Elon Musk: “A company is a group of people that have gathered together to create a product”

“If you think about it, what’s the point of a company existing? The point is that it’s a group of people that have gathered together to create a product. If the product is good, the company should exist, and if it is not good, the company should not exist. That seems fundamental to the nature of companies. Clearly then one should focus on making the absolute best product you can. Otherwise you reduce the probability of success. But a lot of companies focus on things that aren’t really to do with the product. As though a company has any basis for existing apart from doing useful things. That’s kind of strange.”

Full video: Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall “Elon Musk: Inventing the Future with the Los Angeles World Affairs Council“ (Nov 2013)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Elon Musk insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Elon Musk"