Burn!
Roasted
Twitter CEO Elon Musk just got absolutely roasted on Twitter — a joke that appears to have flown completely over his head.
Paul Graham, venture capitalist and founder of Y Combinator, highlighted an extensive list of “unicorn” companies making the rounds on social media that were comprised mostly of software ventures, with a notable lack of manufacturing and other heavy industries in the mix.
“Making physical stuff is hard,” Graham argued. “But don’t let that deter you, if that’s what you’re interested in.”
“Major misallocation of capital IMO,” replied Musk, a billionaire who is in the midst of running a multi-billion-dollar software company into the ground. “Most on this list won’t make it. Not enough talent in manufacturing and heavy industries.”
“Interesting point, but an example might make it clearer,” Graham quipped back. “Can you think of a prominent person who’s currently wasting his talents in software when he could be working on manufacturing and heavy industries?”
Shots Fired
The investor’s remark was a clear shot at Musk. Over the years, Musk made a name for himself being the CEO of several industry-leading manufacturing and heavy industries, notably EV maker Tesla and space company SpaceX.
But Musk’s controversial foray into social media software has been far less successful so far. The billionaire bought Twitter for an eye-watering $44 billion last year and has made a huge mess of the company’s operations since then, causing its value to crater and engineers to mass-resign in disgust.
Graham’s jab clearly didn’t land, with Musk failing to acknowledge he was the one being roasted.
“Once prominent, they’re one of the few to have succeeded,” an oblivious Musk wrote in response to Graham’s jab. “Too much talent is chasing software, much like Hollywood has too much talent chasing acting.”
Real Bummer
Musk’s disastrous acquisition of Twitter has even had effects on his far more successful heavy industry ventures. His decision to buy Twitter last year enraged Tesla investors, some of whom argued last year that he abandoned Tesla while the carmaker was going through a crisis.
In short, Musk seems to be well aware he’s stuck with an ailing software company dragging his reputation as a successful entrepreneur down. Case in point, his most recent actions like banning links to competitors on Twitter and hardcoding his own account into the company’s source code practically reek of desperation.
This time, however, Musk wasn’t in on the joke — perhaps a sign that he’s more detached from the ongoing “flaming dumpster” than we initially thought.
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