Chapter 20: Founders: Tesla, 2003–2004

In summer 1994, Musk interned at Pinnacle Research Institute studying supercapacitors for electric vehicles and at Rocket Science making video games, solving a complex programming problem but realizing he wanted greater impact than game design. After graduating from Penn in spring 1995, Musk was accepted to Stanford's material science PhD program but deferred enrollment to pursue an internet startup idea called Virtual City Navigator with his brother Kimbal, convinced by mentor Peter Nicholson that the internet revolution demanded immediate action.

Musk rejected lucrative Wall Street internship offers during his time at Penn, drawn instead to Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial culture. In summer 1994, he worked by day at Pinnacle Research Institute on supercapacitor technology for electric vehicles and space weapons, writing a paper declaring it a "radically new technology." By night, he solved a complex CD-ROM multitasking problem at Rocket Science video game company that senior engineers couldn't crack, impressing the team, but he recognized that game design wouldn't maximize his impact. Musk demonstrated a distinctive comfort with both hardware and software, spending Saturdays in Philadelphia junkyards upgrading his twenty-year-old BMW 300i, even swapping in a five-speed transmission. He and his brother Kimbal took a memorable cross-country road trip in the car, which broke down multiple times. After graduating in spring 1995, Musk planned to enroll at Stanford to pursue a PhD in material science researching capacitors for electric vehicles. However, the August 1995 Netscape IPO and the commercial opening of the web shifted his thinking. During his senior year at Penn, he had conceived an idea for Virtual City Navigator—an interactive online business directory with map data, inspired by NYNEX's "Big Yellow" project. Seeking counsel from Peter Nicholson of Scotiabank in Toronto, Musk was told the internet revolution comes once in a lifetime and to strike while the iron is hot. Upon returning to Palo Alto, Musk committed to pursuing the startup idea with Kimbal. He officially enrolled at Stanford but immediately requested a deferral, telling material science professor Bill Nix he expected to fail but might return if so. Nix predicted he would never come back.