Kimbal Musk. Source: (Creative Commons License).
Much is known about Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of several companies. However, Musk grew up with two siblings who are not in the limelight as much as their brother. Musk’s oldest sibling is Kimbal Musk, and the two brothers have much more in common than most other brothers. In this article, we dive deep into Kimbal's life and what he has done with it.
Kimbal was born in Pretoria, South Africa to the same parents as Elon in 1972. Much of the unpleasant memories that Elon had while growing up must have affected Kimbal, too. The two have a sister named Tosca. After graduating from high school, Kimbal joined Elon in Kingston, Canada. He studied business at Queen’s University but got his first job at Scotiabank before graduating.
Like his brother, Kimbal was drawn to business and tried his hand at his first venture in 1995 with College Pro Painters. Eventually, he had bigger ambitions and he formed a company, Zip2, with Elon. The company offered an e-version of the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. The brothers sold the company to Compaq for $307 million.
While he may not receive all the same attention that his brother does, it seems clear that entrepreneurship runs in the family.
Kimbal then invested some of his shares of the proceeds into some of his brother’s ventures, including X.com, which offered online banking and other financial services. The company merged with Confinity and later became PayPal. X.com eventually sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.
At this point, the two brothers branched out in different directions. Elon would remain in California to start his now highly profitable empire, while Kimbal went to New York to study culinary arts. He and his then-wife, Jen, opened a restaurant in Boulder, Colorado, because of its fine weather and vibrant food scene and named it The Kitchen.
Kimbal would later start Next Door, an urban casual eatery with branches in Glendale, Stapleton, and Denver Union Station. The Kitchen has grown into a chain of restaurants whose mission is to feed Americans with simple real foods. The company has won many awards in the food industry.
Kimbal has tried other businesses, including OneRiot, which offers email marketing solutions. He also founded Square Roots Urban Growers, a company that grows food on modern hydroponic farms. Kimbal is also involved with the Growe Foundation, which does outreach programs in schools to get children interested in agriculture.
Elon Musk as a child (Left), and brother Kimbal Musk as a child (Right). Source: SiteBuilderReport.
The entrepreneur now lives in Boulder, and though he has been divorced once, he is now married to Christiana Wyly. Kimbal is also still involved in Elon’s businesses. He sits on the boards of Tesla, SpaceX, and also Chipotle. While he may not receive all the same attention that his brother does, it seems clear that entrepreneurship runs in the family.