I bought Tesla at its $17 IPO while standing on a mountain cross on Catalina Island, a desperate move that turned into a $2.4 million fortune by late 2025. My son and I were on a Boy Scout camping trip when I realized I had zero phone signal and needed to place my order before markets opened. I hiked uphill until I found a spot where a cross marked the peak, finally got one bar, and frantically tapped the buy button on my brokerage app.
This story was shared in the comments on Herbert Ong’s YouTube video, where early investors swapped tales of life-changing returns. Back then, the company priced its initial offering at exactly $17 per share, raising $226 million in the first U.S. automaker IPO in decades.
Fifteen years later, this commenter’s original stake has ballooned by over 38,000% thanks to two stock splits and relentless execution by Elon Musk’s team.
I was an automotive engineer before switching to aerospace, where I competed directly against SpaceX from its earliest days.
Watching Elon Musk operate up close convinced me that electric vehicles were not a fad but the inevitable future of transportation. My first EV was a 2000 Ford Ranger Electric, a clunky proof-of-concept that showed me batteries and motors could replace internal combustion.
When Tesla filed for its IPO, I recognized the same relentless engineering culture I had seen at SpaceX, only applied to mass-market cars. According to CNBC, a $10,000 investment at the IPO price would be worth nearly $3 million today, a return that mirrors my own experience almost exactly. I never imagined the company would also become an AI robotics powerhouse; I just believed in the mission to accelerate sustainable energy.
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Since that IPO purchase, I have owned 16 different electric vehicles, seven of which were Teslas, and my current favorite is the Cybertruck. I jumped on Tesla’s solar offering immediately after the SolarCity acquisition in 2016, installing panels the moment the deal closed. When the first Powerwall launched in 2015, I pre-ordered and have upgraded with each new generation, creating a fully integrated home energy system.
Every Tesla in my driveway runs Full Self Driving, a feature that has evolved from a gimmick into a genuinely useful autonomy suite. According to Car and Driver, Cybertruck deliveries began in November 2023 after years of delays, and the truck’s polarizing design has grown on me as the most capable EV I’ve ever driven. My garage now looks like a Tesla showroom, with solar panels overhead, Powerwalls on the wall, and a Cybertruck plugged into a Wall Connector.
