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Aravind Saji

Incubation Manager |...ย โ€ขย 1y

๐Ÿš€ ๐—”๐—ป ๐Ÿด๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐˜… ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ป ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—บ ๐—ฎ ๐—–๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฑ ๐—˜๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—น? Hereโ€™s the Story Imagine getting an email from a ๐™ง๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™๐™ค๐™ข ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ข๐™ฅ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ฎ with 0.05 Bitcoin attached. Would you trust it? ๐Ÿค” In 2012, ๐‘ฎ๐’‚๐’“๐’“๐’š ๐‘ป๐’‚๐’, a venture capitalist, received exactly that. Most would have ignored it, but Garryโ€™s curiosity pushed him to dig deeper. That single decision became the starting point of an ๐Ÿด๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐˜… ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ป and a $๐Ÿฎ.๐Ÿฐ ๐—•๐—œ๐—Ÿ๐—Ÿ๐—œ๐—ข๐—ก story. Hereโ€™s how it unfolded: ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—•๐—ถ๐—ด ๐—•๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ (๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—น๐˜† ๐—•๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ธ): Through his fund, Initialized Capital, Garry invested $300,000 over three rounds: - $50,000 at a $9M valuation - $50,000 at a $12M valuation - $200,000 during a cash crunch Fast forward to 2021: Coinbase went public at a $๐Ÿญ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ ๐—•๐—œ๐—Ÿ๐—Ÿ๐—œ๐—ข๐—ก ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป. ๐Ÿ’ฐ ๐™๐™š๐™ฉ๐™ช๐™ง๐™ฃ ๐™ค๐™ฃ ๐™„๐™ฃ๐™ซ๐™š๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™ข๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ: ~$2.4 BILLION from $300k. Thatโ€™s ๐Ÿด๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐˜… ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ท๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜ ๐Ÿต ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜€โ€”an annualized return of 170%. --- ๐Ÿ’ก ๐‘ณ๐™š๐’”๐™จ๐’๐™ฃ๐’” ๐’‡๐™ง๐’๐™ข ๐™„๐’๐™ž๐’•๐™ž๐’‚๐™ก๐’Š๐™ฏ๐’†๐™™ ๐˜พ๐’‚๐™ฅ๐’Š๐™ฉ๐’‚๐™กโ€™๐™จ $7๐™ˆ ๐™๐’–๐™ฃ๐’… ๐‘ฐ: Garryโ€™s fund didnโ€™t just bet on Coinbase. It became one of the most successful seed funds of all time: โœ… Early investments in three giants now worth billions: 1๏ธโƒฃ ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ โ€“ $75B 2๏ธโƒฃ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐˜ โ€“ $27B (co-founded by his partner, Alexis Ohanian) 3๏ธโƒฃ ๐—œ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜ โ€“ $11B The key takeaway? ๐™„๐™ฃ ๐™ซ๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™ช๐™ง๐™š ๐™˜๐™–๐™ฅ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™–๐™ก, ๐™ž๐™ฉโ€™๐™จ ๐™ฃ๐™ค๐™ฉ ๐™–๐™—๐™ค๐™ช๐™ฉ ๐™ค๐™ฌ๐™ฃ๐™š๐™ง๐™จ๐™๐™ž๐™ฅโ€”๐™ž๐™ฉโ€™๐™จ ๐™–๐™—๐™ค๐™ช๐™ฉ ๐™—๐™š๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ž๐™ฃ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ง๐™ž๐™œ๐™๐™ฉ ๐™ง๐™ค๐™ค๐™ข ๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ง๐™ž๐™œ๐™๐™ฉ ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ข๐™š. --- ๐Ÿ‘‹ ๐‘พ๐™๐’‚๐™ฉ ๐˜ผ๐’ƒ๐™ค๐’–๐™ฉ ๐™ฉ๐’‰๐™š ๐™Š๐’๐™š ๐™๐’‰๐™–๐’• ๐‘ฎ๐™ค๐’• ๐‘จ๐™ฌ๐’‚๐™ฎ? While Garry hit big wins, he also has a story of regret: In 2004, Peter Thiel (of PayPal and Facebook fame) offered Garry $80,000 to leave Microsoft and co-found ๐™‹๐™–๐™ก๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ง. Palantir eventually revolutionized data security and went public with a valuation of $๐Ÿญ๐Ÿฒ๐Ÿฌ ๐—•๐—œ๐—Ÿ๐—Ÿ๐—œ๐—ข๐—ก. Garry turned down the offer, prioritizing stability over risk. Later, as employee #10, he helped design Palantirโ€™s logo but missed out on $๐Ÿด๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ ๐— ๐—œ๐—Ÿ๐—Ÿ๐—œ๐—ข๐—ก. --- ๐Ÿ”ฅ ๐™†๐™š๐™ฎ ๐™๐™–๐™ ๐™š๐™–๐™ฌ๐™–๐™ฎ๐™จ ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™๐™ค๐™ช๐™ฃ๐™™๐™š๐™ง๐™จ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™„๐™ฃ๐™ซ๐™š๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™ค๐™ง๐™จ: 1๏ธโƒฃ Bold decisions drive outsized returns. Donโ€™t shy away from risks. 2๏ธโƒฃ Curiosity pays off. Sometimes, the โ€œrandom emailโ€ is worth your attention. 3๏ธโƒฃ Regrets? Theyโ€™re inevitable. Learn from them and move forward. So, whatโ€™s the boldest decision YOU have made recently? Drop your stories belowโ€”Iโ€™d love to hear them! ๐Ÿ‘‡

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