? Was it
market knowledge? Vision? Understanding the core customer? Or something completely different? The more
detailed and specific your answer is, the more helpful it will be to you and your classmates as we begin to
build our own (hopefully successful) start-ups! [1]

3. Tesla Motors
Tesla Motors, Inc. is a Silicon Valley-based company that designs, manufactures
and sells electric cars and electric vehicle powertrain components.
Tesla Motors gained widespread attention by producing the Tesla Roadster, the
first fully electric sports car. Its second model is the Model S, a fully electric luxury
sedan. While still expensive, it is substantially cheaper than the Roadster. Tesla also
sells electric powertrain components, including lithium-ion battery packs, to other
automakers, including Daimler and Toyota. [2]

4. Elon Musk (CEO)
Elon Musk (born 28 June 1971) is an American entrepreneur who was born and raised in
South Africa. He is best known for founding SpaceX and for co-founding Tesla Motors
and PayPal (originally X.com). At SpaceX he is the CEO and Chief Designer and at Tesla
Motors he is Product Architect. Musk is also Chairman of SolarCity. [3]
Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, has said he envisions Tesla as an independent automaker, aimed
at eventually mass-producing fully electric cars at a price affordable to the average
consumer.

5. TESLA MOTORS
Type Public
Industry Automotive
Founded 2003
Headquarter Palo Alto, California,
USA
Products Tesla Roadster
Tesla Model S
Tesla Model X
Revenue US$413.3 million (2012)
US$204.2 million (2011)
Net Income US$-396.2 million (2012)
US$-254.4 million (2011)
Total Assets US$1,114.2
million(2012)
US$713.4 million (2011)

6. How did a tiny start-up beat Detroit,
Germany & Japan to a usable EV?
It is amazing how far Tesla has moved
the yardstick on electric vehicles. What
I find curious is how the world's existing
manufacturers couldn't generate
anywhere near the range that Tesla
gets out of it's battery packs. Especially
since they are using laptop batteries
that are already mass produced.
As I understand it, all Tesla did was find
the most efficient way to configure
them and then manage the
temperature and environment of the
batteries within the pack. I'm sure there
are a few other aspects that
differentiate Tesla's battery pack but
it's not like they created some new
type of battery.
They just figured out how to get the
most out of them. And they had a
fraction of the r/d staff and $ to figure
it out compared to the existing
manufacturers.
That being said, will the other
manufacturers be able to replicate the
Tesla's range within a few years? I hope
not, I'd like to see Tesla stay on the
cutting edge. [4]

7. Learn from Failure
Strapping a bunch of laptop batteries
together might sound obvious in
hindsight. But don't forget all the
failures that came before:
- perpetual motion machines
- cold fusion
- super capacitors
- hydrogen fuel cells
- arrays of NiCd laptop batteries
Ballard Power was convinced that their
fuel cell technology would be the key
to EVs. Maybe hydrogen will unseat
Tesla next year or next decade.
Maybe we will all have Mr. Fusions by
2040. But today, it is an array of L-Ion
laptop batteries in our Teslas and
RAV4s.
Right idea at the wrong time is just as
bad as the wrong idea at the wrong
time. Every big car company has
tinkered with EVs in the last decade or
two. While they had some limited
success, they were "ahead of their
time". Had the laptop battery
experiments used NiCd or NiMh a few
years earlier, we wouldn't be having
this discussion today.
Right Time

8. A bit of Luck
But instead they got lucky, L-Ion
batteries just crossed into the practical
energy density range.
At the same time all the major
automakers were distracted from EV
research during this window. They
were:
- burned by failed EV projects
- milking gas guzzler "cash cows" (SUVs,
Humvees)
- got in bed with big oil (hybrids still
burn gas)
- bankrupt (GM, Crysler)
- fighting the hybrid wars (Toyota,
Honda, Ford, just about every big car
maker now)
In essence, big auto "blinked" and
overlooked this breakthrough while
Tesla hit it dead on.
The big car makers design first and
implement the new ideas and
technology inside, whereas at Tesla,
they makes battery and power-train
first and make the car around them.
New design approach
Tesla made the bold in hindsight
decision to not worry about range
anxiety, or at least mitigate it differently
than everyone else. The established
players all made ICE engines, so from
their point of view, it just made
strategic sense to leverage their know-
how and servicing centres, and cost
efficiency building internal combustion
(IC) engines and build a hybrid. They
completely solved the range problem
by having a hybrid (just fill up at a gas
station). Please note that the
established players ARE NOT in bed
with the oil companies, it's just that they
are good at making IC engines.
Better vision

9. Vision
 SO IN A NUTSHELL, THEY
GAMBLED AND WON ON L-
ION, AND THEY DIDN'T
COME FROM A IC ENGINE
BACKGROUND, AND THUS
SOLVED THE RANGE ANXIETY
PROBLEM BY FIRST NOT
WORRYING ABOUT IT WITH A
240 MILE RANGE, AND THEN
INVENTING THEIR
SUPERCHARGER NETWORK.
Tesla said, well if we make a 240 mile
range car, that will be good enough
for a pretty big segment of the market.
And that answer certainly worked well
for a 2 seater sports car (people will
take SUVs filled with camping gear on
long car trips, but rarely would they
take their 2 seater sports car to do so).
For model S, they upped the ante and
came out with their Supercharger
network. What a cool idea. For a $25M
investment for a reasonable
Supercharger roll-out, they will have
mitigated the big knock (actually the
only knock other than price) against
electric cars.

10. References:
[1]. Tesla Motors [http://www.teslamotors.com]
[2]. Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors]
[3]. Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk]
[4]. Tesla Motors Forum
Photos:
Online from Google.co.uk Image Search

11. The used photos are commonly used from online sources and brands official websites. All copyrights belong
to the website owners, blogger, photographers and brands intellectual property.
THANKS for your attention.…