A Father’s Day Tribute To A Very Special Tesla Dad

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Editor’s note: Matt Pressman is one of the coolest, sweetest, best guys I know. He’s amazing. And he’s also a great dad. So I’d like to send him a happy Father’s Day as a preface to his article.

Originally posted on EVANNEX.

I decided to move to South Florida from the Big Apple. It was 2011, and I just got married. I was also (soon after) blessed with a beautiful baby girl. My life was changing, fast. One day, at my parent’s house, my father called me into his office. He was amped. He pointed, enthusiastically, at the computer screen and said, “Check out this new car! I’m going to get one. It’s called a Tesla.”

After owning his Tesla Model S for a few years, Roger made the switch to a Model 3. (Image: EVANNEX)

A what? I said, “Isn’t that the new Maserati?” He shook his head, “No, it’s a Tesla Model S. And it’s electric.” Whoa. The sedan was certainly stunning. But an electric car? Well, I wasn’t surprised. My father was always into new tech before others. When I was a kid, he bought an Apple Macintosh (serial number 000787) back in 1984. Fast forward: it was time for him to get his hands on another revolutionary product, a Tesla Model S (VIN number 000184) in 2012.

My dad had been participating in the Tesla forums and started a popular thread about designing the first-ever accessory — a DIY project, mind you — for the Model S. It was a center console insert that he was building in his garage. Forum regulars pressed him to make one, commercially available, for their Teslas. My father asked me to put together a splash page on the web for those interested, a wait list of sorts. It grew, quickly, to a few hundred names.

“Well, I guess I can’t just build only one in my garage … it looks like we’ll have to start a business here,” he told me. And so, in 2013, EVANNEX was born.

Wait, a father-son business? Could something like this work? Could Tesla grow into anything beyond a niche automaker? I didn’t blink an eye — I took the plunge. My father rarely gets anything wrong. Rumor has it, according to my grandmother, he got one question wrong on his entire SAT test. Later, he got a PhD in mechanical engineering — graduating (ahem) summa cum laude.

Roger (middle) and his two sons Mike and Matt, me. (Image: EVANNEX)

So, sure enough, my dad was right. Tesla took off. A few years later, we recruited my brother Mike. He moved his whole family from Los Angeles and also took the plunge. Let’s do it, we thought, a business built around the mission of Tesla. Risky? Sure. But Tesla was gaining traction. And we, as a family, were in this together.

It’s been a wild ride. My father is, needless to say, the heart and soul of our business. And our lives. We can’t thank him enough for this amazing adventure.

Now we all drive a Tesla. My mom drives her Model X to the office so she can help out, too. We think it’s wonderful to build a family business. And it’s pretty cool to be involved in a larger Tesla family that’s growing, every day, all over the world.

This Father’s Day, Dad, we just wanted to extend our overwhelming thanks, appreciation, and gratitude for everything you do. Lots of love, Matt and Mike.


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Matt Pressman

Matt is all about Tesla. He’s a TSLA investor, and he loves driving the family's Model 3, Model S, and Model X company cars. As co-founder of EVANNEX, a family business specializing in aftermarket Tesla accessories, he’s served as a contributor/editor of Electric Vehicle University (EVU) and the Owning Model S and Getting Ready for Model 3 books. He writes daily about Tesla and you can follow his work on the EVANNEX blog.

Matt Pressman has 332 posts and counting. See all posts by Matt Pressman