What is Jack Dorsey Doing Running Both Twitter and Square?

Jack Dorsey is now working "200%" at two full-time jobs running Twitter and Square. He's naive if he thinks trying to do it all won't have negative consequences for both companies down the road.

Read my full post at Forbes.

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Video: Tesla Unveils its Model S at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show

DETROIT (TheStreet) --Eric Jackson reports that Tesla showed off its alpha version and frame of its first sedan: the Model S. They gave more details on the vehicle's specs and reaffirmed that they'll start selling it by mid-2012. Eric owns TSLA.

Thu 01/13/11 07:30 AM EST -- Eric Jackson

Stocks in this video: TSLA

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Tesla Motors: Can It Deliver?

By Eric Jackson, Senior Contributor10/06/10 - 08:40 AM EDT

Stock quotes in this article:TSLA, DDAIF, TM

Tesla Motors(TSLA_) went public last June in one of the few IPOs of the year.

It had the support of high-profile underwritersGoldman Sachs(GS_), Morgan Stanley(MS_),JP Morgan(JPM_), and Deutsche Bank(DB_), as well as many well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

It priced at $17, the top end of its range, and soared 41% on its first day of trading. It's still trading over 24% above its IPO price three months later.

The company has done a great job of funding themselves. Its IPO raised $250 million. It also received a $465 million loan from a Department of Energy (DOE). But they need it. Since inception, Tesla has lost $300 million.

There are generally two types of Tesla investors: ones of love the company and ones who hate it. Tesla bulls point to electric cars being the future and Tesla sporting the biggest brand within that space.

They are most excited about Tesla's planned second car -- the Model S sedan which is scheduled to ship in 2012. They argue that Tesla doesn't have to sell many units to make a lot of money. They also proudly point out that Tesla has struck important partnerships withDaimler(DDAIF_) and Toyota(TM_).

Tesla bears point to how Tesla keeps losing money, how further capital needs for the company are under-estimated, and the upcoming IPO lock-up expiration in December as a potential weight on the stock price. Flashy Tesla CEO Elon Musk has also a lightning rod for criticism.

I have a short position in Tesla owing to the reasons cited above and what I perceive of as poor corporate governance structures in place for a public company.

I spoke last month to Eric Noble and Mike Dovorany of The CarLab, an Orange, CA-based auto consultancy. They have recently expressed publicly critical comments about Tesla's currently planned Model S. Here's an excerpt from the interview:

Jackson: You've said publicly that it will take Tesla $1 billion to develop the Model S.

Noble: We believe that it would take an OEM (e.g., Toyota, GM) $500 million to $700 million to design a new car. That's conservative. For a new company like Tesla doing the Model S as it's been most recently shown, we think they will need $1 billion -- but that's before ER&D on the alternative power train (where the electric battery is).

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[** This post is an excerpt of the full article, which is available on TheStreet.com by clicking here. Free Site.**]

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Why Tesla Is the Next Webvan

By Eric Jackson08/18/10 - 06:59 AM EDT

Every 10 years ago, the smart folks in Silicon Valley select some inefficient industry that is run by dummies which they are going to set straight and end up revolutionizing. Ten years ago, there were smart entrepreneurs (with Internet backgrounds) with even smarter venture capitalists behind them who started a company called Webvan designed to revolutionize buying groceries. People would no longer go to a bricks-and-mortar store, they said, they'd buy all their groceries online.

After raising hundreds of millions of dollars and going public, Webvan failed. The smart Web entrepreneursoverlooked some basics about running a grocery business -- online or offline -- like needing to have big expensive distribution centers. Maybe if they'd had some grocery execs in the fold (on the management team or board) they might have thought of that "key success factor" for operating in that industry. But before their failure, if you'd asked them about bringing in some industry talent, their response had been: we're trying to recreate this industry so we don't want to tie ourselves down to the old ideas that have failed.

Ah, how important it is to balance "fresh eyes" to look at industry challenges anew with "gray hair" wisdom that can tell you which potholes to avoid stepping into.

In Silicon Valley, with lots of money, ego, and talent, you can will a lot of companies into reality -- especially if they are able to capture some exciting buzz. However, success breeds lots of arrogance. Webvan was Exhibit A of how that arrogance can result in a high-profile failure.

There's another Webvan-like company that just went public a few weeks ago and is heading for the same kind of ignominious failure by the end of 2012: Tesla Motors (TSLA).

Tesla shares many similar characteristics with Webvan. The company was founded in 2003 with the view of providing the world's leading electric cars. You could argue that they've been losing money ever since. The company is set on revolutionizing the auto industry.

By 2004, they needed cash and found Elon Musk, a PayPal co-founder with cash in his jeans since eBay(EBAY) acquired it. Musk, 39, is now Chairman, CEO, and Product Architect of Tesla. He has an explicit employment contract which will keep him in that role until the end of 2012.

The company -- thanks to Musk's involvement, his worthwhile mission of creating non-fossil fuel powered cars, and the pixie dust he brought of his past PayPal success -- found it easy to raise money in Silicon Valley. They attracted investments from Google(GOOG) co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll and a host of well-know VC firms. Most people are familiar with its racy Roadster -- currently Tesla's only car with a list price of over $100,000.

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[** This post is an excerpt of the full article, which is available on TheStreet.com by clicking here. Free Site.**]

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