Founder Profile
Martin Eberhard
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Martin Eberhard?
Martin Eberhard is a founder of Tesla, Inc., which was founded in 2003 with Marc Tarpenning, Elon Musk, JB Straubel and Ian Wright.
- Company founded
- Tesla, Inc.
- Founded
- 2003
- Co-founders
- Marc Tarpenning, Elon Musk, JB Straubel and Ian Wright
Background
Martin Eberhard graduated from the University of Illinois and trained as an electrical engineer. Before Tesla he worked as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur in consumer hardware, including digital publishing devices, which gave him experience with batteries and with building product prototypes.
Founding Story
Martin Eberhard is an American electrical engineer who co-founded Tesla Motors and was its first CEO. He had earlier co-founded NuvoMedia, the company that made the Rocket eBook. Eberhard saw that the lithium-ion cells used in laptops could power a high-performance sports car, and in 2003 he started Tesla Motors with Marc Tarpenning. He developed the original concept for the Tesla Roadster and recruited the company's first engineering team.
Martin Eberhard was born in 1960 in Berkeley. Education: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.