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Ask HN: How is it possible to be the CEO of 5 companies at the same time?

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Re: Ask HN: How is it possible to be the CEO of 5 companies at the same time?

#31

Post by aantix »

whoknew1122 wrote: post #11

You buy or found them and make yourself CEO. The real question is whether someone can be CEO of 5 companies and do a good job. Personally, I think Musk is much better at being a brand than a CEO. But you can hide a lot behind smoke and mirrors if you're the richest person in the world and other rich people will throw money at you just to be your friend.

John Carmack considers him a true engineer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQro0rkg2DE

I think Carmack would call him out (Elon) if he thought less of him. Carmack seems honest to a fault.

I don't think "smoke and mirrors" is justified.

Re: Ask HN: How is it possible to be the CEO of 5 companies at the same time?

#32

Post by pc86 »

aantix wrote: post #28
msbarnett wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like when they had to force him out of PayPal before he destroyed the company with his “rewrite the entire backend for Windows Server” mandate?

People evolve.

This isn't a question about evolution. They said he executed very well early in his career, and that's a good example of a colossal early-career fuck up (that coincidentally got him kicked out).

Re: Ask HN: How is it possible to be the CEO of 5 companies at the same time?

#34

Post by vadym909 »

It is strange how the main people running th sr companies are completely unknown and unrecognized. I don’t know if it is coincidental or by design. For most other big tech companies there is usually a lot of guessing by the media of who’s next to lead.

Re: Ask HN: How is it possible to be the CEO of 5 companies at the same time?

#35

Post by filoleg »

bryant wrote: post #16
mamonster wrote: post #7

-Tesla doesn't need his input all that much at the moment. The key strategy is set, now they just need to execute operationally. -Twitter is what he is doing now actively. -I'm not sure he is doing anything in the Boring Company. -Neuralink is like an R&D outfit, what does he even need to do there beyond hiring engineers? -No idea about SpaceX. Also, he can be the CEO of 5 companies because only one of them is public…

Although Gwynne Shotwell manages day to day ops at SpaceX in her role as COO (including executing existing strategy), it's likely she's driving new strategy with Elon's decisionmaking where relevant, so she's essentially steering the ship at this point and has been for what, a decade? She's been at SpaceX for 20 years but at this point SpaceX is likely profitable from BAU so it's not a surprise that she's likely runn…

Agreed. Gwynne Shotwell's hand in SpaceX's success cannot be overstated. Seems like Musk made a very good bet on her, and their partnership keeps working rather great, even after over a decade of that. If SpaceX keeps going on its current track, my prediction is that Shotwell is only going to keep receiving more and more public recognition for her hard achievements. Which makes me happy, as she clearly deserves it.

In my eyes, just like with engineering managers and devs, the strength of an impactful CEO is in collaborating with and enabling their direct reports to deliver great results. It takes two to tango.

Re: Ask HN: How is it possible to be the CEO of 5 companies at the same time?

#37

Post by zerohp »

aantix wrote: post #31
whoknew1122 wrote: post #11

You buy or found them and make yourself CEO. The real question is whether someone can be CEO of 5 companies and do a good job. Personally, I think Musk is much better at being a brand than a CEO. But you can hide a lot behind smoke and mirrors if you're the richest person in the world and other rich people will throw money at you just to be your friend.

John Carmack considers him a true engineer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQro0rkg2DE I think Carmack would call him out (Elon) if he thought less of him. Carmack seems honest to a fault. I don't think "smoke and mirrors" is justified.

Carmack should read the Hyperloop paper and see if he still feels that way.

Re: Ask HN: How is it possible to be the CEO of 5 companies at the same time?

#38

Post by dwater »

aantix wrote: post #31
whoknew1122 wrote: post #11

You buy or found them and make yourself CEO. The real question is whether someone can be CEO of 5 companies and do a good job. Personally, I think Musk is much better at being a brand than a CEO. But you can hide a lot behind smoke and mirrors if you're the richest person in the world and other rich people will throw money at you just to be your friend.

John Carmack considers him a true engineer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQro0rkg2DE I think Carmack would call him out (Elon) if he thought less of him. Carmack seems honest to a fault. I don't think "smoke and mirrors" is justified.

That's not the issue being discussed. His engineering capabilities are irrelevant to him running the day-to-day operations of 5 of the biggest companies in the world at once.

Re: Ask HN: How is it possible to be the CEO of 5 companies at the same time?

#39

Post by lokar »

whoknew1122 wrote: post #11

You buy or found them and make yourself CEO. The real question is whether someone can be CEO of 5 companies and do a good job. Personally, I think Musk is much better at being a brand than a CEO. But you can hide a lot behind smoke and mirrors if you're the richest person in the world and other rich people will throw money at you just to be your friend.

See “The Elon Markets Hypothesis”
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