Elon Musk Started His Own Company After 'No Response' From Netscape

What led Elon Musk to start a company was, in his own words, a job rejection. In an interview with Y Combinator, Musk revealed that he initially tried to get a job at Netscape, a pioneering internet company, but received no response and decided to start his own company.

"I should point out that I didn't actually at first intend to start a company. I tried to get a job at Netscape…and I sent my resume into Netscape and Mark Andreessen (co-founder of Netscape) knows about this but I don't think he ever saw my resume and then nobody responded," Musk said.

"So then I tried hanging out in the lobby of Netscape to see if I could bump into someone, but I was too shy to talk to anyone. So I'm like, man, this is ridiculous. So I'll just write stuff for myself and see how it goes," he added.

Netspace was a Melbourne-based internet and fixed telephone services provider. It initially offered dial-up internet access but quickly transitioned to providing ADSL-based services, including Telstra ADSL and its own DSLAMs in certain regions.

The company catered to retail, small office/home office (SoHo), and business customers, offering services such as DNS, co-location, web hosting, and VoIP. Netspace was later acquired by iiNet for $40 million in 2010, and its brand was retired.

In 1995, Musk began his entrepreneurial journey by co-founding Zip2, a software company that provided business directories and maps for newspapers. This venture marked his first significant step into the tech world. Zip2 was eventually sold to Compaq for nearly $300 million in 1999.

Following the success of Zip2, Musk co-founded X.com, an online payment company, in 1999. X later became PayPal after a merger. In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in stock.

Musk's early experiences and ventures laid the foundation for his later achievements, including founding SpaceX and joining Tesla Motors.