Musk's college friend quit working with him at Zip2 after only 6 weeks: 'I knew I could either be working with him or be his friend, but not both'

• Navaid Farooq was one of Elon Musk's first friends during his time at Queen's University, Canada.
• Farooq came to work for Musk at his first company, Zip2, but quit just six weeks into the job.

Elon Musk's college dorm-mate quit his job at Musk's company after only six weeks of working there, a new biography about the tech mogul has revealed.

In 1995, Musk was in the midst of getting his first company, Zip2, off the ground with his brother, Kimbal. Their idea was to put a directory of businesses online, combine it with map software and offer it as an online alternative to the yellow pages.

Stories from the first intense months have become folklore for Musk enthusiasts, working around the clock, sleeping under his desk, eating teriyaki bowls at Jack In Box, and showering at the local YMCA.

Navaid Farooq, who was Musk's dorm-mate at college in Canada, came to help, but soon "found himself in fights with Musk."

Farooq is described in Walter Isaacson's biography of Musk — which is released this week — as "his first real and lasting friend outside of his family."

The two had been placed on the international floor of one of the dorms at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. They bonded over high-level strategy video games, a hobby Musk has kept up, and would spend hours playing "Civilisation."

"We completely entered a zone for hours until we were exhausted," Farooq told Isaacson.

But working under the notoriously intense Musk was too much for Farooq and he lasted just six weeks at Zip2 before quitting. "I knew that I could either be working with him or be his friend, but not both, and the latter seemed more enjoyable," he told Isaacson.

Elon Musk has regularly worked with other close friends and family across his career, but this isn't the first relationship to run into trouble.

Kimbal Musk, Elon's younger brother, co-founded Zip2 and invested in PayPal when it was formed. He has since trained as a chef and developed a career in food, but remains on the boards of Tesla and SpaceX.

Musk has also entered into ventures with his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive, acquiring their company SolarCity through Tesla for $2.6 billion in 2016. A Tesla shareholder accused him of attempting to bail out his cousin's company which was $3 billion in debt when acquired, but in 2022 a judge ruled that Musk had not acted unlawfully.

Peter Thiel, a billionaire Silicon Valley investor, has been a longtime collaborator of Musk, but their relationship has been rocky over the years. The two merged their companies to form PayPal in the early 2000s, but acrimoniously split after Thiel staged a coup and replaced Musk as CEO of the company while he was on his honeymoon.

Thiel later refused to invest in Tesla, worsening their relationship, but did reluctantly support SpaceX, investing $20 million to help keep the company afloat after a third botched rocket launch in 2008.