The five people Tesla legally recognizes as its founders -- and the one everyone assumes is the only one
The Founders
Elon Musk is Tesla's public face, but he wasn't in the room when the company was incorporated. This is the short version of the story of the five people a 2009 legal settlement recognizes as Tesla's co-founders: two engineers with an idea, the technical minds who joined them, and the investor who ended up running the whole thing.
Chapter 1
The Two Engineers
They'd already built and sold one hardware company together before they ever touched a car.
Chapter 2
Building the Team
One of them stayed fifteen years and invented half the company's battery technology. The other left within the first year to start his own EV company.
Chapter 3
The Falling Out
It took a lawsuit to get Tesla to officially agree on who its founders actually were.