Raising kids as a billionaire

Naveen, a serial entrepreneur who became a billionaire by founding companies that include the internet pioneer Infospace, Intelius, Moon Express, Blue Dot and now Viome Life Sciences, has long believed in exposing his two sons and daughter to business. “I started doing road shows with him when I was six,” says Ankur, who went on to found Humin, which was acquired by Tinder in 2016, and is now a billionaire himself as founder and CEO of Bilt Rewards. (Ankur’s sister Priyanka is cofounder and CEO of women’s health startup Evvy while his younger brother Neil went from consulting to investment management.)

There have been struggles and there have been many lessons in taking risks, identifying problems to solve and learning about the fickle nature of funding, timing and disruptive technologies. Demographics shaped their outlook, too. At 35, Ankur is trying to address issues like isolation, housing costs, polarization and student debt, describing his stint in San Francisco as “crypto monkeys and NFTs and all this baloney and, in the meantime, nobody in San Francisco could afford rent.”  Naveen, 65, is now focused on personalized health, nutrition, and longevity.

Naveen thinks good parenting comes down to encouraging kids to constantly learn—and recognize that they learn most from what they see their parents do. “If you have a successful exit you think, ‘I want to spend time with my children …  What your children see is very different. They see dad sitting on the sofa, watching CNBC, and they want to do that.”Adds Ankur: “It’s amazing to me how many of my friends barely even know what their parents do. Because both my mom and dad were working at a startup, we got dropped off at the office after school, and ended up sitting in meetings because we had nothing else to do. “  You can watch and listen to the podcast here.

More news below.

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Top news

Trump takes pro-Russia line. President Trump suggested yesterday that Ukraine started the war with Russia and that Zelenskyy is not a legitimate leader: “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” he said at a press conference. “The leader in Ukraine is down at 4% approval ratings. Wouldn't the people of Ukraine need to have an election? Ukraine is being wiped out.”

In reality, Russia started the war in 2022 by invading Ukraine. Opinion polls in Ukraine show Zelensky's approval ratings are around 50%. And Zelenskyy was elected to office in 2019 with 73% of the vote. Elections in Ukraine have since been postponed because of the Russian invasion.

Bird flu flip-flop. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was working to rehire several staff members whose job was to monitor and combat the spread of bird flu (H5N1). There are currently 81 instances of avian flu detected in 24 states this year.

More tariffs from Trump. The president said he was considering adding 25% tariffs on automobiles, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals and other industries critical to national security. The intent would be to force manufacturers to move operations into the U.S.

Musk seeks funding for X. The social media company is discussing a new round of investment at a valuation of $44 billion. That’s the same level at which Elon Musk bought the company in 2022. Flat is better than down, however: Last year Fidelity reduced the estimated value of its stake in X by 70%. Since then, Morgan Stanley successfully sold debt in X at face value — suggesting that the company’s creditworthiness is on the rise.

From Coins2Day

OpenAI reportedly considers changes to non-profit arm
OpenAI is reportedly considering giving special voting rights to the board of the AI giant’s non-profit arm following Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion buyout offer. The board would have no obligation besides enforcing OpenAI’s mission of making artificial generative intelligence a positive for humanity, something Musk believes the company has moved away from. Coins2Day

U.S. And Russian officials meet in Riyadh
Officials from the U.S. And Russia convened yesterday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for a preliminary meeting discussing plans to end the Ukraine war. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that both sides agreed on four principles for moving discussions forward, including plans for economic collaboration once the war ends. Coins2Day

Gates takes on DOGE
Bill Gates told PBS on Monday that the dismantling of USAID by the Department of Government Efficiency risks millions of lives overseas. Gates specifically referenced the victims of famine and disease that USAID targets, and hopes DOGE’s measures can be partially revoked. Coins2Day

The markets

• The S&P 500 added 0.24% yesterday to close at a new all-time high of 6,129.58... European markets sold off sharply this morning after President Trump indicated he was sympathetic to Russia, not Ukraine, in the war in Eastern Europe. … Reddit stock has declined nearly 15% in the last five trading days. The company reported weaker than expected earnings earlier this month and, more recently, suggested it may erect a paywall in front of some of its content.

From the analysts

• Goldman Sachs on gold: “We raise our end-2025 gold price forecast to $3,100/toz (vs. $2,890/toz prior) on structurally higher central bank demand, with our GS central bank nowcast surprising once again to the upside in December, and we reiterate our long gold trading recommendation,” per Lina Thomas and Daan Struyven.
• UBS on federal job cuts: “Federal government job cuts have attracted attention. Non-post office civilian federal employees are less than 1.5% of the US workforce, limiting the direct economic impact. There may be damage to supply chains, impacting private sector businesses,” per Paul Donovan.
• JP Morgan on housing: “J.P. Morgan Research expects [U.S.] House prices to rise by 3% overall in 2025. The higher-for-longer interest rate backdrop is here to stay, with mortgage rates expected to ease only slightly to 6.7% by the year end.” Read more here.
• Saxo on equities and war: “European equity markets are on fire this year, and European defense stocks have lifted aggressively in recent days on fears that the entire transatlantic alliance is collapsing and will require a massive fiscal boost across Europe if it is to defend itself in a new geopolitical backdrop,” per Ole Hansen and John Hardy.

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