Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who do you seek out? Birds of a feather with whom to weep about your own misfortune? The stupid ones whom you can easily brainwash for fun and profit? The ugly ones next to whom you look sexier than by yourself? The weak ones whom you can rule over? The quiet ones over whom your voice is heard? The short ones over whom you can tower over? Perhaps you seek out neither of the above, but I knew a few too many people who…
How about reaching for power and glory without seeing people around you as mere objects with favorable and unfavorable attributes? Reaching for power with integrity has its own set of rewards. Credibility for one. People with attitudes like yours are destined to be used and discarded. Because a man of true power knows not to trust such and also knows that using the same standards on people that they use themselves is…
How Russian Tycoon Yuri Milner Bought His Way Into Silicon Valley
101–107 of 107 posts
Re: How Russian Tycoon Yuri Milner Bought His Way Into Silicon Valley
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Valley doesn't care about a person's ethnicity, as long as they generated their wealth through legitimate means. Milner, on the other hand, is nothing more than a frontman for Alisher Usmanov, who basically accrued everything through wholescale theft of state resources. Basically, Milner is a crook, and if there was any justice in the world he and Usmanov would be in jail for what they have done. But there isn't,…
VCs are not so high minded that they're offended by who his LPs are, believe me. The reason VCs don't like Yuri is that he is disturbing the cosy world they formerly inhabited by offering more founder friendly terms. So morally the situation is not as simple as your comment implies.
Re: How Russian Tycoon Yuri Milner Bought His Way Into Silicon Valley
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
This was very well said and I hope entrepreneurs at least stop to think about this before accepting his money.
It was phrased in dramatic language. To be well said it would also have to be true.
Pg it~s time yo returm the $$$$ back you sold you sole and sold out Nuff Said
Re: How Russian Tycoon Yuri Milner Bought His Way Into Silicon Valley
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure if serious... We are talking extremely corrupt societies here. Saying that one does not need money at all - would imply that this someone is a member of top of the top of a corrupt regime, thus having anything one would desire available at mere whim (due to sheer terror one's position instills in others). But for everybody else - money (or another medium of exchange) is essential to get basic services or ind…
I can't agree about late USSR being "extremelly correct society". It wasn't on the whole, not much more than current USA is one (I should agree that I probably not qualified to appraise the latter). I don't say he is an ascet. I'm just saying that he isn't motivated by being able to buy a huge house or a shiny car. And he probably wasn't, never in his life. They just come organically because of other, real things he…
Re: How Russian Tycoon Yuri Milner Bought His Way Into Silicon Valley
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
VCs are not so high minded that they're offended by who his LPs are, believe me. The reason VCs don't like Yuri is that he is disturbing the cosy world they formerly inhabited by offering more founder friendly terms. So morally the situation is not as simple as your comment implies.
I care very much where an investors money comes from
Re: How Russian Tycoon Yuri Milner Bought His Way Into Silicon Valley
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The reason VCs don't like Yuri is that he is disturbing the cosy world they formerly inhabited by offering more founder friendly terms." I greatly respect and admire you pg, and god knows you're far more intelligent than I am, but surely you can't be so naive as to think that Milner is doing what he is doing out of some altruism for founders? He is spending outlandish amounts on startups for the same reason Abramovi…
Pg is implying that Yuri's LPs are no more questionable than the LPs of the top VC firms in the Valley. They've all taken dubious money.
Re: How Russian Tycoon Yuri Milner Bought His Way Into Silicon Valley
#107If there's one mistake this story makes, it's in trying to come up with complicated theories about why Yuri does well. He's simply smart. That's what DST has in common with Andreessen Horowitz, though they have little else in common.
People like Milner and others associated with Russian oligarchs spend lavishly because the money they have came with no sacrifice on their part. The sacrifice came from all those miners working in subzero temperatures in the Kazakh steppe for kopeks a day, their bodies broken down prematurely, with the share of wealth that was promised to them stolen away. And instead of those who betrayed them being brought to justice, they instead depart to the West where they are greeted with applause by those who mistake cunningness with intelligence.