Assertion Not checkable as stated
Waxman: No early Uber investor imagined it growing beyond black car industry
“I doubt that if you went back, and maybe some are revising history, I don't know, but I doubt if you went back to any of the investors who looked at Uber, I doubt any of them imagined that it could be bigger than the black car industry. And maybe a few imagine…”
Insight
Waxman: Analytical TAM models systematically miss startups that fundamentally change markets
“And I just think if you study the market, like any way you analytically go at that market, when you see an Uber kind of pitch, you're going to miss it if what the company does is change the market.”
Insight
Waxman: Seed pro-rata rights force founders into terrible Series A trade-offs
“Founders are put in this terrible situation of trying to do right by their early investors. And respect all of the contractual rights that they signed up for and new investors demanding minimum ownership thresholds. These founders are forced to either screw ov…”
Opinion
Waxman: Standard pitch deck TAM slides showing massive markets are virtually useless
“And every, you see a lot of pitch decks now, every pitch deck seems to have the same slide It's got a big circle in it with the biggest number the founder can find, and it's pretty much a useless slide, right? The number almost doesn't matter because it's real…”
Opinion
Waxman: Convertible notes make absolutely no sense for multi-million dollar rounds
“But when you get into a multi-million dollar round, I think that convertible notes make absolutely no sense at all.”
Opinion
Waxman: SAFEs are just as bad for early-stage financing as convertible notes
“I do. I think they're pretty much just as bad.”
Insight
Waxman: Party rounds harm startups by lacking a lead investor during crises
“When the company encounters challenges, sometimes an investor group really needs a lead because they need leadership. It's very, very easy to be a good investor when everything's going up and to the right and, you know, the founder is doing all the right thing…”
Insight
Waxman: Founders underestimate their leverage when Series A VCs commit to investing
“I think that they underestimate the power of the situation that they're in, because when one of those firms really decides that they want to invest in you, it's not, as you say, it's not a couple percent that's going to push them off.”
Insight
Waxman: Taking Series A capital is a marriage with no divorce option
“It's crazy because it's a marriage that is very, very hard to get out of, as you know. When you've taken an investor, particularly that first A-round investor, they are with you for the duration, whether you like them or not, and it's nearly impossible to, the…”
Assertion Supported
Waxman: Top-performing VCs have higher loss ratios because they take greater risks
“And if you look at the data, the best VCs have slightly higher loss ratios than the middling ones because they're not afraid to swing hard and take more risks.”
Opinion
Waxman: Joy Mode is directly challenging the concept of personal product ownership
“So I believe, you know, it's a big swing what joy mode is doing, but if they win, they're really taking on the very idea of ownership and there's nothing big than that.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Waxman: TenOneTen Ventures never contractually guarantees LP co-investment rights
“I think we certainly never give them as a contractual right because once again, back to the founder, they know me, right? They know my partner. They know my Austin, our associate who works with us. You know, they want us around for a reason. They don't necessa…”
Insight
Waxman: A major asymmetry exists between investor diligence and founder diligence
“I think there's a big asymmetry in how much diligence investors do to companies versus how much companies do to investors.”
What-if
Waxman: Selling late-stage Uber stakes on secondaries makes sense to reallocate capital
“I think that there probably are some sensible situations that probably if I were an Uber now, not to pick on them, I would be ready to be liquid and figure that the, you know, maybe the next billion dollars I could catch somewhere else.”
Disclosure
Waxman: TenOneTen's Fund One loss ratio is extremely low, which worries him
“And so, actually, right now, our loss ratio is Fund One is extremely low, and it worries me.”
Insight
Waxman: Finance is prospective and more critical to startups than retrospective accounting
“Finance and accounting are totally different disciplines. Finance is Completely prospective, and it's super important for startups. It helps guide where you're going, helps you model the future, helps keep the company on the right track. Accounting is retrospe…”
Insight
Waxman: VCs have influence over portfolio companies, but founders retain control
“You have influence, but you don't have control.”
Insight
Waxman: An investor's true character is revealed only during bad times
“It's easy to be a great investor, as I said before, that it's easy to be a great investor when things are going up and to the right. When you see someone's true metal is when things are going badly, when things are scary and difficult. And it's important for f…”
Insight
Waxman: Every startup CEO must know cash zero day, burn, and revenue
“You need to know at any moment, a CEO needs to know her cash zero day, monthly burn, and projected revenue for the following month.”
