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Elon Musk’s Boring Company aims to build a network of road tunnels under major cities.
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The president, Steve Davis, has a suitably whimsical background, revealed in a Bloomberg profile.
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Davis reportedly slept at Twitter HQ with his wife and baby after Elon Musk sought his help.
The Boring Company CEO Steve Davis slept at Twitter headquarters after Elon Musk asked him for help following his takeover, The Information reported.
Davis spent the first few weeks after his baby was born sleeping in a makeshift bedroom in Twitter’s San Francisco office with his partner. The outlet reported that he worked for Twitter for two months after Musk asked for his help.
Musk also owns The Boring Company, which has developed a reputation for unusual stunts. While its core business is focused on digging a network of tunnels for Tesla cars under major US cities, the company has also turned its attention to selling flamethrowers and building a Monty Python-style watchtower.
As it turns out, Davis has a history of wacky gimmicks throughout his career, detailed in a 2019 profile by Bloomberg reporter Sarah McBride (the profile builds on reporting from Ashlee Vance’s book on Elon Musk).
Davis was chosen by Musk to lead Boring, perhaps in part because of his colorful background. Before joining Musk, Davis founded a frozen yogurt shop and a bar that accepts bitcoin, among other things.
Boring Company has drawn criticism, especially in Chicago and Las Vegas, where it sought to build its first tunnels. The first project is a 1.7-mile tunnel under the Las Vegas Convention Center that will carry passengers in Teslas.
Here are some of the most notable details from Davis’ pre-boring life.
The Boring Company CEO slept at Twitter headquarters with his partner and newborn baby after Musk took over the social media platform in late October, The Information reported.
Source: The Information.
Musk tested Davis’s engineering skills by challenging him to make a $120,000 part on a $5,000 budget. After months of work, Davis emailed Musk that he did this with just $3,900 and Musk replied with one word, “Okay.”
The anecdote was mentioned in Ashlee Vance’s book, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.
Living in Washington DC and working for SpaceX, Davis missed California style frozen yogurt, so he taught himself to make it “by trial and error” and opened his own yogurt shop, “Mr. Yogato”.
Source: Bloomberg
Mr. Yogato offered discounts to customers who could answer trivia questions, or ask “Seinfeld” trivia questions that Davis couldn’t answer. Customers also received a discount if they dressed up as tennis player Bjorn Borg.
The “Rules of Yogato” are described in detail on Mr. Yogato.
Davis eventually held a Willy Wonka-style contest to find the new owner of Mr. Yogato and sold it to the new owner for $1.
Source: The Washingtonian
Davis founded Mr. Yogato trained and trained him while simultaneously pursuing his Ph.D. economics from George Mason University. The focus of his dissertation was the devaluation of the US currency.
Source: Bloomberg
After completing his doctorate, Davis opened a bar in DC called Thomas Foolery, one of the first establishments in the city to accept bitcoin payments.
Source: Washington City Paper
Thomas Foolery offered “gimmick after gimmick,” according to the Washington Post. The bar offered “angry hour,” at which customers could get a discount for yelling their drink order. Visitors to the bar could also get discounts for things like dancing “the Carlton,” a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” move.
Source: The Washington Post, Thrillist
Davis is reportedly a devoted fan of Ayn Rand and quoted “Atlas Shrugged” at public events. He was also an extra in a 2012 movie “Atlas Shrugged”.
Source: Mother Jones
Musk has selected Davis to run Boring Company. At an event announcing the company’s tunnel plans, Davis joked that they would use bricks made from excavated earth to build a pyramid in Musk’s honor.
Source: Bloomberg
Read the original article on Business Insider
