Michael Saylor

Yeah.

And then from the moment he told you, what was your step process of researching? Was it an all nighter till four o'clock in the morning? You sat up, you're like, I can't believe this is what's going on. Were you calling friends? Were you doing research? What was your process?

And then from the moment he told you, what was your step process of researching? Was it an all nighter till four o'clock in the morning? You sat up, you're like, I can't believe this is what's going on. Were you calling friends? Were you doing research? What was your process?

I said, give me the five most, the top influencers on the internet on Bitcoin. He gave me a list of people. Then I went and I watched all their YouTube podcasts. Then I went and I read all their books. I read the Bitcoin Standard. I read Andreas Antonopoulos' books on Bitcoin. I watched the debates between Eric Voorhees and Peter Schiff on Bitcoin.

I said, give me the five most, the top influencers on the internet on Bitcoin. He gave me a list of people. Then I went and I watched all their YouTube podcasts. Then I went and I read all their books. I read the Bitcoin Standard. I read Andreas Antonopoulos' books on Bitcoin. I watched the debates between Eric Voorhees and Peter Schiff on Bitcoin.

And once I got through all that and I had done a deep think, Then I started going in execution mode. How do I get an account? How do I buy this stuff? KYC me, set me up. And then after that, it's like massive education with my company too. Partly it was a personal track. What am I going to do? And partly is, where am I going to take my company? And that became...

And once I got through all that and I had done a deep think, Then I started going in execution mode. How do I get an account? How do I buy this stuff? KYC me, set me up. And then after that, it's like massive education with my company too. Partly it was a personal track. What am I going to do? And partly is, where am I going to take my company? And that became...

I sent a text message to all the officers of the company and all the directors. I said, I want you to watch these three videos on YouTube. And I want you to read this paper about Bitcoin. John Pfeffer wrote a paper, an institutional investor's view of Bitcoin. I said, read this stuff, and then we're going to talk. And so after they read it, I had a one-on-one with each one of them.

I sent a text message to all the officers of the company and all the directors. I said, I want you to watch these three videos on YouTube. And I want you to read this paper about Bitcoin. John Pfeffer wrote a paper, an institutional investor's view of Bitcoin. I said, read this stuff, and then we're going to talk. And so after they read it, I had a one-on-one with each one of them.

And it was like... It was like basically doing the rounds, every officer of the company, every director of the company, and gradually we formed a consensus. We formed teams. We started to power forward.

And it was like... It was like basically doing the rounds, every officer of the company, every director of the company, and gradually we formed a consensus. We formed teams. We started to power forward.

And then you present it to the clients. Hey, here's what we're thinking about doing. This is the direction we're going. Is that what the next move was?

And then you present it to the clients. Hey, here's what we're thinking about doing. This is the direction we're going. Is that what the next move was?

You know, it takes from March all the way to August 10th of 2020. And on August 10th of 2020, what we did is we said, hey, we're buying $250 million of Bitcoin, but we're also going to buy back $250 million of our stock in a tender offer. The stock was like 120. This is like $12 post split. And we offered a premium. We said, well, you can tender your shares if you don't like the Bitcoin strategy.

You know, it takes from March all the way to August 10th of 2020. And on August 10th of 2020, what we did is we said, hey, we're buying $250 million of Bitcoin, but we're also going to buy back $250 million of our stock in a tender offer. The stock was like 120. This is like $12 post split. And we offered a premium. We said, well, you can tender your shares if you don't like the Bitcoin strategy.

And so that took 20 days. So the way that we actually rotated the shareholder base and got the shareholders on board with the Bitcoin strategy was we said, we're doing this. We know it's risky. We know some of you may not like it. We'll buy you out at a premium if you don't want to go along for the ride. After 20 days, only about $60 million got tendered. So we had $175 million of cash left.

And so that took 20 days. So the way that we actually rotated the shareholder base and got the shareholders on board with the Bitcoin strategy was we said, we're doing this. We know it's risky. We know some of you may not like it. We'll buy you out at a premium if you don't want to go along for the ride. After 20 days, only about $60 million got tendered. So we had $175 million of cash left.

And so we went from 250 to 425 million in Bitcoin. Then the stock rallied, generated a lot more cash from stock option issuance. We bought another $50 million of Bitcoin. And pretty soon we're off to the races and the strategy is working. And all of our investors were on the board.

And so we went from 250 to 425 million in Bitcoin. Then the stock rallied, generated a lot more cash from stock option issuance. We bought another $50 million of Bitcoin. And pretty soon we're off to the races and the strategy is working. And all of our investors were on the board.

They wanted to be invested in a company on a Bitcoin strategy more than they wanted to be invested in a company that was going to continue with a conventional low growth approach.