Flamethrowers: Who’s Laughing Now?
Flamethrowers: Who’s Laughing Now?
Elon Musk has yet again plucked what can only be described as the lucid dreams of a creative adolescent into a multi-million-dollar venture. Eleven million to be exact. First it was electric cars, then it was spaceships to mars, and now flamethrowers. What could easily be described as the greatest gimmick since the turn of the millennium is no laughing matter. It’s a highly adept marketing and fund-raising strategy for a company that has nothing to do with flamethrowers.
The Boring Company is an amazing play on words. Seeing the title immediately makes one think of something we’d want to avoid, but the name is actually very fitting. The Boring Company was founded in 2016 to do exactly as the name says, bore holes. Oddly enough, promoting a company that digs holes does seem rather boring until you realize these are not your average holes. This project started out by Elon Musk test running The Boring Company’s tunnel boring machine or TBM on site. After two weeks, there was a 9 meters-wide, 15 meters-long, and 4.6 meters-deep hole in the parking lot of SpaceX’s offices in Hawthorn, California. The Boring Company plans to use TBMs to build tunnels from LAX to Westwood, has received verbal government approval to build an underground hyperloop from New York to DC, and even hints at creating tunnels to support human life on Mars. That’s not boring at all.
In classic Elon Musk fashion, The Boring Company was launched upon the fame of it’s enthralling founder. The company first announced it would sell 50,000 hats at $20 each to raise $1M. The hats sold out rather quickly and created a buzz leading Mr. Musk to announce the unthinkable, flamethrowers! He not only announced The Boring Company would sell 20,000 flamethrowers at $500 a-piece but created YouTube videos of himself in a hysterical giggle fit as he shot flames across the screen. Of course, people didn’t like this, the state of California announced it would not allow anything labeled a flamethrower to shipped across state lines. This only fed the hysteria. Elon Musk’s response, rename the product “Not a Flamethrower,” launch an insanely overpriced fire extinguisher (because it has cool stickers), and pre-sell all 20,000 units.
This genius is so captivating because it seems that The Boring Company and Elon Musk have used so many elements of the human psyche to raise capital. He broke all the rock-solid rules and has done so seemingly for the good of humanity. The move was so well planned that the child in us all jumped at the thought of owning a flamethrower, the government fanned the flames, and The Boring Company has now created a profitable side business of branded swag. The Boring company reached it fundraising goals, hats supposedly signed by Elon Musk are on sale now on eBay for $12k, and the flamethrowers are reselling already at $999.99 and the first one hasn’t even been shipped yet…
Well played sir, well played…
Sean Burrowes/Ingressive COO
I moved from Chicago, USA to Africa in 2014. First Ghana and now Nigeria. I can’t see living anywhere else. It is my duty to share my experiences with those who have no idea what’s going on in the “Dark Continent.” These are my views, these are my stories…
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