I worked with Elon Musk and Travis Kalanick in my 20s. Here's what I learned from them about building a company.

Jul 31, 2026 04:13 PM - 1 day ago 63

This as-told-to effort is based connected a speech pinch Adi Prasad, a 35-year-old cofounder and CEO of AI manufacturing startup Matter. It's been edited for magnitude and clarity.

When I graduated from MIT successful 2015 pinch a master's grade successful mechanical engineering, 1 institution stood retired to me: Tesla.

I was fascinated by manufacturing, and Tesla was pushing the boundaries of what a mill could be. After joining successful 2015, I was quickly thrown into helping standard accumulation of the Falcon Wing doors, 1 of the company's largest engineering challenges.

I had the opportunity to study from and observe Elon Musk. His principles-first reasoning shaped really I attack problems today. Later, I had the opportunity to activity alongside erstwhile Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and study from his attack to scaling a business.

But I didn't subordinate these companies because I wanted to walk my full profession there. They were the first measurement successful a overmuch bigger scheme of entrepreneurship.

What I learned from Elon Musk

Because Tesla was overmuch smaller then, I had a mates of opportunities to interact pinch Elon Musk and coming successful meetings. I've ne'er seen anyone amended astatine breaking down a analyzable problem unrecorded and getting to the guidelines of it utilizing first-principles thinking.

What made it truthful awesome was that he wasn't ever the evident master successful the room. He mightiness not person had a Ph.D. successful a peculiar field, but by asking intelligent questions, he could quickly get to the bosom of a problem.

Musk besides challenged assumptions and refused to judge "that's really it's ever been done" arsenic an answer. I admired that he mixed heavy method reasoning pinch beardown business instincts — a operation that's amazingly rare.

Nothing astatine Tesla felt for illustration a subject project. Everything was driven by an fierce scheme to push invention forward. I deliberation that's a large portion of what made Tesla what it is today.

What I learned from Travis Kalanick

A fewer years later, aft spending a twelvemonth moving astatine Apple arsenic a merchandise value manager, I learned astir an opportunity to activity pinch different visionary entrepreneur: Travis Kalanick. One of his caller ventures was CloudKitchens, a institution focused connected delivery-only commercialized kitchens. The entreaty was that he was building thing new, and I could beryllium among the company's first 100 employees.

While I was considering the opportunity, 1 of my mentors gave maine immoderate proposal that stuck pinch me. He asked maine to deliberation of different entrepreneur too Elon Musk and Travis Kalanick who had disrupted a analyzable world manufacture successful specified a short play of time. I couldn't deliberation of one. That speech pushed maine to subordinate CloudKitchens.

Once I joined, I sewage to spot Travis Kalanick almost each day. He mightiness not person been the champion method person, but he was an incredibly savvy businessperson.

One of my biggest takeaways was really he approached scaling a business: focusing connected priorities, utilizing zero-based budgeting, and justifying everything from the crushed up. He was relentlessly return-on-investment-focused, and that shaped really I tally my ain company.

Kalanick saw the digitization of the beingness world earlier almost anyone and built his companies astir it. He erstwhile said thing that stayed pinch me: entrepreneurs fast-forward the future. The further retired you go, the much different the early looks, and the harder the alteration is to propulsion off.

He had the ability, almost by brute force, to push done immoderate situation that came pinch disrupting a accepted industry.

I applied my lessons from Tesla and CloudKitchens to build my ain business

After graduating pinch an MBA from Harvard Business School successful 2025, I moved to the Bay Area correct aft and went each successful connected my business, Matter, pinch nary backup plan.

My cofounder and I are building AI-native autonomous factories that combine analyzable products for illustration drones and robotic systems successful the US. The extremity is to rebuild American manufacturing arsenic a package problem, not a labour problem.

Today, Matter has much than 2 twelve group moving connected the business, and our first mill is unrecorded successful Sunnyvale, California: a 54,000 quadrate ft facility.

Read much astir group who've recovered themselves astatine a firm crossroads

The 2 biggest lessons I've learned

As I bespeak connected my ain entrepreneurship travel truthful far, 2 lessons guidelines out.

First, you'll ne'er really consciousness fresh to start a business. Sometimes you conscionable person to return the leap and begin.

Second, AI is changing what skills matter most. These devices person made knowledge much accessible than ever. Deep expertise is still important, but I deliberation what will matter moreover much is having a wide scope of real-world experiences that thief you make amended decisions and lick problems successful caller ways.

Looking back, that's precisely what I tried to do successful my 20s. Every extremity successful my profession taught maine thing different, and together those experiences gave maine the assurance to commencement building my ain company.

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