Sumit

Documenting lives that changed the world. Tech observer. Occasional thoughts.

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Satya Nadella
> born January 6, 1967, Hyderabad, India
> father a civil servant in the Indian Administrative Service
> mother a Sanskrit lecturer
> Manipal Institute of Technology, electrical engineering, 1988
> moves to the United States
> University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, MS computer science, 1990
> University of Chicago Booth School of Business, MBA, 1997
> Sun Microsystems briefly, then joins Microsoft 1992
> spends 22 years rising through every layer of the company
> VP of Business Solutions, VP of Online Services
> 2011: President of the Server and Tools Division
> quietly builds Azure - Microsoft’s cloud platform
> while the rest of the company is focused on Windows and Office

February 4, 2014:
> named CEO of Microsoft, third in company history
> Steve Ballmer had been CEO for 14 years
> Microsoft’s stock: essentially flat for the entire period
> the narrative everywhere: Microsoft is irrelevant
> Apple has the iPhone, Google has Search and Android
> Amazon Web Services is eating enterprise computing
> most of Silicon Valley has written Microsoft off
> Nadella’s first move: change the culture
> Microsoft’s internal culture under Ballmer:
> competitive to the point of dysfunction
> employees graded against each other - > best way to succeed: make colleagues fail
> Nadella replaces it with “growth mindset”
> Carol Dweck’s concept: talent is not fixed, it is developed
> “learn-it-alls” beat “know-it-alls”
> writes a book about it: Hit Refresh
> half the book is about his son Zain

Zain:
> born 1996, cerebral palsy from birth asphyxia
> legally blind, quadriplegic, cannot walk or speak
> Nadella and his wife Anupama care for him throughout his life
> “Zain is the source of my empathy”
> “having Zain has helped me be a better CEO”
> “when I walk into a room with people who are struggling,
I connect with them differently than I would have otherwise”
> Zain dies in February 2022, age 26
> the family donates $15 million to Seattle Children’s Hospital in his memory

the transformation:
> Azure: from $16.6 billion revenue in 2011 to $75+ billion in 2025
> 2016: Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation as a Platinum member
> the company that once called Linux “a cancer” now runs it on Azure
> 2016: acquires LinkedIn for $26.2 billion
> 2018: acquires GitHub for $7.5 billion - 100 million developers
> 2020: Microsoft Teams - 300 million monthly users during COVID
> 2023: acquires Activision Blizzard for $69 billion
> 2019-2023: invests $13+ billion in OpenAI
> when ChatGPT launches in 2022, Microsoft has the best AI position in the industry

the numbers:
> Microsoft market cap when Nadella became CEO: ~$300 billion
> Microsoft market cap 2026: ~$3 trillion - a 10x increase in 11 years
> 2019: Financial Times Person of the Year
> 2021: named Chairman of Microsoft in addition to CEO
> 2022: Padma Bhushan from the Government of India
> net worth: ~$1.4 billion
> took the company everyone said was finished
> turned it into one of the most valuable in the world

what’s the most underrated CEO in tech history?
👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Satya Nadella
> take over a company whose stock hasn’t moved in 14 years
> everyone says Microsoft is finished
> pivot the entire company to cloud and AI
> market cap: $300 billion to $3 trillion in 11 years
> the greatest corporate turnaround in tech history
> his philosophy came from his son
who was born with cerebral palsy
“he is the source of my empathy”

what’s the most underrated CEO in tech history?
👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

There’s nothing more heartbreaking than seeing your dreams die in front of you and you can’t do anything about it.

Cherish your dreams and do whatever you can to keep them alive. It’s our dreams that make humans different from other animals.

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Lionel Messi
> born June 24, 1987, Rosario, Argentina
> father works in a steel factory, mother cleans houses
> age 5: joins local club Grandoli, coached by his father
> age 6: joins Newell’s Old Boys youth academy
> his grandmother brings him to every training session
> she dies when he is 10
> he points to the sky after every goal he scores from that day forward
> still does it 30 years later

age 10:
> diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency
> without treatment he will likely stop growing
> treatment cost: $900 per month
family cannot afford it
> Newell’s Old Boys agrees to help pay - then backs out
> River Plate - Argentina’s biggest club - is approached
> they pass
> the best 10-year-old in Argentina cannot find a club to pay his medical bills

October 2000:
> Carles Rexach, FC Barcelona’s sporting director, watches Messi train for a few minutes
> is so immediately certain he wants to sign him
> that there are no lawyers, no contracts, no paperwork ready
> Rexach signs the contract on a paper napkin:
> “I, Carles Rexach, hereby promise to sign the player Lionel Messi”
> dated, witnessed, binding
> Barcelona will pay for the treatment
> Messi’s family moves to Spain

at Barcelona:
> the other boys in the academy call him “the flea”
> 5 foot 7, smallest player on the pitch, always
> mother and siblings return to Argentina after one year
> Messi stays with his father
> homesick for years, rarely smiles in team photos

October 16, 2004:
> first-team debut for FC Barcelona, age 17
> youngest player in the club’s history
> the records begin and they do not stop
> scores 5 goals in a single Champions League match against Bayer Leverkusen
> Messi vs Ronaldo defines world football for a decade
> 10 La Liga titles, 4 Champions Leagues
6 Ballon d’Or awards
> 672 goals in 778 appearances - the all-time club record
> 2012: scores 91 goals in a single calendar year - world record

August 2021:
> Barcelona announce they cannot afford to renew his contract
> Messi holds a press conference
> cries for seven minutes before saying a word
> signs with Paris Saint-Germain
> two years in Paris, never fully settles

> July 2023: signs with Inter Miami, MLS
> the league gains 3 million Instagram followers the day he arrives
> December 18, 2022: Qatar World Cup Final
> Argentina vs France
> the greatest World Cup final in history by most accounts
> Messi scores twice, assists once
> France equalizes in the 80th minute, forces extra time
> Messi scores again in extra time
> France equalizes again
> penalties
> Argentina win
> Messi lifts the trophy after 36 years of Argentine waiting
> his fourth attempt at the World Cup
> he is 35 years old
> 8 Ballon d’Or awards - the most in history
> 2 World Cup Golden Balls - best player at 2022 and 2014
> married his childhood sweetheart Antonella Roccuzzo in 2017
> three sons
> net worth: ~$650 million

yesterday someone asked: Ronaldo or Messi?
a paper napkin from October 2000 might answer it

who do YOU think is the greatest of all time?
👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Lionel Messi
> get diagnosed with a growth hormone disorder at age 10
> treatment costs $900 a month
> your family cannot afford it
> every club in Argentina says no
> a Spanish club signs your contract on a paper napkin
> and agrees to pay for your medicine
> you win 8 Ballon d’Ors
> you win the World Cup
> you become what many call the greatest footballer who ever lived
> all of it started with a napkin

[Sumit @sumits_1]

@pandeyragini24 1) How much years of experience does he have?
2) And did he apply for the role or founder reached out to him based on his skills and projects?

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Cristiano Ronaldo
> born February 5, 1985, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
> an island closer to North Africa than mainland Portugal
> father: a municipal gardener and equipment manager for a local club
> also struggles with alcoholism

> mother: a cook
> youngest of four children in a one-room house
> “when I was a kid, we didn’t have money”
> family waits outside McDonald’s late at night
> hoping workers will sneak them leftover Big Macs
> mother later reveals she considered aborting him
> the family could not afford another child
> age 8: joins local club Andorinha
> age 10: signs for Nacional, Madeira’s main club

age 12:
> trials for Sporting CP in Lisbon
> leaves Madeira alone, leaves his family
> moves into a dormitory at the academy
> the other boys mock his Madeiran accent
> he stops talking to avoid it
> communicates almost entirely through football

age 14:
> diagnosed with a racing heart - tachycardia
> has surgery to correct it
> doctors tell him his career may be over before it starts
> returns to training weeks later
> first-team debut for Sporting CP: age 16

2003:
> Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson watches Sporting beat United 3-1
> United’s own players ask Ferguson to sign the kid on the other team
> United signs Ronaldo for £12.24 million
> most expensive teenage signing in English football history
> he is 18, cannot speak English
> wears number 7 - the number Cantona wore, the number Beckham wore
> Ferguson: “you have to earn it”
> Manchester United, 2003-2009:
> three consecutive Premier League titles: 2007, 2008, 2009
> one Champions League: 2008
> one Ballon d’Or: 2008
> transforms from a flashy winger into the best player on earth

2009:
> Real Madrid sign him for €94 million - world record at the time
> scores 450 goals in 438 appearances, all-time leading scorer
> 4 Champions Leagues, 4 Ballon d’Or awards
> competes with Lionel Messi for every trophy and award for a decade
> the debate still has no agreed answer
> 2018: Juventus, 3 years
> 2021: returns to Manchester United
> 2023: Al-Nassr, Saudi Arabia
> signs for €200 million per year, all tax-free
> Al-Nassr’s Instagram goes from 860,000 to 10 million followers in 24 hours

the records:
> 140+ goals in the Champions League - the all-time record
> 130+ goals for Portugal national team - the all-time international record
> 5 Ballon d’Or awards, 5 Champions League titles

the brand:
> Nike lifetime deal worth approximately $1 billion
> CR7 brand: hotels across Europe, clothing, underwear, fragrance
> 900 million Instagram followers - the most of any human being on earth
> a single sponsored post: $3.2 million
> net worth: ~$1.4 billion
> the first billionaire footballer in history
> from begging for McDonald’s leftovers on Madeira
> to owning hotels across Europe

is Ronaldo the greatest of all time?
For me he is.
What’s your take?
👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Cristiano Ronaldo
> grow up so poor your family waits outside McDonald’s at night
> hoping the workers sneak you leftover burgers
> become the most followed human being on the internet
> the first billionaire footballer in history
> 900 million Instagram followers
> more than the population of any country except China and India
> he posts a photo
> it earns more than most people make in a year
> the greatest rags to riches story in sports history

His story
👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Tiger Woods
> born December 30, 1975, Cypress, California
> father Earl Woods: former Green Beret, Vietnam veteran
> decides his son will learn golf before he can walk properly
> Tiger is hitting balls in the garage at age 2
> appears on The Mike Douglas Show at age 2, putting against Bob Hope
> shoots 48 for nine holes at his local Navy course at age 3

the junior years:
> wins the US Junior Amateur Championship three times: 1991, 1992, 1993
> wins the US Amateur Championship three times: 1994, 1995, 1996
> no one has ever done either of those things
> Stanford, 1994, economics - turns professional August 1996, age 20
> Nike signs him immediately for $40 million over five years
> Nike has never signed a golfer before
> Titleist, Buick, American Express, General Motors follow

April 1997:
> Masters Tournament, Augusta, Georgia
Tiger is 21
> wins by 12 strokes, the largest margin in Masters history
> shoots 270, a then-tournament record
> the first Black golfer to win the Masters in its 61-year history
> Earl hugs him on the 18th green, both crying

2000-2001: the Tiger Slam
> wins four consecutive majors: US Open, British Open, PGA Championship, Masters
> first golfer in the modern era to hold all four simultaneously
> US Open 2000: wins by 15 strokes, largest margin in any major
> World No. 1 for 683 weeks across his career

2008 US Open:
> has been playing with a torn ACL and two stress fractures in his leg for months
> tells no one
> wins in an 18-hole playoff
> his 14th major
> has surgery the next week, misses the rest of the season
> this is the last major he wins for 11 years

November 2009:
> multiple extramarital affairs exposed
> wife Elin Nordegren divorces him
> 14 sponsors drop him: AT&T, Gatorade, Accenture, General Motors, and others
> Nike and EA Sports stay
> back injuries begin compounding, start to define his 30s

2014-2017:
> four back surgeries in three years
> falls to 1,199th in world rankings

May 2017: found unresponsive at the wheel of his car
> arrested for DUI
> blood alcohol content: zero - impaired by prescription painkillers
> doctors suggest he may never play golf again

April 14, 2019:
> Masters Tournament, Augusta
> final day, two strokes off the lead
> plays the round of his life
> wins his fifth Masters, 15th major
> the largest gap between majors in the history of the sport
> Michael Jordan watching in the crowd:
“to me, it was the greatest comeback I have ever seen”

February 23, 2021:
> single-car rollover near Los Angeles
> multiple leg fractures, shattered bones
> surgeons consider amputating the right leg
> they save it
> returns to compete at the 2022 Masters - finishes, does not contend
> the leg holds
> 82 PGA Tour wins - tied for the most in history
> 15 major championships - second to Jack Nicklaus’s 18
> net worth: ~$1.5 billion
> over 90% from endorsements, not prize money
> came back from things that end most careers
> twice

what do you think is the greatest comeback in sports history?
👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Tiger Woods
> win 14 majors by age 32
> lose everything in one night
> have 4 back surgeries in 3 years
> get found asleep at the wheel of your car
> doctors say you may never walk normally again
> come back and win the Masters
> 11 years after your last major
> Michael Jordan calls it the greatest comeback he has ever seen

what do you think is the greatest comeback in sports history?
His story
👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Serena Williams
> born September 26, 1981, Saginaw, Michigan
> father Richard Williams: a sharecropper from Louisiana
> watches a tennis player win $40,000 on TV in 1978
> writes a 78-page plan to raise two daughters as tennis champions
> before they are born
> moves the family to Compton, California
> teaches himself and his wife Oracene from tennis books and videos
> trains them on Compton’s public courts
> gang members watch from the chain-link fence
> broken glass cleared before every practice session

the plan:
> no country club, no private academy
> just a father with a plan and two daughters on cracked concrete
> they move to Florida, train with coach Rick Macci full-time
> Richard pulls them both out at 14 to finish school
> they have not played a single junior tournament
> most tennis academies consider this career suicide

1999:
> Serena turns professional at 14
> US Open - unseeded, ranked 21st
beats the first, second, and third seeds in succession
> wins the title at 17

> 2002–2003: the Serena Slam
> wins four consecutive Grand Slam titles
> French Open, Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open
> holds all four simultaneously
> Venus is the runner-up at every single one

2003:
> half-sister Yetunde Price, age 31, murdered in a shooting in Compton
> the neighborhood where they grew up, where it all started
> Serena takes months away, returns, keeps going

the dominance:
> 7 Australian Opens, 7 Wimbledons, 6 US Opens, 3 French Opens
> 23 Grand Slam singles titles - most in the Open Era
> 4 Olympic gold medals: two singles, two doubles with Venus
> $94.6 million in prize money - highest total by any female athlete

2017 Australian Open:
> Serena wins the title
> she is eight weeks pregnant
> her last Grand Slam singles title

September 2017:
> gives birth to daughter Olympia via emergency C-section
> develops pulmonary embolisms immediately after
> goes back into surgery
> almost dies
> “I almost died after having my baby. And that’s not okay.”
> becomes a vocal advocate for Black maternal health
> Black women in the US are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women

> returns 2018: reaches Wimbledon and US Open finals, loses both
> 2019: Wimbledon and US Open finals again, loses both
> cannot win the 24th that would equal Margaret Court’s all-time record

September 2022:
> announces her “evolution” from tennis at the US Open
“I’m not retiring from tennis. I’m evolving away from tennis.”
> loses in the third round
> the crowd gives her a standing ovation that doesn’t stop

the business:
> founded Serena Ventures 2014
> portfolio: Impossible Foods, Lemonade, MasterClass, Noom
> married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian 2017
> two daughters: Olympia and Adira
> net worth: ~$340 million
> earned $94 million playing tennis
> built the rest off it
> the plan Richard Williams wrote before she was born
> said she would be the greatest women’s tennis player of all time
> it was right

who is the greatest athlete of all time in your opinion?
👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Richard Williams
> sharecropper from Louisiana
> watch a tennis player win $40,000 on TV
> you don’t know how to play tennis
> write a 78-page plan to raise two tennis champions
> move to Compton, California
> teach yourself and your wife tennis from books and videos
> train your daughters on public courts while gang members watch from the fence
> your daughter Serena wins 23 Grand Slams
> more than any woman in history
> the plan worked

Her story 👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Evan Spiegel
> born June 4, 1990, Los Angeles, California
> both parents are lawyers
> grows up in Pacific Palisades, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in LA
> attends the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences
> good at graphic design, not much else
> Stanford University, 2008, product design program
> co-founds Snapchat in 2011 with Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown
> originally called Picaboo
> the idea: photos that disappear after viewing
> born in a product design class at Stanford
> classmates do not think much of it
> Reggie Brown contributes the original concept
> later sues Spiegel and Murphy, claiming they pushed him out
> Brown eventually settles for $158 million
> Spiegel drops out of Stanford a few credits short of graduating
> moves into his father’s house in LA
> he and Murphy live the startup life: > ramen noodles, 18-hour days, no salary
> building out of his father’s house because they have nowhere else to go
> 2012: Lightspeed Venture Partners invests $485,000
> by early 2013: 60 million photos sent daily on Snapchat

fall 2013:
> Mark Zuckerberg calls
> Facebook wants to buy Snapchat
> all-cash offer: $3 billion
> Spiegel is 23 years old
> his company was valued at $800 million just months earlier
> the $3 billion offer would be Facebook’s most expensive acquisition ever
> more than the $1 billion Instagram deal
> every advisor, every investor, every person who hears about it tells him to take the money
> Spiegel says no
> people genuinely question his sanity
> why he said no:
“I don’t want to sell the company or go public.
I want to build something. That’s the whole point.”

> 2014: Kleiner Perkins invests, values Snapchat at $10 billion
> the company Zuckerberg offered $3 billion for is now worth $10 billion
> Facebook builds Instagram Stories - a direct copy of Snapchat’s core feature
> Instagram Stories reaches more daily users than Snapchat within a year
> Spiegel redesigns the entire app in 2018
> users revolt - 1.2 million sign a petition demanding they revert it
> Kylie Jenner tweets she doesn’t use Snapchat anymore
> stock drops 6% in one day from a single tweet

March 2017:
> Snap IPO on NYSE, priced at $17
> opens at $24 - 41% above IPO price
> market cap: $24 billion
> Spiegel’s stake worth roughly $5 billion on day one

the peak and crash:
> 2021: pandemic, everyone on their phones
> Snap stock hits $83
> Spiegel’s net worth: $15 billion
> September 2021 to July 2022: stock falls from $83 to $10
> Spiegel loses roughly $13 billion in ten months
> one of the fastest personal wealth destructions in tech history
> he does not sell a single share

today:
> 450 million daily active users
> Snap building augmented reality glasses and AI tools
> Spiegel’s net worth: ~$5.2 billion
> married Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr since 2017
> three sons
> youngest self-made billionaire in the world in 2015
> at 35: still running the company he refused to sell

would YOU have taken the $3 billion?
👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Evan Spiegel
> Mark Zuckerberg offers you $3 billion for your app
> you are 23 years old
> you say no
> everyone thinks you have lost your mind
> four years later your company IPOs at $24 billion
> your net worth hits $15 billion
> then the stock crashes 88% in ten months
> you lose $13 billion in a year
> you are still worth $5 billion

would YOU have taken the $3 billion?
👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

Anthropic is on its way to become the fastest trillion dollar company. Even after its ipo if stock price drops it’s pretty obvious it will bounce back within few months. Anthropic will cross $100 billion in revenue in the next 30 months so at 10x multiple it will still be a trillion dollar company.

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Satoshi Nakamoto
> nobody knows who you are
> or if you are one person or many
> or if you are still alive
> but you own roughly $100 billion in Bitcoin
> and you have never touched it

October 31, 2008:
> the global financial system is collapsing
> Lehman Brothers has just fallen
> governments are bailing out banks with public money
> a name nobody has heard posts a nine-page document
> to a cryptography mailing list
> subject: “Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper”
> most recipients ignore it
> one person replies enthusiastically - Hal Finney

the whitepaper:
> “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”
> electronic money with no central authority
> no banks, no trust required
> transactions verified by a decentralized network
> secured by mathematics
> British spellings: “colour”, “favour”, “bloody hard”
> post times: inconsistent with Japan, consistent with Eastern time
> name: Japanese
> the identity is a deliberate puzzle

January 3, 2009:
> mines the Genesis Block - the first Bitcoin block
> embeds a message in the code:
> “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”
> a timestamp, a statement, a middle finger to the system being replaced

January 12, 2009:
> sends the first Bitcoin transaction in history
> 10 Bitcoin to Hal Finney
> Finney: a legendary cryptographer who lives in California
> near a man named Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto
> a coincidence that has never stopped generating theories

2009-2010:
> Satoshi is present and active
> patches bugs, answers questions, corresponds with developers
> mines approximately 1.1 million Bitcoin
> roughly 5% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist
> during these two years, not one of those coins is spent

December 2010:
> hands over the codebase to developer Gavin Andresen
> says WikiLeaks is drawing too much attention to Bitcoin
> “it would have been nice to get this attention in any other context”

April 26, 2011:
> sends a final email to Andresen:
“I’ve moved on to other things. Bitcoin is in good hands with Gavin”
> never heard from again

the suspects:
> Hal Finney: denied being Satoshi until his death from ALS in 2014
> Nick Szabo: designed “Bit Gold” before Bitcoin, denies being Satoshi
> writing style matches Satoshi’s more closely than anyone else’s
> Craig Wright: claimed publicly to be Satoshi
> UK court ruled in 2024: he is not Satoshi
> Dorian Nakamoto: told a reporter “I am no longer involved in that”
> later said he misunderstood the question
> most likely answer: we do not know
the coins:
> 1.1 million Bitcoin - worth roughly $100 billion at current prices
> not one has moved in 15 years
> the blockchain is fully transparent - any movement is instantly visible
> the wallet addresses sit untouched
> the largest dormant fortune in human history

2015:
> a UCLA professor nominates Satoshi for the Nobel Prize in Economics
> the smallest unit of Bitcoin - 0.00000001 BTC - is called a satoshi
> whoever they are
> they changed money
> and walked away

who do YOU think Satoshi Nakamoto really is?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​🤔

[Sumit @sumits_1]

> be Satoshi Nakamoto
> invent Bitcoin
> own roughly 1.1 million of them
> worth over $100 billion at today’s prices
> one of the largest fortunes on earth
> disappear completely in 2011
> never spend a single coin
> never reveal your identity
> 15 years of silence
> nobody knows if you are alive
> the greatest unsolved mystery in financial history

His story👇

[Sumit @sumits_1]

@hicasamadim It’s 72.

[Sumit @sumits_1]

@protosphinx And we all know it’s not gonna happen anytime soon.

[Sumit @sumits_1]

@JeffBezos Don’t you think you should run for president in next election? You are clearly one of the best operators in the world and very good decision maker.