Tesla cofounder JB Straubel's failed pitch to Elon Musk led to a $1.3 trillion success story | Fortune

Tesla cofounder JB Straubel’s failed pitch to Elon Musk became a launchpad for one of the biggest EV stories ever as their first meeting took an unexpected turn. In 2003, Straubel—then a Stanford master’s graduate—lunched with satellite pioneer Harold Rosen and Musk, pitching an unmanned hydrogen-powered airplane rather than cars. Musk showed no interest, but Straubel pivoted to an electric sports car concept using lithium-ion cells similar to those in laptop computers, and Musk “immediately wrote a check.” Within weeks, they were sketching a high-performance electric sports car, and Musk led Tesla’s first major funding round. Straubel joined Tesla formally in 2004 as its fifth employee and CTO. He developed the Roadster battery pack of nearly 7,000 cells delivering 244 miles of range. After a 2009 settlement, he was officially recognized as a cofounder alongside Musk, Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, and Ian Wright.