I'm a former Tesla engineer who runs my own company. Here's what I learned at Tesla that made me a better founder - and what it didn't prepare me for.

"This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Angus Rittenburg, the 33-year-old CEO of Wynk in New Jersey. It has been edited for length and clarity. Before becoming a CEO, I worked as a mechanical design engineer at Tesla in Palo Alto, California,from 2015 to 2017. I first did an internship with Tesla, where I developed an innovative battery technology that we ultimately patented. Tesla was my first job out of college."

"At Tesla, I learned that the right answer is usually simple. The problems we were solving were incredibly complex, with requirements ranging from vehicle performance to crash test safety standards to energy density. I learned that any complex problem becomes easier to solve if you break it into parts and find the simplest solution for each one. It took me two years to figure that out at Tesla, but I've carried that knowledge forward ever since."

Angus Rittenburg worked as a mechanical design engineer at Tesla from 2015 to 2017 and developed a patented battery technology during an internship. He focused on designing the Model 3 battery architecture and handled electrical, mechanical, and thermal components while coordinating with many engineers. He left Tesla to start a company and in 2021 launched Wynk, a THC beverage company with cofounders Casey Parzych and Shawn Sheehan. He applies engineering lessons from Tesla, especially simplifying complex problems by breaking them into parts and prioritizing quality. Wynk faced early regulatory and production challenges in the US compared with Canada.

Read at Business Insider