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Amol Deshpande

Founder & CEO, Frontera Health · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderinvestorexecutive@amoldeshpande78 ↗LinkedIn ↗fbn.com ↗

Amol Deshpande is the co-founder and former CEO of Farmers Business Network, an agtech data and commerce platform. Prior to FBN, he served as a partner at Kleiner Perkins and later went on to establish Frontera Health and Divergent Investments.

15statements → 3claims → 0claims resolved → 3.93/5average certainty → 2.53/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

1 not yet assessed 2 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 1 assertion · 11 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 2 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 Amol argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: speaking style how? →

243 words/min while actually speaking · 4.1 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Amol Deshpande: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 24 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 4,674 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Amol Deshpande is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 4/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 35%

Everything Amol Deshpande said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Deshpande: Pre-revenue deep tech startups should raise hundreds of millions early
“There's plenty of companies that are pre-revenue for many years who can and should raise hundreds of millions of dollars because they're building a phenomenal new technology, and it's going to be a long time before they generate revenue.”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 23:13 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2023
Deshpande: FBN aims to reach hundreds of billions in market cap
“Well, we want to be the biggest company in the entire agriculture industry, and in order to do that, that's hundreds of billions of dollars of market cap that we have to build, either as a private or a public company. So I think in the next five years, I would…”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 28:20 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Insight
Deshpande: Founders planning for an early acquisition have already given up
“Whenever I hear talking to other entrepreneurs, oh, I might sell the business, or there'll be acquirers interested, I'm like, okay, well, you've Largely given up before you start.”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 7:42 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Insight
Deshpande: A great team in a small market cannot build a huge business
“A good team who's working towards something in a small market will never create something big because it's going to be limited by the size of the market, right?”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 9:05 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Deshpande: If returning to VC, I would bet on team over market
“If I ever went back to investing again, I would most definitely bet first on the team. I would absolutely focus all of my energy on who am I investing in, and do I believe that they can figure this out?”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 9:49 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Insight
Deshpande: High-IQ executives often outthink themselves and lose focus
“The highest IQ people sometimes, I would almost say outsmart themselves or outthink themselves. They think in terms of arbitrage or hedging their bets or this or that, or they've got 10 things going on. They're not focused on the task at hand.”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 10:53 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Insight
Deshpande: Executives with prior financial success weather startup crises better
“A lot of times the reason that people management or others will panic when something bad happens or not be able to deal with the tough environment that a startup may go through or face is because they're worried about the financial side or they're worried abou…”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 11:51 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Insight
Deshpande: Growth funding timing depends on vision clarity, not revenue milestones
“I actually think the time to pour the fuel on the fire is when there's unanimity or certainty. Into what it is you're trying to become and that you feel you're on the path to get there.”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 22:33 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Insight
Deshpande: Seasoned founders with families perform better than 20-somethings
“By and large, you're better off having the benefit of experience. I mean, if I think about where I was in terms of the experience as I've had when I started FBN versus going back 12, 1314, 15 years to when I was first started a business, I is night and day in …”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 25:59 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Deshpande: Information transparency is severely lacking in the agricultural market
“Came up with this concept of information transparency because it's so lacking right now in the ag market.”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 4:46 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Insight
Deshpande: Farmers willingly share operational data when offered reciprocal benefits
“Discovered that farmers would actually share information if they could believe that it would benefit them in return.”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 4:52 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Insight
Deshpande: A massive gap separates category leaders from the next five entrants
“There's a big gap between the best company in a sector and the best entrepreneur and the best team and really the next five. And any big business and any big idea is going to have multiple entrants, multiple people in and around it. But you really Need to bet …”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 6:05 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Insight
Deshpande: An executive's inability to attract talent shows they have peaked
“If somebody can't build a team, if they can't attract talent, that's a clear sign that somebody's probably not capable.”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 15:35 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Insight
Deshpande: Building massive businesses requires prioritizing scale over equity dilution concerns
“Before Kleiner, I probably thought of it maybe a little more like a small business person, you know, where equity is obviously very precious and everything, but you're more worried about dilution. You're worried to raise some money and I, Take some dilution an…”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 21:27 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network
Disclosure
Deshpande: FBN's $194M raised is a drop in the bucket for agriculture
“One hundred ninety four million dollars we've raised in the last three, four years. That, that to me is like a drop in the bucket of what it probably will ultimately take to become a huge company.”
Amol Deshpande Sep 21, 2018 ▶ 20:52 20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine When A Stretch VP is A Stretch Too Far and The Right Way For Founders To Think About Dilution with Amol Deshpande, Founder & CEO @ Farmers Business Network

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: How To Build Credibility with Investors, Employees and Customers, How To Determine W Sep 21, 2018 20m
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