As the founder of Netflix-style streaming service Passionflix, Tosca Musk shares the same gift for entrepreneurship and risk-taking as her older brother Elon, the world’s richest man.
If your last name is Musk, there’s a fairly good chance you’re related to the billionaire inventor-entrepreneur Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, aka the richest person in the world. Which brings with it a lot of baggage. “I have a very familiar last name,” says Tosca Musk, Elon’s younger sister, a filmmaker and director who runs the streaming platform Passionflix, which adapts romance novels for the screen.
Her name is both a liability and an advantage, she says, when we meet in the Santa Monica hotel where she is staying. “I don’t like that my kids watch YouTube and there are jokes about my brother; it makes them feel a little uncomfortable. And they don’t understand why people would say [negative] things about him.”
Because he’s just Uncle Elon to them? “Exactly. And I’m incredibly proud of my older brother. He is a phenomenon. He’s exceptional in so many ways and his goals to help humanity are beyond anything that anyone can imagine. So there’s no taint at all.”
Has she ever thought about changing her surname? “No!” she said, appalled. “I love my name. I don’t have an issue with it.”
Tosca Musk, 48, is forthright, to say the least. Three years younger than Elon, she is close to both him and her other brother, Kimbal, a successful restaurateur and entrepreneur. “Kimbal’s goal is to solve the obesity crisis in America. He’s just so human-forward as well.”
So while Kimbal, 49, solves the obesity crisis and Elon, 51, saves the world, Tosca is dedicated to bringing happiness to humankind – specifically to women, who make up 98 per cent of Passionflix’s audience. “I’m a very strong advocate for positive storytelling,” says Musk. “I think we need more stories about love and hope. We have enough sad and depressing movies out there. I hate violence.”
