A NIGHT WITH ELON MUSK, INSIGHTS FROM FRANK THELEN

Last December 1st 2020 in Berlin, took place on December 1, 2020 the Axel Springer Award. What is it ? Why was Elon Musk attending the Event ?

As mentioned on their press release : “ Elon Musk will be receiving the Axel Springer Award in person at the Axel Springer headquarters in Berlin. With the award, the media and technology company honors the inventive spirit and innovative power with which Elon Musk has revolutionized several industries. The ceremony themed “An Evening for Elon Musk – Mission to Mars” was specifically designed for the award winner and has been broadcasted live from 2pm ET (8pm CET) at https://go2.as/award.

INTERVIEW BY MARTIN GILLET – PICTURES BY FRANK THELEN

The “Mission to Mars” uses various multimedia elements to pay tribute to the work, vision and life of one of the most creative entrepreneurs and brilliant engineers of the digital age. The program will also include a Business Talk, in which Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, talks to Elon Musk about what drives and inspires him. The speech honoring the prize winner will be held by Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn.

Photo and video material from the evening will be made available at www.axelspringer.com”.

ABOUT THE AXEL SPRINGER AWARD

The Axel Springer Award honors outstanding personalities who are innovative in an extraordinary way, who create and change markets and who shape culture while at the same time shouldering their social responsibility. The award recognizes accomplishments so far and encourages further steps. At the same time, the award winners should be role models for others to bring their own ideas to fruition. The previous winners of the Axel Springer Award were Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook; Sir Tim Berners – Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web; Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post” and the economist and author Shoshana Zuboff. The format of the award ceremony is always tailored to the individual honoree. The Axel Springer Award is a prestige award without prize money. Further information about the Axel Springer Award is available axel-springer-award.com (Source Axel Springer Award).

During that fine evening, some fortunate guests were allowed to meetup with Elon Musk and get some ‘quality time’ with the Awardee. Among these lucky persons, was Frank Thelen. We reached out to him in order to get his insights and experience debrief on this Fantastic night and encounter.

Frank, nice meeting you, could you introduce yourself for our Supercharged readers ? Who are you and what do you do ?

Thanks for having me! I’m a serial founder and tech investor based in Germany and a former Shark (ABC-Show Shark Tank, broadcasted in Germany as “Die Höhle der Löwen”). With my privately-owned VC fund Freigeist Capital, I invest in European deep tech startups at an early stage. For example, we invested in Lilium Aviation, a leading Urban Air Mobility player, in 2016.

What are your interests ?

I am passionate about technology and the impact of exponential growth. I believe that in the next 10 years we will see more changes than in the past 100. Almost every industry is about to be disrupted by innovative technologies like AI, robotics, 3D-printing, just to name a few. Those technologies will not only make our lives easier and our industries more efficient, they will also make our world more sustainable. Technology is our biggest chance to save this planet.

What are your thoughts on the ‘rEVolution’ and the rise of Electromobitily ? Do you drive one yourself and/or have tested some ?

I think that we urgently need to shift to green mobility. We can not afford to burn fossil fuels that harm our planet any longer. I switched to e-mobility when the Model S came out in Germany and have been driving a Tesla ever since. I’m a big fan of Tesla and how they are pushing the complete car-industry towards e-mobility.

How did you get to meet Elon ? What was the occasion ?

Axel Springer hosted a special evening for Elon Musk, where he also received the Axel Springer Award.(Supercharged note : The Axel Springer Award honors outstanding personalities who are innovative in an extraordinary way, who create and change markets and who shape culture while at the same time shouldering their social responsibility. The award recognizes accomplishments so far and encourages further steps).

I was very lucky to be one of the few selected guests under the current circumstances.

(Supercharched note : COVID situation)

How did you break the ice ? Which subjects did you discuss ?

There was no need to break the ice. Elon is a very humble, authentic, down-to-earth guy. I talked to him about our startups. With Lilium Aviation we are building an electric VTOL-Jet, with Hardt a European Hyperloop, with EnduroSat nano satellites that SpaceX transports to orbit and with Kraftblock we are building large-scale energy storages. A lot of similar topics.

What did you learn ? What did you ask ?

I learned that he is not into productivity tools at all, which surprised me. I asked him how he manages his schedule and tasks and which tools he uses. As it turns out, he has one assistant covering all companies, he doesn’t use any tool or framework and doesn’t even take notes. I told him that I think this is inefficient, and he admitted that he could improve in this area.

Did you provide some courtesy local goodies ?

No, I wasn’t the host of the event, so it wasn’t my place to provide any goodies. He did get a personalized vinyl of the song he produced for Axel Springer.

What are your key takeaways from this encounter ? Do you feel energized ? Extra motivated ?

I was very inspired by how authentic, kind and real he was. The event left me energized and motivated to continue to support innovative startups that want to do something good for this planet because I truly believe that this is his key driver in all of his companies. I was a fan of Elon before this encounter, and I am an even bigger fan now.

What could your/our audience learn from this Leader ? Any lessons learned and/or room for inspiration ? Recommendations ?

The one thing anyone who wants to drive innovation should learn from Elon is first principles thinking. Elon doesn’t look at how things are done currently, he breaks challenges down to their fundamental, physical truths and works out new solutions based solely on those parameters. This thinking process will lead to many innovations in the upcoming years.

Any anecdotes ? Any other comments ?

Besides the business side, what really inspired and surprised me about Elon is how much he actually loves life and that even with his busy schedule, he can manage to slow down and enjoy a good meal, some good cheese and wine or a night with friends. That is another very important lesson to learn especially for young, motivated founders. It’s also an area in which I need to improve: enjoy life, and not worry too much about my companies and products.

Thank you very much for your insights and debrief Frank. We look forward to keeping the conversation open through social media and post COVID to host you during one of our Owners Club Event.

More information on Frank Thelen : https://frank.io/en/