When Elon Musk waited in Netscape lobby to get a job and what made him start his own company

Elon Musk is the richest man in the world right now but there was a time when the architect of SpaceX and Tesla was just another hopeful job seeker. In the mid-90s, he tried to get job trying to be a part of the booming internet sector but failed miserably. Recently, the tech mogul shared an instance from his early life: a failed application at Netscape – a computer services company with leading web browser of the time, Musk’s grew frustrated which drove him to stop waiting for a job and start writing his own software, a decision that laid the foundation for his business empire.

In an old video, Musk is seen explaining how he waited in the lobby of Netscape office in hopes to find with a hiring manager.

“I tried to get a job at Netscape. I sent my resume, but I don't think they ever saw it and nobody responded,” Musk shared. He said that he physically went to the Netscape headquarters and hung out in the lobby.

"I tried hanging out in the lobby of Netscape to see if I could bump into someone, but I was too shy at talking to anyone,” Musk recalled.

How Musk’s first company came into existence

After realising that a traditional job path was effectively closed to him, Musk decided to write the code of his own software.

“I thought, ‘This was ridiculous’,” Musk said, adding, “I wrote software for myself and see how that goes.”

“I really wanted to be the part of the Internet in some way. And Since I didn’t get a job at an internet company, I had to start my own company,” Musk added.

Musk becomes richest person in the world

Fast forward to 2021, things turned for Musk as he became the world's richest person, thanks to a surge in Tesla stock. Musk surpassed Jeff Bezos but he frequently lost the title to Bernard Arnault. However, once regaining the world richest person position in late 2023, Musk remained at the top in 2024 and 2025.

In December, the Tesla CEO also became the first person in the history to touch $700 billion wealth mark. He is now on the path to becoming the first ever trillionaire, and owns (or leads) X (formerly Twitter), SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, Neuralink and xAI.