Teen Offered $5,000 By Elon Musk To Stop Tracking His Jet Receives Job Offer
A 19-year-old who received a $5,000 (£3,699) offer from Elon Musk to close a Twitter account that was tracking his private jet has now turned the scenario into a job opportunity.
Private jet business Stratos Jet Charters offered Jack Sweeney a place on its tech development team after hearing of his venture, according to the New York Post.
Elon Musk had warned the University of Central Florida (UCF) student his unique side hustle was creating a security risk last year.
Sweeney said: “It was pretty cool. They’re (Stratos Jet Charters) UCF alumni, so it’s pretty interesting.
"There’s just a lot of UCF that think it’s cool.”
Stratos Jet Charters is based in Florida and competes with other private jet businesses Wheels Up and NetJets.
But Sweeney is yet to decide whether he'll accept the offer while he continues his education at UCF and works part-time as an app developer for private charter firm UberJets.
Stratos CEO and UCF alum Joel Thomas confirmed he had approached Sweeney about work at the company because of his apparent creativity.
The UCF student's knowledge of flight tracking data could help Thomas's business predict flight times with better accuracy.
The CEO said he was open to working with the teenager on a part-time, full-time, internship, or project basis.
Sweeney's account @ElonJet uses public data to track the billionaire founder of Tesla.
He countered Musk's $5,000 offer last November asking for $50,000 plus an internship at Tesla but Musk refused.
Sweeney also tracks the flights of jets owned by other billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates but has no plans to request internships or money from them.
Over 200,000 people follow the @ElonJet account since Sweeney received Musk's message in his inbox.
And perhaps the attention p***ed the Tesla founder off, as he's now blocked Sweeney's personal Twitter account.
Sweeney said: “He didn’t have to block me. I can get why he’s mad.
"Some of them, they don’t like the news, so if it’s all over the news, you can totally see why he would be like that.”
Musk attempted to make the tracking of his jet more difficult when he discovered Sweeney's Twitter account but the university student is still able to do it.
For his part, Sweeney has said that whilst it is more complicated now, it is definitely still possible.
We haven't heard the last of this kid, that's for damn sure.
Charlie Metcalfe