I stood on a peak on Catalina Island and bought Tesla at the IPO price of $17, a desperate move that turned into a $2.4 million fortune by the end of 2025. My son and I were on a Boy Scout camping trip when I realized I had zero cell phone reception and needed to place my order before the market opened. I climbed the hill until I found a point marked with a cross, finally found a gold bar, and frantically clicked the buy button on my brokerage app.
The story was shared in the comments of Herbert Ong’s YouTube video, in which early investors swap stories of life-changing returns. At the time, the company priced its initial public offering at $17 a share, raising $226 million, the first IPO by a U.S. automaker in decades.
Fifteen years later, this reviewer’s original holding has increased by more than 38,000%, thanks to two stock splits and relentless execution by Elon Musk’s team.
I was an automotive engineer before moving into aerospace, where I competed directly with SpaceX from the early days.
Watching Elon Musk in action up close convinced me that electric vehicles are not a fad but the inevitable future of transportation. My first electric car was a 2000 Ford Ranger Electric, a hulking proof-of-concept that showed me that batteries and electric motors could replace the internal combustion engine.
When Tesla filed for its IPO, I recognized the same relentless engineering culture I’d seen at SpaceX that only applies to mass-market cars. According to CNBC, an investment of $10,000 at the IPO price would now be worth nearly $3 million, a return that almost entirely mirrors my own experience. I never imagined the company would become an AI robotics giant; I just believed in the mission of accelerating sustainable energy development.
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Since that IPO purchase, I’ve owned 16 different electric cars, 7 of them Teslas, and my current favorite is the Cybertruck. After acquiring SolarCity in 2016, I immediately chose Tesla’s solar products and installed the panels immediately after the deal was completed. When the first Powerwall launched in 2015, I pre-ordered and upgraded with each new generation, creating a fully integrated home energy system.
Every Tesla in my driveway runs Full Self-Driving, a feature that has evolved from a gimmick to a truly useful piece of self-driving suite. Car and Driver reports that after years of delays, Cybertruck deliveries will begin in November 2023, and the truck’s polarizing design makes it, in my opinion, the most powerful electric vehicle I’ve ever driven. My garage now looks like a Tesla showroom with solar panels overhead, Powerwalls on the walls, and a Cybertruck plugged into wall connectors.