Yuri Milner, the CEO of Russian investment and holding company Digital Sky Technologies, will be on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on May 24 – 26 in New York.
Milner has spearheaded a new type of venture investment in Silicon Valley – invest in a hot startup at a high valuation (maybe higher that what others will pay), and then do a subsequent investment by purchasing employee common stock at a lower valuation. It’s a perfect structure in a world where companies are delaying going public and it releases pressure from employees looking to sell some or all of their stock. People are calling these “DST deals,” and I spoke to Milner earlier this year on camera about the strategy.
His recent U.S. investments include Facebook, Zynga and Groupon. He plans to invest a billion dollars in social startups in the next few years, and he is one of the most fascinating technology investors in the world today. We’ve added Yuri to the TechCrunch Disrupt speaker page.
There are still more speakers and experts to announce, and we’ll update you shortly.
No announcement is complete without a word about parties. MailChimp is hosting our afterparty on Tuesday at Tribeca Rooftop. And, as we mentioned, Zoosk is hosting a speed-meeting for startups and VCs; check out our Disrupt blog to register and for tips on talking to VCs (like Jeff Bussgang, who just joined the “VCs-Writing-Books” club) and registration info.
Join us! Become a partner sponsor or exhibit. If you’re a startup, show off your stuff in Startup Alley for early-stagers. Or go all out at our Hack Day, an overnight, no-rules session of creative hacking led by a veteran team of developers.