Simkin: SIG backed ByteDance for diversification, not foreseeing TikTok's global dominance
Todd Simkin · Todd Simkin - Game of Trading at Susquehanna (EP.399) · Aug 5, 2024 · at 49:00
Todd Simkin of Susquehanna International Group (SIG) discusses how luck and expected-value risk taking played a major role in SIG's legendary early-stage venture investment in ByteDance.
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“I alluded to being fortunate enough to invest in ByteDance when it was a several million dollar company before it became a several billion dollar company. It'd be great in hindsight to say we are so good at figuring out what social media platform is going to be the winner take all platform that we knew was going to be TikTok and ByteDance. But that's not true. This was part of a portfolio was part of a collection of risks that we were willing to take. We thought at the appropriate level that we thought we're getting paid an appropriate amount for the risks that we were taking. And we happened to get tremendously fortunate there that that ended up outperforming our expectations, certainly.”
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