第三季 第一集：特斯拉

他们深入思考了电池、驱动系统等各项技术的现状，意识到他们不该造一辆大型SUV。

They do a bunch of thinking about like where the technology is both with batteries and drivetrains and everything and they realize that it's not like a big SUV they should be building.

他们应该造一辆跑车。

They should be building a sports car.

这才是当时最能体现电动汽车技术优势的车型，而不是普锐斯那样的车。

That's what's gonna best express the technology of electric vehicles at the time, and not a Prius and and those sorts of things.

于是，他们带着商业计划书，甚至一辆真实的T-Zero，前往桑尼维尔大道。

So they take this business plan and they actually not just the business plan, but an actual t zero itself to Sandhill Road.

他们开始向风险投资机构推销，寻求A轮融资，以建立这家公司，打造特斯拉。

And they go start pitching VCs on raising a series a to start building this company to start building Tesla.

当然，他们之前已经融过资。

And of course, they've raised money before.

他们有过一次成功的退出。

They've had a successful exit.

桑尼维尔大道上的每个人都说：这些人疯了。

And everybody on Sandhill is like, guys are nuts.

你想造一家汽车公司？

You wanna build a car company?

你们这些搞技术的。

Like, you're tech dudes.

你们到底在干什么？

Like what are you doing?

如果你是一家风投公司，面对的是一对创业者——不仅仅是单个创业者，而是整个团队，这对联合创始人之前已经成功退出，赚了一大笔钱，现在又创办了另一家公司。

If you're a VC firm and a pair of entrepreneurs, not just even a single entrepreneur, but the whole team, like the the two co founding team has had a successful exit for you, made a bunch of money, and then they started another company.

这简直就像一张空白支票。

It's almost like a blank check.

这有点像Aaron和Revver的那一集。

It's kinda like Aaron and the Revver episode.

不管你们做什么，我都想参与，我来领投。

Like, whatever you do, like, I want in, I'll I'll lead it.

情况糟到他们之前的领投方都说：好吧，我们给你们50万美元，但我们不会领投，因为这太疯狂了。

It's so bad that their lead investors from their old company are like, I mean, we'll give you $500,000, but we're not gonna lead because this is nuts.

这本身也是一个非常有趣的案例研究，因为你无法预知下一波浪潮会是什么，而埃隆可能是这波浪潮的开创者，或者更早的埃伯哈德和塔彭宁才真正开启了这波浪潮。

And it's sort of a fascinating case study too where you don't know what wave is coming and Elon started this wave or I guess Eberhard and Tarpening may have started this wave.

但特斯拉开启了电动汽车的浪潮，随后你又会陷入自动驾驶汽车的重叠浪潮中。

But Tesla started this wave of electric vehicles and then you sort of get into a overlapping wave of autonomous vehicles.

而现在，每个人都有了自己的见解。

And now like everybody's got a thesis on that.

每家机构都在这条价值链的某个环节布局了芯片技术。

Every firm's got chips somewhere along the value chain there.

但当你作为第一个敢于迎风而上的人时，这就像在向投资人推销说：风投支持的科技公司的下一步，肯定是热气球。

But it's very difficult, when you're the first one to sort of brave the storm a little bit, it's as if they were going and pitching like, you know, the next step for VC backed tech companies is definitely hot air balloons.

每个人都会觉得你疯了，完全无法理解，没人在这上面下注，我也没读过任何相关报道，没听过任何风声，我的认知里根本不存在这种可能性。

And everybody would look at them like, you're completely insane, I don't understand, no one else is making bets there, I haven't read anything about this, I haven't heard about this, my consciousness is not, know, there's nothing leading me to believe that this is the next thing.

因此，做出这样的投资决定极其困难。

And so it's super hard to make those bets.

完全同意。

Totally.

而且从某种程度上说，风险投资人们也不是完全错的。

Well and in their somewhat defense, the VCs weren't totally wrong.

就像特斯拉后来成了一个烧钱的无底洞，直到现在仍然是这样。

Like Tesla becomes a you know, burning money pit for for well, really still to this

还在持续。

been around.

直到今天仍然是，这一点我们稍后会讨论。

Really still to this day, which we will discuss later.

所以他们从原来的风投那里拿到了50万美元。

So they get $500,000 from their old VCs.

有趣的是，他们实际上并没有直接竞争，却在产品尚未推出时，用竞争对手的产品来做推广。

Also funny in this is that they're effectively, it's not quite a competitor but like they're pitching pre product using their competitor's product.

他们带着人们去试驾。

Like they're taking people for test drives.

它会像这样，但会是这个的商用版本。

It's gonna be like this but like a commercial version of this.

不过公平地说，我不确定他们是否已经达成了协议。

Now to be fair, I don't know if they had already agreed.

他们肯定在与T零协商授权其动力系统的事宜，最终他们确实这么做了，这就是第一代Roadster的动力系统。

They're certainly in discussions to license the drivetrain from the t zero, and they ultimately end up doing that, and that is the drivetrain for the Roadster, for the first Roadster.

这个授权协议中还有一个有趣的细节：他们不能从AC Propulsion的任何投资者那里融资。

An interesting nuance too in that license is that they cannot raise money from any of the investors that were in AC Propulsion.

所以AC Propulsion基本上说：是的，当然可以这么做。

So AC Propulsion says basically, yeah yeah, you can totally do that.

你们就是不能从我们曾经融资过的那些人那里筹钱。

You just can't raise money from people that we raise money from.

AC Propulsion之前曾向埃隆推销过，但他拒绝了，这使得埃隆成为可以被再次推介的对象。

AC Propulsion had previously pitched Elon and he had said no, which made Elon eligible to be pitched.

是的。

Yep.

对。

Uh-huh.

很有趣。

Interesting.

我之前没注意到这个细节。

I didn't I didn't get that detail.

这或许促使埃弗哈德去解释。

Well, that perhaps leads to Everhard interpreting.

他们有点倒霉。

They're like kinda out of luck.

他们不知道该去哪儿。

They don't know where to go.

他们认为需要700万美元才能造出后来成为Roadster的原型车。

They think they need $7,000,000 to get, a prototype of what would become the Roadster built.

硅谷的每一家风投都拒绝了他们，而AC Propulsion的人告诉了他们关于埃隆的事。

Every VC in the valley has turned them down and the AC propulsion guys tell them about Elon.

他们说：‘嘿，有个家伙在洛杉矶这边。’

They're like, oh, hey, there's this other dude down here in LA.

他有很多钱。

He's got a bunch of money.

他经营着一家太空公司，但他也想让我们做这件事。

He's running this space company, but he wants us to do this too.

也许你们该聊聊。

Maybe you guys should chat.

他们把双方介绍了。

They introduced them.

埃隆见了他们。

Elon meets them.

按照埃隆一贯的风格，从第一次见面、听说这些人的事，仅仅四天后，他就说：我加入。

And within a matter of days, typical Elon fashion from first meeting and hearing about these guys, something like four days later, he's like, I'm in.

我 personally 将主导你们的A轮融资。

I am personally going to lead your series a.

我会给你们开一张支票，补足你们所需的700万美元。

I'm going to write a check for the rest of the 7,000,000 you need.

我自己要投资650万美元。

I'm gonna invest $6,500,000 myself.

这可不是通常的情况，你知道，通常当你作为初创公司融资时，比如做种子轮或A轮之类的，有个人投资者参与，他们是以天使投资人的身份进来的。

Now this is not like, you know, typically when you raise money as a start of, you know, you do a seed or a series a or whatever and you have individuals involved, they come in as angels.

他们通常只写2.5万美元的支票。

They're writing like 25 k checks.

个人主导A轮融资是极其罕见的，更不用说这个人还是另一家公司的CEO，有一份全职工作。

It's incredibly rare that an individual person would lead a series a, let alone one who is the CEO of another company with a full time job.

而那另一家公司，实际上就是他们之前有机会与埃伯哈德、塔尔彭宁以及埃隆·马斯克产生交集的原因。

And that other company is actually how they had a chance to run-in before, Eberhard and Tarpenning with Elon Musk.

你当时有没有发现这一点？

Did you did you find this at all?

我发现了。

I did.

是的，我发现了。

I did.

是的

Yep.

对

Yeah.

在2001年，塔彭宁这个太空迷拉着埃伯哈德去斯坦福参加火星学会会议，听了埃隆关于SpaceX的演讲。

In in 2001, Tarponing, so big space nerd drags Eberhard to a Mars Society conference at Stanford and sees Elon speak about SpaceX.

这就是后来成为SpaceX的构想。

The idea for what would become SpaceX.

他那时还没创办SpaceX。

He hadn't started SpaceX yet.

好主意。

Ah, good call.

是不是很有趣？

Is it just fascinating?

比如，他只讲过一次，你知道，他其实是个车迷。

Like, hey, saw this guy speak once and, you know, he's kind of a car guy.

是的。

Yeah.

还有，那些交流电推进的人，这让他们想起了什么，于是就引荐了。

Well, and the AC propulsion guys, it kinda reminded them and so and introduced.

所以，你知道的，按照埃隆的一贯风格，他完全投入了。

So, you know, again, typically Elon fashion, he's in.

他全身心投入。

He's all in.

但他还，你知道的，给了JB·斯特劳贝尔一万美元，就像我们之前聊过的电池包那样。

But he also, you know, he's also given $10,000 to JB Straubel, as we talked about with battery packs.

于是他对埃伯哈德和塔肯普说：嘿，我认识另一个家伙，名义上住在洛杉矶，但其实几乎整天都待在硅谷。

And so he says to Eberhard and Taepernick, he's like, hey, I know this other guy who nominally lives in LA but basically spends all his time up in the valley anyway.

他非常痴迷于电池。

He's really into batteries.

你们需要更好的电池技术。

You're gonna need some better battery tech.

你应该去跟这个家伙聊聊。

You should go talk to this guy.

他们说，好的。

They're like, okay.

他们把斯特劳贝尔请来了。

They bring Straubel in.

他们当场雇用了他，让他加入特斯拉，成为最早的一批员工之一，并负责电池工程。

They hire him on the spot to, come in and join Tesla as one of the very first employees and he leads battery engineering.

因此，通过艾伯哈德、塔彭宁、斯特劳贝尔以及作为董事长和主要投资人的马斯克，特斯拉诞生了。

Thus, between Everhard, Tarpenning, Straubel, and Musk as chairman and lead investor, Tesla is born.

这大约是2003年到2004年，他们工作了一年多。

So this is kinda 2003, 2000 They work for a little over a year.

到了2005年1月，他们造出了第一辆原型车，表现惊人。

And at the January 2005, they have the first prototype car built and it works amazingly.

他们采用了AC Propulsion的驱动系统。

So they've taken the drivetrain from AC Propulsion.

他们使用了莲花Elise的车身。

They've taken the car body from the Lotus Elise.

莲花我认为是一家英国汽车制造商，我想。

Lotus is, I believe, a British car manufacturer, I think.

他们制造了Elise跑车。

And they made the Elise sports car.

底盘就是来自那款车，他们自己定制了车身和外形。

And it's the chassis from that, and they custom built their own sort of body and shape.

我不确定这个原型车是否可能是为了

I'm not sure actually for this prototype if it was maybe it was For

是为了测试车吗？

the for the mule?

是的。

Yeah.

我觉得你说得对。

I think I think you're right.

对于这个原型，他们还没有设计自己的定制车身，只是把各种零件塞了进去。

For the prototype, they hadn't done their own custom body design, and they were just stuffing it full of their parts.

没错。

Exactly.

我认为实际上用的就是莲花Elise的车身。

I think it actually was the body of the Lotus Elise.

所以他们在一月份一完成就召开了董事会。

So they have a board meeting as soon as it's done at the January.

而且董事会成员又像埃隆，因为他是那个提供投资的人。

And again, the board is like Elon because he's the dude who's the investment.

现在这里没有风投公司了。

Now there's no firm, the VC firm here.

埃隆在董事会会议上驾驶了它，很喜欢，然后说：太棒了。

Elon drives it at the board meeting, likes it, and he's like, great.

我现在要领投你们的B轮融资。

I am now going to lead your series b.

他们就说，好吧。

And they're like, okay.

于是，埃隆又投资了900万美元，主导了B轮融资。

So Elon invests $9,000,000 more into the company leading the series b.

他们总共又筹集了1300万美元。

They raised 13 more million in total.

其他几位投资者也加入了进来。

The few other investors come in.

加上之前700万美元，他们现在总共筹集了2000万美元，并打算用这笔钱将Roadster投入生产。

So on top of the previous 7,000,000, they've now raised $20,000,000 and they're gonna use that money to get the Roadster to production.

我们会看看这个怎么实现。

We will see how that gets That

应该只花2000万美元就够了。

should only cost $20,000,000.

当然。

Sure.

你知道的，没什么大不了的。

You know, no no no big deal.

造一辆量产车能有多难呢？

How hard is it to build a production car?

当时的计划大致是，哦对，就是莲花Elise，我们会替换足够多的零件，让它看起来不像Elise。

And the plan was something along the lines of, oh yeah, the Lotus Elise, you know, we'll replace enough parts so it doesn't look like an Elise.

就像它会有点像是我们自己的东西。

Like it'll kinda look like our own thing.

我们基本上已经掌握了所有技术，天哪，感觉如果我们能接触到所有这些现在已经商品化的不同供应商，你知道，莲花汽车已经有现成的关系网了。

We've basically got all the tech down and gosh, feel like if we have access to all these different suppliers that are commoditized at this point, you know, Lotus already has relationships.

他们可以直接让所有零件都送到他们那里。

They can just get all the parts sent to them.

他们可以完成所有组装工作，而且应该基本上都能搞定。

They can do all the assembly and like it should be pretty much taken care of.

对。

Right.

但埃隆现在拥有公司相当大比例的股份。

Except Elon now owns a significant amount of the company.

而如果说埃隆有什么特点，那就是他很有主见。

And, if there's one thing that Elon is, it is opinionated.

而且，他往往还是对的。

And, he also happens to often be right.

所以，按照本刚刚描述的计划，你或许可以用两千万元造出一辆车。

So that plan would maybe you could get a car built on $20,000,000 with the plan Ben that you just described.

但埃隆说：不。

But Elon's like, no.

这不是我们要做的。

That's not what we're gonna do.

埃隆认为莲花Elise是不可接受的。

The Lotus Elise is unacceptable to Elon.

他的愿景是，希望当时他的妻子贾斯汀——一位本身就很知名的名人——能安心驾驶它。

His vision is he wants his then wife, Justine, a celebrity in her own right, which we won't get into here, to feel comfortable driving it.

Elise这款车，基本上你得跳进车里才行。

The Elise, like, you basically had to jump into the car.

这可不是那种你会想开着去上班的车，你懂的，它不是面向大众市场的。

Like, this was not a car you were gonna like take to work or you know, it's not mass market.

而且它是一辆十万美元的车。

And it's a $100,000 car.

所以他们是在向那些会把它与，天哪，这么一辆豪华好车进行比较的人群进行营销。

So they're they're marketing it to people who would be comparing it against like, my gosh, this is such a nice luxury vehicle to get into.

嗯哼。

Mhmm.

我是说，确实有人会买那些完全不实用的十万美元跑车，但那是一个非常、非常、非常小众的市场。

I mean, are people who will buy a $100,000 sports cars that are completely impractical, but that is a very, very, very small market.

而埃隆的态度是，不，不，这辆车要像跑车，但它要能与奔驰跑车之类的车型竞争。

And Elon's like, no, no, This is gonna be like a sports car, but it's gonna be a sports car that's gonna compete with, you know, a Mercedes sports car or whatever.

所以他不断推动他们朝这个方向努力。

And so he keeps pushing them to to do that.

这当然导致了大量延误。

That, of course, leads to tons of delays.

顺便提一下，在2005年他们研发期间，曾把一辆原型车带到了火人节。

Side fun fact, during the 2005 as they're working on it, they take one of the prototypes to Burning Man.

他们都惊呼：哇哦。

They all like Woah.

埃隆每年都会去火人节。

Elon goes to Burning Man every year.

这一点后面还会再提到。

This will come back up again later.

于是他们说：好吧，我们要去火人节了。

And they're like, well, let's we're going to Burning Man.

咱们把特斯拉的原型车也带上吧。

Let's take the Tesla prototype.

所以他们继续加紧研发。

So they keep working on it.

现在是2006年。

It's now 2006.

此时，公司有100名员工正在开发第一款量产Roadster原型车。

The company has a 100 employees at this point working on the first production Roadster candidate.

他们已经没钱了。

They are out of money.

此时，他们又筹集了4000万美元。

They raise another $40,000,000 at this point.

埃隆个人投资了1200万美元，其余资金则来自一群终于表示认可的风投。

Elon invests 12,000,000 personally, and they raise the rest from a group of VCs who are now finally like, okay.

这里有一件有趣的事，当时清洁能源正风靡一时。

There's something interesting here and, like, clean tech is all the rage.

不知为何，风投们改变了主意。

And, you know, for some reason, VCs have changed their mind.

真让人意外。

Surprise.

2006年7月，他们认为自己已经非常接近量产了。

July 2006, they think they're pretty close to production at this point.

他们举行了一场新闻发布会，向全世界发布了Roadster车型。

They hold a press conference where they announce the Roadster to the world.

你知道，这标志着埃隆·马斯克式表演风格的开端。

You know, this is the beginning of, like, the Elon Musk showmanship.

他们发布了这款汽车。

They announced this car.

他们请来了一大群名人出席。

They get a whole bunch of celebrities to come.

活动在圣莫尼卡举行。

They hold it in Santa Monica.

阿诺德·施瓦辛格，当时担任加州州长，也到场了。

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is at that point in time, the governor of California, he comes.

我觉得谷歌的拉里和谢尔盖也来了。

I think Larry and, Sergei from Google are there.

现场有很多人，都是名人。

There are a whole bunch of people, celebrities.

他们把发布会安排在机场之类的地方，这样，如果你在宣布现场的那个房间里，事情经过大致是这样的：他们揭开汽车的面纱，有人坐进车里，开动它，绕着一条类似跑道延伸出来的道路跑一圈，然后再把车开回大楼里。

And they have it they have it like at an airport or something so that you can if you're in the room where it's being announced, it the the way that it happened is basically they unveil the car, someone gets in the car, drives it, does a lap around like a runway extended piece of road and then drives it back into the building.

是的。

Yeah.

但他们宣布这款车能在四秒或更短时间内从零加速到60英里每小时，这相当令人印象深刻。

That's but they announced that it's gonna go zero to 60 in four seconds or less, which is pretty impressive.

埃隆还在活动上宣布，他们将在未来三年内推出一款售价5万美元的轿车。

Elon also announces at the event that they're gonna release a sedan for $50,000 within the next three years.

也就是说到2009年。

So by 2009.

于是，埃隆早期的承诺就此开始。

So begins Elon's early promises.

至少特斯拉的承诺是从这里开始的。

So begin the Tesla promises at least.

是的。

Yes.

活动结束后，他们开始接受Roadster的预购，人们疯狂抢购。

They start taking preorders for the Roadster after the event, and people go nuts.

这成了街头巷尾热议的话题，你知道的，在洛杉矶、硅谷、旧金山，还有汽车媒体圈，人们纷纷涌向特斯拉的办公室。

This is the talk of the town, you know, in LA, in Silicon Valley, in San Francisco, in the automotive press, people start showing up to the Tesla offices.

我不确定当时他们是在门洛帕克还是帕洛阿尔托，他们已经搬到帕洛阿尔托了吗？

I can I don't know if they're in Menlo Park or Palo Alto at this point, they'd moved to Palo Alto?

人们就这样突然走进来，说：我想把我的名字登记上去。

People just, like, randomly, like, walk in and are like, I wanna put my name in.

在活动中，他们试图销售最初的100辆。

The at the event they were trying to sell the initial 100.

有一群特别的人将获得前100辆汽车。

There was like a special club of people that were gonna get the first 100.

还会有一块铭牌。

There was gonna be a plaque.

还要有签名。

There was gonna be signatures.

就像加文·贝尔森签名版盒子一样。

It's like the, Gavin Belson signature edition box.

我觉得他们卖了大约116辆左右。

I think they they sold like a 116 or something.

所以他们达成了目标。

So they hit their goal there.

而且情况甚至更好。

Well, and it's even better than that.

他们实际上并不被允许出售这些汽车，因为车还没造出来。

They're they weren't actually legally allowed to sell the cars because they hadn't made the cars yet.

这中间有很多相关规定，比如关于卖车之类的。

There's a bunch of regulations about this and, like, you know, selling cars and whatnot.

我们这里就不深入细说了，但特斯拉当然没有采用经销商模式，这对现有的汽车业造成了巨大冲击。

And and we won't really get into it here, but Tesla, of course, does not use the dealership model, which is very disruptive to the existing car industry.

总之，他们决定让你加入一个俱乐部，最初是8万美元，后来涨价到10万美元。

Anyway, what they decide to do is you join a club for, initially, it was 80 It was $85,000, and then they raised the price to a $100,000.

你只需支付8万或10万美元加入这个俱乐部。

You join a club for 85 or a $100,000.

作为加入俱乐部的福利，你会得到一张免费的卡片。

And as a benefit of joining the club, get a free card.

除此之外什么都没有。

And nothing else.

除此之外什么都没有。

And nothing else.

是的。

Yeah.

不过你还会得到那个铭牌以及你提到的所有东西。

Well, you're also you get the plaque and all the things you were saying.

你会得到一张会员卡之类的。

You get like a, you know, a membership card and whatnot.

我们还应该说，我们一直提到埃隆、埃隆、埃隆。

And we should say too, like, we've been saying Elon, Elon, Elon.

他虽然会上台亮相，但到目前为止，这实际上是埃伯哈德的舞台。

He has appearances on stage, but it's really Eberhard's show at this point.

埃伯哈德在接受媒体采访。

Eberhard's talking to the press.

埃伯哈德在做那个重大的发布。

Eberhard's doing that big announcement.

他随后飞遍各地，接受汽车杂志的采访，参加车展。

He's subsequently flying around to do interviews with car magazines and go to car shows.

他才是公司的代言人，而且被奉为天才。

He's really the face of the company and he's being sort of heralded as a genius.

2006年，他被用作Research In Motion公司黑莓珍珠的广告形象，被称为‘第一款电动跑车的创造者’。

In 2006, he was featured as the face of Research in Motion's campaign for the Blackberry Pearl as the guy who created the first electric sports car.

当你想到苹果‘非同凡想’的广告，那些被颂扬的天才们时，埃伯哈德就是出现在那则广告里的人——他就是创新的化身。

And really like when you think about Apple's Think Different when they were like heralding geniuses, Eberhard is the guy that appears in that ad is like, this is the face of innovation.

这真是令人惊叹。

And so it's kind of amazing.

我的意思是，特斯拉成立三年了，这仍然不是马斯克的舞台。

I mean, three years into Tesla, it's still not the Musk show.

他和埃伯哈德正开始因此获得认可。

And he's and Eberhard's really starting to get recognized for this.

这太有趣了，也说明了一切关于RIM的事——他们的苹果式宣传活动中，选了埃伯哈德而不是马斯克。

That's so funny and I think says everything about Rim that like their version of the Apple campaign, they choose Everhart instead of Elon.

我的意思是，当时谁能料到呢？

I mean, who could have known at that point?

但不管怎样，这确实是这样。

But anyway, this is yes.

埃伯哈德确实是公司的首席执行官，也是联合创始人兼CEO。

Everhart is very much the CEO and, you know, co founder and CEO of the company.

马斯克则是A轮、B轮和C轮的投资人。

Elon is the, you know, series a and b and c investor.

而且我认为，到目前为止，他可能是最大的股东。

And I think at this point, probably largest shareholder.

在这次小规模的路演之后，他开始对此引起一些关注。

After this little roadshow, he's starting to make a little bit of a ruckus about this.

他在一封邮件中提到，自己感觉有点被忽视了。

He mentions in an email that he's feeling a little bit neglected.

他希望与所有合理的主流媒体都谈谈，这是原话，目的是为这件事打上自己的烙印。

He'd like to talk with every major publication within reason, and that's a direct quote to sort of put his stamp on it.

他说，到目前为止，我的角色被描绘成只是一个早期投资者，这简直荒谬。

He says that the way that my role has been portrayed to date where I am merely an early investor is outrageous.

这就像是把马丁·埃伯哈德称为一名普通早期员工一样。

That would be like Martin Eberhard being called an early employee.

除了我主导了A轮和B轮投资，并共同领导了C轮投资外，我对这款车的影响贯穿了从大灯到外观设计、车门门槛、后备箱的方方面面，而且我对电动交通的兴趣早在特斯拉成立十年前就开始了。

Apart from me leading the Series A and B and co leading the Series C, my influence on the car itself runs from the headlights to the styling to the door the door sill to the trunk and my strong interest in electric transport predates Tesla by a decade.

马丁当然应该站在最前沿，但到目前为止对我的角色的描述简直令人愤慨。

Martin should certainly be the front and center guy but the portrayal of my role to date has been incredibly insulting.

他正在和他们的公关人员沟通，说：我不怪你，也不怪特斯拉的其他人，媒体确实难以掌控。

And he's talking to their PR guy, he says, I'm not blaming you or others at Tesla, the media is difficult to control.

然而，我们需要认真努力来纠正这种误解。

However, we need to make a serious effort to correct this perception.

这正是为什么，你知道的，我想先花时间讲清楚背景。

Well, this is why, you know, I I wanted to spend the time talking about the background upfront.

顺便说一下，很多这段历史都来自阿什利·万斯那本关于埃隆·马斯克的优秀传记《埃隆·马斯克》。

By the way, a lot of this history comes from Ashley Vance's great book biography of Elon called Elon Musk.

埃隆虽然外表像托尼·斯塔克那样的钢铁侠，但内心其实非常敏感和情绪化。

Elon is for all of his Tony Stark iron man, know, much like Tony Stark, like, he's very sensitive and emotional, like, inside.

他经历过极其糟糕的背叛、心碎和早期创业的挫折，你能明显看到这些情绪在这里爆发，他要求自己的角色得到认可。

Like, he went through just terrible, you know, betrayals and, you know, heartache and burns with his with his first few companies and like you can very much see that coming coming out here and demanding this role, demanding this recognition.

所以这一切都在发生。

So all this is happening.

埃隆和艾伯哈德之间开始出现性格冲突。

There's personality clash starting to happen between Elon and Everhard.

而在此期间，随着我们进入2007年初，Roadster的生产出现了重大问题的迹象变得清晰起来。

And in the midst of this, as we get into early two thousand seven, it becomes clear that there are major major problems with Roadster production.

它不会很快交付，而且情况并不乐观。

It's not gonna ship anytime soon and there things are not good.

于是，在C轮融资中进入的新投资者之一是一家名为Valor Equity的公司，他们曾在汽车行业的其他领域进行过投资。

So one of the new investors that came in in the series c was a firm called Valor Equity, and they had invested in other things in the automotive industry.

他们更偏向于，你知道，不是风险投资机构那种类型。

They were more, you know, not a VC.

我想他们总部在芝加哥。

I think they're based in Chicago.

这一点我可能记错了。

I could be wrong on that.

但他们，你知道的，不是硅谷的风投机构。

But they're, you know, not a Silicon Valley VC.

他们在这个行业有经验。

They have experience in this industry.

他们派了一位专家来评估Roadster生产所面临的问题。

They send in a fixer to kind of assess the situation of what's going on with production with the Roadster.

他回来后向董事会汇报了情况。

He comes back and he reports to the board.

此时，他们计划以85,000美元的价格出售这款车。

At this point, they're intending to sell the car for $85,000.

当然，他们必须以低于这个价格的成本生产，才能盈利。

And of course, they would have to, you know, produce it for less than that to make a profit.

做生意就是这么回事。

That's how business works.

这根本不可能实现。

That's not gonna happen.

他评估出Roadster车型的制造成本约为20万美元。

He assesses the cost to make, the Roadster model at about $200,000.

所以，他们实际上是在用50美分卖一美元钞票。

So literally, they're gonna sell dollar bills for 50¢.

是的。

Yeah.

听众们，这些地方开始失控的时候，我曾试图找些理由来解释。

And listeners, the places where this are going off the rails, I was attempting to try to chalk it up to something.

一切都是问题。

It's everything.

他们基本上采纳了这样一个愿景：我们只对莲花Elise进行足够少的修改，让人察觉不出它原本是莲花。

They've basically taken the vision of we are going to modify a Lotus Elise just enough so you don't notice that it's a Lotus.

而且，他们不仅举办了一场定制设计比赛，还自己选定了一个定制设计。

And, you know, they not only did they they held a contest for a custom design, they picked their own custom design.

然后，他们把那些规格直接交给了莲花公司开始生产。

They then basically gave those specs over to Lotus to start manufacturing.

但其中很多部分不仅极其难以实现，而且还在不断更改。

But a lot of it was not only extremely difficult to do, but constantly changing.

所以埃隆亲自设计了一些前大灯，非常出色，赋予了这款车非常标志性的外观。

So Elon custom designed some headlights, which are awesome and give it a very iconic feel.

当你看到特斯拉Roadster时，你就会知道，但它却耗费了数月时间来设计和制造全新的零部件，并寻找新的供应商。

You know the Tesla Roadster when you see it, but created months and months and months of new parts that had to be created and suppliers that had to be sourced.

他们将车门框架底部降低了三英寸，以便乘客更容易把脚放进去，为此他们不得不重新设计整车的底部结构。

They dropped the bottom of the door frame so you could get your feet in by three inches and so they had to sort of re engineer the whole bottom of the car to do that.

原本计划只做四到五个子组件，其余部分交由莲花公司完成，但特斯拉现在认为需要定制的部分太多，于是这家从未生产过汽车的公司，自己承担了超过一百个汽车子组件的制造任务。

Rather than having a few sub assemblies, it's like four or five that they were planning on doing and then having the Lotus company do the rest of it, Tesla has now decided that so much needs to be custom that they themselves having never produced a car before are responsible for over a 100 of the sub assemblies of the car themselves.

所以，与最初的愿景相反——这其实有点讽刺——你可以看看埃弗哈德当初推广的商业计划，里面说：‘汽车行业改变的地方在于，现在你可以直接从各大供应商的零件库中随意挑选零件，拼凑起来就行。’

So rather than the initial vision and it's kind of funny, you can look at the original business plan that Everhard was pitching around that says, oh yeah, the thing that's changed in the auto industry is you can just grab from the parts bin of any of these suppliers now and throw them together.

他希望成为一个出色的汽车制造商，就像那些芯片公司一样——它们本身是设计公司，实际生产却外包给他人。

He wants to be a fabulous car manufacturer in the same way that like a lot of these chip companies are fabulous chip companies that are actually outsourced and made by someone else.

特斯拉最初的愿景是成为一家无工厂的汽车公司，但现在却变成了一个完全自主制造、却毫无汽车生产经验的整车制造商。

Tesla, in the initial vision, wanted to be like a fabless car company, and now they are a full blown auto manufacturer with zero experience ever making cars before.

是的。

Yep.

这基本上就是发生的事情。

That's basically what happened.

公平地说，如果埃伯哈德当初能按他的想法来，我认为他们确实会尝试成为一家无晶圆厂汽车制造商，直接用Elise的车身、AC Propulsion的动力总成等等，拼凑起来就算完事了。

Now to be fair, again, like, if Everhard had had his way, I think they actually would have tried to be a fabulous car manufacturer and just use the Elise body and and AC propulsion, drivetrain and whatnot and slapped it together and called it a day.

而埃隆是那个说‘不’的人。

Elon was the one who was like, no.

这是不可接受的。

This is unacceptable.

我们需要在这里造一辆真正的汽车。

We need to make a real car here.

这一切在2007年8月达到了顶点。

All this culminates in August 2007.

董事会进行了一次投票。

The board has a vote.

你知道，董事会由埃隆控制，他们罢免了埃伯哈德的CEO职务。

You know, board is controlled by Elon, and they oust Eberhard as CEO.

所以

So

他们是怎么走到这一步的简直荒谬，因为埃伯哈德在上一次董事会会议，或者可能是前两次董事会会议上就提过，现在公司已经有150人了。

And how they got there is nuts because Eberhard brought up in the previous board meeting or maybe two board meetings before, hey, you know, it's 150 people now.

我从未管理过这么大规模的团队。

I've never managed something of this scale.

我们不得不切换到SAP系统。

We had to switch on to SAP.

这次迁移进行得一团糟。

That migration's going terribly.

我不懂该怎么操作。

I don't understand how to do it.

这超出了我的能力范围，也许我们该找个CEO了。

It's not in my wheelhouse, maybe we should have a CEO.

我对此没有意见。

I'm amenable to that.

所以他以为说完这些之后会有一些讨论。

And so he expects like there's gonna be some discussion after that.

董事会成员们面面相觑，都觉得确实有点失控了，或许该请个CEO来接手。

The board sort of looked around in out their heads and they were like, yeah, it does feel like maybe this is going off the rails and we should bring in a CEO.

于是他们在他不知情的情况下召开了一次私人董事会，投票决定后打电话告诉他：‘你被解雇了。’

So they call a private board meeting without him and take a vote and then call him and say, Hey you're out.

他却说：‘等等，等等，我只是随口一提，我以为那只是个建议。’

And he's like, Wait, wait, just was sort of floating that like I thought.

然后他翻了公司章程，发现他们其实没有这个权力，于是又开了一次会，让他到场，再投票并正式通知他。

And then he looks in the bylaws and realizes that they can't actually do that so then they have another board meeting with him there just to vote and inform him.

这真是处理这一切的成熟方式啊。

Totally the mature way to handle all this.

是的。

Yeah.

对。

Yeah.

天哪。

Oh boy.

真是有趣的日子。

Fun times.

所以他被赶走了。

So he's out.

他后来成了公司的顾问之类的人物，但到2007年12月，他彻底离开了，而且非常愤恨。

He becomes like an adviser to the company or something, but by December 2007, he leaves altogether and is very bitter.

他最终起诉了埃隆，案件后来和解了。

He ends up suing Elon and the case gets settled.

所以我认为，这两个人从那以后就再也没有说过话，尽管他们达成了和解，双方都签署了不得诋毁的协议。

And so they still I I believe the two men have not talked since then, yet they settled this case so there's non disparagement agreements on both sides.

到这个时候，大家至少在经济上都安顿好了，我觉得。

And everybody's at least financially set, I think, at this point.

不过董事会还是需要一位CEO。

So the board though needs a CEO.

埃隆当时还没有考虑过自己会成为CEO。

Elon still isn't contemplating yet that he would become the CEO.

他是SpaceX的CEO。

He's the CEO of SpaceX.

于是他们聘请迈克尔·马克斯担任临时CEO。

So they bring in Michael Marks as interim CEO.

他从未打算成为全职CEO，只是担任临时CEO。

He was never intended to be full time CEO, but as interim CEO.

迈克尔·马克斯是个传奇人物。

Michael Marks is a legend.

他是伟创力的创始人兼CEO。

He is the founder and CEO of Flextronics.

直到今天，如果你在硅谷从事硬件相关业务，比如你需要有人参与，那一定得找迈克尔·马克斯。

At this point in time, all the way still through today, if you are doing something with hardware in the valley, like, you want Michael Marks involved.

后来他创办了一家私募股权公司和成长型投资机构，表现非常出色，但请迈克尔来帮忙扭转局面，确实是一次巨大的成功。

He then later would found a private equity firm and growth investor that has done very well, But it was a huge coup to get Michael to come in and try and start to turn the ship around.

他一到任就推行了后来被称为‘马克斯清单’的十项计划，旨在尽快解决所有生产问题，让公司重回正轨。

He shows up and he institutes the Mark's List that it gets known as, which is a 10 plan for getting all of the problems with production, back on track, you know, as quickly as possible.

他留了下来。

He stays.

他基本上把计划列出来，然后说：‘我不干了。’

He he basically draws out the plan and is like, I'm not gonna do this.

我还有别的事要做，你们得找别人来实际执行这个计划。

I have other things like, you know, you need to bring in somebody else to actually execute the plan.

所以在2007年，埃隆和董事会聘请了一位名叫泽夫·德罗里的家伙。

So at the 2007, Elon and the board bring in a guy named Zev Drory.

我可能把这个名字念错了，这是个以色列名字：泽夫·德罗里，让他担任CEO。

I may be butchering that name as Israeli name, Zev Drory, to be the CEO.

他并不是他们的第一人选。

He was not their first choice.

你知道的，他有些经验。

You know, he had some experience.

他曾经创办过一家内存芯片公司，并将其卖给了AMD，还担任过汽车报警器公司的CEO。

He had started a memory chip company that he had sold to AMD, and he had been the CEO of a car alarm company.

所以他大概对汽车和硬件有些了解吧。

So knew sort of something about cars and hardware, I guess.

把他请来执行马克的计划。

Bring him in to execute the Mark's plan.

进展得不太顺利。

It doesn't go too well.

仍然有很多延误。

Still lots of delays.

马斯克开始越来越多地亲自参与进来。

Musk starts getting more and more personally involved.

他开始出现在公司里。

He starts showing up at the company.

他要求公司里的每个人都要全天候工作。

He demands that everyone at the company work twenty four seven.

最终，在2008年晚些时候，也就是2008年10月，他正式行动，解雇了德鲁里，自己直接当上了CEO。

And eventually, later in 2008, in October 2008, he makes it official and he fires Drury and just becomes the CEO himself.

那真是相当快的几年时间。

That's a pretty pretty quick couple of years there.

是的。

Yeah.

嗯，在特斯拉是几年，但德鲁里在埃隆接手前干了不到一年。

Well, it was a couple of years at at Tesla, but Drury lasts less than a year before Elon.

对。

Right.

但是，伴随着马克斯以及，你知道的，那个那个快速的过渡。

But with with Marks and, you know, that that that rapid transition there.

是的。

Yep.

所以，埃隆现在是特斯拉的CEO了。

So Elon is now CEO of Tesla.

他，你知道的，专注于让Roadster投入生产并交付。

He's, you know, focused on getting the the Roadster out the door in production.

不过，这里有一个问题。

There's just one problem, though.

这是2008年，雷曼兄弟刚刚倒闭。

This is the 2008, and Lehman Brothers has just gone under.

整个世界，尤其是金融界，可以说正在分崩离析，这对于那些想买10万美元汽车的人来说至关重要。

And the world is literally falling apart, particularly the financing world, which is important for, you know, people who wanna buy a $100,000 cars.

在汽车行业，通用汽车已经破产或即将破产，整个汽车业实际上正被美国政府救助。

The automotive world where, you know, GM has gone bankrupt or is going bankrupt, the car industry is literally being bailed out by the US government.

而且在整个过程中，特斯拉面临着所有初创公司都会遇到的问题，更不用说像它这样复杂的公司了。

And all throughout all of this, Tesla has all the problems of, you know, any startup, let alone one as complicated as this.

他们当时每个月要烧掉400万美元，情况看起来不太妙。

They're burning $4,000,000 a month at this point, and things are not looking good.

是的。

Yeah.

马斯克本人已经向公司个人投入了5500万美元。

Musk himself is 55,000,000 deep into the company personally.

是的。

Yeah.

在SpaceX和特斯拉之间，马斯克此时确实身无分文，特斯拉也一样。

And between SpaceX and Tesla, Musk is literally out of money at this point, but so is Tesla.

他们需要在2008年圣诞节前筹到钱，否则就无法支付工资，公司就会破产。

They need money by Christmas of 2008 or like they won't be able to make payroll and the company will go bankrupt.

所以他急需资金。

So he's desperate for money.

他开始在硅谷四处奔走，向所有朋友筹集资金，金额大约相当于天使投资的规模。

He starts going around to all of his friends in the valley and raising money from them in like angel sized chunks.

于是他拉拢了一大群人，包括谢尔盖·布林，他投资了50万美元，就这样东拼西凑，只为让公司维持下去。

So he gets, like, a whole bunch of people, including Sergey Brin who invests $500,000 to, like, scrape together just some money to keep the company going.

马斯克从SpaceX贷了一笔款，他把这笔贷款的收入拿出来，然后投入——这简直难以置信。

Musk takes out a loan at SpaceX, like a SpaceX loan that he then takes the proceeds from and pours This is unbelievable.

他把那笔钱投入了特斯拉。

Pours that into, into Tesla.

这是从银行借来的，并且以他在SpaceX的股权作为抵押。

It was borrowed from a bank, and it was securitized against his equity in SpaceX or something like that.

差不多是这样。

Something like that.

但到那时，SpaceX已经获得了来自美国政府和NASA的大量合同和贷款。

But he ended up SpaceX at this point had gotten lots of contracts and loans from the US government and NASA.

令人难以置信的是，这件事最终还需要NASA批准。

It ended up having to be approved by by NASA to do this, crazily enough.

是的。

Yeah.

顺便提一下，岔开话题了。

And a quick derailment.

他们创办SpaceX的基本方式是，埃隆有足够的钱购买了两枚俄罗斯火箭，这完全是靠他个人出资来支持公司。

The way that they basically started SpaceX was that Elon had enough money to buy, I think it was two Russian rockets, and this was like him personally funding the company.

如果这两枚火箭没有取得成功，埃隆就会个人破产，公司也会倒闭。

And basically, if they didn't have something successful with those two rockets, then Elon would be both bankrupt and the company would shut down.

而且我觉得第一枚火箭爆炸了，第二枚火箭成功了，因此他们有了足够的证据去筹集更多资金。

And like I think the first rocket blew up, the second rocket actually worked, so they had enough proof point to go and raise more money.

所以埃隆个人出资购买俄罗斯火箭的钱已经花光了，当然他还主导了特斯拉的多项投资，现在他

So Elon is sort of out of money from personally funding, buying those Russian rockets for SpaceX and of course leading all these investments in Tesla and so is now

实际上，我觉得SpaceX的情况甚至更糟糕。

Literally out of I think it was actually it was even crazier than that at SpaceX.

我们以后一定会讲这个故事。

We will definitely tell that story someday.

我觉得他们当时已经进行到第四次发射了。

I think they were on like the fourth launch.

他们本来只够钱做两次发射。

Like they had money for two.

结果两次都失败了。

They didn't work.

火箭都爆炸了。

They blew up.

然后第三枚火箭也爆炸了，总之情况很糟糕。

Then the third one blew up and then like so anyway, it was bad.

马斯克不知怎么凑到了一些钱。

Musk somehow manages to scrape some money together.

他还做了另外两件事来筹钱。

He does two other things to get the money.

他在二级市场上出售了自己持有的Solar City的一些股份。

He sells some shares of Solar City which he owns on the secondary markets.

Solar City刚刚成立。

Solar City had just been started.

这个情节稍后还会回到叙事中。

That will come back into the narrative in a little bit.

他的表兄弟们曾经在某个时候建造了一个数据中心公司，也从南非搬到了硅谷，创办了一家名为Everdream的数据中心公司，后来在2007年左右被戴尔收购了。

His cousins had at some point built a a data center comp also moved from South Africa to Silicon Valley, built a data center company called Everdream that was sold, I think, the 2007 to Dell.

所以马斯克是这家公司的投资者。

And so Musk was an investor in that.

他把那笔交易的所有收益都投入了特斯拉。

He used all the proceeds from that plows it into Tesla.

我们即将迎来圣诞节。

We're approaching Christmas.

埃隆延长资金周转期的另一种方式是，他一上任就立即裁掉了特斯拉25%的员工。

And the other way that Elon extends the runway is as soon as he comes over, he lays off 25% of Tesla's employees.

是的。

Yes.

是的。

Yes.

在他正式成为CEO之后。

As soon as he becomes official CEO.

我们快过圣诞节了。

We're approaching Christmas.

埃隆现在东拼西凑，从谢尔盖·布林那里、SpaceX的贷款、Everdream出售的收益等等，总共凑了大约2000万美元。

Elon has now scraped together between like Sergey Brin and the loan from SpaceX, his money from proceeds from the Everdream sale and all this stuff, about $20,000,000.

他去找桌边其他所有投资者，请求他们跟投，使本轮融资总额达到四千万美元。

He goes to all the rest of the investors around the table and he asks the investors to match it for a $40,000,000 total round.

万通资本合伙公司是其中一位投资者，他们否决了这笔交易。

VantagePoint Capital Partners, was one of the investors, they block the deal.

他们有权利否决这笔交易。

They had the right to block the deal.

于是他们否决了交易，并将公司挟持为人质。

So they block the deal and they hold the company hostage.

这很常见，比如，如果一家风投领投，我不知道他们怎么会不被视为领投方，但你是否有权对未来的股权融资行使批准权？

And that's normal, like, as, you know, if a VC, leads around I don't know how they would have this as not being a lead, but you have the right to block future, do you have approval over future equity raises?

于是马斯克说，好吧。

So Musk is like, alright.

行吧。

Fine.

你们要阻止这次股权融资。

You're gonna block this equity raise.

我要把这个交易做成债务形式。

I'm gonna do this deal as debt.

他把钱投入作为债务，并说服其他投资者也以债务形式进行这笔交易。

He puts the money in his debt and he gets he convinces the other investors to do this as a debt deal.

这是可转换债务，还是纯粹的债务交易？

Is it convertible, or is it a pure debt deal?

我不太确定它是否具有可转换性。

I'm not sure exactly, whether it was convertible or not.

最终在平安夜完成交易，公司因此获得一线生机，并蓬勃发展。

It ends up closing on Christmas Eve, and and the company the company is given a lifeline and and thrives.

接下来，它是否能持续繁荣尚有争议，但至少存活了下来。

Goes on to thrive debatably as we'll see, but survives at least.

它后来生产出了令人惊叹的汽车。

It goes on to produce amazing cars.

它后来生产出了令人惊叹的汽车。

Goes on to produce amazing cars.

所以2008年是埃隆和特斯拉至关重要的一年。

So 2008 was a crazy pivotal year for Elon and Tesla.

好的，各位听众。

Alright, listeners.

现在是一个绝佳的机会，来感谢我们非常兴奋的新朋友——Sierra。

Now is a great time to thank a new friend of the show that we are very excited about, Sierra.

是的。

Yes.

我们非常高兴能与布雷特、克莱以及他们那里的整个团队合作。

We are thrilled to be working with Brett, Clay, and the entire team over there.

那我们为什么对Sierra感到兴奋呢？

So why are we excited about Sierra?

多年来，我们在制作《Acquired》的过程中学到的一点是，一家伟大的公司往往由其客户体验所定义。

Well, one of the things that we've learned from making Acquired over the years is that a great company is often defined by its customer experience.

没错。

Yep.

但做到优秀很难。

But being great is hard.

与客户沟通成本很高。

Talking to customers is expensive.

虽然网站和应用程序很不错，但它们也相对缓慢、笨拙，而且你的客户还得花时间学习它们。

And while websites and apps are great, they're also kinda slow and clunky, and your customers have to learn them.

是它们在学习你，而不是你在学习它们。

They don't learn you.

Sierra 改变了这一切。

Sierra changes all that.

他们打造了面向客户的AI代理，能够完成各种惊人的任务，比如找到理想的房子、挑选电视节目、办理抵押贷款、配送沙发、退鞋、为患者进行医疗认证、申请信用卡、阻止订阅用户取消服务，等等。

They build customer facing AI agents that can do an insane range of things, like finding the perfect home or picking TV shows or originating mortgages, shipping a sofa, returning shoes, authenticating patients for health care, ordering credit cards, saving subscribers from canceling, and on and on.

在成立仅两年的时间里，他们就已经成为领先的对话式AI平台，众多杰出企业如ADT、Clear、Minted、Ramp、Redfin、Rocket Mortgage、Safelight、SiriusXM和Wayfair都信赖Sierra来提升客户体验。

In just two years since founding, they've become the leading conversational AI platform with hundreds of incredible companies like ADT, Clear, Minted, Ramp, Redfin, Rocket Mortgage, Safelight, SiriusXM, and Wayfair, all trusting Sierra for their customer experiences.

Sierra 的设计足以满足财富500强企业的需求，包括医疗和金融服务等高度监管的行业，但它同样非常适合任何企业，包括你的企业。

Sierra was built to be powerful enough for Fortune 500 companies, including heavily regulated industries like health care and financial services, but it really works great for any business including yours.

通过 Sierra，你只需构建一次 AI 代理，几周内就能在电话、聊天、短信、WhatsApp、邮件等多种渠道上部署，支持超过 30 种语言。

With Sierra, you can build your AI agent once and deploy it everywhere within weeks on the phone, in chat, SMS, WhatsApp, email, all in over 30 languages.

你甚至可以将其发布到 ChatGPT 上。

You can even publish it to ChatGPT.

而且，凭借他们独特且高度对齐成果的定价模式，你只需为 Sierra 带来的实际价值付费——包括提升客户满意度和问题解决率、降低成本以及增加收入。

And with their unique and insanely aligned outcomes based pricing model, you only pay for the value that Sierra delivers, increased customer satisfaction and resolution rates, lower costs, and higher revenue.

Sierra 让全球优秀的企业能够日复一日、每分每秒都展现出最佳状态。

Sierra enables the great companies of the world to show up at their best consistently every minute of every day.

事实上，我们对 Sierra 的评价极高，以至于大卫和我都投资了这家公司。

And in fact, we think so highly of Sierra that David and I even invested in the company.

要了解如何利用 AI 构建更出色、更人性化的客户体验，请访问 sierra.ai/acquired，并告诉他们 Ben 和 David 推荐了你。

To find out how you can build better, more human customer experiences with AI, visit sierra.ai/acquired and tell them that Ben and David sent you.

还有一件事我们得聊聊，关于 2008 年，我记得很清楚。

The other thing that we have to talk about in 2008, I remember this vividly.

2008 年，我当时在华尔街担任投资银行分析师。

So I was working on Wall Street as an investment banking analyst in 2008.

那是我大学毕业后的第一年。

It was my first year out of undergrad.

看着周围的一切——银行接连倒闭，先是贝尔斯登，然后是雷曼兄弟，简直令人难以置信。

And watching all this, like, destruction around me, you know, of banks failing, you know, first Bear Stearns and then Lehman Brothers.

这一切都太不真实了。

It was just, like, unreal.

但就在这一切最糟糕的时候，一部电影上映了。

But in the middle of all this, when things are so bad, a movie comes out.

这部电影，我记得我和我在UBS银行工作的同事们一起去看的。

And this movie, like, I actually could, you know, I remember going with all my colleagues at UBS at the bank I was working at.

当时我们都很沮丧，但还是某天晚上出去看了这部电影，因为它的口碑实在太好了。

You know, we were also depressed, we went out one night to go see this movie because it was getting so good reviews.

这部电影带来了一丝希望，它就是《钢铁侠》。

And it kinda sparked a glimmer of hope, and it was this movie called Iron Man.

这部电影显然是漫威系列的第一部，我们在漫威那一集中也提到过，它后来促成了漫威被迪士尼收购等一系列事件。

And, which was obviously the first Marvel movie of, that we talked about in the Marvel episode, that would lead to Marvel and the acquisition by Disney and all that.

这部电影让我确信我想成为一名工程师。

That that movie made me sure I wanted to be an engineer.

我大一的时候看了这部电影，那时我刚上第一门工程课。

I saw it freshman year when I was like in my first engineering classes.

我当时就想，好吧，我决定了。

And I was like, alright, I'm in.

是的。

Yeah.

我的意思是，这部电影，现在回想起来很难记得清楚，因为那是十年前了。

I mean, this movie, I mean, it's it's hard to remember now because it was ten years ago.

但它在美国产生了巨大的文化影响。

But like, it had a huge amount of cultural impact in The US.

我的意思是，电影上映时情况并不好。

I mean things were not good when it came out.

那我们为什么在这里谈论这个呢？

And so why are we talking about this here?

罗伯特·唐尼 Jr. 在为扮演钢铁侠做准备、寻找灵感时，了解了埃隆·马斯克和他的故事。

Robert Downey Junior who of course, you know, who portrays Iron Man as he's preparing for the role and seeking inspiration, he learns about Elon Musk and his story.

他在准备角色期间，真的去找到了埃隆，和他相处了一段时间，并将埃隆的生活作为灵感来源之一，帮助塑造了托尼·斯塔克这个角色。

And he actually goes and seeks out Elon and spends a bunch of time with him as he's preparing for the role, and uses Elon in his life as like a part of the inspiration that leads to creating the Tony Stark character.

以至于唐尼甚至提出请求，希望在电影中托尼·斯塔克的实验室里出现一辆特斯拉Roadster。

As so much so that Downey actually asks, and and makes a request that in Tony Stark's workshop in the movie that a Tesla Roadster be in it.

不仅希望它出现在画面里，更希望它放在工作台最靠近他的位置，因为这辆车最贴近他的内心，也象征着现实中美国正在发生、与电影相呼应的事情。

And not just that it'd be in it, but that it'd be the object that is closest to his workbench because it's closest to like his heart and like an example of like what's going on in the real world in America that's you know paralleling this movie.

哇哦。

Woah.

我没想到他们之前真的有过交流。

I didn't realize they had talked before that.

这太疯狂了。

That's wild.

这难道不疯狂吗？

Isn't that crazy?

是的。

Yeah.

我想我和你写了那个愚蠢的开场白。

I guess I you and I wrote that stupid intro.

甚至没有

Didn't even

这是真的。

It's real.

这是真的。

It's real.

我的意思是，当然，你知道，托尼·斯塔克并不是埃隆·马斯克，反之亦然。

I mean, of course, like, you know, Tony Stark is not, you know, Elon Musk or vice versa.

但是，你知道，托尼·斯塔克身上确实有埃隆的影子。

But, like, there is a, you know, actual threat of Elon in, Tony Stark.

所以，就像钢铁侠和托尼·斯塔克本人一样，埃隆和特斯拉也确实从濒临死亡的边缘复活了，你知道，他们体内被安装了一个核反应堆心脏。

So, you know, just like Iron Man and Tony Stark himself, Elon and Tesla do come back to life, from the brink of death with, you know, a nuclear reactor heart installed in them.

然后在接下来的几年里，你知道，我想是在2009年，他们真正开始交付Roadster的时候。

And over the next few years, you know, in in 2000 I think it was I think it was 2009, when they actually started shipping the Roadster.

他们大约卖出了2500辆。

They sell about 2,500 of them.

当时每辆售价10万美元。

At this point, a $100,000 a pop.

那就是2.5亿美元的销售额，2.5亿美元的收入。

That's a quarter of 1,000,000,000 in sales, dollars $250,000,000 in sales.

而这足以让公司继续运转下去。

And that is enough to keep the company going.

嗯，还有一笔4.65亿美元的有息贷款

Well, and a $465,000,000 interest bearing loan

来自We，你的公寓，我们马上会谈到这个。

from We your apartment will get to that in a minute.

好的。

Okay.

这与我们稍后会谈到的代号为‘白星计划’的项目有关。

That has to do with the code name White Star project that we will get into in just a sec.

但就Roadster而言，就像这家公司一样，它确实存活了下来。

But just on the Roadster, like the company, you know, survives.

如果公司止步于Roadster而不继续前进，那么它现在已经是自我维持的业务了，这是一项了不起的重大成就。

If the company were to stop at the Roadster and not go forward, like it is a, you know, self sustaining business at this point, which is a major, major accomplishment.

他们生产出了一辆汽车。

They have produced a car.

这款车获得了非常好的评价。

It is, you know, gets great reviews.

他们只卖出了2500辆，但这已经很有意义了。

They they only sell 2,500 of them, but, you know, that's meaningful.

这里引出了埃隆永不放弃的特质。

Here comes the thread of Elon being the guy that doesn't quit.

他总是把所有收入再投资进去。

Like reinvest it all, all the time.

我不会躺在功劳簿上睡大觉。

I'm not resting on my laurels.

这还不够。

This is not enough.

是的。

No.

所以埃隆，我们在节目里聊过，本和我也讨论过，就像这样，我非常欣赏这种信条，而没有人比埃隆更能体现这一点了。

So Elon, we've talked about on this show and Ben and I have talked about this is just like, I love this this mantra, and nobody exemplifies it better than Elon.

但是，埃隆打的是进攻，而不是防守。

But, like, Elon plays offense, not defense.

很多人处在这种情况下会选择防守，比如，好吧。

Many people would play defense in this situation of like, okay.

我们终于让公司稳定下来了。

We finally stabilized the company.

让我们，比如说，喘口气。

Let's, like, take a breath.

而埃尔隆不是这样的人。

And, like, not Elon.

随着Roadster的局势逐渐稳定，埃尔隆全神贯注于兑现他在Roadster发布时许下的承诺——推出一款售价5万美元的轿车。

So as things stabilize with the Roadster, Elon is obsessed on making good on his promise that he made at the Roadster introduction of introducing the sedan for $50,000.

这个项目的代号是‘White Star’（白星）。

And the project code name for it is White Star.

于是，当这一切发生时，时间已经快到2008年底了。

And so the first thing Elon does is as all this is, you know, it's kinda end of 2008, all this is happening.

他走出去，从汽车界招募了一位超级明星设计师。

He goes out and he recruits an, you know, superstar car designer from the automotive world.

他聘请了阿斯顿·马丁的首席设计师来负责White Star项目的设计，也就是后来的Model S。

He hires the chief designer from Aston Martin to come in and be the designer of the White Star, what would become the Model s.

这位是汽车界非常著名的人物——亨里克·菲斯克。

A a very, very celebrated man in the automotive industry, Henrik Fisker.

这个名字可能让一些人有点印象。

Might ring a few bells for some people.

菲斯克，就是那家与特斯拉竞争的菲斯克汽车公司，曾经是特斯拉的竞争对手。

Fisker, like the Fisker Automotive Company that is a competitor to Tesla, was was a competitor to Tesla.

所以菲斯克从阿斯顿·马丁过来了。

So Fisker comes in from Aston Martin.

他来到美国。

He comes over to The US.

他开始参与设计，但他和埃隆完全合不来。

He starts working on the design, and it's like he and Elon do not get along.

这个设计太糟糕了。

The design is horrible.

几个月内，他就离开了。

Within a few months, he bolts.

他离开公司，创办了自己的竞争对手——菲斯克汽车公司。

He leaves the company and starts his own competitor, Fisker Automotive.

马斯克后来听说，显然——不过谁知道马斯克是怎么想的呢？

Musk later learns that apparently well, who knows with Musk?