Welcome to XSLA Ventures

Author

Kendrick Lau
September 16, 2024

In This Article...

Introduction

Hi everyone, I’m excited to kick off the first XSLA Ventures newsletter. Here’s what we’re focused on:

  • Highlighting ex-Tesla founders and their companies.

  • Securing pre-seed/seed round investments for the growing ex-Tesla community.

    • These deals will be communicated explicitly and separately

This network includes former Tesla employees at all levels, ranging from junior ICs to Execs from various departments — Firmware, Hardware, Supply Chain, Autopilot, and Manufacturing — so we have a deep well of expertise to draw from.

After personally speaking with many of you, the one thing we all have in common is that everyone is eager to help with technical, sourcing, or industry-related contributions for those in the early stages of launching a startup.

I’m looking forward to staying connected and keeping this momentum going.

Tesla Alumni Start-Ups

atopile

I had the opportunity to attend atopile’s office warming in San Francisco last month. (Check out the awesome office rooftop picture below!)

Their product, team, and mission are incredibly exciting and I can’t wait to use their tools for my own electrical hardware projects.

From The Founders:

Matthew Wildoer (Energy ‘23) & Narayan Powderly (EE Hardware ‘23)

atopile is a new language for designing electronic circuit boards with code. We replace point-and-click graphical interfaces with code to bring software-level automation and reuse to the field of hardware design. We're an open-core company, so ato is free on GitHub. https://github.com/atopile/atopile

Upcoming major features include ERCs, schematic generation, and some auto-routing capabilities. Happy hardware, everyone!

- Matt

atopile’s office warming party - San Francisco

SpeedBeam

SpeedBeam has officially come out of stealth this past week, launching an innovative data collection device for speed measurement!

This is an obvious next-step and a much-needed advancement in automotive tools, addressing the frustrations I think we all know too well.

From the Founder:

Tim Battle (Chassis Controls ‘23)

Everyone who worked at Tesla had a moment where they thought 'wait, why isn't everyone doing it this way already'? For myself and many ex-Tesla people, the next step is bring those common sense innovations to our broader industries. SpeedBeam is a manifestation of that vision; to make data collection not suck!

- Tim

SpeedBeam 4L - Full measurement suite in one device

Job Board

If you or your company is hiring, send your job postings to [email protected] to be featured.

Private Investing Resources

A few years ago, I got into private investing almost by accident. I was browsing for new podcasts when I stumbled upon one that immediately caught my attention:

Hosted by Jason Calacanis, a well-known venture capitalist, this podcast led me into the Bay Area’s tech scene outside of Tesla. Calacanis is most famous for his early investment in Uber. His podcast features interviews with founders, investors, and other big names in the start-up tech space.

I followed up by reading his book:

The book breaks down the basics of angel investing and offers a firsthand look at how the startup world operates from an investor’s perspective. If you’re curious about this space or just want to know how to get started with private investing, this book is a must-read.

If you’re looking to:

  • connect with founders or companies

  • tap into the network for technical expertise

  • raise capital for your start-up

  • highlight your company in the next newsletter

reach out to me at [email protected].