He stood before the fireplace in Gold and Bitcoin have obvious differencesone is physical whereas the other is digital; one has been around for millennia whereas the other wouldnt legally be able to drink if it were a personbut they share some important similarities that might appeal to the same investors. included the late Joe Robert, a close friend of Saylors. His thesis presented a mathematical model for an Italian Renaissance city-state. both assets fit the definitions of money. is software, not hardware. He did allow if you own a diamond Verified. As of June, MicroStrategy reported holding more than 105,000 bitcoins, which at todays prices would be valued at approximately $4.8 billion. Winning a $10 million contract from McDonalds to develop applications for analyzing the effectiveness of its promotions furnished an early boost. From his early days, Saylor has been an unusual blend of a deep intellectual and a carnival barker. 1 Saylor has. Should investors follow Saylor's lead? Mr. In fact, he may even be chasing them. Here are ten fast facts about this multimillionaire you should know: 1. Argentina has a population of 45 million, while Switzerland can claim roughly 8.6 million citizens. Ideally, Bitcoin can protect investors from two critical problems of the fiat-based financial system. Despite the violent ups and downs, hes been right some of the time. On Friday night, after a private dinner in the Long Room of the City Tavern Club with about twenty of his closest friends (including Senator Mark Warner), Saylor descended on the party that was. This phenomenon suggests a Saylor premium: that the CEOs charismatic salesmanship is converting hordes of believer-shareholders to his vision. MicroStrategy Chair Michael Saylor accused of evading $25 million in taxes by DC attorney general. Still, theres more good here than bad. The danger is that by putting its assets in harms way, and undermining its formerly profitable core business, he destroys immense value for his shareholders. Investors who are new to crypto should be aware that this asset class is still very volatile. The problem? Hes got the ability to see the future, says a former associate. Sign up for theFortune Features email list so you dont miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews, and investigations. Take a look at the following table, which shows each assets standard deviation for the one-year period. appreciation for talent, beauty, and means. 2008-2023 SoftNews Net SRL Obviously not. At the NASDAQ later that morning, MicroStrategys stock popped 100% from the offering price to garner an almost $1 billion valuation. So impressed were the notoriously tough gatekeepers from Fidelity, the worlds largest fund purveyor, that winning their commitment, in Saylors words, amounted to a slam dunk.. Saylor, once the richest person in Washington, D.C., lost an estimated six billion in a single day during. Update Registration. According to Forbes, he would make billions again through bitcoin investments. Saylor suggests we should think of Bitcoin in this way. Data source: YCharts Gold Price in U.S. When he introduced Saylor before the fireplace, he said of his Ok, but what does scarcity get you? MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor Podcast interview Michael Saylor is no stranger to the limelight. How to get in? Close. More and More Women Are Paying Alimony to Failure-to-Launch Ex-Husbands. For a man whose public persona is unapologetically extravagant, Saylor remains comparatively quiet about his day-to-day functions as a chief executive. Ideas might come from his interactions with celebrities on boats and at exclusive parties, said one former employee who worked directly with Saylor. There are no shortage of critics predicting Saylors experiment will end in grief. CEOs have a prerogative to enjoy the fruits of their labor, but not at the cost of running their business, said Gil Simon, the portfolio manager for technology and entertainment at Apex Capital, a large shareholder that has been critical of MicroStrategys performance and has called on Saylor to step aside. Many CEOs wouldnt have kept a seat at the head of the table, but then again, Michael Saylor isnt a typical CEO. Further, the Bitcoin networks energy consumption is negligible relative to total global consumption. That moonshot added $1.8 billion to its market cap, more than four times the amount the Bitcoin on its books swelled in value. about technology, he said. Its impossible to tell whether this elevator is heading for the penthouse or the sub-basement. Following the recent departures of Sanju Bansal and imminent exit of Matt Calkins, there will be a dearth of both software and public company experience among the remaining board members. The thing that's stuck with me was even years ago Michael Saylor was seen as some kind of genius, way ahead of his time and just fucking crazy smart. On CNBC, CNN, Foxs Tucker Carlson Tonight or CoinDesks webcast, Saylor typically appears clad in an open-collared black shirt, sporting a shaggy mop of gray hair, seated before a fireplace at his penthouse apartment on the Georgetown waterfront in Washington, D.C. If MicroStrategy muddles along, the crypto-insanity premium goes away, says Ballentine. Michael Saylor's Birthday Party, DJ Esso filling the space with equally energetic beats. Its two main rivals in the field, Salesforce.com and Microsofts Intelligent Cloud business, home of its Azure product, started later but grew fast, while MicroStrategy flatlined at annual sales in the $500 million range. Saylor was eager to show me some of the software he had Put simply, Saylor is insuring himself, his board, and his executives against shareholder suits because the carriers who usually provide comprehensive coverage consider it too risky. Except that good money is never a speculation. . On Friday night, after a private dinner in the Long Room of the City Tavern Club with about twenty of his closest friends (including Senator Mark Warner), Saylor descended on the party that was brewing in the Great Hall where Burnt Sienna was playing covers of pretty much any song to which you would ever want to dance, andDJ Esso filling the space with equally energetic beats. It was the early hours before MicroStrategys IPO in 1998, but founder Michael Saylor wasnt assuaging big investors or running through projections, or even putting champagne on ice. Same with borrowing. But if the business was less than flashy, Saylors personal life was anything but. Waiters They arent Where it gets interesting is that the Swiss franc is one of the worlds most circulated currencies, while the Argentine peso isnt even the currency of choice in Argentina. Hes now partying really hard in Miami because he has a great house down there now, Brooks said. Instead, hes stuck with loads of debt that bought super-volatile Bitcoin that could become worth a lot less than the debt.. Given the countrys history of devaluation, Argentines go to great lengths to exchange their pesos for dollars as a way of mitigating the horrors of devaluation. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Published Wed, Aug 31 2022 3:21 PM EDT Updated Thu, Sep 1 2022 5:17 AM EDT. Oh, and this one definitely cost way more than 2k. Its unlikely that the price of Bitcoin will drop so low that MicroStrategy wont be able to repay the debt as the bonds and margin loan come due through 2025. 366 following. A year later, 3 grads CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. In the late aughts, he developed a pioneering platform that enabled homes and businesses to monitor security systems over the web called alarm.com. In addition, he floated a $1 billion equity offering in February of 2021, and plowed all the proceeds into Bitcoin. One Fourth of July party at Saylors Washington Harbour penthouse an expansive condo with sweeping views of the Potomac River and quick access to the marina welcomed guests with a bathtub stocked with ice and Veuve Clicquot champagne. Local business reporter and columnist, writing about entrepreneurs and companies in the Washington metropolitan area, Michael Saylor, chief executive of Microstrategy. It was just the two of us, with the The management team had a hard time squaring current cash flow ideas with Michaels ideas. The more spread apart the data, the higher the deviation. Saylors emotional, mercurial style ignites heavy churn in the C-suite, hindering MicroStrategys growth. Many of the men took off their jackets; the women Bitcoin has easily outpaced the S&P 500despite the coin's dramatic decline in 2022. Many agree that Saylor is something of a visionary. Saylor is a The company has two classes of stock, and Saylors ownership of B shares that carry 10 votes versus one for the class A give him 64% of the votes, though he owns just one-fifth of the total shares. In other words, golds value is its immense supply relative to whats discovered. In a surreal twist, though the company announced a gigantic writedown of $918 million on its Bitcoin holdings, MicroStrategys stock soared the day after the news hit, rising 15% to $321 and gaining over $400 million in market cap. Trusted money means the provider of goods and services in exchange for currency will attain roughly equal value for it precisely because theres broad acceptance of the moneys value in the marketplace. Usher, which had been available for charter at $225,000 per week, is a high performance motor yacht built by the renowned Delta Marine shipyard in 2007. Soon clients were paying MicroStrategy hundreds of thousands a year to create easy-to-read charts and grids showing key trends in the types of consumers who preferred different soft drinks or insurance products. And that freedom [is what] creates more growth over time. Two former MicroStrategy managers said the chief executive has been taking longer and longer trips away from the Tysons Corner headquarters in recent years. First, Bitcoin has a limited supply of 21 million coins, a hedge against inflation that continually devalues fiat currency as more is created. Founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner, The Motley Fool helps millions of people attain financial freedom through our website, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show, and premium investing services. Michael Saylor Bitcoin is Hope.com | MicroStrategy Founder & Chairman | twitter @ saylor | free education @ saylor.org. Socialites there are all very excited that Michael Saylor has come to Miami and hes throwing money around Miami. You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. MIT, his alma mater, but nonetheless kept his cocktail-sipping The 86-year-old mansion , dubbed Villa Vecchia, boasts 13 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms spread across 18,006 square feet, according to property records. Critics primarily cite what they see as a lagging stock price share value hasnt crossed the $175 mark in more than 10 years as evidence that MicroStrategy is undervalued compared with its contemporaries in the software and business analytics industries. mine or an oil well, maybe you can ignore software. Well, Now compare that to Bitcoin. Because highly ambitious, educated, and hard-charging MicroStrategy became central to the social networks infrastructure, providing such functions as informing salespeople how much revenue each produces, according to a 2012 Fortune story by David Caplan. He predicted before many that mobile technology was more than just a fad, steering MicroStrategy to make its software accessible through smartphones and tablets. Apex has also objected to the makeup of MicroStrategys board of directors. Photograph by James R. Brantley. Saylor was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. yes. Instead, in his trademark high-pitched delivery, Saylor argues that the world is on the verge of an economic cataclysm, and that Bitcoin represents a haven of stability. Shareholders who bought MicroStrategys stock at depressed prices in recent years are now growing concerned that Saylor and his board of directors arent fixated enough on raising share prices . Meet Michael Saylor, Tech Playboy Who Still Lives Large (Corrected) 26.28K Ryan Tate 05/20/09 04:24PM Filed to: Field Guide Michael Saylor lost a record $6 billion in the tech bubble nine years. To me he was a legend and God on the subject of What Pullback? (Tesla sold most of its Bitcoin holdings in Q2, and retains just one-quarter of its original purchases. wad of keys hanging The dollar is the most circulated currency in the world, by far. He went to MIT on an ROTC scholarship, studying the history of technology, aeronautics, and astronautics. Michael Saylor's Book Party Includes a Master Class on the Tech Future (Pictures) The MicroStrategy CEO schooled guests on where technology is headed at a party for his first book, "The Mobile Wave." Written by Carol Ross Joynt | Published on June 29, 2012 Tweet Share "The Mobile Wave" book party. Third, what happens if MicroStrategy just bumps along much as its doing now? So as early as 2025, if MicroStrategy doesnt have the $650 million in cash, it will need to pay the $500 million and, after satisfying that debt, retire the original 2025 issue for $650 million in cash. By mid-2002, MicroStrategys valuation had dropped to around $40 million, down some 98% from its peak. The throat-clearing that you just endured is a useful way of getting to Michael Saylor, the brilliant founder of MicroStrategy MSTR -0.4%. Precinct Finder. Steven Overly anchored and edited The Washington Post's Innovations blog. @michael_saylor > @elonmusk \_ . The jump deepens the mysterious mythology of Michael Saylor. from his hip, exuding eccentric billionaire chic. GOP Scores Early 2024 Win: N.C. Ruling Likely Hands Party More House Seats . Hmmm. He was speculating. A benign heart murmur grounded his ambitions to become a pilot or astronaut, and after a brief spell as a computer simulation planner at DuPont, Saylor at age 24 cofounded MicroStrategy in 1989 as a consulting firm with two friends from MIT. Bitcoin is the currency of the Internet: a distributed, worldwide, decentralized digital money. could quite identify, which is part of the Saylor mystique. They believe that Saylors trips have resulted in a disconnect from the day-to-day operations. began to see Harvard with new eyes, that the perfect package was Saylor himself famously lost $6 billion in a single day. MicroStrategy was accumulating tons of cashand Saylor fretted that the Feds easy-money policies would severely erode his war chests value by eventually stoking inflation. The MicroStrategy CEO is perhaps best known for losing $6 billion in a single day during. Saylor notably offered use of MicroStrategys software free of charge to Facebook in anticipation that the value in its massive social network would come from data analytics. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. You can make contacts faster there than anywhere else, said the friend. Nor is the software business generating any significant cash, due to the big jump in interest expense. Learn More. importance Thats an important distinction.. Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of a set of data from its mean. One very young blonde girl even danced--almost on stage--giggling at the back of her totally unzipped dress, until a gal pal took several pictures and then helped her zip it back up. Hence, MicroStrategy faces four big threats. Saylor intends to sell memberships starting at $250,000 per year, which will give cardholders access to the 154-footUsher, as well as Saylors other yachts including the 147-foot Feadship Harle, the 87-foot Warren Yacht Moksha, and the 36-foot cruiser Julia. Add to that the fact that they also starred in a popular movie, and youve got the perfect Miami party boat. Its borrowing on terms of under three to six years for financing what it bills as an ultra-long-term investment. CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 19: Actress Rachel Bilson (L) and Michael Saylor attend the "Art of Elysium Paradis Dinner and Party" at Michael Saylor's Yacht, Slip S05 during the 63rd Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2010 in Cannes, France. MicroStrategy bought 6,455 bitcoins for about $150 million in the last . Saylor has also leveraged MicroStrategy so heavily that if the price of Bitcoin drops, it will lack the cash to repay big chunks of debt that could come due as early as 2025. PURCHASE A LICENSE. Among Saylors most infamous parties is his annual Rocktoberfest, a pre-Halloween bash featuring dueling bands and guests dressed as rock stars. In another Frank Talk, I argue that both assets fit the definitions of money. Bitcoin Magazine's first annual survey also found that Bitcoiners value BTC-related policy over party in politics. In Dalios case, though, the Bridgewater Associates founder says that were he given the choice between Bitcoin and gold, he would still pick gold. Bitcoins price stays in the low to mid-$20,000s, and it produces enough cash to pay its interest. Saylors rationale for Bitcoin over gold is new discoveries. The I-fill-a-room approach worked big-time. technology, said Saylor when we talked for half an hour in Hes making a big splash down there.. a decade later, after graduate school at Stanford, that he scruff of beard on his face, he practically paced as he talked, Saylor took the party to NYC the next night, where Courtney Love sang a few songs on stage for the guests. Many of you tuned in this week to watch the conversation between me and Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of business intelligence company MicroStrategy. In his words, The biggest idea here is bitcoin is the first and the only legitimate scarcity in the universe. He would have been a lot better off buying all of his Bitcoin with overpriced stock. According to the rollicking account, Saylor showed so much passion, and presented such a compelling road map for the future of data analytics, that bankers signed on virtually as a leap of faith. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Saylor is also selling seven-day charters through the Florida Keys for $70,000 to $280,000, depending on which yacht you choose. The company risks being effectively insolvent. Georgetown socials sprinkled in and out of the party, some taking the cool neon light up Usher tubes with them to other nearby bars (we spotted a few at Smith Point). But Saylor had an ideaone that would lead to an astounding comeback. Saylor, once the richest person in Washington, D.C., lost an estimated six billion in a single day during the tech bubble in 2000, but has since recovered a fair amount of his fortune. He worked double hard to succeed. Its stock consistently posts increases that far outstrip the dollar gains for the Bitcoin holdings: On June 16, with Bitcoin selling at around $20,300, MicroStrategys shares traded at $161, and its market cap stood at $1.8 billion. The group recognized the internets power for the parsing troves of data that companies collected on their products and markets. By clicking the link(s) above, you will be directed to a third-party website(s). By the time the 11-day 1998 IPO road show rolled around, Saylor had hit his stride, inviting a Washington Post reporter along to chronicle the process. But today, with Bitcoin selling at roughly $23,300 or 26% less, his holdings are worth $3 billion, or $1 billion less than he paid. His backup party vessel, the similarly sized Usher, welcomes guests to art deco and Polynesian-themed staterooms, and offers two on-board margarita machines.