In 2003, the car market was a busy place.

Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, two electrical engineers, wanted to disrupt the industry with an electric car 🤯

A year later, Elon Musk led a $7.5 million financing round into Tesla which made him the largest shareholder of the company 🤑

Tesla's strategy was to start with a "cool" premium sports car aimed at early adopters and then move into more mainstream vehicles, including sedans and affordable compacts 🪄

In 2008, Tesla announced that Musk would take over as Chairman & CEO, after having invested over $70 million of his own money into the company through various funding rounds.

In 2009, they finally released the brand new Roadster sports car, which was an instant hit -- selling out quite quickly 🚗

In 2010, Tesla purchased and overhauled Toyota's old factory, and gained access to 1.5 miles of assembly lines 🏭

With this factory, they began producing their second car: the Model S!

In 2010, Tesla went public through an IPO -- raising $226 million ⚡️

But this was just the beginning for one of the most innovative, iconic companies in history.