Tesla’s Straubel Keeps Motors Rolling as Stock Surges 57%: Cars
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Elon Musk was fresh off the sale of PayPal and starting another business, commercial rocket service Space Exploration Technologies Corp., when he met kindred spirit JB Straubel. Their shared belief that consumer electronics advances could be applied to more earthly modes of transport is a cornerstone of Tesla Motors Inc.
Straubel’s first company, Volacom Inc., designed unmanned electric aircraft. He sold the assets to Boeing Co. and was working with it in late 2003 when he attended a Stanford University speech by Musk on his startup SpaceX. Then, over lunch in Los Angeles, the two moved from ideas on aerospace to electric vehicles.