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He started from nothing and he's still a billionaire so I wouldn't just dismiss him like that.

He's just a different type of businessman who likes making big risky bets.



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I dunno, everyone considers him sleazy, underhanded, and not trustworthy. If I had a startup and he came to me and wanted to invest unlimited money into my venture, I would tell him to get the hell out. If the opposite was true, and he had a venture that needed investors, I'd pass and go invest in a company ran by people who actually give a damn.

To add to that, he is also not someone with any experience starting from zero. With the exception of his reality tv persona that he parlayed into politics, most every business he has ever tried to build from scratch has failed.

If you read his commments regularly, he comes across as really corporate-minded and risk averse.

There was one post where he talked about how much money he was spending on one of his businesses and for a pretty simple web app it was astounding. Like the exact kind of stuff you see big businesses blowing money on but it’s just one guy.


He created two multi billion dollar companies just by "being lucky"?

I'm skeptical.


This title makes me think he was going a casino and gambling with the companies' money. Then he is using those winnings to create more companies.

I think he's started some great companies. I also don't have much respect for him as a person.

Are we taking billionaires on their word when they're talking about business decisions now? It was probably just a flex for him from the beginning

I think that based on his enthusiasm to invest in Elon's takeover of Twitter he thought he was a big dog. He thinks he's a celebrity billionaire. He's still calling people to invest in his companies, which is like lighting money on fire because it's all going to be withdrawn immediately. He is clueless.

I'm aware. My point was that I don't consider it deception for someone to try and convince people to get rich the same way he or she got rich.

Assuming he only does it because he's an investor is assuming the worst. He can probably only invest in a half dozen companies per year, so encouraging everyone he meets to start companies would be a very indirect Nd unnecessary way of filling the top of that funnel.


while I agree he certainly is not a god, making good investment choices in the startup world is not easy. easy to judge with hindsight on your side

Ooh I can argue against that! I mean, he's clearly not. He's more of a fantastically savvy investor than anything else. The man clearly does not run any of his companies because it's impossible to run 3 companies at once. Don't let him fool you. It is IMPOSSIBLE.

There are clearly far FAR better entrepreneurs in history but if you keep fellating him I'm sure Daddy Elon will love you one day. You got this, don't give up!


On what basis are you claiming that his ventures have an extremely high likelihood of failure?

> He's definitely not in it primarily for the cash.

I don't see any evidence whatsoever for this assertion.


I thought he was put CEO of an existing company that did something. This was just him and some buddies starting a new venture that didn't go anywhere, and they only lost money with it.

I mean, it's far less paradoxical than it sounded at first.


Maybe he is an investor...

No. Because he's a multibillionaire. The scale of his wealth means he doesn't have to care what people think. He can maintain his lifestyle and continue to make various life and business choices despite losing $44b because, overall, it's not that much compared to his overall wealth.

Maybe no one will want to hire him as CEO, if that's what you're referring to. But he can just buy another company if he wants to be CEO of it.


I get the vibe that this guy pays people to write articles labeling him as a billionaire because I see ten things across the web a day about "billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya".

Not saying he is or is not a billionaire but it seems more like a brand that he sells in the way Trump did back in the day.

He doesn't usually have any deep insights when I listen to him talk.


Billionaires are unreasonable. The brand is built. He is not interested in brand building like a startup. He is interested in removing "tyrannical" cruft.

Because he’s a very talented entrepreneur and that’s who investors want to bet on

And yet not as astounding as peoples' desire to see him succeed.

Actions should have consequences. Keep in mind that this is a man with a history of making enormous bets and losing, having previously lost $70 billion out of $78 billion of his own assets in the dotcom crash.

This is other peoples' money he's doing this with. There's that old saying about fool me once...

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