He rejected a $25M buyout while his company was on its deathbed.

The dot-com crash had destroyed his customer base.

But Sridhar Vembu had a crazy idea to save his company.

No investors. No debt. No Silicon Valley playbook.

Just this insane recruiting strategy: 🧵 The late 1990s was the height of the first internet boom.

Silicon Valley's playbook for internet companies was clear: raise, grow at all costs, then exit ASAP.

It seemed like the only path to tech success.

Until one engineer decided to try something different...

In 2000, Yahoo was worth $128,000,000,000...

More than Ford and Disney were worth COMBINED.

But by 2016, they sold for $4,800,000,000 - a 96.25% drop from their peak.

Their collapse traces back to this ONE fatal decision:
Yahoo began in 1994 as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web."

Two Stanford students created a simple directory to navigate the chaotic early internet.

Within months, their directory got millions of views.

But their success created an unexpected problem:

NVIDIA's CEO says AI's 'iPhone moment' has already started.

But many tech experts think it's just hype.

AI has the potential to revolutionize our lives like smartphones have...

But this is what needs to happen first:
In 2007, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, changing our world forever.

Within 5 years, smartphones transformed our entire lives.

Today, Jensen Huang claims we're at a similar inflection point with AI.

But there's a fundamental disconnect between this claim and reality:

At 22, a mysterious illness destroyed his ability to speak.

The treatment wiped out his short-term memory.

He built a "second brain" just to survive...

And now millions use his system to 10x their productivity.

Try it out for yourself (you won't regret it). 🧵
In 2007, Tiago Forte was just your normal 22-year-old.

He worked at the Apple store part-time while going to college.

But one day he started feeling a weird pain in his neck.

He thought nothing of it...

Until it got way worse:

Jack Ma is the world's least qualified tech billionaire.

He didn't even touch a computer until he was 31.

But in 1995, a trip to the US introduced him to the Internet...

What he discovered made Alibaba bigger than Amazon and eBay combined: His first internet search revealed something shocking.

When he typed "China" into a search engine, nothing appeared.

No businesses. No products. No presence.

In that moment, he saw an opportunity that would make him billions:

In 2008, Larry Page said building a browser was useless.

Sundar Pichai spent months building it in secret anyway.

Today, Google Chrome has 3.5 BILLION users.

It got Pichai promoted to CEO...

But he just made a $32B bet that might get him fired:
Google's most successful employee came from humble beginnings.

He grew up with no TV. No car. Just books and big dreams.

His father, an electrical engineer, taught him this one crucial lesson:

He launched 20 failed startups in 730 days.

But staring at his empty fridge gave him the perfect idea.

The problem? He missed the Y combinator deadline and needed funding BAD...

So he made a desperate move (and it changed how you shop for groceries): Apoorva Mehta was born in India and moved to Canada at 14.

His last job before his crazy journey was as a supply chain engineer for Amazon.

In 2010, he quit to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.

And what happened next shocked Silicon Valley...

In 2014, Microsoft lost $11.6B on failed products.

Their $7.2B Nokia purchase was a disaster. Windows 8 was failing. Their culture was toxic.

New CEO Satya Nadella had an idea that horrified Bill Gates...

But Microsoft's stock exploded 1,400% after this ONE decision: Microsoft was struggling to remain relevant.

Their business model focused on selling software licenses - a declining stream.

They'd missed mobile completely (Steve Ballmer had once laughed at the iPhone).

But underneath, they still had incredible talent...

What do you do when your sales hit a wall?

A thread 🧵🧵 Many entrepreneurs try a few tricks from the book, and then ultimately decide to introduce a new line of product or service to generate additional revenues.

This is a common mistake.