Gunther

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[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

In 2011, a Bloomberg reporter told Elon Musk that BYD was ramping up electric car production, and that Warren Buffett owned 10%. Musk laughed before he answered.

"Have you seen their car?"

The reporter had seen BYD's cars at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting. He brought up the lower price. Musk wasn't impressed.

"I don't think they have a great product."

Not particularly attractive. The technology was not very strong. Their focus, he said, should be "making sure they don't die in China."

In 2025, BYD sold 2,256,714 battery electric cars. Tesla delivered 1,636,129.

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

Matt Damon turned down a $250,000,000 offer from James Cameron for the lead role in Avatar.

In 2006, Cameron called Damon about starring in a sci-fi film called Avatar.

Cameron wanted a proven A-lister for the lead role. He offered Damon 10% of the film’s entire box office gross.

But Damon was finishing The Bourne Ultimatum. Taking the role in Avatar meant leaving post-production and walking out on director Paul Greengrass and his crew.

Damon said no.

Cameron told him: "This movie doesn't need a star. If you pass, I'll discover some unknown guy."

The role went to Sam Worthington for scale.

Avatar went on to gross nearly $2.9B worldwide. Damon’s 10% cut would have earned him roughly $250 million.

Damon still jokes: "You will never meet an actor who turned down more money."

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@0xLedgerlab I wonder if the film would have become popular without Stallone?

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@ergodonx betting on yourself works better with leverage

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

Jamie Dimon called Bitcoin buyers stupid when it was trading at around $4,000.

Bitcoin went on to rise over 1,500% after that speech.

In 2017, JPMorgan's CEO compared it to the 17th-century tulip bubble.

He said he would fire any of his traders who bought it:

"I would fire them in a second. For two reasons: it's against our rules, and they are stupid."

Listen to how certain he sounds. The head of one of the world's biggest banks saw the asset as a fraud and its buyers as fools.

JPMorgan later became an authorized participant for BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF.

Dimon's own bank now builds blockchain systems for institutional clients.

First they mock you, then they take a 1% management fee on your asset.

Did Wall Street finally lose to Bitcoin, or just take control of it?

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@0xLedgerlab did any of those friendships change after the money, especially between friends with different financial situations?

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

Ryan Reynolds paid Deadpool's writers from his own salary so they could stay on set.

He had spent nearly a decade trying to get the first film made. When Fox finally approved it, he still couldn't get the studio to pay for Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to be there during filming.

The two writers had worked on the script with him for at least six years. Reynolds wanted to keep that team together while they shot it.

"I took the little salary I had left and paid them to be on set with me so we could form a de facto writers room," he told The New York Times.

Reese and Wernick confirmed it back in 2016: Fox wouldn't pay for them to be on set. Reynolds paid out of his own pocket.

He later said he hadn't been expecting a hit when the film was approved.

In the interview below, he talks about what the small budget forced them to do. Tim Miller, he says, "squeezed $10 out of every dollar they gave us."

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

Ryan Reynolds paid Deadpool's writers from his own salary so they could stay on set.

He had spent nearly a decade trying to get the first film made. When Fox finally approved it, he still couldn't get the studio to pay for Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to be there during filming.

The two writers had worked on the script with him for at least six years. Reynolds wanted to keep that team together while they shot it.

"I took the little salary I had left and paid them to be on set with me so we could form a de facto writers room," he told The New York Times.

Reese and Wernick confirmed it back in 2016: Fox wouldn't pay for them to be on set. Reynolds paid out of his own pocket.

He later said he hadn't been expecting a hit when the film was approved.

In the interview below, he talks about what the small budget forced them to do. Tim Miller, he says, "squeezed $10 out of every dollar they gave us."

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@mrcsxbt brad pitt selling more tickets explains his fee, it doesnt explain resetting her value every time

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@0xLedgerlab schultz had the easier pitch in hindsight, but shaq had to bet real money before those lines existed, and thats the part these stories skip

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

Five billionaire investors laughed at a guy selling a Wi-Fi doorbell. They passed on a company that later sold for over $1 billion.

Watch Jamie Siminoff pitch DoorBot on Shark Tank in 2013. He asked for $700,000 for 10% of his company. That put its value at $7 million.

Look at how the Sharks smile and brush off his idea. They make fun of the design. They joke that thieves will just steal the doorbell. They tell him he can't compete with big tech companies.

Siminoff left without a deal, close to tears. His company was running out of money.

He didn't quit. He changed the name from DoorBot to Ring.

Five years later:
amazon bought Ring for over $1 billion.
siminoff returned to Shark Tank as a billionaire guest judge, sitting next to the investors who had turned him down.

Even the smartest investors can be wrong 90% of the time.

What is the greatest comeback story in startup history?

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@stevencheng Yes, like many businesspeople

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

Five billionaire investors laughed at a guy selling a Wi-Fi doorbell. They passed on a company that later sold for over $1 billion.

Watch Jamie Siminoff pitch DoorBot on Shark Tank in 2013. He asked for $700,000 for 10% of his company. That put its value at $7 million.

Look at how the Sharks smile and brush off his idea. They make fun of the design. They joke that thieves will just steal the doorbell. They tell him he can't compete with big tech companies.

Siminoff left without a deal, close to tears. His company was running out of money.

He didn't quit. He changed the name from DoorBot to Ring.

Five years later:
amazon bought Ring for over $1 billion.
siminoff returned to Shark Tank as a billionaire guest judge, sitting next to the investors who had turned him down.

Even the smartest investors can be wrong 90% of the time.

What is the greatest comeback story in startup history?

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@muxapes would the judge have treated those photos differently if he hadnt been able to repay creditors so quickly?

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

Steve Ballmer laughed at the iPhone in 2007.

"$500? Fully subsidized? With a plan? That is the most expensive phone in the world. And it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard."

Microsoft's CEO saw the price and the missing keyboard as reasons Apple would struggle. Physical buttons were familiar to business customers. A phone without them looked like a bad fit.

Microsoft already had Windows Mobile. Apple was asking people to give up those buttons for a bigger touchscreen.

Look at how that worked out:
• Windows Phone is dead.
• The iPhone generates over $200 billion in annual revenue.

Ballmer's objection is what makes the clip. He singled out the missing keyboard as a weakness. The industry went on to adopt that design.

Which feature are companies defending today that customers would happily give up?

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

Tim Cook's answer to an Android video complaint: "Buy your mom an iPhone."

At the Code Conference in 2022, a journalist told Apple's CEO he couldn't properly send videos to his mom because she had an Android phone.

Cook didn't offer a fix for sending videos between the two platforms. He told him to buy her a different phone.

The exchange got a laugh. It also gave critics a clear example of the problem: someone asked why two phones couldn't work better together, and Apple's CEO suggested buying another Apple device.

The US Department of Justice later quoted Cook's words in its antitrust complaint against Apple. Apple has since added RCS support, improving messaging between iPhones and Android phones.

The joke is easy to remember. So is the proposed solution: your mom needs to buy into the same ecosystem.

How much inconvenience is acceptable to keep people inside Apple's ecosystem?

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@quroolarc a truly strong response

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

Tim Cook's answer to an Android video complaint: "Buy your mom an iPhone."

At the Code Conference in 2022, a journalist told Apple's CEO he couldn't properly send videos to his mom because she had an Android phone.

Cook didn't offer a fix for sending videos between the two platforms. He told him to buy her a different phone.

The exchange got a laugh. It also gave critics a clear example of the problem: someone asked why two phones couldn't work better together, and Apple's CEO suggested buying another Apple device.

The US Department of Justice later quoted Cook's words in its antitrust complaint against Apple. Apple has since added RCS support, improving messaging between iPhones and Android phones.

The joke is easy to remember. So is the proposed solution: your mom needs to buy into the same ecosystem.

How much inconvenience is acceptable to keep people inside Apple's ecosystem?

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@MarkTaylormmh Interesting, that email makes the whole strategy pretty clear

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@quroolarc selling to bezos made sense until you remember netflix was already growing despite the losses

[Gunther @GuntherWrite]

@MarkTaylormmh the accountants deserve scrutiny, but spending $2m a month was hardly invisible