The Outsider 85
wanted to do that in an existing company, or if he had to
create his own company.^324 Because he didn’t get a job at
any of the few Internet companies, he realized he had to
create his own job.
In the same year as eBay was founded, 1995, Elon
founded Zip2 during the summer months. “I was very naive
and much stupider than I am now,” Elon said. “I wish I
could go back and give myself a slap on my face. I was
working crazy hours. I would literally sleep under my desk
to avoid going home because that’d just take time. I was
trying to make up for my mistakes by working really, really
hard.”^431
The first mistake was the name Zip2. “Terrible name,”
Elon said. “We were incredible stupid at the time, that’s
the main reason for that name.”^363 The problem with the
name was that it would be difficult to know how to spell it
after someone told you to visit zip2.com. Will you spell it
zip2.com, zipto.com, ziptwo.com, or ziptoo.com? It would
have failed the “drunk-test.” That test says that you should
be able to say the name of your website to someone who’s
drunk and the person should know how to spell out the
name.
Mainly because he didn’t know anyone in the San
Francisco area where Zip2 was founded, Elon was the
only employee. But he felt he needed co-workers. The two
brothers Elon and Kimbal had one year earlier been on
a road trip from Silicon Valley to Philadelphia. During