#101 Tesla War Stories, Self-Driving at Waymo, and Building the Salesforce of BOM (Spencer Penn of LightSource)

Topics:

() - Intro

() - Heroes and inspirations

() - The rise of Chinese electric vehicles

() - The Tesla experience

() - Tesla's rapid development and industry impact

() - The culture of speed and frugality at Tesla

() - Elon's leadership and pressure tactics

() - Transitioning from Tesla to Waymo

() - Waymo's organizational structure and challenges

() - The future of autonomous vehicles

() - Founding Light Source and addressing procurement issues

() - Conclusion and final thoughts

Links:

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Quotes from Spencer:

•
“It was the most fun I never want to have again.” (Describing his time at Tesla during the Model 3 production ramp)

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“The Model 3 seat feel is attuned directly to Elon’s butt.”

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“I’m not an Elon fanboy, but I’m also not a critic. I’m an optimist.”

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“Speed wins. After seeing both Tesla and Waymo, that’s my belief.”

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“We were the underdog. Eventually, it does end up feeling like you’re on the winning team.”

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“You couldn’t go into a meeting with Elon and show up empty-handed.”

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“This opportunity we’re pursuing at LightSource should have disappeared 20 years ago.”

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“ERP is the finance system of record. What’s Salesforce in reverse? That’s LightSource.”

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“The thing that surprised me: every company still runs procurement on spreadsheets and email.”

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“Tesla built their own ERP system from scratch. That’s not normal.”

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“There are things that are just core to the P&L of every business… and yet completely orphaned in the tech stack.”

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