Google GOOG and Fidelity will collectively own just under 10% of SpaceX, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

SpaceX said the funding will help it continue research in space transport, reusability, and satellite manufacturing.

Google and Fidelity join existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Founders Fund, Valor Equity Partners and Capricorn.

Google has already a presence in the aerospace sector following a few high-profile acquisitions last year, including that of satellite company, Skybox Imaging for $500 million in June.

The announcement from SpaceX comes on the same day that Planet Labs, a San Francisco-based private satellite operator founded by former NASA scientists, said it raised $95 million to help build its business of selling satellite images and data to customers.

SpaceX backer Draper Fisher Jurvetson also participated in Planet Labs’ latest equity round.

"If you are fighting a battle, it's way better if you are at the front lines," Musk told the Wall Street Journal, describing himself not as a mere micromanager but as something far more intense--a "nano-manager."

Indeed, Musk makes no apologies for what the Journal described as "a hands-on obsession with the tiniest operational and car-design details at Tesla." It's safe to say that his domineering style doesn't differ at SpaceX, the rocket company he founded and runs.

Musk is the envy of many--and why not? He's a billionaire. He was married (twice) to a beautiful actress. He has plans to visit Mars someday. He nonchalantly tosses around the word "Hyperloop." Heck, he's the model for Tony Stark, the swashbuckling genius played by Robert Downey Jr. in the "Iron Man" films.

But before legions of executives start trying to be nano-managers, here's a note of caution: This is a terrible way to get the most out of your people.

Workers perform best when they're in what Paul Zak, my colleague at Claremont Graduate University, describes as a "high-trust environment." By looking at some 5,000 employees at about 50 companies, Zak and his team at the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies have found that those in high-trust situations are 19% more productive than those in low-trust workplaces. One crucial aspect of being in a high-trust setting, Zak explains, is having "the freedom to take on projects the way you choose to."

When people's autonomy in the workplace is sharply curtailed, they feel as if they've lost control--and, in turn, their brains react as if they're being threatened. That raises their level of stress, which often causes them to perform poorly. "Feeling in control, even if it's an illusion, is key to … cognitive ability staying intact," Amy Arnsten, a professor of neurobiology and psychology at Yale, has pointed out.

Great managers have always known the trouble with dictating to employees. Successfully motivating employees "involves teaching rather than telling," William B. Given Jr., the president of American Brake Shoe Co., wrote in his 1949 classic Bottom-Up Management.

This dynamic is especially important in today's fast-moving world, when organizations need everyone, from top to bottom, to continually come up with fresh ideas. "The tighter the controls you enforce, the lower the innovation," says F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, a business professor at Notre Dame. In a 2011 study, he and two colleagues studied casino workers under different degrees of management oversight. Their conclusion: "Employees in 'tightly monitored' business units face strong implicit incentives to experiment less by deviating less often from explicit decision guidelines." As a consequence, they "have fewer opportunities to learn" new ways to serve their customers.

There are, of course, instances where a by-the-book culture is appropriate. Tasks in which safety is a paramount concern may demand a tighter leash, for example. Managing during a crisis may also require a heavier hand.

More generally, all employees need direction. The antidote to micromanagement is not to abdicate all management and disappear. Rather, the ideal is to offer employees what former Gucci Group CEO Robert Polet liked to call "freedom within the framework."

The best leaders set "extremely high standards when it comes to things like the customer experience and the design of the product," says Chris Yeh, general partner at Wasabi Ventures and co-author with LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha of The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age. "They provide detailed coaching and actionable feedback."

Jim Harter, Gallup's chief scientist for Workplace Management and Well-Being, agrees. His research shows that employees are most engaged when it's been made clear to them what outcomes they're responsible for--and are then put in an optimal position to use their strengths to achieve those results.

The trick is to not push it too far--to not "over-manage," as Harter puts it. The Journal reported that at Tesla, "some high-level managers quit or were fired after clashing with the chief executive over Mr. Musk's insistence on doing things his way." This jibes with Zak's studies: High-trust companies, he says, boast 70% greater job satisfaction and 69% higher job retention than low-trust ones.

In the end, a manager's role is to find that sweet spot between Iron Man and Invisible Woman.

Rick Wartzman is the executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University. Author or editor of five books, he is currently writing a narrative history of how the social contract between employer and employee in America has changed since the end of World War II.

Learn more about the latest Tesla news from Fortune’s video team:

After the Dow dropped 331 points Monday, chalking up its worst day in three months, U.S. stock futures have been relatively quiet this morning. European and Asian markets haven’t been so lucky though, and Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index fell 3% overnight as global markets continued to react to oil’s slump below $50 per barrel to levels not seen since April 2009. Oil prices are still sliding this morning, at one stage sinking below the $49 level.

Elsewhere, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in full swing today in Las Vegas, with a number of tech announcements expected. On Monday, Mercedes unveiled what looks like a lounge on four wheels.

Here's what else you need to know about today.

1. Congress convenes.

The 114th session of Congress kicks off today. Republicans have control of both the House and the Senate for the next two years, the first time the party has held dual majorities since 2007. New Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell aims to prioritize the Keystone XL pipeline approval, a long-time goal for Republicans. The Speaker of the House will be voted on today, and John Boehner is likely to be re-elected to the post. Also on the agenda for the new session: confirmations of U.S. attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch and defense secretary nominee Ashton Carter.

For more, read Tory Newmyer's handy business guide to Washington.

2. Coach walks off with Stuart Weitzman.

In a move designed to further diversify the handbag maker's sales, Coach has agreed to pay as much as $574 million to buy women's footwear maker Stuart Weitzman, scooping up the asset from Sycamore Partners. Under the terms of the deal, Coach will pay about $530 million in cash for the footwear company, with up to $44 million in future payments due to Sycamore Partners if certain revenue targets are achieved over the three years following the close of the acquisition.

3. Verizon could be eyeing up AOL.

The telecom giant has made overtures towards AOL, hoping to discuss a possible purchase, or a joint venture, according to reports. AOL AOL owns a range of media properties, including Huffington Post and TechCrunch, but Verizon VZ is most interested in the online company’s automated digital advertising platforms, according to Bloomberg. Interestingly, Saturday marks the 15th anniversary of the $186 billion AOL-Time Warner merger announcement -- the largest merger of all time that was ultimately unsuccessful.

4. Sony chief finally comments on hacking.

Sony SNE CEO Kazuo Hirai has condemned the Sony Pictures hack, calling it “one of the most vicious and malicious cyber attacks that we have known.” His comments came during a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and they mark the first time Hirai has spoken publicly on November’s attack. The CEO credited Sony Pictures employees for working “literally 24 hours a day, sometimes for days on end” to release The Interview online following threats of violence if movie theaters screened the film.

5. SpaceX launch scratched again.

SpaceX, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, once again delayed its fifth supply mission to the International Space Station. The launch was delayed last month following technical concerns, and it was set for another go Tuesday morning, but was halted with just one minute remaining in the countdown. No explanation was immediately given for the launch abort. The company is attempting to land its 13-story rocket booster on an ocean barge. If successful, Musk could transform the space travel industry, making launches more affordable by reusing the $54 million booster.

That’s what Musk -- the billionaire founder of Tesla Motors TSLA and private aerospace company SpaceX -- hopes to do Tuesday morning. If the test is successful the company says it could pave the way for more efficient, reusable rockets that would dramatically reduce the cost of space travel.

At about 6:20 a.m. EST tomorrow morning, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will carry its Dragon cargo spacecraft skyward before detaching to allow the payload to continue on its supply mission to the International Space Station. Generally, this is a one-time trip for space rockets, which means a company like SpaceX must pay millions of dollars – $54 million, according to Quartz – for a huge missile that it can only use once.

Space X says that it would make much more sense to treat rockets like commercial airliners, which also cost millions of dollars each to make but are able to “conduct tens of thousands of flights over [a] lifetime.”

“If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred,” Musk said on SpaceX’s website.

To pull it off, SpaceX plans to land the Falcon 9 rocket safely on a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean. At 300 feet by 100 feet, the barge is a small target for the rocket, which is 14 stories tall and will initially be traveling at 1300 meters per second. SpaceX has engineered the rocket to feature retro-propulsion jets to help gradually slow its descent until touchdown on the floating barge.

The rocket will also have small steering fins and landing legs to help reach its target safely. Both the spaceflight and the barge will be unmanned.

Musk tweeted on Monday afternoon that the barge was making its way to its position in the Atlantic Ocean:

Musk’s company says it has already successfully engineered two soft landings in the ocean after previous rocket launches, though the CEO told The New York Times that, in both instances, the rockets fell sideways and exploded after briefly hovering over the water.

SpaceX is aware that a successful rocket-landing tomorrow is unlikely (it puts the odds at about 50-50). But the company hopes to gather data that will help make one of a dozen planned launches over the next year a bull’s eye.

“Given what we know today, we believe it is quite likely that with one of those flights we will not only be able to land a Falcon 9 first stage, but also re-fly,” SpaceX said on its website.

Last summer, Fortune wrote about how SpaceX -- which had recently quashed rumors of its own $10 billion valuation -- was challenging its rivals in the private space industry with markedly lower prices for its space launch services. Should the company succeed in its goal of reusing expensive rockets, SpaceX would likely enjoy an even greater pricing advantage over some of its rivals.

(You can watch the launch live, via webcast.)

Happy New Year! All of us here at Fortune hope your 2014 was great and that your 2015 will be even better.

Wall Street looks set to start 2015 on a high note, with stock index futures pointing to a higher open. The S&P 500 index, a broad market gauge, saw its third-straight year of double-digit gains in 2014, the longest positive streak for the index since a five-year run between 1995 and 1999.

Here’s what else you need to know about this morning.

1. Piketty turns down award

Thomas Piketty was certainly a divisive figure in 2014 -- progressives raved about his take on economic inequality, while conservatives pointed out what they believed were flaws in his data. He’s keeping the controversy train rolling in 2015, refusing the Legion d'Honneur, the highest award given by the French government. Not sure if Piketty has another 500+ page tome in him this year, but he certainly seems to be one for making headlines. According to the BBC, Piketty is part of a proud tradition of turning down the award: Jean-Paul Sartre and Pierre and Marie Curie had no time for it either.

2. Snapchat rakes it in

The photo messaging company run by Evan Spiegel brought in around $486 million in a recent round of funding, according to an SEC filing. According to Bloomberg, the new round of funding values Snapchat at $10 billion. The company has attracted a ton of users and press, but has also faced serious privacy questions. This latest infusion could be a sign that, despite the problems, investors think there remains serious promise in the Silicon Valley company.

3. Manufacturing in focus

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing report for December, due out at 10 a.m. ET, is today's main economic event. Economists expect a reading of 57.5, down from November's 58.7 reading, when the index grew for the 18th consecutive month. The report should give some indication of how the economy was faring late last year.

4. Hyundai, Kia see slower sales growth

Korean carmaker Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Motors expect their weakest sales growth in more than a decade this year, as they struggle to compete with Japanese rivals benefiting from a weaker yen, The Wall Street Journal reports. The two South Korean automakers predicted a combined 2.5% increase in global sales to 8.2 million vehicles in 2015, the Journal said.

5. Elon Musk is divorcing his wife … again

Lots of people get divorced. Many even get divorced multiple times. Not too many can say they’re part of the club Tesla TSLA and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is joining, though -- divorcing the same person twice. Musk is getting divorced from his wife, actress Talulah Riley, less than two years after they remarried. Musk and Riley originally divorced in 2012.

--Reuters contributed to this report.

The company’s shares TSLA rose 2.8% to $228.44 in late afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.

Tesla will demonstrate the enhanced range for the new Roadster in a drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the early weeks of 2015, the company said in a blog post.

The current Roadsters can travel up to about 245 miles on a single charge.

Tesla had discontinued the production of Roadster, its first car, three years ago to focus on its ‘Model S’ sedan.

The company launched the Roadster in 2008 and sold about 2,500 units until January 2012.

Tesla’s announcement hints at plans to use more advanced battery packs in Model S sedans and the upcoming sports utility vehicle ‘Model X’ and the smaller ‘Model 3′ car, Stifel Nicolaus and Co analyst James Albertine wrote in a note.

Tesla is expected to launch the Model X in 2015 and the Model 3 in 2017.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow, ENTREPRENEUR

Imagine shooting like a bullet from San Francisco to Los Angeles in only 30 minutes, zipping at just below the speed of sound through a steel vacuum tube, strapped into a spacey aluminum pod. Buh-bye traffic. Hello, Hyperloop.

Yes, that Hyperloop - the crazy one Elon Musk proposed as the "fifth mode of transport" back in August 2013 but had no time to realize. (The former PayPal Mafia member was too busy sweating artificial intelligence and making history at the helm of SpaceX and Tesla. Give the guy a break.)

Now, thanks to 100 of some of the world's smartest engineers and designers, Musk's Jetson-esque Hyperloop vision isn't forever on the backburner. The dream team is now officially clocking hours for Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. [HTT], a unique JumpStartFund collaborative that formed back in September. Its express mission is to rise to the challenge laid out in Musk's 57-page Hyperloop whitepaper.

The company yesterday released several documents detailing its ambitious plans moving forward. On top of needing to raise an estimated $16 billion to bring a commercially viable operation to fruition, the brains at HTT certainly have their work cut out for them. There are plenty of tricky physics, funding, construction and legal roadblocks assured ahead.

Still, HTT CEO Dirk Ahlborn says the high-speed, solar-powered transport could become a reality in the next decade or so. If you regularly brave the almost 400-mile drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles — and a lot of commuters do — that's not soon enough. The Hyperloop could get you there just below the speed of sound, at a brisk 760 mph, in length of a typical yoga class, in theory at least. And it won't be terribly expensive. It's expected to cost around only $30 per quick trip.

An L.A.-to-SanFran Hyperloop trip isn't likely geographically and politically feasible, though, so HTT engineers are looking into alternate routes. Vegas, anyone? Los Angeles to Sin City might be a more attractive first route. Wherever the Hyperloop eventually debuts, yes, please, sign us up for a first ride.

One prominent alternative fuel manufacturer, however, has been more reticent. Tesla Motors TSLA , the Silicon Valley maker of battery-powered electric cars, is not revealing any plans about what it plans to display at the show and has not requested a slot at the show for a formal news conference.

Tesla's silence has created a news vacuum that bloggers have been anxious to fill with speculation about the company and its plans for future models. "Tesla Model X To Be Unveiled At 2015 NAIAS?" asked the website Inside EVs, while EV World guessed "40K Tesla Electric Car Debut Possible at 2015 NAIAS."

This isn't idle car talk. Both Model X and Model III are critical to Tesla's future success and its ability to support its stock price. Goldman Sachs, for instance, has warned that if a production version of the Model X SUV doesn't debut at the show, it will consider the project, which was due to go on sale at the end of year, delayed once again, denting revenue projections. As for the Model III, it has been pitched as an affordable $40,000 car aimed at the mainstream market and thus high volume. That makes it the linchpin of CEO Elon Musk's ambitious growth plans.

Seeing an opening, short sellers of Tesla stock are taking advantage. They assume the worst and figure Tesla doesn't want to expose itself at the show to any embarrassing questions. "I interpret this to mean the December quarter is extremely back-end loaded and therefore likely on the weak side," wrote Anton Wahlman on Seeking Alpha. He predicted that if Tesla does miss the quarter and report lower than expected sales, "the stock would likely plummet."

The stock has already taken quite a hit. In one month's time, Tesla's stock price has collapsed from $259 to the low-$200 range. Oddly, lower gas prices aren't seen as a factor, since buyers of the $80,000 Model S are hardly penny pinchers. Bargain hunters aren't nosing around yet. The company still operates at a loss and is selling for 70 times forecast 2015 earnings.

At the same time, Tesla is getting pressure from competitors who are upping their game. Even the struggling Chevy Volt GM gets an upgrade for its 2016 model. CEO Mary Barra is promising that it will be more efficient and go further faster than the current model. The EV range, which grew from 35 to 38 miles in 2013, is likely to be pushed to about 40 miles.

Far more consequential is the renewed interest among automakers in fuel cells as an alternative to battery electric power and as a successor to the internal combustion engine. And among the manufacturers rushing to bring fuel cell cars to market, the 800-pound gorilla in the room is Toyota.

Along with Honda, Toyota has long been a leader in alternative fuel technologies, beginning with its introduction of the gas-electric hybrid Prius. Now 20 years old, the Prius has been so successful that several variants have been created and it’s being treated as a sub-brand within Toyota. In covering the auto industry for 38 years, one of my rules has become "Never bet against Toyota." And lately, Toyota has been putting its money down against Tesla.

Here's the history of what has transpired: Anxious to get a look at Tesla's EV technology, Toyota acquired a 3% stake in the company in 2010 and signed a $100 million joint development deal in 2011 for an electric-powered version of the RAV4. At the time, it hinted there could be additional projects with Tesla. But earlier this year, Toyota announced that it was backing away from the slow-selling electric RAV and no other joint projects were in the offing.

Instead Toyota said it would focus its efforts on fuel cell technology and would develop of its own fuel cell car--and it did. The Toyota Mirai, whose other-worldy styling matches its 21^st century technology (hydrogen fuel in, water vapor out) went in sale in Japan this week. It launches next year in Southern California with a sticker price of $57,500 or leases at $499 a month.

The Mirai can't compare with Tesla's Model S in speed or style. It takes a pokey nine seconds to accelerate to 60 miles per hour and lacks luxury features like the Tesla's s 17-inch touch screen control pad. But Toyota claims a 300-mile range for the car, comparable to Tesla's most expensive model, and its hydrogen fuel tanks can be replenished in as little as five minutes, compared with the hours usually needed to recharge a Tesla.

Characteristically, Toyota has revealed only modest sales targets for the Mirai. It plans to sell just 200 in the U.S. in 2015 and expects that number to climb to only 3,000 by the end of 2017. Like other alternative fuel cars, fuel cell vehicles lack an infrastructure to support them. As Mirai volume grows, Toyota plans to build out a network of hydrogen refueling stations in California and New England.

Other makers are climbing on the fuel cell bandwagon. BMW is collaborating with Toyota on powertrain development, and it will unveil its first-ever fuel cell drive system at the Detroit show. It is expected that the system will find its way into a new model for BMW's i line of alternative fuel urban vehicles, joining the i3 and i8.

Audi will be showing its fuel-cell powered A7 Quattro, which goes a bit further than the Mirai on a tank (310 miles) and is a good bit faster, reaching 62 miles per hour in 7.9 seconds. Also on display at Detroit will be the Hyundai Tucson fuel cell crossover, which begins leasing ($499/mo.) in June and claims a 265-mile range.

Even Volkswagen is getting in the game. A little more than two years ago, VW CEO Martin Winterkorn famously panned the technology, saying “I do not see the infrastructure for fuel cell vehicles, and I do not see how hydrogen can be produced on large scale at reasonable cost."

So what happened? A year later, Winterkorn had changed his tune, although he said a production fuel cell car is "still very far away." And at the Los Angeles auto show in November ,Volkswagen presented the world premiere of the Golf SportWagen HyMotion--a research vehicle with a fuel cell powertrain.

Tesla CEO Musk calls them "fool cells" and says they are "mind-bogglingly stupid," adding "hydrogen is suitable for the upper stage of rockets, but not for cars." He may be right. Not for nothing have fuel cells been derided as "the technology of the future--and always will be." We've seen fuel cell frenzy before. Those with long memories will recall General Motors pledge--taken before bankruptcy intervened--to develop a production-ready fuel-cell vehicle by 2010. Instead, we got the Volt.

But, as things stand now, neither Musk nor Tesla will be around the Detroit show to further their argument that batteries are superior.

Finkelstein provided Fortune an exclusive look at his top five business executives of the year. How did he select his finalists? Finkelstein starts with the numbers, screening for a variety of financial metrics, including the executives’ company stock price and market share. Then he looks at the way the sausage was made. How was a change communicated or a crisis averted?

The list is below. Did he get it right? Who did he miss? Let us know.

A new club that is billed as the “ultimate indoor/outdoor dining, drinking, and special events venue” for “founders, CEOs, investors and artists” is scheduled to open near the headquarters of Facebook FB , Tesla TSLA and Google GOOG . The goal: A techie version of the business clubs of yesteryear, where corporate scions wearing suits and ties lounged in big leather chairs to talk deals, puff cigars and sip bourbon.

Early members include billionaire investor Mark Cuban, Google SVP David Drummond and Tim Draper, managing director of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, according to the club’s web site. As for the club’s name? It’s a riff off of Ken Kesey’s 1962 bestseller, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

The club, in Menlo Park, Calif., is the work of Tony Perkins, a Silicon Valley wheeler-dealer who runs the AlwaysOn tech conferences and is a venture capitalist with DFJ Frontier. BootUp Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in and advises startups, is also a partner.

While it’s unclear what the criteria is for becoming a member, early Cuckoo’s Nest members are predominantly CEOs, founders and venture capitalists -- somewhat at odds with Silicon Valley’s supposed egalitarian ethos. Membership, which costs $2,500 annually, is capped at 1,200 with an eye towards diversity, which may be difficult to achieve given the tech industry’s heavily skewed demographics of mainly white and Asian males. For example, the Cuckoo’s Nest plans for 51% of its members to be women, according to a marketing pitch written by Perkins and obtained by Fortune. And to attract younger people, the club offers a discounted $1,000 annual membership to those under 30.

Although The Cuckoo’s Nest is still under construction and opens early next year, Perkins is holding several “pre-launch” parties. The club also has regular live entertainment and speakers like Cuban and well-known Benchmark Capital partner Bill Gurley scheduled.

“The Valley does not have a place where entrepreneurs can find each other and hang out at,” Draper says in a club e-mail soliciting new members, breathlessly titled, “CONFIDENTIAL.” He went on to describe The Cuckoo’s Nest as the “perfect vision and perfect spot to make this happen.”

Perfect or not, Silicon Valley execs, founders and investors already have plenty of options if they want to meet up. The five-star Rosewood Sand Hill remains a go-to spot for meetings and private dinners, even if is habitually overrun by “cougars” looking to land a wealthy techie. And the Epiphany Hotel’s Lure + Till restaurant in Palo Alto, Calif. has fast become a casual favorite for younger entrepreneurs since opening this spring.

Then there’s The Battery, the five-story San Francisco social club. The space, filled with dark wood and exposed brick, cost $13.5 million for entrepreneur couple Michael and Xochi Birch to buy and an undisclosed amount of money to renovate into a luxurious space to see and be seen. The Battery draws luminaries like Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and famed Apple designer Jonathan Ive, as well as execs from Twitter TWTR , Airbnb, Dropbox and other tech companies. Members pay $2,400 in annual fees, $100 less than what The Cuckoo’s Nest is asking of many members.

Early Cuckoo’s Nest members like Brian Wong, CEO and founder of the mobile ad network Kiip, contend the Valley could use more hotspots like The Battery, which is why signed up early. Wong is also an admirer of Perkins, who founded the tech-focused magazine Red Herring in 1993. (The magazine ceased publication in 2003 after the dot-com crash.)

“I think he [Perkins] is one of the best candidates to do something like this,” says Wong, who apparently has a big appetite for schmoozing. “He’s a gatherer of people, and I use his events as a litmus test of how this club might be.”

Perkins did not respond to Fortune’s requests for comment.

Andrea Zurek, co-founder of the venture capital firm XG Ventures and a Battery member also, splits her time evenly between San Francisco and the rest of the San Francisco Peninsula. So the idea of a Battery-like experience in Menlo Park, 40 minutes outside the city, proved compelling. “Because I am a female person in venture, I also liked that they wanted a nice, healthy mix between females, males, startup folks and VCs,” Zurek added.

Not everyone is a Cuckoo’s Nest fan, however. A number of other execs and entrepreneurs Fortune spoke to for this story balked at the idea of paying thousands a year to hobnob with fellow techies.

“I mean, who has the time to go to a membership club?” argues one startup founder, who declined a membership offer from Perkins. “Entrepreneurs should be heads-down and building.”

(Clarification: An earlier version of this story cited Tinder founder Sean Rad as a member of The Cuckoo’s Nest. In fact, a Tinder spokesman said Rad is not a member, although he is listed as one on the club’s website.)

By Kate Taylor, Entrepreneur.com

From Georgia to New Jersey, states have attacked Tesla’s direct sales model, in some cases banning sales of the company’s electric vehicles entirely. Through it all, founder Elon Musk has stayed committed to the dogma that franchising would destroy its business model.

Soon, that may change.

In an interview with Autoline Daily last month, Musk implied that the company might be easing up on the anti-franchising policy. The industry publication quotes him saying, as the company grows, “we may need a hybrid system, with a combination of our own stores and some dealer franchises.”

Coming from the CEO of the company that has referred to the direct sales model as “vital,” this is a big deal. Tesla has faced off against auto dealers associations across the country who have argued that the company’s direct sales model violates state laws. Since every state has slightly different laws to deal with auto franchises, every time a new state takes up the cause, the issue can seem more convoluted.

In October, Michigan became the fifth sate to ban direct sales of Tesla vehicles, as all new-car dealers are required to provide a franchise agreement. Auto dealers in states including Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri have argued that Tesla’s direct sales model undercuts the franchise model and threatens consumers’ ability to utilize dealers as advocates separate from manufacturers. As Tesla is forced to tangle with more and more state, it looks like Musk may have to temper his dedication to direct sales.

“I think eventually they will have to [franchise],” says Lou Chronowski, a Chicago-based attorney with Dykema who has worked on automotive and franchise industry cases. “I think that the powers of the dealers and the dealer bodies are so strong, they can keep them at bay for a while, but eventually, they will need to have franchise dealers.”

Chronowski says that dealers are worried that Tesla and other potential entrants in the auto industry using a direct sales model could provide major competition, with the ability to sell cars at lower prices than the competition. Plus, some dealers would like the opportunity to own a Tesla franchise themselves.

“I think that this has always been just a timing issue. I think the reality is that Tesla did it the way they had to do it, being in the startup mode,” he says. “They really couldn’t start a dealer network and then start selling cars. There just isn’t enough money in the world to do that.”

What could that mean? The spokesperson maintained that there are “no details at this point,” and that it would be inaccurate to say that the company was considering franchising.

Industry insiders posited a hybrid model could mean franchising on a state-by-state basis, focusing on states with the strictest pro-franchising policies, like California and Texas. Or, it could mean adjusting to meet some aspects of existing auto franchising regulations, while continuing to fight other aspects of state regulation.

“The fairy tale is going to have to evolve,” says Nick Powills, a member of the International Franchise Association Board and CEO of public relations firm No Limit Agency. “The critics are going to hate it for a moment, but as long as the general public or those that are willing to buy a Tesla support it and the demand is there it won’t matter.”

If it’s inevitable, then why is Tesla still denying claims that it will franchise? Powliss says brand reputation has something to do with it. “[Tesla not franchising] probably matches the brand perception... of up-class, upscale, state of the art, everything else that comes with a Tesla vehicle.”

In other words, for now, Tesla has to keep fighting against franchising and auto franchises because its brand as the alternative to the traditional auto industry depends on it. However, don’t be surprised if, once Tesla wants to ensure its national presence, a “hybrid model” emerges that looks a lot like franchising.

Related from Entrepreneur:

WATCH: A Tesla Model S Drives Itself

Elon Musk: ‘People Don’t Understand How Hard it Is to Manufacture Something’

Here’s Elon Musk’s Plan to Deliver Internet Access to Billions

Last night, Musk tweeter the following about plans for SpaceX:

The tweet was in response to a story in the Wall Street Journal this weekend reporting that Musk was working with Greg Wyler, a former Google GOOG executive with substantial experience with satellites, on the project. The story said Musk wants to launch 700 satellites weighing less than 250 pounds each, substantially smaller than most communications satellites.

Musk doesn’t want anyone to think he is confirming the Journal’s story, though:

This is the second time in the past few weeks Musk has gotten into a Twitter TWTR spat with the Journal. Late last month, he clashed with the paper over reports that Tesla TSLA , his electric car company, was seeing sales decline.

"Fifty years ago, Albert Einstein was a true celebrity and a household name, but if you look at the list of top 200 celebrities in the world, I don't think you will find one scientist on that list," said Yuri Milner, a Breakthrough Prizes co-founder and tech investor whose investments include Facebook FB , Twitter TWTR and Spotify.

One of the Breakthrough Prizes’ goals, Milner explained, is to help young people understand that scientific success can be financially and socially rewarding. By bringing in celebrities and a red carpet to the event, Milner is trying to give scientists and their projects a veneer of cool.

Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, said "I’m very excited to be part of an evening that recognizes some of today’s brightest scientists and minds."

The Breakthrough Prize, whose founders also include Mark Zuckerberg, Alibaba BABA founder Jack Ma, and 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki, were created last year to celebrate scientists and their accomplishments. This year, cash prizes of $3 million were awarded in the areas of physics, mathematics and life sciences. Winners included Gary Ruvkun, a life sciences laureate for his work in genetics, and Natalia Toro in the physics category, for pioneering an area of physics at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland. All 14 winners received a trophy and $3 million each.

“There are about 5% of the U.S. who are scientists and engineers,” said Ruvkin before receiving his award. “We just want to inspire a little 10-year-old who might feel that he or she isn’t say, the best baseball player.”

Guests included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Laurene Powell Jobs, Cameron Diaz, "Mad Men" star Jon Hamm, Kate Beckinsale, Box CEO Aaron Levie, industrial designer Yves Behar, philanthropist Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen and Elizabeth Holmes, the CEO of biotechnology firm Theranos. Actor and comedian Seth MacFarlane emceed the proceedings; singer Christina Aguilera performed the 2002 song "Beautiful."

The venue, a makeshift structure erected in just two weeks at NASA’s Ames Research Center, resembled a smaller-scale, tech-focused version of the Golden Globe Awards: video of the solar system punctuated a sleek stage of silver lattice work. An industry where hoodies and sneakers are commonplace, the Breakthrough Prizes mandated black tie attire instead. Guests played by the rules for the most part. Even Brin, who came last year donning a pullover hat, fleece zip-up and sneakers, dressed up this time, pairing a black tux jacket and gray t-shirt, quietly chatting with people at his table. At the table next to him, Beckinsale and Musk remained locked in playful conversation throughout the two-hour event, ignoring others.

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston contended the Breakthrough Prizes, which will be televised later this month, were more than your average star-studded event. “If you don't see role-models being recognized for their achievements, you're not going to have as many kids aspire to do that, so it's symbolic of the kinds of things we should be doing to celebrate these extremely talented people who are moving everything forward,” he said.

MacFarlane summed it up. “If you guys were out throwing footballs, we’d all have polio,” he joked.

(Correction: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Gary Ruvkun’s last name)

Every year, Fortune selects its Businessperson of the Year, a performer whose vision and leadership puts them heads and shoulders above the rest. In 2013, we honored Elon Musk for making Tesla the world's most prominent maker of all-electric cars. The year before, Jeff Bezos earned the title for pushing Amazon to new heights with successful offerings like Amazon Web Services, its popular cloud-computing platform.

Before we reveal this year's winner on November 13, Fortune would like you, our readers, to pick an MVP from industries like finance, auto, and retail. In today's installment, Fortune writer JP Mangalindan rounds up Silicon Valley's top execs. Cast your vote below, and check back in to see who wins top honors for Businessperson of the Year | Tech Edition.

Tim Cook--CEO, Apple

Since Cook became Apple’s CEO three years ago, skeptics wondered: Could Steve Jobs’ right-hand man pick up where he left off? Judging by Apple’s performance this year, the answer is “yes.” Although iPad sales cooled during the company’s fourth quarter, demand was high for Mac computers and the iPhone 6 line, the latter of which sold 10 million units over the first weekend. Apple AAPL also unveiled the Apple Watch, a slick-looking smart watch due early next year. And on a more personal front, Cook championed increased attention around diversity, culminating in his coming out as a gay man in October. “I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me,” he wrote in an essay for Bloomberg Businessweek.

Elizabeth Holmes--CEO and founder, Theranos

When Holmes was 19, she dropped out of Stanford to found Theranos, a blood testing company in Palo Alto, Calif. with the potential to revolutionize America’s $73 billion diagnostic lab industry. Blood test results traditionally take days to process, but Theranos gets results in a fraction of the time -- and for a fraction of the price -- with a device that analyzes the sample and transmits the results to a secure database, making them available online to a physician. Last year, Theranos introduced its services to the public via several Walgreens locations, the first stage in a national rollout by the pharmacy chain and the first step in Holmes’ bold vision of having a Theranos center within five miles of almost every American and within one mile of every city resident.

Jack Ma--Executive chairman and founder, Alibaba

Worth an estimated $25 billion, Ma is China’s richest person largely thanks to his work at Alibaba, the e-commerce juggernaut he founded 15 years ago from a small apartment in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. Alibaba, which acts as a online retail middleman between buyers and sellers, made $8.5 billion in revenues during its previous fiscal year from over $300 billion worth of goods sold from sites like Taobao and Tmall. In September, Alibaba BABA went public with a bang: its $21.8 billion stock market debut rendered it the biggest U.S.-listed IPO ever, ousting Visa’s 2008 offering from the top spot.

Marc Benioff--CEO and founder, Salesforce.com

In 1999, Benioff saw what many others at the time didn’t: one day, in the not-so-distant future, enterprise software and services wouldn’t be stored on discs or on-site data servers but remotely “in the cloud.” With that in mind, he created Salesforce.com CRM , a purveyor of cloud-based customer management software, and services that now ranks among the top 10 largest software companies in the world. With a 12% stock price increase this year and robust revenue growth, Salesforce.com doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon: Benioff wants to double the firm’s annual revenues to $10 billion -- a goal analysts predict he will accomplish by 2019.

Larry Page--CEO and co-founder, Google

Thanks to Page, Google is as competitive as ever. Since becoming CEO in 2011, Page has retooled and refined Google by prioritizing mobile, refreshing management, and streamlining its products and services. The results speak for themselves: revenues topped $16 billion last quarter, handily beating Wall Street projections. Page has also been fiscally savvy, growing Google’s cash pile by 95% to almost $62 billion or so -- even more resources to funnel into the company’s myriad businesses, from core advertising products to Google X’s futuristic exploits.

By Victor Luckerson, TIME

Tesla's upcoming Model X SUV has been delayed again, the company announced in its quarterly earnings report. The new vehicle is now slated for release in the third quarter of 2015, a delay of several months.

In a letter to shareholders, CEO Elon Musk wrote that Tesla's difficulty rolling new products out quickly was a "legitimate criticism" of the company, but said that the car maker's practices would not change. "We prefer to forgo revenue, rather than bring a product to market that does not delight customers," Musk wrote. "Doing so negatively affects the short term, but positively affects the long term."

Tesla's revenue for the quarter missed analysts' expectations slightly at $852 million, but was nearly double the same period last year. The company also posted a surprise profit, generating adjusted earnings of two cents per share. Analysts had expected a loss of one cent per share.

The company delivered 7,785 of its flagship Model S vehicles during the quarter. It expects to deliver 33,000 vehicles for all of 2014.

Shares in Tesla TSLA gained 6% in after-hours trading to $245.20.

The Tesla Motors chief executive kicked off October with a tweet filled with innuendo and intrigue--”About time to unveil the D and something else,” he wrote--that set off a frenzy of speculation and climaxed nine days later with the electric automaker’s splashy reveal of a dual-motor, autopilot-enabled Model S, its four-door sedan.

Owner forums buzzed. Social media sang. The blogosphere chirped. Tesla’s souped-up Model S was the car of the moment--and Musk confirmed, once again, that he had no intention of running Tesla like any old automaker.

Since that day, it’s been a rough patch of road for the company TSLA as its unorthodox practices collided with the auto industry’s status quo. A week after Musk’s announcement, Tesla was unexpectedly hit with legislation that threatened its ability to sell cars directly to consumers in Michigan, a state with 56 auto suppliers that produce nearly $200 million a year in components for Tesla, according to executives with the company.

On Oct. 21, Michigan governor Rick Snyder signed a bill that effectively bans Tesla from selling directly to consumers in the state. On the same day, Daimler AG, an investor and partner, sold its 4 percent stake in the company, a move that gave the German automaker $780 million in cash. A few days later, Toyota, which used Tesla electric powertrains in its Rav4 EV, also sold some of its stake in Tesla.

Tesla ended the month much like it began, with Musk taking to Twitter. The sentiment was markedly different the second time around. This time, Musk vented his frustration over a report in the Wall Street Journal that claimed the company cut its monthly lease price to help sales of the Model S in the United States. The report referenced the industry publication WardsAuto.com, which wrote that Tesla's U.S. sales through September were down 26 percent compared with the same period in 2013.

"A lot of this is noise," says Carter Driscoll, senior analyst at boutique investment bank MLV & Co. "And I don't know why Wall Street or anyone who follows this company would be surprised. The company said at the end of the second quarter they were going to slow down sales in the U.S. to satisfy international demand."

Driscoll expects sales will likely be "flattish to potentially modestly down," but added it will be temporary.

Signal or noise, investors will certainly tune into Tesla's third quarter earnings call, which takes place on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Eastern (2:30 p.m. Pacific). Driscoll says he'll be focused on the company's progress towards production of its Model X sport utility vehicle, its construction of its $5 billion battery “Gigafactory” near Reno, Nevada, total units sold globally, and the geographic mix of its sales. Over the long term, Driscoll says he is watching to see which companies become suppliers to the Gigafactory and how Tesla will move beyond electric vehicles into categories such as stationary energy storage.

"Tesla is a technology company first," Driscoll says. "And while right now they're also an automotive company, they're moving beyond that."

Michigan: All a dream?

At the moment, Tesla is banned from making direct sales in only five U.S. states: Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, and now Michigan. If the trend continues, it could become a "hiccup" for the automaker, Driscoll says.

"I think maybe Musk underestimated the strength of the dealerships and the political clout they have," Driscoll says. "And I think he really underestimates just how disruptive it is to entrenched business in most states."

All states have laws that prevent manufacturers with existing franchisees from opening up their own dealerships to compete with the same franchisee to which they gave rights. However, dealer associations in a number of U.S. states, including Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, and Washington, have tried--for the most part unsuccessfully--to expand the law to include manufacturers that don't have franchise dealers. In states that have banned direct sales, Tesla can still operate galleries to educate consumers on the technology. Tesla gallery staff cannot discuss the cost of the car and have to instead, direct customers to the website or a store in a neighboring state for more information.

In Michigan, the state and national automobile dealers associations prevailed despite a last-minute lobbying effort by Tesla and some of its major suppliers.

Michigan's House Bill 5606 was drafted to prohibit auto manufacturers from dictating fees franchised dealers can charge customers. When it reached the Senate floor, an amendment was added that closed a loophole that would have allowed Tesla to sell directly to consumers. General Motors GM issued a statement backing the bill.

When Gov. Snyder signed House Bill 5606 he said it didn't change existing law, it just clarified and strengthened it. Snyder has insisted state law has always required manufacturers to sell through a franchised dealer. Snyder issued a letter in conjunction with the bill signing saying lawmakers can and should discuss the current business model to determine if it's best for the state's consumers.

"We've been involved in this fight literally for the past two and half almost three years," says Jim Chen, Tesla's vice president of regulatory affairs. Last-minute legislative efforts "seems to be the pattern dealers implement," he says. Plus, it’s a fight unique to the United States.

Right now, Tesla’s principle aim is to break into Michigan and have the open debate in the state legislature that Snyder alluded to, Tesla executives say.

"We think it's the way to resolve this problem and we're optimistic that we can do that, but obviously, if we're not able to be successful than we're certainly looking at litigation or other legal means to achieve the same end," says Todd Maron, general counsel for Tesla. "It's our preference to take the governor's word and have that open debate that we've welcomed."

That's not to say Tesla isn't afraid of a lawsuit or two. The company filed a lawsuit earlier this year after the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission issued its decision that banned Tesla from direct sales in the states. As the lawsuit proceeds, Tesla is working with the legislature to change the law.

Yogen Rahangdale, CEO and owner of Whitehall Industries, a Michigan-based aluminum parts manufacturer, is one Tesla supplier who sent a letter that urged the governor not to sign the bill.

Rahangdale, whose business generates $120 million in annual revenue from Tesla, expects that changing legislation will be uphill battle. Still, he believes its time for laws to adjust to modern ways of doing business.

"As technology changes, the way of doing business changes," Rahangdale says. "You can't use the practices that were prevalent 30 or 40 years ago."

Lance Gilman, a principal and partner with the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, told Fortune today that papers have been filed in the Storey County courthouse transferring the "gigafactory" site to the automaker. Tesla TSLA is getting the land for free, along with a $1.3-billion package of economic-development incentives it negotiated with Nevada.

Scheduled for completion in 2020, the gigafactory is intended to produce 500,000 battery packs a year, mostly to be shipped to the company's auto-assembly plant in Fremont, California, for use its promised mass-market electric car.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said his company will start producing the car, priced at about $35,000, in 2017. He says the gigafactory--intended to double worldwide lithium-cell production--will cut battery costs by more than 30%, helping make the new car affordable. Tesla's current Model S starts at about $70,000.

Battery production at the gigafactory is supposed to begin in 2017 and peak battery production should be reached when the gigafactory is fully complete in 2020. When finished, he says, the building will likely total between five and six million square feet--nearly as big as the Pentagon. The gigafactory is expected to cost $5 billion and employ about 6,500 workers.

Legally, the giant industrial park, which Gilman manages, is giving the 980-acre gigafactory parcel to Tesla. But as part of the deal, the state of Nevada is paying the park's owners $43 million for right-of-way to extend a four-lane road through the complex to US Highway 50, a major interstate. Gilman has sought the extension, which will cut travel times to and from the industrial park and open up thousands of acres for development, for more than 15 years. "That's our reward," Gilman told Fortune. "It's going to happen. It's because of Tesla that we're willing to work this particular transaction."

The state will also pay for construction of the road, called USA Parkway, at an estimated cost of $70 million. The extension is scheduled for completion by December 2017.

In addition, Tesla TSLA has options to purchase another 9,000 adjacent acres, including 7,000 acres for a wind-farm with the potential to produce about 140 megawatts of electricity, according to Gilman.

Musk has said Tesla plans to generate all the power for the project from renewable sources, including geothermal energy, and he hopes to make the battery plant a “net zero-energy factory.” A company rendering of the project show the wind-farm operational and the concrete roof of the giant building--more than a mile long and a quarter-mile wide--covered with solar panels. Conveniently for Musk, his cousin Lyndon Rive is the CEO and co-founder of solar energy pioneer SolarCity, and Musk himself serves as the company’s chairman.

And now, the electric car company CEO is using his social networking profile to throw shade at Wall Street Journal reports saying that sales of Tesla’s TSLA were down year-over-year — reports that sent the stock plummeting in the afternoon.

“Article in @WSJ re Tesla sales is incorrect,” the tweet reads. “September was a record high WW and up 65% year-over-year in North America.”

The WSJ article claimed Ward’s Auto data had Tesla sales down for September — unlike most auto companies, Tesla only reports sales quarterly, not monthly, according to CNBC. Though the stock plunged yesterday after the WSJ story, it was up more than 3% in pre-market trading after Musk’s tweet.

However, Ward’s Auto data seem to be what the WSJ reports. They say Tesla sold 1,577 cars in the U.S. in Sept. 2014, compared with 1,700 in Sept. 2013, an 11% drop. For the first nine months, Tesla sold 10,335 cars in the U.S., down 26% from 12 months earlier.

Now, this doesn’t mean Musk isn’t telling the truth. He’s well within his rights to focus on global sales, or to highlight growth in the North American business. But he is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, guilty of some terminological inexactitude when he says “Article in @WSJ re Tesla sales is incorrect.” It clearly isn’t.

All of which begs the question: why is Elon Musk so upset about a story that he seeks to diss it with a misleading counter-claim? It is not typically the action of someone talking from a position of strength.

It’s also curious to see Musk taking issue with the WSJ’s reporting that Tesla is offering incentives on leased vehicles. He claims that the lower prices on leases are just the result of a deal with US Bank, and that Tesla’s revenue does not change. Of course, if the company is offering incentives, it would be a clear sign that things are not as peachy as Musk claims, since car companies tend to offer incentives when sales are soft and they need to move metal.

As Barclays analyst Brian A. Johnson said in a note to clients Monday: “With a lower monthly payment, we see this as a positive to help support Model S sales - but perhaps a recognition that the pace of Model S deliveries in the U.S. had perhaps plateaued and needed a sales boost.”

We won’t know for certain until Tesla publishes its results next week. If the company beats expectations, then it will delight all those excited by the success of something as radical and innovative as Musk’s electric car.

But until then, there will be a nagging doubt that Tesla’s high-priced vehicles don’t look so much of a bargain with gas prices at $3 a gallon or below. And there will be some hard thinking ahead if, as Goldman Sachs suggests, oil prices spend the next year between $75-$80 a barrel. Low oil prices favor traditional technologies, just as high prices encourage alternative ones.

Geoff Smith contributed to this story.

By Dan Kedmey, TIME

Elon Musk warned in no uncertain terms recently that the invention of artificially intelligent machines could pose the "biggest existential threat" to mankind.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla TSLA and SpaceX, spoke with unusual force about the perils of a technology that could quickly spin out of its inventors' control during an MIT symposium on Friday, the Washington Post reports. "With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon," he said.

"In all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it's like yeah he's sure he can control the demon. Didn't work out," he added.

Musk called for an international regulatory framework to oversee advances in the technology. He has previously likened artificial intelligence to nukes on Twitter TWTR .

[Washington Post]