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Comment by kjksf | Hacker News Reader

Nothing (except lawyers fees).

It was Eberhard who sued Musk trying to get the courts to declare that only he and Tarpenning can be called co-founders of Tesla.

And that backfired because the judge declared that, actually, Musk and JB. Straubel are also co-founders of Tesla.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/judge-strikes-claim-who-can-be-de...

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You can't cite Tesla's blog as a credible source when that specific site still contains blatent lies and falsehoods such as FSD.

It doesn't really need a citation at all. It's pretty standard for people to be considered as "founders" even if they weren't the first person to be involved in the first incarnation of a business. The only reason this particular instance got any attention is because of the lawsuit.

If you're curious, pick a few companies at random and dig into their history. You might be surprised by how late some of their "founders" became involved in the business.

Some one else abusing the term "founder" doesn't change anything. Musk was an investor who made himself CEO several years later.

Founded July 2003. Musk became chairman and largest shareholder Feb 2004.

Calling Musk a founder would be the equivalent of calling Paul Graham an Airbnb cofounder.

He was an early investor in Tesla in February 2003 after the first employee had already been hired and the prototype car was already built off the Lotus.

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