Former SOFTBANK CFO: My Honest Experience Working With Masayoshi Son | Alok Sama | The Neon Show скачать в хорошем качестве

Former SOFTBANK CFO: My Honest Experience Working With Masayoshi Son | Alok Sama | The Neon Show

From software distributor to the world’s largest tech-focused venture capital fund. This company’s journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. Yes, Softbank– The man behind it is Masayoshi Son, often referred to as Masa. Growing up in southern Japan as part of a Korean family, Masa faced significant discrimination. His family struggled financially. His father worked at restaurants, farms, and fisheries. Despite the hardships, Masa showed an early knack for bold ideas. At just ten years old, he proposed a clever strategy to save his family’s struggling coffee shop: give away free coffee. The catch? Customers would come for the coffee but stay to buy pastries. In 1972, he met one of his idols, Den Fujita, the founder of McDonald's Japan. Fujita encouraged Masa to study in the United States. At 16, Masa moved to California, drawn by the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley. Here he developed a passion for technology and innovation. Before he turned 21 years old, Son sold his first company— a multilingual translator bought by Sharp for about $1 million. Masa returned to Japan and founded SoftBank as a software distribution company. In 1995, Masa made one of his first bold investments— a $100 million for a 30% stake in Yahoo. This helped SoftBank enter the U.S. market and establish Yahoo Japan, which became hugely successful. In 1999, Masa made an even bigger move, investing $20 million in Alibaba, a year-old e-commerce startup. At the time, few believed in the potential of e-commerce in China. But Masa’s belief paid off. Over 23 years, that investment turned into a $72 billion gain, making it one of the most successful tech investments ever. SoftBank continued to back some of the biggest names in tech, including Uber, WeWork, Slack, and DoorDash In 2014, he brought in Alok Sama who had a key role in some of SoftBank’s biggest successes, like the $32 billion acquisition of ARM and the $59 billion Sprint-T-Mobile merger. He also helped SoftBank make big moves in India, investing in companies like Ola and Snapdeal. In this episode of the NEON Show, Alok Sama, a former President and CFO of SoftBank, takes us behind the scenes of his journey at SoftBank, where he played a crucial role in shaping the group's global investments and strategy. Alok shares insights into working alongside Masayoshi Son, the dynamics of managing the Vision Fund, and the challenges of betting on transformative entrepreneurs. Check out Alok Sama’s book, The Money Trap: Lost Illusions Inside the Tech Bubble https://www.amazon.in/Money-Trap-Alok... 0:00 - Trailer 1:13 - Alok’s career, and Money Trap. 2:20 - Transition to SoftBank and the motivation behind Money Trap. 3:29 - what Alok thinks about Nikesh Arora and Masayoshi Son. 5:07 - Masayoshi Son’s visionary mindset and why Alok admired him. 6:40 - Why Alok values intellectual curiosity in people and himself. 7:50 - Alok’s entrepreneurial journey post-Morgan Stanley. 09:30 - The meaning behind Money Trap and reflections on money. 12:30 - Masa Son’s struggle growing up and the freemium coffee model. 17:00 - Alok’s last year at SoftBank and decision to leave. 18:08 - Alok’s relationship with Nikesh Arora. 20:10 - Delhi roots, and family time. 21:20 - Alok's view on vulnerabilities 27:20 - Masa Son’s character and commitment to backing entrepreneurs fully. 31:10 - Valuation lessons in technology investments 34:20 - Son’s early bets on AI and his timing challenges. 37:30 - Joined SoftBank to impress Alok’s teenage son and connect with family. 40: 10 - experience of writing a book 43:10 - Masa’s thesis on India ------------- Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys. Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes. We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings. ------------- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram:   / theneonshoww   LinkedIn:   / beneon   Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww Connect with Siddhartha on: LinkedIn:   / siddharthaahluwalia   Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7 ------------- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.