Astral Codex Ten

Zip2

3 min read

Zip2

Article

Zip2 is a recurring organization in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between September 13, 2023 and September 18, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “employees [of Zip2, his first startup]”; “Musk asked those first employees of Zip2 to give him a kick when they arrived”; “Elon started his first startup, Zip2, together with his brother Kimball”. It most often appears alongside Ashlee Vance, Boeing, Elon.

Metadata

  • Category: Organizations
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: September 13, 2023
  • Last seen: September 18, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Book Review: Elon Musk
September 13, 2023 · Original source
As a bonding exercise one weekend, Musk, Ambras, a few other employees [of Zip2, his first startup] and friends took off for a bike ride through the Saratoga Gap trail in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Most of the riders had been training and were accustomed to strenuous sessions and the summer’s heat. They set up the mountains at a furious pace. After an hour, Russ Rive, Musk’s cousin, reached the top and proceeded to vomit. Right behind him were the rest of the cyclists. Then, fifteen minutes later, Musk became visible to the group. His face had turned purple, and sweat poured out of him, and he made it to the top. “I always think back to that ride. He wasn’t close to being in the condition needed for it,” Ambras said. “Anyone else would have quit or walked up their bike. As I watched him climb that final hundred feet with suffering all over his face, I thought, That’s Elon. Do or die but don’t give up.”
Musk never seemed to leave the office. He slept, not unlike a dog, on a beanbag next to his desk. “Almost every day, I’d come in at seven thirty or eight a.m., and he’d be asleep right there on that bag,” Heilman said. “Maybe he showered on the weekends. I don’t know.” Musk asked those first employees of Zip2 to give him a kick when they arrived, and he’d wake up and get back to work.
Highlights From The Comments On Elon Musk
September 18, 2023 · Original source
Elon started his first startup, Zip2, together with his brother Kimball. But I don’t get the impression Kimball was much of a moderating influence on Musk; if anything, they were too similar. Here’s what Vance had to say about their relationship: