We're supposed to listen to Sid Mohasseb, an "adjunct professor" (which is to say, barely a professor at all) instead of Elon Musk, arguably the world's best-ever entrepreneur? About the rebrand of Twitter?
We're supposed to pay attention to Sid "the serial entrepreneur" lecturing Elon, the world's richest actual entrepreneur, on how to create value out of the now-X?
Well, Yes, according to the editors at the South China Morning Post. Mind you, said editors are often fooled into posting op-Ed's from non-entities who can magic up a fine-sounding resume. This is another case of it.
Here's a short version of Elon:
PayPal: he invented it. And sold it. (China's WeChat learned from PayPal)
Tesla: he invented it. And grew it to the worlds biggest EV maker. Now making "giga-batteries", electric trucks and robots.
SpaceX: he invented it, including the re-usable booster concept. The first private company to deliver human crew to the ISS.
Solar City: he invented it. Installing solar panels throughout America on a shared profit basis (a Musk innovation)
Neuralink: he invented it. Trying to allow paraplegic people walk again
Boring company: He invented it. To dig under-city tunnels quicker amd cheaper
Plus goodness knows what else he's putting his billions into. One thing he's not putting money into is his own pleasures. He doesn't own a house, a yacht or even a car.
And here's a *long* version of Sid:
First: no Wikipedia page. Which immediately means "not really famous".
Second: had a share in something called "Wise Windows" a software com with 12 staff, sold to KPMG, and now effectively disappeared. If you Google "Wise Windows" you come up with window cleaning companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
No other company he's "Angel invested" in, that I can find.
He is an "adjunct professor" at a nonentity college, which is to say, a professor without tenure.
On that basis Sid has bigged himself up to be a "serial entrepreneur".
I could just as easily big myself up to "serial entrepreneur" based on my establishment of Livewire P/L in Australia in the 80s, selling electronic-farming equipment and in WSI Hong Kong doing tech-heavy education, with a staff of 300. I also don't have a Wikipedia page….
As for Sid's criticisms of X:
The subscriber model. He says "most users are not interested". Sure. But 10% are, that's 50 million people at $8/month. That's $400 million per month, $4.8 BILLION per year. When you've cut your staff by 70%, done away with all the ridiculous freebies at HQ, you own the X building, then on "just" $4.8 Billion a year, you're looking cash-flow positive. Not to mention that advertisers are coming back. Who cares that an entitled woke basket baller like LeBron James won't pay?
It's true that people were "trying to drive Twitter into bankruptcy". It wasn't the advertisers themselves, but the left-wing influencers who scared the advertisers into cancelling their ad spend on Twitter because they didn't like that Elon was opening up Twitter to a wide range of opinions as the virtual Town Hall. They really were "out to get him". That's inarguably true.
Meantime Elon opened Twitter up, had the "Twitter Files" revelations of how the Biden administration suppressed speech on the platform. (They *hated* that, did the Left!).
Renamed Twitter as X. Which is a good idea, IMO. Lots to talk about, lots of notice, and see that it's a different place from the old censorious Twitter.
Instituted "Community Notes" a widely welcomed fact-check facility. Genuine, proper, neutral, credible.
Tried initiatives publicly and transparently, a unique effort. If they didn't work or weren't popular he abandoned them (eg, cancelling the ability to block people).
Set up video streaming. Now widely popular.
Encouraged "community news gathering" and sharing on X. (Again, hated by the Left, because they can't "curate" it).
Elon will install a payments system, something he knows about from his PayPal days. Even now I've bought things on X which has been an easy pain free experience.
Musk has been facing headwinds, all from an entitled Left who don't like heterodox views and so see him as "dangerous" and "unsafe". I don't. I see him as the entrepreneur of the centuries and me luckily to be living at the same time he does. And I do like the new openness of X. Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it's offensive. That's the nature of free speech.
Long Live Elon!
