Michael Saylor is an American entrepreneur and business executive who is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of MicroStrategy, a publicly traded enterprise software company.
But what’s the story behind Michael Saylor’s entrepreneurial journey and what’s his net worth?
Who is Michael Saylor?
Michael Saylor was born in 1965 in Lincoln, Nebraska, and grew up near Mount Vernon, Virginia.
He attended the private secondary school, The Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, before enrolling at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science, technology, astronautics, and aeronautics.
After graduation, he worked as a research associate at The Brookings Institution and as a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. In 1989, he co-founded MicroStrategy with fellow MIT alumnus Sanju Bansal.
The company developed and sold enterprise business intelligence software. It became a publicly traded company in 1998.
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In 2000, Saylor led MicroStrategy through a highly successful initial public offering that raised $154million. The stock price increased more than 1,700 per cent on the first day of trading, making it the third-best-performing IPO of the year.
However, the stock price rapidly fell again after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Saylor and two other executives at the company for inaccurate financial reporting.
In the space of just 24 hours the company’s value fell by 62 percent.
Saylor admitted to an accounting error and decided to keep a low profile while build back the company’s reputation. Since then, MicroStrategy has grown to have more than 2,000 employees and customers in over 80 countries.
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In addition to his role at MicroStrategy, Saylor is a trustee of “The Smithsonian Institution” and a member of “The Business Roundtable.” He is an active philanthropist and has donated more than $600million to charitable causes, including education, healthcare, and scientific research.
Looking to expand his business interests, Saylor also holds patents for 40 different ideas. He also set up Alarm.com, providing unique security mechanisms for homes around the globe.
Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin investments
Michael Saylor became a major advocate for Bitcoin in 2020 when he started making personal investments in the digital coin as well as pumping MicroStrategy’s own money toward the cryptocurrency.
He tweeted at the time: “Bitcoin is a bank in cyberspace, run by incorruptible software, offering a global, affordable, simple, and secure savings account to billions of people that don’t have the option or desire to run their own hedge fund.”
In an interview, he added: “The scarcest asset in the world is bitcoin. It’s digital gold.”
In October 2020, the entrepreneur announced he had bought 17,732 Bitcoins for $175million.
Meanwhile, Microstrategy bought 70,784 Bitcoin for $1.1billion – much to the alarm of many observers of the financial markets.
Shrugging off the concerns, Saylor said Bitcoin provided a better alternative to government-backed traditional currency.
He claimed: “Once people start thinking about what they want, which is a non-sovereign, safe-haven store of value, they’re going to realize that Bitcoin does the job of gold better, and you’re seeing all of the institutional flows move out of gold into Bitcoin,”
Saylor encouraged other companies to also invest in Bitcoin and even met with Elon Musk to discuss the possibility of Tesla investing in the cryptocurrency.
Why did Michael Saylor resign from MicroStrategy?
In August 2022 Michael Saylor announced he was stepping back as CEO of MicroStrategy.
His gamble on investing huge swathes of the company’s money in cryptocurrency led to heavy losses after the market crashed in May.
MicroStrategy experienced a $917million loss in the value of their investment as a consequence of the sudden downturn.
Saylor remains executive chairman and president Phong Le was appointed as CEO.
Despite his resignation, MicroStrategy has continued to purchase Bitcoin, buying an extra 301 tokens in September 2022.
In the same month, Saylor said he remained optimistic for the future of Bitcoin claiming it would be worth $500,000 within a decade and would eventually “go to the value of gold”.
What is Michael Saylor’s net worth?
Michael Saylor’s current net worth is estimated to be $2.6billion. His primary sources are his cryptocurrency investments, business, and patents.
He claims that the only worthwhile investments are those that promote technology.
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