Or should it be called the Tesla Index?

In the book The Rainforest that I am currently reading, the authors write about Role Models that “a common phenomenon of university-based startup companies in the United States is what is sometimes jokingly called the Porsche principle. This principle holds that one of the greatest motivators for professors or graduate students on campus to start new companies is when one of their colleagues drives up in a new Porsche after selling their startup. Confidence is contagious”. [Page 210]

It reminds me a famous quote by Tom Perkins: “The difference is in psychology: everybody in Silicon Valley knows somebody that is doing very well in high-tech small companies, start-ups; so they say to themselves “I am smarter than Joe. If he could make millions, I can make a billion”. So they do and they think they will succeed and by thinking they can succeed, they have a good shot at succeeding. That psychology does not exist so much elsewhere.”

I’ve seen it in Europe too, but to be honest, today, at EPFL and probably elsewhere, I would call it the Tesla principle… or Tesla Index. I biked quickly on campus today and here is what I found, although I know of at least 4-5 Teslas close-by… Could this become the equivalent for Innovation to the Impact Factor in Research?!!!Don’t take all this too seriously. Launching a start-up is not motivated by money. It is mostly about passion…

And two more on June 13, 2017…

and June 15, 2017

EPFL’s Tesla Index on June 15, 2017 is larger than 3…