Val Katayev

Immigrant. Started at $0. Bootstrapped to $100M+ in profits & exits. Funded $1.7B of credit. Serial entrepreneur in adtech, music, fintech, jewelry, SaaS, RE.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

I've generated over $1 billion in sales using ONE strategy.

Used it in every recession - 2000, 2009, and 2020.

I've never shared it publicly before.

This thread might make you a millionaire.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@espn This is so cool.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@noahsfriedman Hahaha.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

The Knicks are just demoralizing these teams. Let’s make it 11 game streak! NYC is ready to erupt.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@noahsfriedman At least you didn’t cry as a kid when Reggie dropped 8 points in 8 seconds on us in 1995.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

It’s very humbling visiting the Normandy memorial sites including Omaha and Utah beaches. Was nice to see the level of care they were given.

[Danny Deraney @DannyDeraney]

Every year, I share this video of French caretakers who take sand from Omaha Beach in Normandy, and scrub them into the letters to give them the gold coloring.

They do this for all 9,386 US soldiers who died.

France also gave us this land as American soil. #MemorialDayWeekend

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

When you live on an island…

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@RenshuBTC I have not used Codex at all. Been hearing a lot about it.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

Is OpenAI becoming Yahoo to Anthropic’s Google?

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

Looks like our entire GDP is flying to China right now.

[The Kobeissi Letter @KobeissiLetter]

This is absolutely insane.

President Trump is currently flying to China with all of the following people to request "deals" with China's President Xi:

1. Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX CEO
2. Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO
3. Tim Cook, Apple CEO
4. Larry Fink, BlackRock CEO
5. Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone CEO
6. Kelly Ortberg, Boeing CEO
7. Brian Sikes, Cargill CEO
8. Jane Fraser, Citigroup CEO
9. Larry Culp, General Electric CEO
10. David Solomon, Goldman Sachs CEO
11. Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron CEO
12. Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm CEO

President Trump also says there are "many other" CEOs joining him on the trip who have not yet been disclosed.

Never in history has such a trip even remotely near this scale and caliber occurred.

This Trump-Xi meeting is far bigger than most realize.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@tapankataria Sold majority of it in high 20s and low 30s. Feeling the pain with what remains.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@FarroYossi @shaunmmaguire @sequoia Legend

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@BigBrainBizness So good.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@jamfit7 Yep

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

This is so good.

When I was young, a more experienced person wanted me to be CEO. I said “are you sure it shouldn’t be you running the company? “

His answer was “Val, I’ll take a bet on you batting over 500 all day long”.

The company made a $10m+ net profit in its first year of existence.

[Big Brain Business @BigBrainBizness]

Byron Allen, Founder of Allen Media Group, explains how treating business like a contact sport unlocks unlimited capital:

Byron once borrowed $310 million on a Friday to acquire the Weather Channel. He paid it back in five months.

When the lender hit him with a $28 million prepayment penalty for closing too quickly, he paid that too.

His philosophy on why capital is never the real obstacle:

"Business is a contact sport. You're nothing more than economic athletes. They will see your passion. They will see your stats. And they will always want you on their team because you make them money."

The framing shift here is everything.

Byron sees founders as athletes whose performance is being evaluated by people who need them to win.

"You have unlimited amounts of capital available to you if your hustle is at the highest level."

@RealByronAllen drives the point home:

"Keep your hustle at the highest level because capital is always looking for you to get the money back and a return. There's trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars of capital looking for you. Go get it."

The takeaway: Capital is hunting for operators who can put up the stats. Hustle at the highest level, and the money will find you.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@KobeissiLetter These goals are out of this world.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

Anyone in my network from @Klarna and @Affirm ? Looking to integrate BNPL to our POS for jewelry retail stores.

Our startup, Luxe Software added $600M in GMV in the last year. Will be $1 billion by EOY.

@klarnaseb @mlevchin DM's open.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@dobroum Sounds about right

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@aussieflya At actually very high IQ post

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

That did 2.2M views. I need another useless post. Only those go viral lately.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

Took a Delta flight from NYC to Caribbean.

They overbooked it so Delta started to offer $$ for 4 seats to move to the next available flight. Legally they must keep going up until someone takes it.

Here’s the outcome:

1st person took $400 (flight available in 3 hours)

2nd and 3rd around $1500-2000 (I think also booked to flight 3 hours later)

The 4th seat took a long time to find a taker….offer kept going up. This one was a rebook to next day morning flight.

$2500 - no taker
$3000 - no taker
$4000 - no taker
$5000 - no taker
$6000 - no taker

It took $7,000 for someone in economy to give up a day.

[Val Katayev @ValKatayev]

@masterdiverhrsh Yeah, definitely a bummer when better value gets less love.