Jason Calacanis0:00
There was a moment in time when Tesla almost went out of business, and you've probably heard the story many times. It was during the financial crisis, and they were running out of money. I said, let's go get a steak. We're in LA, and we drove to BOA. I had my orange Tesla Roadster, and he had his P1 or P2, the red one that I think is in space now. We drove to the valet and had a steak together. We're sitting there, and I said, you know, I read the story in the New York Times that you only have like five weeks of money left in Tesla. He goes, it's not true. I was like, thank God. He goes, we have two weeks. I was like, oh God. I was like, well, what's going on with the rocket ship company? You know, I know you did the one last month, and you have one coming up. He's like, yeah, we got the third one coming up. I was like, well, how's that going? As well, we blow that one up, there's no more SpaceX. I was like, so two weeks of money left in Tesla, and SpaceX blew up the first two rockets. You blew up the third, SpaceX is over. He's like, yeah. I was like, I can loan you a couple million dollars. I don't have like a ton. He's like, it's okay, our friend has loaned me some money. Elon's been super public about this. I would never tell the story unless he hadn't been, but he was talking. He never said who it was, but somebody had loaned him money to keep him afloat. He was functionally bankrupt. I mean, he had the equity in the companies, but the equity was quickly becoming worth zero during the financial crisis. He was figuring out if he's going to go on vacation for Christmas or not, and he's on the phone trying to save both companies. I said, certainly there must be some good news. He takes out his BlackBerry, to date this conversation there are no iPhones, takes his BlackBerry, and he starts swiping. He says, don't tell anybody, this is what I'm building. He shows me the Model S. Nobody knew that he was working on the Model S. We knew he was doing the Roadster and trying to save the company. I looked at it and I was like, that's gorgeous. It was the clay models, so there was a full-size clay model. There's human beings standing around a clay version of this tiny little BlackBerry picture I'm scrolling through. Remember that little pad or the ball on the BlackBerry? I'm scrolling through it. I'm like, this is great. I just said to him, what's the range going to be? He says, well, I think we get 250 miles. I was like, 250 miles? He's like, yeah, I think it'll be the safest car ever. I said, what is it going to cost? He says, I think this could cost eventually 50 to $60,000. I said, Elon, if you make that car, you'll change the goddamn world. You have to. This company must survive because the Roadster is for like 2,000 people in the United States. This car is for every person in the United States. Every single person in the United States will want this car if it's $50,000. Maybe some of the people who have 20 or $30,000 cars won't be able to afford it, but they'll all want it. It's gorgeous. He said, you really think so? I said, yeah. So I got home and I talked to my wife Jade. I said, do you have the checkbook? She does all the finances and stuff like that, pays all the bills. I said, yeah, don't tell anybody, Elon's making this great car. I wrote two checks for $50,000. I just took out a piece of paper and I wrote, Elon, love the new car, I'll take two. I signed it. I kissed the two $50,000 checks, put them in the envelope, and I fed-exed them for Monday delivery. I said to Jade that $100,000 is going to be gone in 48 hours because it will pay for one or two days of payroll on Tesla. So we just added, instead of two weeks, he's got 12 days. The checks don't cash, but then I read a story that he closed the money, saved the company like the next week or two. A couple of months later, the checks get cashed. I'm like, okay. Three years later, I get an email from Tesla: your reservation number is 000000001, and then five seconds later, your reservation number is 000000073. I forwarded the number one to Elon. I said, you know, I can't take number one. A signature number one, I can't take that, that's yours. He's like, oh, I got five of them, and besides, you're the first person who ordered it. I was the first person who had seen it. He was going to give it to me. It was a very beautiful moment. It was an incredible moment for both of us. We talk about it sometimes. Those moments in time, when you, to your point about love, like the darkest moment, one of the darkest moments in his life.
