This content was created by Tim Draper. This content was uploaded by Tim Draper. This is a YouTube interview titled "My First 2 Million Dollar Check at 22 years old | Solar City CEO Lyndon Rive" (posted July 17, 2015). It features Tim Draper interviewing Lyndon Rive about his upbringing in South Africa, parental influence that encouraged entrepreneurship, early ventures (a natural health product distribution business and a software company), experiences raising venture funding (including a $2M DFJ check at age 22), and the advantages of Silicon Valley for starting companies.
Chapters
So, okay, my first question is, look, you and your brother have started this amazing company. We're trying to create entrepreneurs that are as good as you or your brother or your cousin. What is it— what was it that you guys were eating and drinking? I guess we know, Green Machine. And what was it that your parents were doing? That got you this sort of freedom to feel like, hey, I can try something really interesting, and eventually people will come around, and it's going to be a big success, and it's going to save the environment?
Yeah. So a little background. As mentioned, Elon and myself, we're cousins. Our mothers are twins, and our father was actually born on the same day. They're not twins. But the— if you go back, I think what's really important as a parent when you're having your children grow up is to enable them to follow their little dreams. So our parents were entrepreneurial. Both parents were entrepreneurial. There was a stage where Elon came up with the idea to start a gaming company, like traditional arcade games, just like real games with the buttons and everything. And he got it all done. He got all the licenses from the gaming guys. We were all participating in this. And he was always kind of like the leader of the pack. It's still the case. And then we actually had to get the permit to get it— to open up the store. And because we weren't 18, or he wasn't 18, he couldn't pull the permit. And so then the parents got involved and realized this, and instead of beating up on the idea, they were heavily encouraging on it. Eventually it turned out it wasn't a good idea, so we ended up not doing that. And in my specific case, when I started my first company, it was a distribution company that distributed natural health products. I started at the age of 17. while in high school. I think that's a tough decision for a parent. Your parent now has to make the decision, okay, do you finish high school or do you run your company? And that's hard. My parents, at least my mother supported me. My father preferred a degree. Still haven't got one, by the way. But my mother supported doing that, and so I didn't go to high school. So I just didn't go. And then the principal was going to expel me. I was like, oh, hold on. Before you expel me, let me show you my business, how much money I'm making. I'm making more money than all the teachers combined. Like, this would be— Crazy that you want me to give this up to get my high school diploma. So we had an agreement, and that is I can just come and write the exams, and he wouldn't expel me. So I did get my high school diploma. But it turns out you actually have to study. Barely got it. But to have— back to your question— to have parents that Will tolerate that and not stick to the standard swim lane. Like, we're all kind of put in a swim lane. Your swim lane is to go to school, get an education. After you go to school, go to university. After you go to university, you get a job. That's the swim lane. To go out of the swim lane, it takes risk, and often the reward is not there. But if your child has the ability, the reward will be there. And so that, I think, comes down to— Parents, of course, you've got to have— the child has to be enthusiastic and be able to do it.
And you grew up in South Africa, right?
Yeah, born and raised.
And, and, uh, how, how is this a different experience than South Africa? You run your business here, not from South Africa. What— is there something that growing up, that was there more freedom there, or was there more Did you feel more independent than you might have in a place like this, or was it just like, hey, I grew up in South Africa, but I know that Silicon Valley is the place to start a business?
Silicon Valley is the best place in the world, hands down. Nothing comes close to it. It's the only place where it doesn't discriminate on anything. It is one thing only: are you hardworking? And can you get the job done? And if you can, the capital will be available and you'll succeed. So it's a super unique place. No other place in the world can do that. So South Africa was fine, but there's no way I would have been able to start the 2 next companies in South Africa. I wouldn't be able to start the software company. Because before SolarCity, I started a software company. Which DFJ funded, by the way. They gave me my first $2 million check at 22 years old. Oh yeah, what now? I literally—
All right, off to Brazil.
I literally deposited that $2 million check into my bank account, which we called the business bank account, but it was my bank account. It's like, okay, cool, let's go start the business. And thank you very much for that, by the way.
God, well, seems to be paying off. Backing you seems to be paying off.
They've invested in every single round since then, and we've done many rounds.
