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

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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**Thread on Bravery of Sikhs**
(I am forced to do this due to continuous hounding of Sikh Extremists since yesterday)

Rani Jindan Kaur, wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh had illegitimate relations with Lal Singh (PM of Ranjit Singh). Along with Lal Singh, she attacked Jammu, burnt - https://t.co/EfjAq59AyI


Hindu villages of Jasrota, caused rebellion in Jammu, attacked Kishtwar.

Ancestors of Raja Ranjit Singh, The Sansi Tribe used to give daughters as concubines to Jahangir.


The Ludhiana Political Agency (Later NW Fronties Prov) was formed by less than 4000 British soldiers who advanced from Delhi and reached Ludhiana, receiving submissions of all sikh chiefs along the way. The submission of the troops of Raja of Lahore (Ranjit Singh) at Ambala.

Dabistan a contemporary book on Sikh History tells us that Guru Hargobind broke Naina devi Idol Same source describes Guru Hargobind serving a eunuch
YarKhan. (ref was proudly shared by a sikh on twitter)
Gobind Singh followed Bahadur Shah to Deccan to fight for him.


In Zafarnama, Guru Gobind Singh states that the reason he was in conflict with the Hill Rajas was that while they were worshiping idols, while he was an idol-breaker.

And idiot Hindus place him along Maharana, Prithviraj and Shivaji as saviours of Dharma.