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Chris Olsen

Co-Founder and CEO, Drive Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

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

investorfounderexecutive@ChrisOlsenCMH ↗LinkedIn ↗drivecapital.com ↗

Chris Olsen is the co-founder and CEO of Drive Capital, a venture capital firm founded in 2012. Previously a partner at Sequoia Capital, he has backed technology companies including Duolingo and Udacity.

10statements → 8claims → 5claims resolved → 20%fully supported → 3.9/5average certainty → 2.4/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 8said about them ↓

1 supported 1 partly supported 3 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 6 assertions · 2 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, 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 Chris 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

Assertion Supported
Sequoia Capital Stopped Accepting Public Funds To Avoid FOIA Disclosures
“Sequoia at the time made the decision to no longer accept public funds. And because of this disclosure, they wanted to protect the stealthiness of their businesses.”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 5:33 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
US Midwest Universities Graduate More Engineers Than Any Global Region
“There are more engineers graduating from Midwest universities than any other corner of planet earth.”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 12:18 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
13% certainty 4
100% certainty 5

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

How they sound: speaking style how? →

227 words/min while actually speaking · 2.6 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Chris Olsen: 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 14 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 4,177 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Chris Olsen 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 ▾ 2/10
pushed back at the host 2/10
setup questions received 85%

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

Assertion Contradicted
US Midwest Universities Graduate More Engineers Than Any Global Region
“There are more engineers graduating from Midwest universities than any other corner of planet earth.”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 12:18 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
Assertion Contradicted
Nationwide Insurance Employs More Software Engineers Than Facebook
“Companies like nationwide insurance, They have more engineers than Facebook has”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 16:23 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
Insight
Midwest Startups Face Severe Funding Trough Between $3M And $40M
“If you want to raise less than three million dollars, there is a very robust pool here of angels and incubators that are willing to invest in those companies. I think that where there's this trough is from, If you're raising between three million dollars and f…”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 19:27 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Silicon Valley Decentralization Is Tech's Biggest Trend Over The Next 20 Years
“I believe that the decentralization of Silicon Valley is the biggest trend that we're going to live through in the next 20 years.”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 24:48 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
Assertion Contradicted
Sequoia Capital Invests More Money Outside California Than Inside
“Today, Sequoia, and many of the other venture firms, they invest more money outside of California than inside of it”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 10:13 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
Assertion Partly supported
The US Midwest Economy Ranks Fifth Globally, Ahead Of India
“It has the economy that would be the fifth largest economy in the world, bigger than Brazil, bigger than Russia, bigger than India. And it's on top of that has a 150 of the fortune, 500 companies here.”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 12:24 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Top Midwest Startups Command Silicon Valley-Level Valuations Despite Fewer VCs
“Even though there are fewer VCs here, the very best companies are getting priced at a very similar level to those in Silicon Valley.”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 17:27 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
Insight
$1M Monthly Revenue Unlocks Coastal VC Growth Rounds For Midwest Startups
“As a rule of thumb, a million dollars a month, Then you've got a business that will be able to raise forty million dollars from the venture community, and if you can do that, then now you're tapping into these growth funds that are on the coast”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 20:01 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Universal Multi-Purpose Manufacturing Robotics Remain Far In The Future
“Where you can get to a world where a robot can simultaneously spit out a smartphone and then spit out a piece of gym equipment is a long, long way off.”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 22:06 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne
Assertion Supported
Sequoia Capital Stopped Accepting Public Funds To Avoid FOIA Disclosures
“Sequoia at the time made the decision to no longer accept public funds. And because of this disclosure, they wanted to protect the stealthiness of their businesses.”
Chris Olsen Apr 23, 2018 ▶ 5:33 20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away From The Valley, The Biggest Lessons From Learnings The Craft of VC at Sequoia & The Benchmarks Required to Attract Growth Investors with Chris Olsen, Founding Partne

The other half of the tape: Chris Olsen's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 8 times in 1 episode on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Sebastian Siemiatkowski 8

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0041812026episodesmentions
0112026episodes it came up in
0040.5812026episodesmentions per episode
2026 8 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: The Biggest Trend Of Our Lifetime Is The Decentralisation of Entrepreneurship Away F Apr 23, 2018 19m
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