The Neon Show Alok Sama, Former SOFTBANK CFO on Working With the Visionary Masayoshi Son
The world’s largest tech-focused venture capital fund. And the man behind it is Masayoshi Son, often referred to as Masa.
At 16, Masa moved to California, drawn by the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley.
Before he turned 21 years old, Son sold his first company— a multilingual translator bought by Sharp for about $1 million.
Masa returned to Japan and founded SoftBank as a software distribution company.
In 1995, Masa made one of his first bold investments— a $100 million for a 30% stake in Yahoo.
In 1999, Masa made an even bigger move, investing $20 million in Alibaba, a year-old e-commerce startup.
Over 23 years, that investment turned into a $72 billion gain, making it one of the most successful tech investments ever.
In 2014, he brought in Alok Sama who had a key role in some of SoftBank’s biggest successes, like the $32 billion acquisition of ARM and the $59 billion Sprint-T-Mobile merger.
In this episode of the NEON Show, Alok Sama, takes us behind the scenes of his journey at SoftBank, where he played a crucial role in shaping the group's global investments and strategy. He shares insights into working alongside Masa, managing the Vision Fund, and the challenges of betting on transformative entrepreneurs.
Check out Alok Sama’s book, The Money Trap: Lost Illusions Inside the Tech Bubble - https://www.amazon.in/Money-Trap-Alok-Sama/dp/9361134337
Timestamps
0:00 - Trailer
1:13 - Alok’s career, and Money Trap
2:20 - Transition to SoftBank and the motivation behind Money Trap
3:29 - what Alok thinks about Nikesh Arora and Masayoshi Son
5:07 - Masayoshi Son’s visionary mindset and why Alok admired him
6: 40 - Why Alok values intellectual curiosity in people and himself
7:50 - Alok’s entrepreneurial journey post-Morgan Stanley
09:30 - The meaning behind Money Trap and reflections on money
12:30 - Masa Son’s struggle growing up and the freemium coffee model
17:00 - Alok’s last year at SoftBank and decision to leave
18:08 - Alok’s relationship with Nikesh Arora
20:10 - Delhi roots, and family time
21:20 - Alok's view on vulnerabilities
27:20 - Masa Son’s character and commitment to backing entrepreneurs fully
31:10 - Valuation lessons in technology investments
34:20 - Son’s early bets on AI and his timing challenges
37:30 - Joined SoftBank to impress Alok’s teenage son and connect with family
40: 10 - experience of writing a book
43:10 - Masa’s thesis on India
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Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.
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