Bingo. The company was Rocket Science Games. https://web.archive.org/web/20121113115319/https://engineeri... says Blank was involved, and one of Musk's internships was also there according to the Musk bio and a few sites listing his internships (simultaneous with Pinnacle, apparently).

That really makes me feel old - I used to work for another gaming company at that time that was pals with Rocket Science. It was not exactly a model of how to run a business - and where I worked was hardly GE. :)

From dubious acorns doth startup management gurus grow.

Wasn't there the story where Musk scolded someone who took off to be at the birth of his child?

This somehow seems relevant - http://nypost.com/2017/05/21/coachs-viral-response-when-aske...

It really sounds fake. Even if Elon really believed that to be true, it would be very dumb to say it.

Musk is also notorious for underpaying his engineers.