Alex Taussig
Board Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners · 2 appearances on the record.
computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →
investorauthor@ataussig ↗drinkingfromthefirehose.substack.com ↗
Alex Taussig has invested over $600 million into category-defining marketplace and software platforms, leading or managing investments in Vinted, Faire, Whatnot, and Zola. He authors the newsletter Drinking from the Firehose and previously spent nearly seven years as a partner at Highland Capital Partners.
9 supported 3 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 3 not checkable as stated how the 16 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
1 prediction · 15 assertions · 3 opinions · 13 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 16 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 12 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Alex argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
Expressed certainty vs assessment result
weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet
Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →
answered every one of 16 assessed questions directly
This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →
How they sound: speaking style how? →
268 words/min while actually speaking · 8.1 um and uh per 1k words · 35.2 false starts per 1k · 32.1% of pauses land inside a clause
Measured by listening to the audio itself: 6,542 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →
How the interview went all their pushback → series average →
Across 2 rated episodes:
Everything Alex Taussig said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
The other half of the tape: Alex Taussig's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 22 times in 13 episodes on 20VC. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 14Nicole Quinn 5Mike Mignano 1Jeremy Liew 1Jana Messerschmidt 1
Statements about Alex Taussig, by other people (2)
Every mention by year
2024 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- 20VC: Doug Leone, Bill Ackman, Bill Gurley and Orlando Bravo on "Does Price Matter"; When to Pay Up vs When to Stay Disciplined, The Biggest Lessons on Price Discipline from 8 of the World's Best Investors
- every mention in 2024, scene by scene →
2023 5 mentions in 1 episode
2022 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2019 7 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: How Founders Can Gain Leverage in Fundraising Negotiations, The Metrics You Need To Raise Your Series A in Consumer & What We Have To Change About Cap Table Construction with Jana Messerschmidt, Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners
- 20VC: Lightspeed's Arif Janmohamed on Why Market Risk Is The Most Dangerous Risk To Underwrite As A VC, How To Determine When to Stretch vs Not on Price Today & The $TRN of Market Cap Up For Grabs Today In Enterprise
- 20VC: Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew on Why It Is More Important To Be Right Than Contrarian, The Most Common Mistakes Made By Hyper-Growth Companies & 3 Characteristics That Make An Individual Incredible At Sourcing
- 20VC: Why The Current VC Financing Mechanism For Consumer Brands Is Broken, Why The Infrastructure To Power Emerging Brands Is Broken and What The Re-Platforming of Retail Means For The Next Decade in Consumer with Adam Pritzker, Chairman & CEO @ Assemble
- every mention in 2019, scene by scene →
2018 6 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: What It Takes To Found and Scale A Global Venture Firm Like Lightspeed, 3 Ways Firms Do Not Succeed in Generational Transition & What Makes The Truly Special Board Members Like Jim Goetz with Barry Eggers, Founding Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partn
- 20VC: USV's Rebecca Kaden on Whether Venture Returns Can Be Made At Scale In Consumer Today & How To Navigate Consumer Investing In A World of Amazon
- 20VC: 3 Core Considerations When Investing In Physical Product Co's, Are We In A Direct-To-Consumer Bubble & Why Many Sub $100m Funds Are Moving Earlier and Earlier with Nick Brown, Managing Partner @ Imaginary
- 20VC: Lightspeed Partner Adam Goldberg on Why There Remains No Mass Market Crypto Consumer Product, The Future For The Token Economy, The Good and Bad of Telegram's ICO and Why The Rate of Founder Learning is The Most Important Element A VC Can Assess
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
Appearances (2)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Thomas Plantenga & Alex Taussig: Vinted CEO's Ultimate Guide to Scaling Marketplaces | E11 | Feb 12, 2024 | 28m |
| 20VC: Lightspeed's Alex Taussig on VC Risk Mentality, The Current State of Retail & The Me | Mar 12, 2018 | 24m |