#112 Former President at Tesla / CEO of DVx Ventures, Jon McNeill: First-Principles

Guest: Jon McNeill, co-founder of DVx Ventures and former President at Tesla In this episode, we cover: Why Elon Musk bought Twitter and how he’s running it, two weeks in (03:46); How Jon’s father nudged him into an entrepreneurial mindset (06:12); Building an intentional, present relationship with your family (10:15); What Jon learned from Intuit co-founder Scott Cook (15:55); How he got to Tesla, and learned how to work with Elon (18:55); The east Asia trip that birthed Neuralink and The Boring Company (24:56); Ramping up demand for the Tesla Model S and the “manufacturing hell” of the Model X (29:54); Solving problems under pressure and Jon’s hack for staying sane (35:57); Recruiting world-class talent (41:05); What Jon asked Elon before joining Tesla (45:37); “Make them talk about you at dinner” (50:47); Simplifying things is an unfair advantage (54:27); What frontline workers know, and Jon’s 20% rule (57:08); Lyft’s “arms race” with Uber and what DVx’s companies do differently (1:00:36); How Jon got to be on the board of GM (1:08:00)