# Starting a car company at age 22? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 9, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-car-company-at-age-22/624621 "2012-06-09T15:08:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-car-company-at-age-22/624621/1 "2012-06-09T15:08:49Z")
[This 30-minute video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qp_qxKWMsVw#t=71s) provides an interesting tour of the Koenigsegg car factory in Sweden, where they hand-build high-performance sportscars. The company owner, Christian von Koenigsegg, says early in the video that he started the company when he was just 22. There really isn’t much more information given about that, but I’m intensely curious: How does one go about starting a car company at the age of 22? Can someone point to more detailed information about how he might have accomplished this feat? Was he independently wealthy, or was he somehow able to attract (and inspire the trust of) wealthy investors? How did a 22-year-old have the technical, managerial, and business skills to bring such a huge endeavor to fruition? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-car-company-at-age-22/624621/2 "2012-06-09T15:48:53Z")
Wiki: “However, he took his first steps in the world of business in his early 20’s running a trading company called Alpraaz in Stockholm, Sweden. Alpraaz exported food from Europe to the developing world. The success of this venture gave von Koenigsegg the necessary financial standing to launch his chosen career as a car manufacturer.” ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-car-company-at-age-22/624621/3 "2012-06-09T15:57:08Z")
According to paragraph one of the Wiki page: > [@](#): > > The company was founded in 1994 in Sweden by Christian von Koenigsegg, with the intention of producing a world-class supercar. Many years of development and prototyping led to the company’s first street-legal production car delivery in 2002. So he founded the company when he was 22, but they didn’t actually start producing cars for sale till he was 30-ish. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-car-company-at-age-22/624621/4 "2012-06-09T19:09:10Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > Wiki: > > “However, he took his first steps in the world of business in his early 20’s running a trading company called Alpraaz in Stockholm, Sweden. Alpraaz exported food from Europe to the developing world. The success of this venture gave von Koenigsegg the necessary financial standing to launch his chosen career as a car manufacturer.” I would have thought that “the necessary financial standing” to start a car company from scratch would have been far more than someone could accumulate by the age of 22. I’m imagining many, many millions of dollars to buy/rent real estate, purchase tooling, and pay for a staff of designers, engineers, and builders for the ~8 years between the founding of the company and the time they finally started selling cars. Am I way off on that? Did he actually found Alpraaz, or did he take it over from someone else as an already-established, successful business? He would have been running that company in the early 1990’s - before the internet really came online and brought about the phenomenon of overnight millionaires - and for just a couple of years. How much wealth could he have accumulated from a food export company in that amount of time? I’m wondering how the Koenigsegg story compares with that of [Elon Musk,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk) who mad amassed a net worth of _hundreds of millions of dollars_ through the founding of internet ventures such as PayPal before he started Tesla Motors at the age of 31. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-car-company-at-age-22/624621/5 "2012-06-09T19:23:19Z")
This [Jalopnik article](http://jalopnik.com/5916323/christian-von-koenigseggs-factory-is-a-nerds-wonderland-of-speed) says: “Christian Von Koenigsegg once told Swedish online magazine Nyheter 24 that he invested all of his family’s money in the car company he started at age 22 in Angleholm, working eight years without a salary and seven at a paltry sum.” So it sounds like he started with family money. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-car-company-at-age-22/624621/6 "2012-06-09T19:28:17Z")
And [this message board](http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/koenigsegg-forum-koenigseggboard-com/123907-swedish-magazine-interviews-christian-von-koenigsegg-di-se-july-2008-60-cars-delivered-they-building-number-68-now.html) quotes a Swedish magazine: "How much have you invested yourself? Christian von Koenigsegg: ‘Everything of myself. And of all my money. Me and my family have put in around 20 million SEK (~€2 million). I have then worked in eight years without a salary and seven with a low salary.’" ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-car-company-at-age-22/624621/7 "2012-06-09T20:00:30Z")
Keep in mind that he’s built maybe 50 cars in 10 years. Wikipedia reports seven different models, they all look similar. He doesn’t need a lot of staff. Koenigsegg had a nice little niche but I can’t conceive how they can absorb Saab and remain in business. Elon Musk may have amassed a huge net worth but he got the government to finance a large portion of Tesla. He’s also had big investments from Hollywood and took a lot of orders years in advance. It’s just a shell game and I suspect the company will shut down in another two years. He’s a smart guy. He’ll get out without losing much. ---
**Author:** ![Shawarma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Shawarma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawarma)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-car-company-at-age-22/624621/8 "2016-11-04T18:38:26Z")
> [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](#): > > Keep in mind that he’s built maybe 50 cars in 10 years. Wikipedia reports seven different models, they all look similar. He doesn’t need a lot of staff. Koenigsegg had a nice little niche but I can’t conceive how they can absorb Saab and remain in business. > > Elon Musk may have amassed a huge net worth but he got the government to finance a large portion of Tesla. He’s also had big investments from Hollywood and took a lot of orders years in advance. It’s just a shell game and I suspect the company will shut down in another two years. He’s a smart guy. He’ll get out without losing much. LMFAO Nunzio. How is your Musk prediction working for ya? It’s almost 2017. lol… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-car-company-at-age-22/624621/9 "2016-11-04T19:27:10Z")
> [@Shawarma](#): > > LMFAO Nunzio. How is your Musk prediction working for ya? It’s almost 2017. lol… **Moderator Note** **Shawarma** , we ask that old threads in GQ only be raised to contribute new factual information. Since this does not, I’m closing it. Colibri General Questions Moderator