Tesla VP of finance Sendil Palani is leaving, recalls joining during the days of “Tesla Deathwatch”, as he thanks CEO Elon Musk
Sendil Palani, a senior member of Tesla’s Finance team, has announced his departure from the company after seventeen years—a tenure that began when Tesla was barely keeping the lights on. Palani joined the electric vehicle maker’s Finance division in early 2009, just weeks after what he described as the company nearly not surviving Christmas 2008. At the time, Tesla was actively being tracked under what critics called a “Tesla Deathwatch”—an ongoing expectation that the company would fold. He recalled sleeping under his desk at the San Carlos, CA office. He wasn’t the only one.In a post on X on March 9, Palani reflected on the journey with visible warmth. He singled out the Finance team for making “the impossible look easy,” pointing to the complexity of Tesla’s business—hardware, software, digital assets, and global capital deployment all running simultaneously. He also credited late-night cross-functional sessions on topics ranging from brake rotor physics to neural network training as more valuable than anything he learned in a classroom.He closed with a direct note to CEO Elon Musk, thanking him for “demonstrating the power of thinking from first principles at all times, about all things.”Musk replied briefly: “Thanks for an epic contribution over many years.”Palani has not publicly announced what comes next.
Read Sendil Palani’s full memo
After seventeen incredible years, my latest chapter at Tesla has come to a close. Words won’t do justice to how fulfilling the experience has been, but I’ll try anyway:Tesla barely survived Christmas 2008. I started a few days later in our Finance team, under an ongoing “Tesla Deathwatch”. I slept under my desk in San Carlos, CA at least once, and I wasn’t the only one. There are many companies with hard-working and talented employees, but few have the level of commitment and collaboration of the Tesla team. In retrospect, this should have been an obvious predictor of the successes that would follow. This is as true today as it was in 2009.To my former Finance team: You are heroes within a company full of heroics, given the full-body workout that is your daily job. Take an Accounting or Finance textbook off the shelf and flip to a random page – Tesla is undoubtedly manifesting the underlying concept in the real world. From selling hardware and software under various business models, managing assets of all types (including digital ones), to pursuing continuous investment into an ambitious future throughout the world, you make the impossible look easy.To my colleagues across the rest of the company – I am grateful for the time that you have spent to educate me, including during my stints outside of the Finance team. You have started with one of Tesla’s strongest advantages – the strongest talent across engineering, manufacturing/operations, and customer-facing functions – and have turned it into an unstoppable force via your “one team” attitude. For me, late-night sessions on topics ranging from the physics of a brake rotor to the training of a neural network proved more valuable than any classroom experience that came before, and made the company stronger as a result. Going to work is not supposed to be this much fun.@elonmusk : A heartfelt thanks for your endless love of humanity, and for demonstrating the power of thinking from first principles at all times, about all things. When Abundance is achieved and money ceases to have meaning, these lessons will be the most valuable commodity in our economy.To the outside world, who may not have experienced the above first-hand: Remember that Tesla’s mission is so ambitious and complex that any narrative about the company is naturally an oversimplification. Seek the truth about the company at all times. And support it in any way that you can! There are few higher callings/better uses of your time.
