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David Frankel

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Founder Collective · 5 appearances on the record.

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

investorfounderexecutive@dafrankel ↗LinkedIn ↗foundercollective.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

David Frankel is a co-founder and managing partner at Founder Collective, where he led investments in companies including Coupang, PillPack, and SeatGeek. Previously, he co-founded and served as CEO of Internet Solutions.

163statements → 46claims → 17claims resolved → 47%fully supported → 4.04/5average certainty → 2.42/5average debate potential → 4.0/5argument clarity · the sources → 69said about them ↓

8 supported 6 partly supported 3 contradicted 7 not yet assessed 22 not checkable as stated how the 46 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

21 predictions · 25 assertions · 30 opinions · 43 insights · 43 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 46 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 17 are resolved, 7 are not yet assessed, and 22 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 David 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

Prediction Held up
Frankel: Thrive Capital LPs will make a 2x return on OpenAI
“Is Josh in the winner there going to make two X, and maybe much more than that, but bet against the two X? I wouldn't bet against the two X. I think his LPs will make two X on that.”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 48:44 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Their most notable contradicted claim

Prediction Didn’t hold up
Frankel: Pari passu terms are ending as strict preference stacks return
“And the PREF stack, like peri-passu, feels like something of the past. There's a real PREF stack coming.”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 23:05 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
67% certainty 4
50% 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

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.0 / 5 directness 4.1 · coherence 3.8 · precision 4 · compression 3.6

answered every one of 12 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? →

231 words/min while actually speaking · 26.4 um and uh per 1k words · 12.9 false starts per 1k · 31.5% of pauses land inside a clause

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 8,332 words across 2 episodes 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 4 rated episodes:

host pushback ▾ 2.8/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 45%

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

Opinion
Frankel: Microsoft Has Done a "Crappy Job" With AI
“So I think Microsoft have done a crappy job of AI generally.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 1:04:43 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Opinion
Frankel: Venture capital DPI could be dead
“I think that DPI could be dead.”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 24:23 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Frankel: Tiger Global operated like a casino
“Those guys were just like a casino. One call to John at Tiger. Like, 20 on 80, no problem.”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 0:22 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Frankel: Backing successful second-time founders hasn't worked out due to hubris
“I would say generally founders who've had enormous, enormous success and exits come to the next opportunity with some degree of hubris. I speak about this personally. I sold my first business And I thought I could conquer anything. And they look at any vertica…”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 15:22 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Frankel: Live Nation and Ticketmaster merger should never have been allowed
“So Live Nation Ticketmaster, that merger should never have been allowed. But once it's allowed, we will occupy, monopolize that position all day long.”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 42:59 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Frankel: Aiming Exclusively for 'Unicorn or Bust' Seed Returns Is Insane
“I think it's insanity. I just think it's insanity. Like, I think when, I think you market those winners, and again, it's great PR fodder, it's great to, like, attract the investors in the next fund, but I think it's insanity to go, it's like that huge, you kno…”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 57:09 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Frankel: Multi-stage VC firms have no incentive to matchmake for startups
“Sequoia will, it doesn't matter, by the way, I don't want to single out Sequoia here, but it doesn't matter if you take your check from Andreessen, Sequoia, Axel, you name them, right? They will never, they have no incentive to matchmake. They have no incentiv…”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 1:17:17 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Frankel: Heavily Funded AI Startups Are Not Capital Efficient
“There's very little evidence yet that These hot, hot AI companies that are raising huge amounts of money are capital efficient, right? They're anything but capital efficient. There's, like, the jury's out on whether that's going to work still.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 7:24 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Opinion
Frankel: Uncapped Convertible Notes Suck at the Seed Stage
“I mean, the scale of how much you have to win, right, is different based on your price. It's pure math. So, uncapped notes suck at the seed stage.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 9:26 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Frankel: Standard 10-Year Venture Capital Funds Now Take 18 Years to Mature
“You know, these ten-year funds are taking 18 years.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 17:02 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Frankel: OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX Are Today's Metas and Googles
“And I think in, you know, OpenAI and Anthropic and SpaceX, we're seeing that already. Like these are the Metas and the Googles of our era, highly likely.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 20:24 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Frankel: 95% of Startups From the Current AI Boom Will Fail
“Like, 95% are not going to be there.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 20:38 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Frankel: The jury is out on post-2020 venture fund DPI performance
“A little less since twenty-twenty. Like, if you look at the DPI analysis, like, the jury's out from twenty-twenty onwards.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 27:46 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Insight
Frankel: Billion-Dollar Early Rounds Are Momentum Plays, Not Seed Value Investing
“I think that that's the momentum business, and I think knowing how and when to get out quickly with some of those really, really matters, and that's not really my business. So my business is value, is getting involved early, and trying to find value opportunit…”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 34:36 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Frankel: Sovereign wealth funds prioritize IRR over fund return multiples
“Sovereign wealth funds and public investment corporations are looking for IRR. They're not measuring this in how many times do you X the fund.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 38:13 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Assertion Supported
Frankel: Post-2020 mega funds boast high TVPI but lag on DPI
“Subsequent to twenty-twenty, like the TVPI is there, and some, in some cases, they're on steroids. The DPI is less there, if you look at the actual stats.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 38:28 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Insight
Frankel: Embedded, Mission-Critical SaaS Workflows Will Survive AI Disruption
“The more embedded you are, like the more difficult you are to dispense because real time, Thousands, billions of orders are being run in your system, or like mission critical biotech research is being run in your system. The more embedded you are, I think the …”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 43:30 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Insight
Frankel: Seed VCs Should Sell 20% of Winners Early to Generate DPI
“Even in your top names, sometimes taking 20% off the table, if you can return 25% of the fund, particularly if it's a newish fund, so if it's a, you know, if it's a twenty-twenty-four fund and you can give back 25%, like, why wouldn't you do that? And you're s…”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 51:23 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Assertion Supported
Frankel: Fund of Funds Are Liquidating Entire Billion-Dollar Portfolios via Secondaries
“By the way, we've seen fund of funds do secondaries of their entire fund, So we go, oh my god, you're in fund two, or you're in fund four, like, you should never sell, right? Like, this is what's, and it's like, it's not about you, right? Like, you're a roundi…”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 56:07 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Insight
Frankel: Moderately Successful Second-Time Founders Outperform Prior Massive Winners
“And I think overall we've done a little better on second time founders who didn't do that great up front. They didn't, they did okay, right? It's life changing. Like the first million dollars is so life changing. But they're really hungry. They've learned some…”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 59:46 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Frankel: The Tech Market Is "Definitely" Headed for Another Dot-Com Crash
“Are we headed for another dot com crash? Definitely. If, like, Is not a question. When? Nobody knows, right?”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 1:06:29 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Insight
Frankel: Angel networks can increasingly bypass traditional venture firms
“It may just be in, like, angels putting money all over the place, and some of those angels are going to know people that worked with them or for them, and they're going to, you know, I think you can bypass traditional venture to a great extent, and that's the …”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 1:06:48 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Frankel: AI Will Not Cause Mass Unemployment, Only Massive Productivity Gains
“Do I think that we're going to have mass unemployment because of AI? And you're seeing a lot of leadership now agree with the viewers. No, I think we're going to see tremendous productivity gains.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 1:07:57 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Frankel: OpenAI and Anthropic Will Eventually Be Disrupted by Chinese Competitors
“That anthropic and open AI are going to be disrupted. It's like unequivocal. Like our whole careers are about disruption. Those platforms never, ever stay forever. Where is it going to come from? Excellent chance it comes from China. It's coming.”
David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 ▶ 1:15:18 The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel

Show 24statements(139 left)

The other half of the tape: David Frankel's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 68 times in 15 episodes on 20VC. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 44Eric Paley 13Fred Destin 3Chris Dixon 3Noah Glass 2Zachary Bookman 1Roger Ehrenberg 1Jack Groetzinger 1

Statements about David Frankel, by other people (1)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
David Frankel and Eric Paley's angel portfolio quadrupled top-quartile VC returns
“We saw that that body of that portfolio, that body of work was performing way better. I mean, four times as well as these top quartile PCs”
Eric Paley Nov 18, 2015 ▶ 9:04 20 VC 089: Eric Paley @ Founder Collective on Outliers, Inspirational Founders and Pro Rata

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
00102203201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions
023201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
00101.5203201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 5 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
2024 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2023 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2022 14 mentions in 1 episode
2020 7 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
2018 10 mentions in 1 episode
2017 7 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
2016 1 mention in 1 episode
2015 17 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (5)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
The AI Boom Will Create Enormous Roadkill: Who Wins & Loses? | David Frankel Aug 7, 2026 1h 1m
David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Oct 14, 2024 1h 4m
20VC: Biggest Lessons and Challenges Building One of the Most Successful Seed Funds, How T Feb 7, 2022 29m
20VC: Lessons Learned Scaling PillPack from Seed to Amazon Acquisition, Why Investors Shou Sep 17, 2018 21m
20 VC 088: David Frankel @ Founder Collective: The Most Founder Friendly VC in Existence Nov 16, 2015 19m
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