ELON, EXPLAINED
People · Testimonials

Working with Elon, in their words.

The people who were in the room, quoted directly and linked to the source.

In their own words: the engineers, executives, and the biographer who spent years at close range. Every quote links to the post or recording it comes from.

“He just energizes you. He's got this infectious enthusiasm and gets you hyped up to go do crazy stuff. It's all about urgency and getting it done. He really gets the best out of everybody.”
Tom Mueller Founding employee and propulsion chief · SpaceX · 2002-2020Source
“When Elon says something, you have to pause and not immediately blurt out, Well, that is impossible. So you zip it, and you think about it, and you find ways to get that done.”
Gwynne Shotwell President and COO · SpaceX · 2002-presentSource
“And he loved it. He immediately got it.”
JB Straubel Co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) · Tesla · 2004-2019Source
“Elon is a visionary, somebody who continues to just push the boundaries, looking for a future that we really want to aspire to be in, worth fighting for.”
Franz von Holzhausen Chief designer · Tesla · 2008-presentSource
“He has a real applied mind. He literally sucks the knowledge and experience out of people that he is around.”
Jim Cantrell Founding team member, first VP of business development · SpaceX · 2001-2002Source
“What is really remarkable to me is the breadth of his knowledge. I have met a lot of super, super smart people, but they are usually super, super smart on one thing.”
Garrett Reisman Director of space operations, former NASA astronaut · SpaceX · 2011-2018Source
“He wants it to be a vibrant place. People are walking around, they are pacing around, they are working on exciting stuff, they are charting something, they are coding.”
Andrej Karpathy Director of AI, led Autopilot vision · Tesla · 2017-2022Source
“I think most of us would have followed him into the gates of hell carrying suntan oil after that. It was the most impressive display of leadership that I have ever witnessed.”
Dolly Singh Head of talent acquisition · SpaceX · 2008-2013Source
“One thing he understands really well is the physics of the rockets. He understands that like nobody else. The stuff I have seen him do in his head is crazy.”
Kevin Watson Principal engineer, avionics · SpaceX · 2008-2014Source
“That’s another reason that people like Elon Musk get stuff done, and people like me write about the Elon Musks.”
Walter Isaacson Biographer, shadowed him for two years · Author of the 2023 biography · 2021-2023Source
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