It finally happened. Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in The Bahamas on Monday, 12 December. He was to have testified before the House Financial Services Committee the next day. Not to be…
How’d SBF go from intern trading ETFs to worth $26 billion and to have no material wealth as of today?
If you never thought image-making wasn’t central to SBF’s rise and fall… think again. SBF knew exactly how he was packaging himself. Wild hair, oversized, disheveled t-shirts and shorts are the sartorial summary of a man whose fortune ballooned and blew up.
He cared so much about his appearance that he did all this on purpose. Why? To lure investors.
This is so fascinating and important that Vanessa Friedman, Fashion Critic and Style Editor for The New York Times wrote all about it and interviewed me for the story. You can read it here.
From Beanbag Crypt to Crypto Wizard Gone Bust
In a calculated move, investors would show up to meet with him at his office. Ushered into a room where they could see him sleeping on a beanbag next to his desk, they could watch him wake up, walk into the meeting, turn himself on, and deliver the “SBF crypto show.”
It was all image-making to wow investors, making it seem as though he didn’t care about his appearance. Only that he knew crypto in his sleep, literally. Sam Bankman-Fried could play this role with ease. With Silicon Valley bona fides, he grew up in this countercultural environment. His look typifies what people expect of that culture. He knew it and he made certain of it.
Venture capitalists, who fund startups and turn founders into wealthy people overnight, tend not to care how or whether a founder is polished. They want to make money and see their opportunities through the lens of an idea.
SBF has famously said, “Money is the unit of caring.” For the world of good he says he was out to do, he never represented “good” about himself when it came to outward self-care. His infamous schleppy appearance likely emanates from inner self-image issues. He disguised his inner issues by using them to wow investors. The investors, wowed by the wind-up “Sam troll doll” experience, had no idea they were being taken for a financial ride off the cliff.
The guy brought up with an appetite for “utilitarianism,” never learned — or cared — to elevate the concept with clothes. In fact, none of it fit well and his grooming habits show a lack of self-respect.
When “tech bros” like SBF are mid-meteoric rise in notoriety and wealth-building, the public gives them a pass because the look is de rigueur. When it counts most, the lowest common denominator look fails to command respect or offer humble deference. It conveys zero self-confidence, and instead demonstrates an IDGAF attitude. In other words, failure to look the part gives the onlooker reason to have doubt and distrust.
If only star-struck investors could have looked beyond the bright light of a short term windfall to see the obvious. How SBF looks says as much about him as it does about the investors who saw him in plain sight and turned a blind eye.
When handling billions of dollars of other people’s money, did SBF really live up to his namesake as a “bank man?” Would you trust him with your financial assets?
