Aaron Greenspan may be the worst case of hubris in tech I’ve ever seen.
> Studies at Harvard early 2000s
> Built HouseSystem, an online student directory and payments platform
> Zuck launches Facebook in 2004
> Greenspan registers
thefacebook.com domain to claim ownership over the idea
> Greenspan publicly claims he invented Facebook including a 357 page memoir
> Takes his claims to court multiple times and loses all of them
> 2011 Starts PlainSite so he can publicly disclose confidential docs under the guise of a do-good startup advocating transparency
> 2018 goes after Elon and Tesla by publishing confidential documents
> 2019 Files a lawsuit against Tesla, dismissed
> Greenspan’s popularity grows, continues to file lawsuits against and make baseless accusations towards Tesla/Elon
> Starts short selling so he can TRY to profit of his false claims!
> 2024 a judge calls his filings “meritless”
> 2025 receives front page of
@nytimes Sunday Business section and full spread by
@noamscheiber
My favorite part of the article:
“From 2018 to 2020, Aaron Greenspan spent more than $1M on put options that would have been valuable if Tesla stock price had declined.
Instead the stock appreciated as much as 20x over the next few years.
Greenspan’s million dollars evaporated as did the money he used to bet against Facebook, Nvidia and the Nasdaq, and he’s now broke.”
So what’s the lesson?
Bears go broke!