In 2009, an unknown investor from Russia came out of nowhere to make one of the greatest late stage venture bets in the history of Silicon Valley. Why did FB choose an outsider to lead our Series D round? Here’s the inside story:

2 years earlier we famously raised from Microsoft at $15B valuation. That turned out to be a mistake because it set us up for a painful down round. By 2009 growth had slowed and the financial crisis crushed advertising. “Smart money” bids for our Series D were coming in at $3-6B.
We had a high bid at $8B from a respected valley firm, and we had a wildcard bid from Yuri Milner/DST who offered to top any other bid by 20%. We initially chose the reputable firm at a lower price, but they refused to drop a ratchet provision so we decided to give DST a chance.
Yuri understood 2 things that nobody else could see at the time: 1/ He had seen virtual currencies in Eastern Europe and China, believed FB could make money this way. 2/ We were offering secondary shares at 40% discount to preferred, DST was the only firm who valued this.
Yuri not only offered to clear the highest bid by 20%, he also offered to let Zuck vote all of his shares including any secondary shares purchased from early employees. This allowed Zuck to consolidate his voting power.
DST invested $200M in primary at $10B. Then Yuri aggressively went down the cap table and scooped up all of the secondary he could find, ultimately investing another ~$400M at $6B. So his blended cost average was well below the second highest bidder.
Within 6 months, many of the firms who had lost the deal were buying secondary shares on the open market at $15-20B. The price gap between primary and secondary for the best companies in Silicon Valley permanently collapsed after this deal.
Despite our consternation about taking money from an unknown outsider, Yuri and his DST team added a lot of value over the following 10 years. They encouraged us to pursue FB Credits (20% of FB’s revenue before mobile killed that model) and pushed us to go deeper into commerce.
Sometimes it takes an outsider to change the rules of the game.

More from Investing

All my Threads so far 🧵 👇🏼

The One with the Cash Flow Explained


The One with Free Cash Flow Explained


The One with Mutual Funds


The One on Laurus Labs
THE MONEY PRINTING GAME:

A pleb's guide to using @Keeper_DAO's hiding game to acquire $Rook below market price and arb it like a pro.

Before reading this thread, please read this one to provide a bit of context:
https://t.co/jLeUJRIjLG

Here we go!

1/


Before we really get into the meat of this... please do understand that the hiding game is currently in alpha. Hardware wallets don't work w/ it yet (they will soon).

Sometimes orders go unfilled (improving every day).

2/

A bit more context:

Limit orders on an amm aren't limit orders in the traditional sense. They are actually arbitrage opportunities for keepers. Keepers are bots that operate in the dark forest of ethereum.

3/

Now, let's say you use a service like 1inch or matcha to set your limit orders.

Let's say eth is $900 and you want to sell at $1000.

Eth pumps to $1040 rapidly, a keeper fills your limit order for $1000... everyone is happy. But wait... who gets the extra $40 here?

4/

Hint: it's not you! But what if you could?

This is where the hiding game comes in.
https://t.co/6sBlUWfw00

When you submit a limit order through the hiding game, @Keeper_DAO takes the $40 (or w/e amount) referenced above (this is MEV) and pushes it to the treasury.

5/

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Хајде да направимо мали осврт на случај Мика Алексић .

Алексић је жртва енглеске освете преко Оливере Иванчић .
Мика је одбио да снима филм о блаћењу Срба и мењању историје Срба , иза целокупног пројекта стоји дипломатски кор Британаца у Београду и Оливера Иванчић


Оливера Илинчић је иначе мајка једне од његових ученица .
Која је претила да ће се осветити .

Мика се налази у притвору због наводних оптужби глумице Милене Радуловић да ју је наводно силовао човек од 70 година , са три бајпаса и извађеном простатом пре пет година

Иста персона је и обезбедила финансије за филм преко Беча а филм је требао да се бави животом Десанке Максимовић .
А сетите се и ко је иницирао да се Десанка Максимовић избаци из уџбеника и школства у Србији .

И тако уместо романсиране верзије Десанке Максимовић утицај Британаца

У Србији стави на пиједестал и да се Британци у Србији позитивно афирмишу како би се на тај начин усмерила будућност али и мењао ток историје .
Зато Мика са гнушањем и поносно одбија да снима такав филм тада и почиње хајка и претње која потиче из британских дипломатских кругова

Најгоре од свега што је то Мика Алексић изговорио у присуству високих дипломатских представника , а одговор је био да се све неће на томе завршити и да ће га то скупо коштати .
Нашта им је Мика рекао да је он свој живот проживео и да могу да му раде шта хоће и силно их извређао