Morgan Stanley's Twitter Matchmaking
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A story about how Morgan Stanley's Michael Grimes tried to arrange a meeting between Elon Musk and Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) regarding Twitter investment.
"Michael Grimes, the managing director at Morgan Stanley, texts Elon saying 'Hey do you have 5 minutes for a meeting that I think you'll want to take?' Elon says 'I'll call you in half an hour.'
Grimes then links to a story about SBF being an effective altruist. Elon just replies with two question marks like 'what?' and says 'I'm backlogged with critical work matters, is this urgent?'
Grimes responds that SBF wants to invest 1-5 billion dollars, saying he's serious about partnering. He tells Elon that SBF could do 5 billion if everything is vision-locked, and would do engineering for social media blockchain integration.
Elon replies that blockchain Twitter isn't possible due to bandwidth and latency requirements. The banker then goes 'Got it, but even without the blockchain piece, he's interested in investing in Twitter and your mission.'
Elon finally responds 'As long as I don't have to have a laborious blockchain debate.' Then he asks 'Does Sam actually have 3 billion liquid?' The banker assured him yes, saying SBF was an 'ultra genius and doer builder.'"
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.