Unofficial list of the 16 greatest investments ever

(Minimum gain of $1B)

1/ The best of the best

Naspers - Tencent (2001): $32m -> $250B (7800x)
Softbank - Alibaba (2000): $20m -> $100B (5000x)

2/ The Facebook winners

Saverin - FB (2004): $15k --> $14B (866,666x)
Peter Theil - FB (2004): $500k --> $1B (2000x)

3/ The Google winners

Sequoia/Kleiner - GOOGL (1999): $13m --> $20B (1500x)
Jeff Bezos - Google (1998): $250k --> $5B (20,000x)
Andy Bechrolsheim - Google (1998): $100k --> $1.5B (15,000x)

4/ The "Friends & Family" winners

Jackie & Mike Bezos - Amazon (1995): $250k --> $20B - $60B (80,000x to 240,000x)
Bruce McKean (Tobi's father-in-law) - Shopify (2007): ~$200k --> $7B (35,000x)
John & Cathy Phillips - Shopify (2007-09): $750k --> $4.4B (6000x)

5/ Other bangers

SIG-Bytedance (2012): $5m --> $15B (3000x)
Steve Jobs - Pixar (1986): $5m --> $7.4B (1480x)
Ruby Lu - Kuaishou: $40m --> $12B (300x)
FB - IG (2012): $1B -> $250B (250x)
GOOGL - YT: $1.6B --> $300B (200x)
eBay - Paypal (2002): $1.5B --> $100B (70x)

6/ Will prob have to update this after y'all shred it.

Either way, FOLLOW me for dumb memes and business tomfoolery: @TrungTPhan

7/ PS: People will prob disagree with the Eduardo Saverin one.

Not really an “investment”.

Saverin got a material FB stake for depositing $15k in a checking account to pay for servers:

8/ PPS: The lesson here, hold onto your winners and don't be like GS. https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1376594847591620608?s=20

9/ Crypto winners

Novogratz-Ether (2015): $500k --> $10B (2000x)
Winklevii-BTC (2013): $11m --> $5.5B (500x)

10/ Elon’s bets on himself

Tesla: $70m --> $120B (1714x)
SpaceX: $100m --> $40B (400x)

11/ For people asking about Bezos and Google

12/ Regarding @elonmusk , assuming these ballpark stakes

21% Tesla
54% SpaceX https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1378026819329290243

13/ Someone good at math needs to do the Y Combinator bets, too

14/ Elon’s rule for investing: significant skin in the game.

CC: @nntaleb https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1378139804647313411