candy

elon musk

When you’re a billionaire, with, well… billions of dollars, the world is literally your oyster.  You want for nothing.  Or, I’m going to make that assumption since I’m not in that particular boat.  But what do you do when you have all that money?  I mean, honestly?  I certainly have dreams and aspirations of making more money or paying off debt but I also have goals for myself once I get to that point.  If you’re Elon Musk, though, what do you do when you have done everything?  For Elon Musk the big question is – what is his next big world-changing business venture?

Last week, after an odd quarterly earnings call, Musk dismissed some analysts’ questions related to moats.  For those of you who aren’t in the know, moats are a way for a company to protect itself from competition.  This drew particular criticism from investor Warren Buffet.  Buffet then commented on Musk’s stance on moats at a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder gathering over the weekend, by saying:

elon musk

There are some pretty good moats around. Certainly, you should be working on improving your own moat and defending your own moat all the time. And Elon may turn things upside down in some areas. I don’t think he’d want to take us on in candy.

Huh?  Candy?  Berkshire Hathaway owns a ton of big companies, including Heinz, which acquired See’s Candies, back in 2972.  According to Fortune, See’s, which operates more than 200 stores across the United States, has a strong moat in the form of a loyal customer base on the west coast. This makes it hard for its competition to grab a piece of that market share on the west coast.

But now, Musk has thrown down the gauntlet.  Over the weekend, Musk tweeted: “I’m starting a candy company & it’s going to be amazing”. Many people, myself included, feel that he’s just playing around.  But then Musk tweeted “I am super super serious”.  Is he though?  A candy company is kind of out there, but if we think about this in terms of Elon Musk, it’s not that simple.  I mean, space exploration, electric cars, and underground futuristic transportation are kind of out there, don’t you think?

elon musk

By that, I mean, they don’t really go together, but they’re also incredibly cutting edge.  Everything that Musk touches is based on some kind of science fiction view of the future.  And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.  He’s got some pretty great ideas and initiatives that he’s working with.  But is candy going to be the next big thing for him?  Or is this a big joke?  There are two ways that this could go.  Either Musk could be designing the next big thing in candy, or this is a complete joke.  If it’s a joke, it is kind of funny.  But if it’s not a joke, then, brace yourself for a serious candy war.