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Davis Smith

Founder & Chairman, Cotopaxi · 1 appearance on the record.

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

founderexecutive@davismsmith ↗LinkedIn ↗cotopaxi.com ↗

Davis Smith is the founder and former long-time CEO of Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear and apparel brand dedicated to eradicating extreme global poverty. Earlier in his career, he founded pool table retailer PoolTables.com as well as the Brazilian e-commerce startup Baby.com.br.

41statements → 14claims → 6claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 4.2/5average certainty → 1.88/5average debate potential → 4.3/5argument clarity · the sources → 1said about them ↓

6 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not yet assessed 5 not checkable as stated how the 14 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 predictions · 11 assertions · 3 opinions · 11 insights · 13 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 14 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, 3 are not yet assessed, and 5 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 Davis 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
Cotopaxi tripled revenue in two and a half years post-Bain investment
“We've more than tripled our revenue, you know, since they've invested two and a half years ago.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 27:23 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
none yet 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? →

4.3 / 5 directness 4.6 · coherence 4.6 · precision 4.1 · compression 3.6

redirected or did not address 3 of 46 assessed questions (7%). Watch them ▸

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? →

286 words/min while actually speaking · 21.1 um and uh per 1k words · 15.4 false starts per 1k · 26.6% of pauses land inside a clause

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 13,316 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 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 4/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 40%

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

Opinion
Smith: Female investors understand purpose in business better than male investors
“I really believe that women better understood and understand purpose in business than men did.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 31:57 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Smith: Founders can build great businesses without torching work-life balance
“Yes, you can have balance and you can still build an extremely efficient and great business that's doing great work. You don't have to put in a 120 hours a week, a hundred hours a week and not have any balance. And torch, you know, family relationships and eve…”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 46:48 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Smith: Patagonia erred by keeping all equity with founder Yvon Chouinard
“I think the one thing that I'd love to do better though than what I've seen Patagonia do and this is coming from someone with deep admiration for Yvonne Chouinard and for Patagonia. I guess if there was a criticism I'd have is why after 40 years was he the onl…”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 54:57 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Smith: Consumers will not buy products solely for social good
“People that's wonderful, but people are not going to buy, buy your product because you're doing good in the world. You need to first create a great product. And he was absolutely right. So I really do think that's first, like you have to go build a great produ…”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 18:42 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Smith relinquished Cotopaxi CEO title to recruit Damien Huang
“The only problem is he wanted to be CEO. He didn't want to be president. He didn't want to be my right hand. And I had some other options that were really great right hands that would have been happy being president forever. And at the end of the day, I did, I…”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 53:32 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Dec 2026
Smith: Cotopaxi will build employee wealth rather than join a foundation
“And I actually think it's a win for Cotabaxi to, like, I don't want to give the company away to a foundation. I actually want to create something that can create wealth for many people within our organization, and that can allow them to go pass on this to thei…”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 55:26 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Smith: Cotopaxi needs $500M revenue and $75M EBITDA before an IPO
“But I think at the right time, let's say the, you know, let's say Cotabaxi is, you know, five hundred million in sales and has you know, 75 or eighty million dollars in EBITDA. At that point, it's like, it's stable. You know, the business is stable. I think th…”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 1:04:55 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Davis Smith: Entrepreneurship creates more societal impact than non-profit work
“And he instead convinced me that I shouldn't do that, that I should really, if I wanted to make a difference in the world, that I should become an entrepreneur.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 3:22 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Smith pitched over 100 investors seeking 10-year permanent capital for Cotopaxi
“I pitched over a hundred different investors, lots of family offices.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 28:51 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Smith: Very few venture investors commit to long-term 10-to-15-year timelines
“Very, very few investors are committed to that kind of timeline. They're all, everything's so short term minded”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 35:25 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Smith ran Cotopaxi's executive search himself against Bain Capital's advice
“And I started a process being capital gave me a handful of search firms to go talk to. I talked to four or five of them. I didn't want, I didn't hire any of them. And I decided I'm going to go run the process myself. And bank capital was like, that is a mistak…”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 51:22 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Smith opens Cotopaxi to public listing or M&A exit options
“I was so convinced 12 months ago that I would never take this company public, that I didn't want to sell it to anyone. I just wanted to stay independent and private forever. And I'd say I've changed my mind. I don't, I'm open to all options.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 1:04:18 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Smith: Entrepreneurs misunderstand the scale required for venture capital
“I think a lot of entrepreneurs don't understand how big and ambitious the idea needs to be to go raise venture capital.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 33:10 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Davis Smith raised $4.5 million for Baby.com.br off a PowerPoint
“We raised like four and a half million dollars based on a PowerPoint.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 11:02 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Davis Smith: Pick co-founders based on skill fit, not family or friends
“I tell entrepreneurs, why don't you go identify your idea? Why don't you go figure out what you want to go build and then go find the best person in the world to go help you solve that problem. It probably is not going to be your cousin. It probably isn't goin…”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 12:54 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Smith compensated early Cotopaxi hires with equity contingent on fundraising
“Give them a little bit of equity. And we figured out some creative structure around compensation. If we ended up fundraising, if we didn't fundraise, it was like, I didn't have to pay anything. So they were taking a little bit of risk with me, but because of t…”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 21:02 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Davis Smith: The Greatest Entrepreneurs Are Incredible Salespeople
“The greatest entrepreneurs are incredible salespeople. They know how to sell. They know how to sell a vision. They know how to sell an idea. They know how to sell a product. And so you're selling every single day as an entrepreneur. And I think that starts wit…”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 21:20 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Cotopaxi tripled revenue in two and a half years post-Bain investment
“We've more than tripled our revenue, you know, since they've invested two and a half years ago.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 27:23 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Cotopaxi raised a $3M seed round at a $7M pre-money valuation
“We raised three million dollars and had a, so a seven pre, 10 post.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 31:05 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Davis Smith: Ten investor rejections is far too few when fundraising
“If you only pitch it 10 times, you need to go do this a lot, lot more.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 33:06 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Davis Smith: VCs require a path to $1B in revenue
“Venture capital is not going to fund that business. You need to go build something that's going to do a billion dollars in revenue.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 33:25 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Dec 2028
Smith predicts Cotopaxi will become a multi-billion dollar business
“Are we a multi-billion dollar business? Not yet, but we will be.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 46:35 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smith: Cotopaxi ranks in top 1% of startups from past decade
“If you look at, you know, the percentage of businesses that have started in the last 10 years, we are in the top one percent.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 46:41 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Davis Smith: Brands shouldn't manage their entire philanthropic vertical in-house
“In fact, I'd say you shouldn't own the vertical entirely to give effectively. I think you specialize in what you're great at.”
Davis Smith Dec 15, 2023 ▶ 47:37 Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Show 17statements(17 left)

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

Who brings them up most Sumeet Shah 1

Every mention by year

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2015 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E Dec 15, 2023 55m
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