Tech Billionaires Not Tuning in to HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley?’

Tech entrepreneurs like Elon Musk may not be pleased with HBO’s new satire “Silicon Valley” – but the show’s executive producer says his view on the industry isn’t far off-base.

“First of all, we did an enormous amount of homework. I think we talked to a huge number of people. We talked to VCs, we talked to a lot of startups, we recruited a Stanford compression science professor who has a grad student who did all kinds of graphs and charts for us,” says Alec Berg. In an interview on FBN’s Money with Melissa Francis, Berg argued he has personal insight into the tech scene, given his brother and sister-in-law’s time spent working at Microsoft.

That said, some tech success stories like Musk are reportedly taking issue with the show.

“None of those characters were software engineers. Software engineers are more helpful, thoughtful and smarter,” Musk said to reporters after the show’s premiere, according to recode.

Berg says he finds Musk’s comments laughable, however, given Musk’s vantage point as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.

“I have to imagine that’s sort of like … a supermodel saying that men are very helpful and they open up doors and carry bags for people a lot. In his world, they probably are [helpful,] but I’m not sure that’s an objective opinion,” says Berg.

The show premiered on HBO on Sunday, April 6 at 10 p.m. ET. The first season will run for eight episodes.