Jason Calacanis moves up the Tesla delivery waiting line to #16, may give away car
The erstwhile and undisputed co-founder of Weblogs Inc. (parent of this here site), Jason Calacanis, revealed some time ago that he had placed an order for a Tesla Roadster. At the time he had missed out on the opportunity to purchase one of the first 100 Signature series cars. Those are the cars that come after the 25 Founders series cars. The buyers of the Signature series cars had to pay up in full in advance. Following Jason's recent opportunity to borrow Chairman Elon Musk's #1 Roadster, Jason evidently decided he couldn't wait until 2009. Fortunately for Jason, venture capitalist Ray Lane gave up his spot in the sequence since Lane's firm, Kleiner Perkins, is an investor in rival start up Fisker Automotive. Tesla offered Lane's slot to Calacanis, who obviously grabbed the opportunity. According to Tesla VP Darryl Siry, a couple of other signature series slots have changed hands including one that was recently snapped up by Matt Damon.
Calacanis is scheduled to get car #16 in the signature series which is #41 overall. According to Siry, the switchover to the new powertrain is now scheduled to occur at around car #38, so Jason's car should come properly equipped and shouldn't require an upgrade. Since departing from Weblogs Inc. Jason has also done some venture capital work with Sequioa Capital and started another new company called Mahalo. Mahalo is described as a human powered search engine that uses an editorial staff to create a directory of what they consider the best of the web. Once he does get his Roadster, Jason is considering actually giving it away on Mahalo as a promotion for the site. Stay tuned for more info on that.
[Source: Jason Calacanis]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Doug 11:20AM (6/21/2008)
Unlike Robert Farago, it looks like Sam actually understands the definition and usage of the word "erstwhile".
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EV-1 11:20AM (6/21/2008)
'Teslaism' . . . . a fetichism variety . . .
( Is there no cure ? )
( Getting oh so bored of all the harping on about that expensive icon )
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Joseph 12:59PM (6/21/2008)
On Tesla's blog about their Powertrain 1.5, they said,
"we are holding our initial schedule for production deployment [of powertrain 1.5] around vehicle #41 later this year"
I guess things are going well if they've reduced this to #38 instead.
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Doug 12:04PM (6/21/2008)
Did someone from Tesla actually tell Calacanis to expect _delivery_ "in another month to six weeks"? If so, that would represent a significant ramp in the production rate, given that Siry has said that #15 just entered the production line*. I wouldn't realistically expect this #15 to be delivered in six weeks, let alone #41. But if so, that's great.
*http://earth2tech.com/2008/06/19/tesla-update-former-ceos-crashed-car-ipo-plans-roadster-s/
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Doug 12:08PM (6/21/2008)
Did someone from Tesla actually tell Calacanis to expect _delivery_ "in another month to six weeks"? If so, that would represent a significant ramp in the production rate, given that Siry has said that #15 just entered the production line*. I wouldn't realistically expect this #15 to be delivered in six weeks, let alone #41. But if so, that's great.
*http://earth2tech.com/2008/06/19/tesla-update-former-ceos-crashed-car-ipo-plans-roadster-s/
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Doug 2:34PM (6/21/2008)
This comment system is kinda broken.
Joseph, it could just as easily mean that they are behind schedule with the production of gliders.
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dwf 9:55AM (6/23/2008)
I don't really care if some rich guy jumps the line to get his expensive toy sooner than expected considering the rest of us working stiffs are still paying much of our income on gas, and other rising prices resulting from high gas prices, while waiting on a practical electric car at an affordable price.
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Dustin 11:56AM (6/23/2008)
I agree with #7.
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Doug 7:06PM (6/23/2008)
Valley Wag: The Jason Calacanis inusufferability index to reach new heights with arrival of Tesla Roadster
http://valleywag.com/5018390/the-jason-calacanis-inusufferability-index-to-reach-new-heights-with-arrival-of-tesla-roadster
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