A high signal low noise stream of thoughts from @ADYK_41 about work, startups, products, people and society at large.
Joined September 2025
- Tweets69
- Following35
- Followers146
- Likes31
My friend who is a startup founder mentioned a business he wanted to start but couldn't because he didn't have money.
I think what he truly lacked was the required attention (capital).
The thing with society (strangers living in peace) is that it not only has to be built; it also has to be maintained.
And this will either have to be done by active participation by its citizens or the government.
And if the citizens are going to abdicate that responsibility to their government, then taxes will have to be higher.
We can't eat our cake and have it when it comes to maintaining decorum in society.
It's helpful to add a "frogs kissed" factor. How many investments went to zero to get to this one.
If we assume it's 10, £3M investments, then the rate of return is closer to 200x.
Still impressive but that's the best way to understand venture.
Balderton Capital got a ~2,050× multiple on its £1.5M seed investment in Revolut. Today that stake is worth around $6.15B 🤯
The numbers (roughly from Crunchbase & Bloomberg data):
Balderton first invested £1.5M in Revolut’s 2015 seed round at an £8M valuation, which gave the firm 14.56% of the company. Seedcamp also invested at this stage.
In 2016, Index Ventures led a £4.8M follow-on seed round. The dilution from this round reduced Balderton’s stake to ~9.1%.
Shortly after, Balderton led the Series A. Following that round, their position adjusted to ~10.9%.
As Revolut scaled, several significant fundraising rounds followed:
- $250M at a $1.95B valuation
- $580M at $6.08B
- $800M at $33.8B
After these rounds, Balderton’s stake moved to 9.29% → 8.40% → 8.20%.
At the $33.8B valuation, their stake was worth approximately $2.77B.
In 2024 and 2025, secondary transactions priced Revolut at $45B and then $75B.
At the $75B valuation, Balderton’s ~8.2% stake is estimated at $6.15B.
Across their early checks (roughly £3M in total), this results in an approximate 2,050× return on capital.
For context:
An individual who invested £1,000 on the same terms would see that grow to roughly £2,050,000.
This single position generated more than 20× the size of Balderton’s £300M fund 🤯
This is probably the best single VC investment in Europe's history
High earning tech workers are complicit in the systems that are chewing & spitting them out.
Don't want to hear anyone complain about big tech.
A system that so obviously has no care for society, will eventually turn on you.
Live by the sword, die by it.
As we look to rightfully blame the poor regulation of the ultrarich for society's demise; we must not fail to point out the complicity of everyday consumerism in the equation.
People don't consume in their best interest. There's power in how we consume & most people wield this power carelessly.
The problem with capitalism is that it's sole aim is to maximise the return of capital.
This means that it will squeeze the society it operates in till there's nothing left.
ESG frameworks were Big Capital's solution to this problem. But it has not worked.
The reason why people have a knee jerk reaction and shoot down most criticisms of capitalism is that they mistaken other concepts for capitalism.
Some think buying and selling or even having money is capitalism. Some think being for-profit is what capitalism is.
Some think, as I did, that rewarding risk with reward is capitalism.
But no, none of those truly explain what capitalism is. All of the above still work in a communal society.
A capitalist society is one where capital's top aim is the maximisation of capital. In a company that's maximizing the benefits of the shareholders over everything else.
Adeyinka+ retweeted
Netflix seems to have a true “give a sh*t” product culture.
One of my favourite product details is that they’re the only streaming service with the concept of “original language”.
This means that you can switch between shows and always hear the audio in the language it was filmed in.
Every other streaming service forces to pick one language, so you watch “Modern Family” in English and a K-drama with bad English dubs.
****
I’m pretty sure someone brought it up but it was probably filed away as “an edge case” or “future improvement”. Or someone said “90% of users stick with one language” or something like that.
But Netflix didn’t. And there are 1000s of decisions like this, and they all add up to a significantly better experience.
That AI is still here is one of the reasons I'm super skeptical of most of the AI promises/features I see in product releases today.
That & the fact that my team has used AI to do amazing work & we know how much human ingenuity was needed.
Most AI promises today are a hoax.
On Jevon's Paradox. I hope people realize/remember that no singular concept can explain the economy.
Contrary to the way the founders in this event have behaved, effective networking is the consequence of great connection.
It cannot be forced.
And without first socially bonding, great connection is extremely difficult to achieve.
