I worked with Elon Musk and Travis Kalanick in my 20s. Here's what I learned from them about building a company.

Adi Prasad, cofounder and CEO of Matter, says he spent his 20s intentionally learning from top founders before starting his own company. Adi Prasad Adi Prasad worked at Tesla, Apple, CloudKitchens, and Rivian before launching his own startup. He says learning from Elon Musk and Travis Kalanick shaped how he's building his company. He shares the biggest lessons he took from them — and the advice he'd give aspiring founders. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Adi Prasad, a 35-year-old cofounder and CEO of AI manufacturing startup Matter. It's been edited for length and clarity. When I graduated from MIT in 2015 with a master's degree in mechanical engineering, one company stood out to me: Tesla. I was fascinated by manufacturing, and Tesla was pushing the boundaries of what a factory could be.