By Ajay Raju
Strategy, Inc. Chairman, Michael Saylor, has distilled decades of market observation into a deceptively simple formula: “Buy something that everyone wants, nobody can stop, and few understand.” This three-part framework has helped him identify some of the most transformative investment opportunities of the digital age—from his early positions in Facebook, Amazon, and Apple to his audacious Bitcoin accumulation strategy that has made MicroStrategy one of the best-performing stocks of the 2020s.
But Saylor’s approach isn’t unique in its underlying logic. Throughout investment history, the greatest fortunes have been built by investors who recognized the same pattern: universal demand meeting unstoppable momentum in assets that the broader market failed to comprehend. From early Netflix investors who saw streaming’s inevitable dominance over physical media to venture capitalists who backed Google’s search revolution, the most extraordinary returns have consistently flowed to those who identified these convergent forces before they became obvious.
READ: Indian American Naureen Hassan named President of UBS Americas, CEO of UBS Americas Holding (July 12, 2022)
The formula
Everyone wants: These are products or services addressing fundamental human needs or desires that transcend economic cycles, geographic boundaries, and demographic differences. These aren’t luxuries or niche products—they represent universal utilities that people actively seek and adopt.
Nobody can stop: These are businesses with structural advantages so profound that competitive displacement becomes virtually impossible. The moat advantages might stem from network effects, regulatory barriers, technological superiority, or economic scale that creates winner-take-all dynamics.
Few understand: This represents the critical informational asymmetry that creates investment opportunity. When sophisticated market participants overlook, dismiss, or fundamentally misunderstand a technology or business model, early adopters can capture disproportionate returns during the inevitable repricing.
Saylor’s bets
Saylor has applied this formula to invest in major technology companies. His early investments in Facebook, Amazon, and Apple—made when each company was still emerging or facing significant skepticism—captured exponential growth phases.
Saylor recognized that social connectivity represented a fundamental human need that digital platforms could satisfy at unprecedented scale. While critics questioned the monetization model and worried about privacy concerns, Saylor saw an unstoppable network effect where each additional user made the platform more valuable for everyone.
Amazon
Beyond e-commerce, Saylor identified Amazon’s infrastructure play—the creation of a scalable technology platform that could serve countless applications. While analysts focused on thin retail margins, Saylor understood that Amazon was building the backbone of digital commerce.
Apple
Saylor grasped that personal computing would eventually converge into mobile devices that people would carry everywhere. The iPhone wasn’t just a phone—it was a general-purpose computer that would become essential infrastructure for modern life.
Bitcoin Thesis
Saylor’s most dramatic application of his formula has been Bitcoin. Since August 2020, he has transformed MicroStrategy from a business intelligence software company into what many consider a Bitcoin treasury operation. The results have been extraordinary: the stock has posted an annualized return of roughly 124%, since 2020, outpacing all major asset classes, including Nvidia and every S&P 500 constituent; in 2024 alone, MSTR gained about 380–400%, making it one of the year’s best-performing U.S. equities; some analysts estimate a cumulative return of over 2,466% since the launch of its “Bitcoin Standard” strategy.
The company’s transformation into a Bitcoin treasury vehicle has been the central driver of its performance. As of June 30, 2025 (Q2-end), MicroStrategy held about 597,325 BTC. Following additional purchases in July, the total rose to ~628,791 BTC, financed through more than $10 billion in equity and debt programs since 2020. In early 2025, the company announced a record $21 billion financing initiative involving preferred shares and convertibles.
As for Michael Saylor, his net worth climbed from under $1 billion in 2020 to an estimated $10–11 billion at its late-2024 peak, reflecting his outsized Bitcoin exposure. Here’s how the 3-part framework works to support Saylor’s bitcoin thesis:
Everyone wants Bitcoin: Saylor argues that Bitcoin addresses universal needs for monetary sovereignty, inflation protection, and financial inclusion. As fiat currencies face debasement pressures and traditional assets become increasingly correlated, Bitcoin offers a non-correlated store of value.
Nobody can stop Bitcoin: The decentralized, cryptographically secured network has proven resilient against regulatory pressure, technical attacks, and competitive alternatives. No single entity can shut down or fundamentally alter Bitcoin’s monetary policy.
Few Understand Bitcoin: Despite growing adoption, Saylor believes most institutional investors still fundamentally misunderstand Bitcoin’s monetary properties, viewing it as a speculative technology rather than digital gold.
Formula applied
The most successful applications of Saylor’s formula typically involve network effects, where value increases exponentially with user adoption. There are different types of network effects: direct network effects where each additional user directly increases value for all users (for example, Facebook, Bitcoin); data network effects where more users generate more data, improving the service for everyone (for example, Google, Amazon recommendations), or platform network effects where more users on one side attract more participants on the other side (for example, Apple App Store, Amazon marketplace).
Visionary investors and venture capitalists consistently identify companies exhibiting Saylor’s three criteria, often years before public markets recognize their potential. For example, Accel Partners invested in Facebook because it understood social networking’s universal appeal and network effects before mainstream adoption. Sequoia Capital invested in Google because it identified search as critical internet infrastructure when many viewed it as undifferentiated technology. Meanwhile, Benchmark invested in eBay because it understood marketplace dynamics and the power of network effects in facilitating commerce.
The trick is to maintain informational advantages by understanding emerging technologies before they reach mainstream awareness, access entrepreneurs and trends before they become widely recognized, and invest in unproven business models when most investors demand established track records. As for the “few understand” conditions, consider certain cognitive biases. First, markets tend to project current trends linearly, missing exponential inflection points. Netflix’s transition from DVD to streaming seemed gradual until it suddenly wasn’t. Second, established players and investors resist changes to successful business models, creating opportunities for disruptors. For example, taxi companies resisted ride-sharing platforms. Third, simple, elegant solutions often appear “too obvious” to sophisticated investors who prefer complicated explanations. Bitcoin’s basic monetary properties were initially dismissed precisely because they seemed too simple. Fourth, markets become attached to prevailing stories rather than analyzing fundamental changes. Tesla was dismissed as a luxury toy maker even as it was building manufacturing and technology capabilities that would reshape the automotive industry.
Risks and failure
Of course, Saylor’s approach requires high conviction and concentrated positioning, amplifying both potential returns and risks. Maximum exposure to breakthrough technologies and network effects allows investors to benefit fully from exponential growth phases. But, concentration in emerging assets or companies creates significant volatility and potential for large drawdowns during market corrections or technological shifts. Even correct long-term theses can experience extended periods of underperformance, testing investor psychology and conviction.
Successfully applying the Saylor formula requires technical competency to understand complex technologies and business models before they become mainstream, exceptional emotional discipline and analytical confidence to hold positions through volatility and market skepticism, and pattern recognition and market intuition to identify genuine breakthrough opportunities among countless failed startups and overhyped technologies.
Not every company that appeared to meet Saylor’s criteria survived the test of time. For example, the dot-com era produced numerous failures that seemed to have universal appeal, competitive advantages, and market misunderstanding. Take Pets.com. Universal pet ownership didn’t translate to viable online pet supply economics. Or, Webvan that addressed real need for grocery delivery, but was premature relative to infrastructure and consumer behavior.
So, what separates lasting winners from temporary phenomena? For starters, winners understand unit economics enabling sustainable business models to achieve profitability at scale. Second, it helps to have quality management or leadership capable of navigating competitive challenges and scaling operations. Third, winners are market ready for technological or behavioral changes. Fourth, winners are efficient with capital and achieve dominance without unsustainable cash burn.
Last word
As technology continues reshaping human behavior and economic activity, new opportunities will emerge that everyone wants, nobody can stop, and few initially understand. The investors who recognize these patterns first will continue capturing the extraordinary returns that compound into generational wealth.
The enduring lesson is that in investing, as in many endeavors, the most profound insights often appear deceptively simple. Complex market analysis and sophisticated quantitative models have their place, but history’s greatest fortunes have been built by those who recognized fundamental human needs meeting unstoppable technological capabilities at moments when the broader market failed to appreciate the implications.
(Ajay Raju, a venture capitalist and lawyer, is the author of The Review, a column that attempts to decode the patterns emerging from the unprecedented shifts reshaping our world. In a world where adaptation is survival, The Review offers a compass for the journey ahead).