Joining the Mafia 96
Wall Street with an entrepreneurial company. “Something
about the culture of startups, at least at this point in my life,
seems inevitable,” Elon said. “It’s more fun, the atmosphere
is more creative, and I think more gets accomplished.”^265
Elon founded X.com in March 1999. He was not yet
thirty years old. Their website answered the question why
they had chosen the name, “Why not? X is simple, straight-
forward, and lacking in pretense and fluff – exactly like our
approach to financial services.”^394
Elon was the CEO, but took the position as chairman of
the board after the former Intuit CEO, Bill Harris, became
the CEO in late 1999. In an article in the newspaperThe
Wall Street Journal, Harris explained how he had received
offers from more than 100 startups, but he chose X.com
because he saw it as a blank canvas upon which he could
write new rules on the delivery of financial services.^189
This was at the height of the dot.com bubble, but Elon
knew it was a bubble, so he wasn’t nervous. “Any change
this profound is bound to set off speculative frenzy, and
people need to do their homework, and not blindly buy into
companies that aren’t well put together,” Elon said. “There
are a lot of Potemkin villages out there built on flimsy foun-
dations and many, many will fail. There’s going to be a lot
of weeding out in the future. This is the longest peacetime
expansion in history, and for young people who’ve never
really seen a serious recession – and anyone who’s studied
history knows they happen – a downturn will be a rough
experience. [But] the radical cost advantages the net brings
are real and viable long-term.”^265