Ray Gu -- the guy who once asked if I could pump his stock for him
A few months ago, I wrote this post: https://churningandburning.com/2025/02/my-dumbest-investment-champions-basketball-league.html
In that post, I wrote about an investors dinner I had with multiple former NBA players and the CEO of the now-failed Champions Basketball League. This dinner was where I met an interesting fellow named Ray Gu. It was too tangential to the subject to write about and I only met him that one time anyway. Let's just say, Ray Gu was one of those first impressions you don't forget. He made such an impression that I once told my wife about him in a quick anecdote and she even remembers him. Haha the people you meet in NYC, am I right?
Who is Ray Gu????
Ray Gu is a 1st generation Chinese immigrant who experienced a lot of racism as a child while growing up poor with a sweatshop family. He didn't tell me this when I met him, it just happens to be mentioned about him in every single PR piece that I found about him. The reason I was googling puff pieces about a guy I met once ten years ago? I just learned that he's the founder/chairman of a $1 billion dollar clean energy public company that I had been researching.
WHAAAAAAAAAAT... that can't be the same guy!!!
Then I see on his LinkedIn, he actually claims to be "private investor in ABNB 2015". He invested in it at the exact same time I did and I know he talked about being in ten years ago too. That's just too huge a coincidence. It's him.
This is from one of his puff piece PR's:
The unconventional and self-made international businessman has a habit of investing in startups in the private and public sectors that go on to prove their weight in gold. The portfolio of companies he is involved with is huge, and it includes everything from gold mining to sports equipment, blood diagnostics, a disruptive private jet firm he co-founded, and even legal cannabis. He has invested in renowned companies such as Airbnb and has been head-hunted by hundreds of companies on the strength of his reputation alone.
He also runs a non-profit for kids to get involved in community youth sports. What a respectable guy--community oriented businessman who founded a clean energy company that's now worth over $1 billion.
The guy I met in 2015? Dopamine chaser. Would leave the resteraunt saying he has to get back to the wife and family. 15 minutes later after a lengthy trip to the restroom and a red looking nose, he openly talks about the escorts on his rolodex.
Stock pumper. Since my roommate introduced me to him as a penny stock trader, he opened up about all his "private investor" dealings. Dude was the guy who would be behind all the toxic financing of desperate low-cash micro-cap OTC garbage. The market maker on the level II with unlimited paper crushing a stock from $1 to .01? That's his paper being sold, with a cost basis of $0. He basically described his approach as such:
I call up the absolute shittiest companies out there, the ones that badly need cash and have nowhere else to go. I ask for as much stock and control as they can possibly allow. Pump it and dump it. If they don't like the terms? Fuck em, go somewhere else to get your money then.
It was basically a strategy where you couldn't lose. Loan money out at loan shark interest rates (convertible debt, in this case). Predatory but perfectly legal.
He actually offered me a way to get to know him and be part of business--he had a crappy gold mining company that he wanted me to pump and trade and create volume on. I told him I'd get back to him on it. I never did. That was the one and only time we ever had a conversation.
Now I doubt he talks about any of his past business. He's beyond that dirty stuff now. I looked up his holding company and they own 28% of this company--at the current stock price, that holding is worth $300 million. This stock went IPO at $4 (around $110mil valuation) and uplisted from the OTC to the Nasdaq. I could've been an insider to that, if I had been willing to be a little more transactional and then maintain the relationship. Oh well. Just a fun story for you guys.
I don't know the guy but I can almost picture him as the main character in his own show. Chip on his shoulder, lots of insecurity growing up. White and black kids made fun of him on the NYC playground. What kind of smelly food do you eat, chigga? He educated himself via city college like Gordon Gekko (that's his fav movie btw). He became a Wall St bro with tailored suits and a collection of Pateks. Brute forced his way into wealth by being a corporate loan shark--but he dresses it up by saying he's a private investor. Leveraged his small fortune into a slightly larger one but more importantly, he finally achieves the respectable image his mom wanted for him: chairman of a respectable clean energy company. Probably still a dopamine chaser who cheats on his wife.
Honestly? Think we gotta respect the hustle with this guy.