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Marc Tarpenning

Cofounder, Tesla

Search every verified Marc Tarpenning interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Marc Tarpenning, co-founder of Tesla, has been active in interviews and public appearances discussing the company's early history and offering his perspective on its current trajectory. In several 2024 and 2025 interviews, Tarpenning has stated that while he is proud of Tesla's role in accelerating the electric vehicle industry, he believes the brand has been "tarnished" by what he described as the "antics" of CEO Elon Musk. He has said that Musk's political activism has "entangled" the brand in a way it "shouldn't be," and contrasted his own approach, stating that most CEOs do not go out on a "political limb" due to fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders and employees, adding, "I would never do that." Tarpenning has also reflected on the company's founding, emphasizing that he and Martin Eberhard started Tesla in 2003 before Musk joined as an investor and later became the company's fourth CEO. He has noted that the mission was to reduce oil consumption and that the company's early success was built on word-of-mouth and a product that "delighted the customer." In his current role as a venture partner at Spero Ventures, Tarpenning has said he is focused on investing in sustainability-related areas, including synthetic biology and agricultural technology, and has advised entrepreneurs to work on problems with meaning and to ensure their product is compelling on its own merits.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“The thing that made the US extraordinary for all this time has been that we had great science institutions. We really need to keep that up, not cut it, not zero it out like the current administration is trying — that's silliness and self-destructive for our future, and we should attract the best and brightest to come here.”

“Most CEOs don't go on a political limb and they certainly don't endorse various radical political views, and I think it is because they have a fiduciary responsibility both to the shareholders but also to their employees to not threaten the existence of the company. I would never do that.”

“In K–8 education someone said the students entering kindergarten will graduate into jobs where more than half the jobs don't exist; what's really important is to teach how to learn, how to be curious, and how to keep learning all the time because the actual work they do will often be unrelated to what they learned earlier.”

“The board is supposed to help — ask the right questions, get you the right connections, help you raise money — but it becomes contentious when they won't allow you to hire somebody you really want because they're too expensive; the board must approve packages, stock grants and salary and that can block crucial hires.”

“We thought we'd be able to buy all the same stuff the big car companies buy, but many suppliers said you have to order in 100,000 quantity — we were making like 5,000 a year — and that made it really hard; getting the supply chain figured out took way longer than we expected.”

“The idea has to be compelling in some way — someone would want to buy it if it existed. It can be cheaper, faster, prettier; I don't care which — but too many pitches are solutions looking for a problem.”

Other executives at Tesla

The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →