Mila Kunis has no problem admitting that when it comes to venture capital, she might not have the best instincts—and she’s more than happy to give credit to her husband, Ashton Kutcher, for ignoring her financial advice.
During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the 37-year-old actress opened up about her husband’s uncanny ability to spot massive tech opportunities early on, even when she passionately tried to talk him out of them.
Recalling the early days of their relationship, Kunis revealed that Kutcher pitched her on a fledgling startup called Uber, explaining that it was a rideshare platform allowing everyday people to use their own vehicles to earn money.
“I was like, ‘That’s the worst idea ever,'” Kunis recalled telling him, appalled by the concept of getting into a vehicle with an unverified driver. “I was like, ‘You’re going to put me in a car with a stranger? What is wrong with you?'”
Despite her vocal skepticism, Kutcher went ahead with the move, convincing her to back a $500,000 investment from their funds—a stake that ultimately ballooned into an estimated $50 million valuation over the years. Today, as Kunis noted, hailing a ride from a stranger has become second nature for millions around the globe.
The Black Swan star faced a similar moment of disbelief when Kutcher brought up Airbnb, another early-stage concept centered on home sharing. Puzzled by the notion of people hosting travelers in their private residences, Kunis questioned whether anyone would ever agree to sleep in a stranger’s bed. Undeterred, Kutcher backed the platform anyway, helping seed what is now a global hospitality giant valued in the tens of billions.
However, the couple’s most lucrative—and questionable, in Kunis’s initial view—financial leap came with cryptocurrency. Early in Bitcoin’s rise, Kutcher approached her with the concept of decentralized digital currency. When Kunis asked if the assets were backed or monitored by traditional financial authorities like the FDIC, Kutcher explained that decentralization was the entire point. Fearing it was a risky venture or a potential scam, she advised against it, only for Kutcher to secure a significant position that eventually yielded staggering returns.
Acknowledging that these high-profile wins are only a fraction of Kutcher’s broader venture portfolio, Kunis playfully admitted her past misjudgments. “I Airbnb everything, I Uber everywhere, and I use cryptocurrency,” she told Colbert. “So guess what? I’ve never been happier to be wrong.”
