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Yuri Milner: From Russia With Billions

Yuri Milner: From Russia With Billions

Great Business Stories vor 3 Monaten

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29:46

I've wanted to cover Milner ever since I first came across him in
Sebastian Mallaby's excellent book, The Power Law, where Mallaby
introduces Milner with the following:

"At the start of 2009, the CFO at Facebook took a call from
Moscow. A soft Russian voice announced that he wanted to invest
in Facebook. The caller had a gentle but insistent style. He had
a slight build, a nose bent to his right, and an oval face
crowned by a smooth dome. He wanted to meet in person. Facebook
did not accept capital from just anyone." The CFO told Milner
bluntly: "Don't come all the way here just to see me." Milner
booked a plane ticket, flew to San Francisco, and more or less
doorstepped the CFO.

This is the story of how this small, quietly spoken Russian goes
from earning just $5 a month to reaching the very peak of Silicon
Valley, investing in Facebook at a valuation that US investors
thought was crazy, becoming one of Mark Zuckerberg's most trusted
friends and advisors, and then going on to make huge and very
successful investments in Spotify, Zynga, and Revolut, to name
just a few. Along the way, Milner navigates his way through the
oligarch-infested pools of Russian business, survives all of the
political and media backlash that comes from the revelation that
much of his early money came from entities closely linked to the
Kremlin, and has come out the other side still riding high with a
personal fortune of $8.7 billion. It's a cracking story—enjoy.