Shaq's Google Connection
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A story about how Shaquille O'Neal became an early Google investor through a chance encounter with Ron Conway's grandchildren.
"Shaq was sitting in a fancy hotel lobby - Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton - and he sees 4 distinguished gentlemen. The gentlemen don't know who he is, but their kids do. The kids run up to him, and Shaq, being the playful person he is, starts entertaining them. He says 'I'm doing my job babysitting.'
At the end of the meeting, Ron Conway comes up to Shaq and says 'Thank you so much for playing with my grandkids.' They start chatting and Conway tells him 'We were just talking about this investment. You should invest in this company - it's one of the best companies I've ever seen. It's called Google.'
Shaq gets a meeting with Larry and Sergey, puts in some money, and forgets about it. Years later, Google goes public. Shaq doesn't even realize he's invested until he reads in the newspaper that he's in the S-1 filing and is going to make a killing. Shaq turned a couple hundred thousand dollars into over $100 million off his Google investment. He says 'I wish I invested more.'"
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.