Tesla Early Sale Regret

A story about how Shaan Puri missed out on a massive Tesla investment return by letting critics influence his conviction.

"I bought Tesla stock very early on, under $100 a share. If you adjust for the splits, it's now over $5,000 a share. I would have made about $5 million on that stock buy if I just held.

I didn't sell because I wanted to take profits - I got spooked by critics, particularly a group called 'Tesla Q.' They claimed there was fraud and deception, saying the fundamentals didn't make sense and Tesla would go to zero. They showed drone footage of parking lots full of Teslas, questioning if they were faking deliveries. They pointed out strange things like Tesla going through 25 CFOs.

I was reading all this because I always want to know what people who disagree with me say. Then Josh Wolf, a very smart, successful VC - not just some anonymous Twitter account - started consistently criticizing Tesla for a year. I thought: what would I regret more - selling now and taking profit, or ignoring all these mounting warning signs?

I ended up selling, and I was wrong. Tesla became a $600 billion company - I had bought it at around a $6 billion valuation. I missed out on a 50 to 100x return. Looking back, I think there was some truth to the critics' concerns - Tesla nearly did go bankrupt during their production ramp-up - but they ultimately succeeded despite the skepticism."