Rojáe retweeted
My coworker makes $92,000 a year and still brings lunch from home every single day.
For two years, people in the office made fun of him.
“Bro, you make good money. Live a little.”
Meanwhile, they were ordering DoorDash every afternoon, financing new cars, upgrading their iPhones, and taking weekend trips they couldn’t really afford.
He never argued.
He drove the same 2012 Honda Accord.
Wore regular clothes.
Used coupons at the grocery store.
And every Friday, a huge portion of his paycheck disappeared into savings and investments.
Then our company announced layoffs.
Half the department was gone by Monday…
Rojáe retweeted
"SpaceX ended up being the best investment I'll probably ever make. It's completely changed the trajectory of my life."
Rockets were blowing up on the launchpad when @LukeNosek convinced Cyan Banister (@cyantist) to go all-in on SpaceX:
Nosek (@LukeNosek), co-founder of PayPal & Founders Fund, was one of SpaceX's earliest believers. He led Founders Fund's $20M investment in 2008 & has served on the board ever since.
Today he's estimated to own a .22% stake worth more than $4B at the $1.77T IPO price.
Here's how he got Cyan in:
"He went to college with my husband Scott Banister & Max Levchin (@mlevchin). They met in a computer lab back at University of Illinois."
"Luke formed a relationship with @elonmusk, & I would say probably was his strongest second believer. I've never seen anyone champion a company or a person with more heart than Luke."
"He came over to our house. He's a very emphatic person. Wears these Vibram shoes, & gets on the floor, & he's like, 'Banisters, I need you to dig through your couches, whatever money you have that's spare. Anything liquid you have, I need it. SpaceX needs it.'"
"At this time, the rockets were blowing up on the launchpad. People all around were just like, private citizens have no business in space, and that's why it's failing."
"I had just exited from IronPort. I had my first liquidity event. So Luke and Scott convinced me to put everything that I made in IronPort, when we sold to Cisco, into SpaceX."
"I just literally put all my chips on a color & just let it ride for 20-some odd years now."
"It ended up being the best investment I'll probably ever make in my life. It's completely changed the trajectory of my life."
NEW: Cyan Banister's Legendary Track Record
Her first investment ever? SpaceX.
In 2007, she invested every dollar she had into SpaceX & never sold.
Combined, @cyantist & Scott Banister are easily the #1 angel investors in the world.
SpaceX. Anduril. Uber. PayPal. Affirm. Flexport. Postmates. Niantic. Opendoor. Carta. Together AI. Diamond Foundry. Crusoe. Flock Safety. Substrate. Brave. Depop. Calm. TrueMed. Turing. Crusoe
Cyan spent 4 years at Founders Fund, now Co-Founder & General Partner, @LongJourneyVC
Plus Founders Fund's Mafia, beating Phil Hellmuth in poker live, & free speech as her number one cause.
We cover
› The space between your values & your actions
› Human beings as why machines
› Why Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection
› Peter Thiel University
› Nanotech & biotech
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Cyan Banister, Long Journey Ventures
(01:13) Inside Long Journey HQ
(02:17) The wild story behind the office mural
(05:32) What Cyan's actual house looks like
(07:18) The candle ritual
(08:08) What the Long Journey logo actually means
(10:41) Mafia's breakout stars
(14:45) Cyan's strategy
(16:30) What really happens off-camera at Mafia
(18:58) The blooper reel nobody's seen yet
(23:54) Brian Singerman x $40 /mo board game club
(29:10) Confessions of an accidental poker legend
(33:37) What relentless optimism reveals about people
(35:42) Why so many people are scared to be weird
(37:32) The daily ritual she prescribes to everyone
(43:56) The "why" behind her biggest investments
(50:49) Why sci-fi movies keep predicting the future
(53:37) Should you even go to college right now?
(59:58) Unconventional investing philosophy
(1:01:57) Full list of Cyan's investments
(1:04:28) All-in on SpaceX
(1:08:57) Why she never sold a single SpaceX share
(1:12:53) Top Bets: Becoming Bio + Substrate
(1:15:52) America's reindustrialization moment is now
(1:19:16) Cyan's mentors
(1:22:54) Manifesting Rick Rubin
(1:24:00) Real take on the Peter Thiel events
Rojáe retweeted
In a recent YouTube video, Mark Carney had a confession to make: he will not meet Liberal emissions targets.
At least he was honest about that.
So, let's be honest about this: he pretends phasing out oil and gas was someone else's idea.
For a decade he was the worldwide CEO of the idea. He built his entire persona around Net Zero.
He claimed fossil-fuel-caused climate change was an "existential crisis", which in plain English means the world could end.
He was the UN's Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance where he recommended 65% of oil and gas should stay in the ground.
As Trudeau's Economic Advisor, he advised bigger and broader carbon taxes than even Trudeau had imposed.
He founded a banking alliance with the mandate to starve oil and gas of investment.
At Brookfield, his job was to use his political influence to get government handouts for his "green" investments (heat pumps, pricey "green" aviation fuel, etc.).
He made fortunes off an agenda that inflated costs and killed jobs for the working class around the world.
He didn't inherit this ideology. He built it. He milked it.
Now, he claims he changed his mind. Really? So, it’s no longer an existential crisis? Was he wrong for last decade?
If so, why go on hiking the industrial carbon tax by 500%?
Why has he not scrapped a single Trudeau-era anti-development law?
Why are 500 projects still waiting for federal approval?
Why has he not used his unprecedented powers in Bill C-5 to approve a single project?
Because it is all an illusion.
It was always about enriching the club. And it still is.
He will sound the alarm on new crises. The solution will be the same: heavy-handed, top-down crony capitalism—taxes, inflation, and debt for you, and handouts, bailouts, and carve-outs for the Liberal club. All to save us from the latest crisis.
The only way to change any of this is with a party that has been saying the same thing all along: get the government out of the way; free our businesses from all carbon taxes, red tape, and subsidies to unlock abundant, affordable energy. For Canada. For you.
Rojáe retweeted
Canada is the fourth largest resource nation on earth... and we chose to be poor. That's not Trump's fault. That's Ottawa's.
Rojáe retweeted
#BREAKING: In yet another hot mic incident, Mark Carney is caught insulting HIS OWN MPs, telling the visiting Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic that they're just "useful for votes."
He then makes another comment about his cabinet ministers, but the comments from the Croatian prime minister he was responding to is inaudible, so the context is difficult to make out.
Regardless, it shows yet more contempt that Carney has for Canada's representative democracy. He'd like to have all the power in his own hands.
Rojáe retweeted
Don't hate Elon Musk for being a trillionaire. Canada needs more ambitious, wealthy entrepreneurs trib.al/ats1m91
Rojáe retweeted
The SpaceX IPO is a reminder that in America, dreams and an unflinching mission still matter. Yesterday’s milestone was made from years of conviction, sacrifice, innovation, and thousands of hardworking people refusing to accept limits.
The constellation of companies Elon has built have come together in extraordinary service to humanity likes of which will never to be replicated.
Im proud to have played a small role in one of them, helping protect free speech at X during one of the most consequential periods in history. The resistance was fierce and we won!
Congratulations to @elonmusk and the @SpaceX team.
America and the world thanks you. 🇺🇸 🇺🇸🇺🇸
Rojáe retweeted
I fucking dare you to short SpaceX.
The market still doesn’t understand what it’s looking at.
Rockets.
Satellites.
Launch infrastructure.
Starling.
Defense contracts.
AI compute.
Energy.
Manufacturing.
Most companies get rich owning one scarce asset.
SpaceX somehow ended up owning several.
People keep trying to value it like a traditional aerospace company when it’s increasingly becoming critical infrastructure.
Maybe one day it’ll be a great short.
Today is not that day.
Good luck standing in front of that train.
Rojáe retweeted
Teams are go for launch with a $135 price per share for the SpaceX IPO → spacexipo.com/#priceannounce…
Rojáe retweeted
Had a friend come up to Canada from the U.S. this week…
By day two, something shifted.
They stopped commenting on the scenery…
and started looking at price tags.
Groceries? Silence.
Gas? A long pause.
Basic living? Just a quiet “how do people do this?”
By the end of the trip, they said something that stuck with me:
“This doesn’t feel sustainable.”
Not political.
Not dramatic.
Just… honest.
And that’s the part that lingers.
Because when someone from the outside sees it this clearly, you start wondering—
Have we just gotten used to it?
At what point does “normal” stop being normal?
Curious what others are seeing right now… is it getting harder where you are too?
Rojáe retweeted
C-22 is looking like a huge mistake. It worries me a great deal. There is so much nonsense in there that It may well end up dealing a death blow to Canadian tech viability.
We won't be far behind if C-22 passes. In its current state, VPNs would almost certainly require us to log identifying user data.
Signal isn't headquartered in Canada so they can just shut off Canadian servers, but our HQ is. We pay an ungodly amount of taxes to this corrupt government, and in return they want to destroy the entire essence of our service to basically spy on its own citizens.
Not happening. We'll move HQ and take our taxes elsewhere.
Rojáe retweeted
PIERRE CRUSHED IT ON JOE ROGAN:
-He defended Canada against 51st state comments
-He was very charming
-He REFUSED TO CRITICIZE CARNEY on foreign soil
-He rightfully so, defended that Castro is not Trudeau’s father
-He respectfully & tactfully didn’t fall into conspiracy theory traps
-He did a beautiful job explaining his role as the Opposition & how keeping the government to account is the most loyal thing one can do
Joe Rogan showed a great deal of respect for him, his intelligence & they both laughed hysterically when Joe asked him
“How did you lose?!”
People don’t realize, that as much as Joe Rogan is painted as “far right”, he’s logical and I consider him well balanced.
There’s a reason why he has the biggest podcast in the world.
Pierre did an incredible job.
Rojáe retweeted
Adam Pankratz: Hey Liberals, an oil pipeline would have been good right about now nationalpost.com/opinion/ada…
Rojáe retweeted
Canadians are subjected to this stuff 24/7.
TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP
Meanwhile, Canada is literally falling apart, and a lot of people not only do not seem to notice, but are perfectly happy to re-elect those who broke our country.
Opinion: Donald Trump isn’t the president of peace – he’s the most dangerous man on the planet theglobeandmail.com/opinion/…
Rojáe retweeted
Be me, Dutch investor
Netherlands approved 36% unrealized gains tax
WTF does that even mean
Put $1,000 into stocks
Year 1:
• Stock goes to $2,000
• Government: "you made $1,000, pay $360 cash tax"
• MFW I didn't sell anything
• Forced to sell shares to pay
• Everyone else forced to sell too
• Mass panic selling
• Stock crashes to $800
• I have $440 left after paying tax
Year 2:
• Stock recovers to $1,200
• Government: "you made $400, pay $144"
• Forced selling again
• Price drops to $900
• I have $756 left
Year 3:
• Stock at $1,000
• Government: "you made $100, pay $36"
• Smart money has fled Netherlands
• I have $964 in stock
• MFW I paid $540 in taxes
• MFW stock is back where it started (0% gain)
• MFW I only have $460 left
• Lost 54% on a stock that broke even
MFW the government made more money off my investment than I did
Government: "Thanks for the $540! 😊"
