Nikola Founder Trevor Milton on competing with Tesla, going public pre-revenue & more | E1090

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0:00 Start

0:59 Jason intros Nikola’s Trevor Milton & talks about how Nikola ties in many trending topics in tech/business: SPACs, Robinhood investors & renewable energy

3:25 How WeWork’s downfall propelled Nikola to go public & what problem are they solving?

7:12 Proper balance of founder authority, how WeWork & Facebook relate, why Nikola wanted to allow retail investors to come in early

10:52 Hardest part of being a public company so far?

14:59 Why focus on hydrogen instead of battery in their trucks?

22:04 Nikola’s business model, why hydrogen hasn’t taken off yet

26:10 How & why are trucking companies phasing out Diesel?

30:03 When will they know if hydrogen works, why Nikola’s builds through OEMs

34:08 Competing against Tesla, OEMs vs. self-manufacturing, what Nikola’s 400+ employees are focused on, outsourcing self-driving

39:14 Why he chose the name Nikola

44:42 Building up their war chest of cash, going into the consumer pickup truck market

50:28 Building & selling their own batteries

53:21 What should Elon/Tesla be focusing on?

55:02 Trevor’s background, why he chose the SPAC route to go public as a pre-revenue company

1:07:00 What does Nikola need to prove in 2020 to change the doubters’ minds?