Thursday, April 14, 2016

Step By Step How South Africa's Elon Musk Built His Empire

Step by Step: How Elon Musk Built His Empire

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Step by Step: How Elon Musk Built His Empire

Step by Step: How Elon Musk Built His Empire

“The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.” – Peter Thiel in “Zero to One”
In the book Zero to One, prominent entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shares his vision on what it takes to create an extraordinary company.
Specifically, Thiel believes that instead of making incremental upgrades to an existing product or service, a company must aim to do something completely new to avoid ruthless competition. While Thiel has worked with many impressive people over the years, Thiel points to Elon Musk as a particularly successful member of the Paypal Mafia that has gone “zero to one” many times.

THE RÉSUMÉ

At only the age of 44, just “some” of Musk’s successes include building the world’s first global online payments company (Paypal) and landing re-usable rockets on ocean platforms (SpaceX). He also co-founded SolarCity, which just closed a $338 million round for providing commercial solar and energy storage, and his electric car company Tesla now has 325,000 pre-orders for the Tesla Model 3, which is good for $14 billion in future revenues.
Meanwhile, in his spare time, Musk draws up plans for revolutionary transport systems, such as the Hyperloop and VTOL supersonic jet aircraft known as the Musk electric jet.
That’s going from zero to one at least a few separate times, with many years in his career left to come. How does Elon do it?

THE LIFE OF ELON MUSK

The infographic above highlights key circumstances, decisions, and results in Elon Musk’s life. Here are some of the key inflection points that helped him to build his massive empire:
  • Elon was born in South Africa to an engineer father and model mother on June 28, 1971.
  • Elon read 10 hours a day as a kid, and even read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.
  • At age 12, Elon sold his first video game that he coded for $500.
  • After being inspired by Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Elon decided that his new life mission would be to save humanity.
  • Leaves Stanford PhD program after two days to help found Zip2, which he started with a $28,000 loan from his father.
  • He later received proceeds of $22 million from the sale of Zip2 to Compaq, which he used to start X.com.
  • X.com merges with another online bank (Confinity) to form Paypal.
  • Elon gets ousted as CEO from Paypal while on his honeymoon, yet still invests more money in the company regardless.
  • He discovers that space rockets are artificially overpriced, and starts SpaceX to build his own rockets.
  • Elon gets $250 million from the sale of Paypal to Ebay.
  • Meets Tesla founders Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard, and introduces them to JB Straubel. Elon invests in Tesla.
  • After having three SpaceX rockets explode while approaching bankruptcy with Tesla, Elon takes action. He takes over as CEO of Tesla and raises an emergency fifth round of financing. Meanwhile, his fourth rocket launch with SpaceX succeeds and a $1.6B contract with NASA is signed.
  • Tesla goes public at $17 per share (it trades for ~$250/share today)
  • Elon announces reusable rockets that could make space flight 100x cheaper, and promises to also send humans to Mars by 2021-2031.
  • Elon publishes the Hyperloop design, starts building the Gigafactory, unveils the Powerwall, and eventually lands a rocket on an ocean platform.
What’s next?
Launching the Falcon Heavy rocket, starting Gigafactory production, selling the Model 3 electric car, and potentially landing on Mars are just some of the things on his future laundry list.
What Musk can actually accomplish in the future is anybody’s guess. We certainly won’t be betting against him.
Original graphic by: Funders and Founders
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    Wednesday, April 6, 2016

    Will Zuma's Presidency Survive?

    South Africa’s Zuma Faces Toughest Test Of His Presidency. Will He Survive?

    By Kevin Mwanza Published: April 5, 2016, 1:50 am
    South African President Jacob Zuma (Image: dailymaverick.co.za)South African President Jacob Zuma (Image: dailymaverick.co.za)
    Embattled South African president Jacob Zuma’s political woes are getting worse in what is turning out to be the biggest test so far to his second term at the helm of Africa’s second biggest economy.
    On Tuesday, the country’s parliament is set to debate an impeachment motion against the president.
    The motion comes after a constitutional court ruled that Zuma had violated the law when he ignored orders to repay part of the $16 million used to renovate his private rural residence in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal province.
    Since the ruling on Thursday last week, South Africans, the opposition and an anti-apartheid hero have urged Zuma to step down.
    The impending impeachment comes in the wake of two family-related incidents that are set to fuel the battle against South Africa’s third-democratically elected president.
    Clive Khulubuse, the president’s nephew has been named in The Panama Paper leaks as being part of the global elite who own offshore accounts in Panama.
    The documents reveal how Mossack Fosenca, a law firm in the Central America nation, helped Khulubuse and other rich and powerful people laundered money, avoided tax and sanctions to hide their wealth in offshore accounts in Panama.
    According to The Guardian, the 11.5 million files leaked from the fourth biggest offshore law firm represent one of the biggest corruption rackets involving presidents and other prominent people in the world.
    This may be used by the anti-Zuma voices to re-ignite his involvement in the unclear circumstances that his nephew was awarded two oilfields by President Joseph Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2010.
    The revelations come after global accountancy firm; KPMG cut its ties with a company owned by The Guptas, a family close to Zuma that has been linked with influencing government appointments since December 2015.
    KPMG ended a 15-year old relationship with Oakbay Resources and Energy, a mining firm owned by The Guptas, over the relationship with Zuma in his capacity as the president of the Rainbow Nation.
    Zuma’s presidency is facing its biggest threat and Khulubuse’s mention in the corruption ring means more harm to Zuma’s chances of surviving the biggest onslaught against his presidency.
    Sign up for the AFKInsider newsletter — the most compelling business news you need to know from Africa and the African diaspora, delivered straight to your inbox.
    - See more at: http://afkinsider.com/122715/south-africas-zuma-faces-toughest-test-of-his-presidency-will-he-survive/?utm_source=AFKInsider+Newsletter&utm_campaign=91b34a7c48-AFKInsider_Newsletter_4_5_164_5_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0aff70cb26-91b34a7c48-132949841#sthash.VcKsvr4t.dpuf
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    Tuesday, April 5, 2016

    How Fidentia Fraudster Stashed Cash Abroad-Panama Leaks

    How Fidentia fraudster stashed cash abroad – Panama leaks

    Apr 04 2016 10:49 
    Matthew le Cordeur
    J Arthur Brown. (Picture: Steve Eggington)

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    Cape Town - Fidentia’s convicted accountant Graham Maddock paid Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca $59 000 in 2005 and 2006 (R1m in 2016) to create two sets of offshore companies, secret documents leaked on Sunday revealed.
    According to MeasuringWorth, $59 000 in 2005 would have a relative value of $71 600 (R1m) in 2016.
    The leak by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) includes over 11.5 million documents from the files of Mossack Fonseca, and exposed the secret details of hundreds of thousands of clients globally.
    The Fidentia scandal saw its mastermind, J Arthur Brown, lavishly spend the savings of 47 000 widows and orphans, wasting over R500m of their money. He was eventuallysentenced to 15 years in jail on December 1 2014. He was first arrested in 2007 in one of South Africa’s biggest financial scandals, in which Brown ran a pyramid scheme and used investors' funds for his own personal gain.
    Mossack Fonseca’s leaked documents show that two convicted Fidentia members, accountant Maddock and ex-broker Steven Goodwin, used the law firm to create offshore companies when Fidentia's Ponzi scheme was exposed.
    “Mossack Fonseca was willing to help one of the fraudsters protect his money even after authorities publicly linked him to the scandal,” ICIJ reported.
    Maddock, who told the FSB that he “did what Brown instructed him” to, was given “VIP service” by Mossack Fonseca, the law firm’s records say.
    “Mossack Fonseca’s records show that one of the men later jailed in South Africa for his role in the fraud, Graham Maddock, paid Mossack Fonseca $59 000 in 2005 and 2006 to create two sets of offshore companies, including one called Fidentia North America,” ICIJ revealed.
    Maddock already served time in prison after entering into a plea bargain with the state. He was sentenced to an effective seven years in 2008 for his role in the Fidentia matter, but served only two years.
    Explaining the link between Brown, Maddock and Goodwin, BizNews publisher Alec Hogg wrote in 2014: "To keep what the FSB (Financial Services Board) describes as the pyramid scheme going, Brown offered massive commissions to asset gatherers, giving them 1% of everything brought in. Or simply bribed cohorts like BEE bigwig Danisa Baloyi and Fidentia’s crooked accountant Graham Maddock with non-repayable loans and big bonuses. And when the authorities came knocking, Fidentia’s staff were simply instructed to fabricate documents to cover up the lies.”
    Mossack Fonseca convinced Goodwin to protect Fidentia assets - papers
    The leaked papers show that Mossack Fonseca also created offshore structures for Goodwin. “As the scandal broke in 2007, Goodwin flew to Australia, then to the US, where a Mossack Fonseca lawyer met with him at a luxury hotel in Manhattan to discuss his offshore holdings, the firm’s internal records show,” ICIJ reported.
    “The firm official later wrote that he and Goodwin ‘spoke deeply’ about the Fidentia scandal and that he had ‘convinced Goodwin to better protect’ his offshore company’s assets by passing them to a third party.”
    Goodwin was sentenced to 10 years in prison in South Africa after the FBI arrested him in Los Angeles and deported him to South Africa. He testified in court in 2013 that it was Brown's idea to use a company's own funds to buy itself out. "In passing discourse with Arthur, he mentioned it as a side issue. He said 'We'll just pay them with their own money'," Goodwin said.
    The documents show that Mossack Fonseca came up with a plan to frustrate South African prosecutors digging into assets linked to Goodwin’s offshore company, Hamlyn Property, which had been set up to buy real estate in South Africa.
    “The employee proposed having an accountant ‘prepare’ audits for 2006 and 2007 ‘to try to prevent the prosecutor from taking actions against the entities behind Hamlyn’. He set off ‘prepare’ in quote marks in his email,” ICIJ said. “It’s unclear whether the proposal was adopted.”
    Mossack Fonseca did not answer questions from ICIJ about its relationship with Goodwin, while a representative for Goodwin said he “had nothing whatsoever” to do with Fidentia’s collapse “or anything directly or indirectly to do with the 46 000 widows and orphans”.
    “The Mossack Fonseca documents indicate that the firm’s customers have included Ponzi schemers, drug kingpins, tax evaders and at least one jailed sex offender,” ICIJ explained. “Mossack Fonseca’s fingers are in Africa’s diamond trade, the international art market and other businesses that thrive on secrecy.
    “Ponzi schemers and other fraudsters who bilk large numbers of victims often use offshore structures to pull off their schemes or hide the proceeds.”
    Brown was convicted on two fraud charges relating to his handling of investments for the Transport Education and Training Authority and the Mantadia Asset Trust Company between 2002 and 2006.

    He was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on each of two fraud charges in the SCA in December 2014. The sentences are to run concurrently.
    Follow Fin24 on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. 24.com encourages commentary submitted via MyNews24. Contributions of 200 words or more will be considered for publication.

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