Hmmm.

via Clean Break, a Sillicon Valley company (appealingly named Tesla Motors) has just announced that its secured US$40 million in new investment. Among the investors are Google inventors Sergei Brin and Larry Page. Tesla Motors' objective? A high-performance electric car.

You may remember EEStor, the ultracapacitor company, secured early invesment from Kleiner Perkins, the same people who funded Google early in its life. EEStor's ESU would of course make an excellent storage system for a high-performance electric car.

Here's what I'm thinking. A friend at Kleiner Perkins gave Brin, Page, and others a call, and said something to the effect of "hey, there's this new startup we're backing that's got exactly what you're looking for. Start moving now, because this thing is for real and you want in on the ground floor." This phone call may very well have been illegal if it actually occurred. Nevertheless, I'm always astonished at how many important historical events have hinged on someone who knew somebody who was a friend of someone else's.

Forget politics - everything is personal.