// IN THE NEWS
#101 Tesla War Stories, Self-Driving at Waymo, and Building the Salesforce of BOM (Spencer Penn of LightSource)
Spencer Penn shares lessons from Tesla and Waymo, and discusses building the Salesforce equivalent for procurement.
Spencer Penn, co-founder and CEO of LightSource, joins Eric Jorgenson on the Smart Friends podcast to talk about his years at Tesla during the Model 3 ramp, leading product at Waymo, and why he left to build what he calls "the Salesforce of BOM" for procurement. Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
Topics
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:03:43) - Heroes and inspirations
(00:07:14) - The rise of Chinese electric vehicles
(00:12:13) - The Tesla experience
(00:31:04) - Tesla's rapid development and industry impact
(00:32:54) - The culture of speed and frugality at Tesla
(00:34:10) - Elon's leadership and pressure tactics
(00:37:22) - Transitioning from Tesla to Waymo
(00:39:43) - Waymo's organizational structure and challenges
(00:43:35) - The future of autonomous vehicles
(00:54:34) - Founding LightSource and addressing procurement issues
(01:00:23) - Conclusion and final thoughts
Quotes from Spencer
"It was the most fun I never want to have again." (Describing his time at Tesla during the Model 3 production ramp)
"The Model 3 seat feel is attuned directly to Elon's butt."
"I'm not an Elon fanboy, but I'm also not a critic. I'm an optimist."
"Speed wins. After seeing both Tesla and Waymo, that's my belief."
"We were the underdog. Eventually, it does end up feeling like you're on the winning team."
"You couldn't go into a meeting with Elon and show up empty-handed."
"This opportunity we're pursuing at LightSource should have disappeared 20 years ago."
"ERP is the finance system of record. What's Salesforce in reverse? That's LightSource."
"The thing that surprised me: every company still runs procurement on spreadsheets and email."
"Tesla built their own ERP system from scratch. That's not normal."
"There are things that are just core to the P&L of every business… and yet completely orphaned in the tech stack."
Links
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