Yuri Milner: From Russia With Billions

I've wanted to cover Milner ever since I first came across him in Sebastian Mallaby's excellent book, The Power Law, where Mallaby introduces Milner with the following:"At the start of 2009, the CFO at Facebook took a call from Moscow. A soft Russian voice announced that he wanted to invest in Facebook. The caller had a gentle but insistent style. He had a slight build, a nose bent to his right, and an oval face crowned by a smooth dome. He wanted to meet in person. Facebook did not accept capital from just anyone." The CFO told Milner bluntly: "Don't come all the way here just to see me." Milner booked a plane ticket, flew to San Francisco, and more or less doorstepped the CFO.This is the story of how this small, quietly spoken Russian goes from earning just $5 a month to reaching the very peak of Silicon Valley, investing in Facebook at a valuation that US investors thought was crazy, becoming one of Mark Zuckerberg's most trusted friends and advisors, and then going on to make huge and very successful investments in Spotify, Zynga, and Revolut, to name just a few. Along the way, Milner navigates his way through the oligarch-infested pools of Russian business, survives all of the political and media backlash that comes from the revelation that much of his early money came from entities closely linked to the Kremlin, and has come out the other side still riding high with a personal fortune of $8.7 billion. It's a cracking story—enjoy.