TL;DR - Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank is changing venture capital with a massive influx of cash, for better or worse.
Helpfulness - 5
Tags - notable investors, softbank, international, startup valuations
Questions addressed:
- Who is Masayoshi Son?
- What is SoftBank’s approach to early-stage funding?
- How has this impacted the rest of the venture capital ecosystem?
Summary:
- Masayoshi Son founded SoftBank in the 1980s and has had both incredible successes and large failures since then.
- The main vehicle for his current ambitions is the $100B Vision Fund.
- Today SoftBank is under fire for providing the cash to allow unprofitable companies to continue to grow.
- SoftBank is also accused of inflating internet startup valuations.
Follow up links:
- Early-stage startup valuations, https://seedcamp.com/resources/how-does-an-early-stage-investor-value-a-startup/
- Vision Fund losses, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-18/softbank-vision-fund-books-17-7-billion-loss-on-wework-uber
- Rise and fall of WeWork, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-rise-and-fall-of-wework