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The Thesis
Son bet that Jack Ma and Alibaba would become the Amazon of China, investing $20 million after a six-minute meeting during the depths of the dot-com bust.
The Story
In 2000, at the height of the dot-com crash when internet companies were being left for dead, Masayoshi Son of SoftBank met Jack Ma for just six minutes and decided to invest $20 million in Alibaba. Ma hadn't even pitched — Son said he could see the determination in his eyes and understood the enormous potential of e-commerce in China, a market of over a billion people that was just beginning to come online. Most investors at the time wanted nothing to do with internet companies, especially unproven ones in China.
That $20 million investment became the single greatest venture capital bet in history. When Alibaba went public in 2014 in the largest IPO ever at the time, SoftBank's stake was worth over $60 billion — a 3,000x return. At its peak, the investment was worth over $100 billion, more than covering every other loss SoftBank would ever take. Son's conviction in the Chinese internet market and his ability to judge entrepreneurs — backing people, not just business plans — created one of the most extraordinary returns in the annals of investing.
Key Insight
Sometimes the best investment decisions come from backing extraordinary people, not spreadsheets — character and determination matter more than financial models.
“I think the key to being a successful investor is to have conviction in your ideas.”
Masayoshi Son
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See how Glen Bradford applies these principles to his own investing. Long Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac junior preferred — conviction meets patience.