You know how everyone talks about Sam Altman and his circle? But there's this other guy who's been quietly building an insane track record that nobody really talks about. Lachy Groom—and yeah, I get it, the tabloids won't stop mentioning the connection, but honestly that's the least interesting part of his story.

So here's what actually happened: A few months back, his SF place got hit by an armed robber who made off with $11 million in crypto. Wild story, right? But the real story isn't the robbery—it's who this guy actually is.

This 31-year-old Australian literally started coding at 10. By the time he was 17, he'd already founded and sold three companies. Most people his age were worried about college entrance exams. Lachy Groom was looking at US valuations and thinking "that's where I need to be."

He didn't go to university. Instead, he moved to San Francisco and joined Stripe as employee #30. Seven years there (2012-2018) wasn't just a job—it was basically a masterclass in scaling B2B SaaS. He worked on growth, expansion, led their card issuing business across Asia. The guy learned from the inside how to build at scale.

Then in 2018, he went solo as an angel investor. And this is where it gets interesting. While most angels spray money everywhere hoping something sticks, Lachy operates like a sniper. When he sees something, he writes checks for $100k-$500k and moves fast.

His hit rate? Absolutely mental. Early Figma investment that turned into 185x returns. Notion when it was $800M—now doing $500M+ in annual revenue. Ramp, Lattice, all the tools that reshaped how people actually work. Over 200 investments, 122 companies in his portfolio. The guy has this thesis about investing in products people *want* to use, not software they're forced into.

But here's where it gets really hardcore. Last year he co-founded Physical Intelligence, a robotics company building AI "brains" for robots. The team reads like a fever dream—former Google DeepMind researchers, Stanford professors, Tesla and Anduril engineers. In one month they raised $70M. Seven months later, $400M. Then another $600M, bringing valuation to $5.6B.

Jeff Bezos is backing this. OpenAI is in. Sequoia, Khosla, Thrive—basically every serious investor is fighting to get in.

So yeah, people can keep focusing on the Sam Altman connection or the robbery. But if you actually look at what this guy has built? The investments, the exits, founding a robotics company that's already at $5.6B valuation? That's a completely different story. This is someone who saw opportunities before they were obvious and executed at a level most people in tech never reach.

That's the actual narrative worth paying attention to.