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Elon Musk’s Wealth Before Becoming a Billionaire
Before Elon Musk became a name synonymous with innovation and space exploration, he was just a scrappy entrepreneur chasing dreams with his brother Kimbal Musk. Their journey to billionaire status started with a small, yet significant, seed—a startup called Zip2.
The Birth of Zip2
In 1995, Elon and Kimbal co-founded Zip2, a software company that provided business directories and maps for newspapers. The idea was ambitious and ahead of its time, combining technology and traditional media at a moment when the internet was still a curiosity to many. But like most startups, Zip2 needed capital to get off the ground.
Their father, Errol Musk, reportedly chipped in $28,000 to help get things moving—a sum that was no small potatoes back then. To put this into perspective, most venture capital seed rounds of the era were measured in hundreds of thousands, not millions as they are today. While Elon later denied that this money came from his dad, the debate doesn't diminish the fact that the Musks built something impressive with limited resources.
