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Eric Paley

Secretary, Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development · 3 appearances on the record.

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

investorfounderexecutive@epaley ↗epaley.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Eric Paley is the Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development and a co-founder of Founder Collective. He previously co-founded Brontes Technologies and led early-stage venture investments in companies such as Uber, The Trade Desk, and Airtable.

58statements → 18claims → 6claims resolved → 67%fully supported → 3.74/5average certainty → 2.71/5average debate potential → 4.4/5argument clarity · the sources → 102said about them ↓

4 supported 2 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 11 not checkable as stated how the 18 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 predictions · 12 assertions · 9 opinions · 22 insights · 8 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 18 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 11 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 Eric 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
Paley: Most VCs Earn Money From Management Fees, Not Carry
“It's why most VCs get paid on management fees. They don't get paid on, on, on carried interest, because TVPI, TVPI in that case, doesn't actually translate to DPI.”
Eric Paley Sep 20, 2023 ▶ 10:08 Is the VC Model Broken? Jason Lemkin, Mike Maples, Eric Paley & Harry Stebbings Debate | E1062 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
90% 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? →

4.4 / 5 directness 4.8 · coherence 4.7 · precision 4.2 · compression 3.8

answered every one of 32 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? →

246 words/min while actually speaking · 25.1 um and uh per 1k words · 11.9 false starts per 1k · 29.6% of pauses land inside a clause

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 8,617 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 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 2/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 25%

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

Disclosure
Paley: Founder Collective owned 12.5% of The Trade Desk at IPO
“We owned, I think, 12 and a half percent of the company at the IPO.”
Eric Paley Sep 20, 2023 ▶ 1:19:12 Is the VC Model Broken? Jason Lemkin, Mike Maples, Eric Paley & Harry Stebbings Debate | E1062 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Paley: The Trade Desk Burned Only $7 Million Before Its IPO
“The company burned seven million dollars before going public.”
Eric Paley Sep 20, 2023 ▶ 1:20:12 Is the VC Model Broken? Jason Lemkin, Mike Maples, Eric Paley & Harry Stebbings Debate | E1062 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Eric Paley says capital should accelerate proven models, not search for fit
“It's using capital to accelerate those things that are working as opposed to using capital to find things that work.”
Eric Paley Nov 23, 2016 ▶ 6:57 20VC: Venture Capital Is One Hell Of A Drug, What VCs Expect From Founders Once They Have Raised & Why Customers Validate Your Business Not Venture Capital with Eric Paley, Managing Partner @ Founder Collective
Insight
Eric Paley says extending runway is the healthiest use of additional capital
“Yeah, I think the healthiest thing that founders could do with more capital is drive a longer runway.”
Eric Paley Nov 23, 2016 ▶ 9:28 20VC: Venture Capital Is One Hell Of A Drug, What VCs Expect From Founders Once They Have Raised & Why Customers Validate Your Business Not Venture Capital with Eric Paley, Managing Partner @ Founder Collective
Disclosure
Founder Collective's small Uber seed check would move the dial for anyone
“Yeah, so, ok, so we are, you know, as investors in Uber, and we didn't write a very big check, I think that current value alone of that small check would be very attractive to any venture fund of any size, even though our check that we started with was small, …”
Eric Paley Nov 18, 2015 ▶ 15:14 20 VC 089: Eric Paley @ Founder Collective on Outliers, Inspirational Founders and Pro Rata
Disclosure
Founder Collective has three unicorns in its first fund
“We have three, what people like to call unicorns in our first fund right now, and that's great.”
Eric Paley Nov 18, 2015 ▶ 19:54 20 VC 089: Eric Paley @ Founder Collective on Outliers, Inspirational Founders and Pro Rata
Disclosure
Founder Collective's first fund has fully returned invested capital to LPs
“We've, you know, given back all the money our investors have given us, and then some in our first fund”
Eric Paley Nov 18, 2015 ▶ 21:19 20 VC 089: Eric Paley @ Founder Collective on Outliers, Inspirational Founders and Pro Rata
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Eric Paley calls dentistry the world's largest remaining cottage industry
“What later we learned or came to believe was the largest remaining cottage industry in the world, where every unit of production was a completely unique unit of production.”
Eric Paley Nov 18, 2015 ▶ 4:46 20 VC 089: Eric Paley @ Founder Collective on Outliers, Inspirational Founders and Pro Rata
Disclosure
Founder Collective writes $200K to $2M seed checks depending on lead status
“We write checks at the seed stage between sorry, between 200,000 dollars and two million dollars. So it depends if we're leading or participating. We don't have a Is there an opportunity to lead, and who's the most qualified fund for this particular opportunit…”
Eric Paley Nov 18, 2015 ▶ 14:24 20 VC 089: Eric Paley @ Founder Collective on Outliers, Inspirational Founders and Pro Rata
Assertion Partly supported
Kelsey Wirth built Invisalign into a billion-dollar company in five years
“I was very lucky to have Kelsey Wirth on my board who was the founder of Invisalign, and we had gone after this industry that I never imagined we'd go after that was certainly very quirky to the venture community, and Kelsey had built a billion dollar company …”
Eric Paley Nov 18, 2015 ▶ 27:13 20 VC 089: Eric Paley @ Founder Collective on Outliers, Inspirational Founders and Pro Rata

The other half of the tape: Eric Paley's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 97 times in 18 episodes on 20VC. 5 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most David Frankel 58Harry Stebbings 29Micah Rosenbloom 4Chris Dixon 4Roger Ehrenberg 1Beezer Clarkson 1

Statements about Eric Paley, by other people (5)

Prediction Held up
Clarkson: Absolute TVPI-to-DPI gap is likely largest since dot-com crash
“The only other time that would be equivalent would be about 99 and 2000, and I don't know if there is the volume of funds in the market then, so, and absolute numbers, he's probably right.”
Beezer Clarkson Oct 18, 2023 ▶ 33:00 Beezer Clarkson: Are LPs Open for Business & Why Do LP Incentive Mechanisms Need to Change? | E1073 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Frankel: Founder Collective funded The Trade Desk when nobody else would
“Eric invests in Trade Desk as a follow on because nobody else was going to give them money.”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 10:45 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Maples: Seed venture capital is about micro 'bird spotting' for novel startups
“Yeah, for me, the job is sort of like, you know, when you're in the Galapagos Islands and you spot some, Finch with a weird looking beak that nobody's ever seen before. Like, I think that's kind of what Eric and I try to do, right? We're trying to, but like, i…”
Mike Maples Sep 20, 2023 ▶ 1:16:39 Is the VC Model Broken? Jason Lemkin, Mike Maples, Eric Paley & Harry Stebbings Debate | E1062 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Frankel: Nobody could have predicted Uber's market size at seed stage
“Uber, which Eric participated in at the get-go, looked like a better way of calling limos. No one in their mind could have known how big that was going to be.”
David Frankel Sep 17, 2018 ▶ 14:01 20VC: Lessons Learned Scaling PillPack from Seed to Amazon Acquisition, Why Investors Should Spend More Time Assessing Human Capital Risk Taken by Founders & The Right Way To Think About Capital Efficiency in Scaling with David Frankel, Managing Partner @
Insight
Investing and founder support are the only top priorities in VC
“In venture, investing in helping companies is the only A activity. Everything else is a B activity.”
Micah Rosenbloom Feb 15, 2017 ▶ 21:15 20VC: Why Founders Should Not Focus On Top Line Valuation, Why Capital Efficiency Is Key To Returns And Investment Success & Why Despite Popular Thought, $100m Is An Exciting Exit For VC with Micah Rosenbloom, Managing Partner @ Founder Collective

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
00132254201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions
024201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
0052104201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 5 mentions in 1 episode
2024 23 mentions in 3 episodes 8 per episode
2023 3 mentions in 1 episode
2022 19 mentions in 2 episodes 10 per episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 15 mentions in 4 episodes 4 per episode
2017 14 mentions in 2 episodes 7 per episode
2016 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2015 15 mentions in 2 episodes 8 per episode

Appearances (3)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Is the VC Model Broken? Jason Lemkin, Mike Maples, Eric Paley & Harry Stebbings Debate | E Sep 20, 2023 39m
20VC: Venture Capital Is One Hell Of A Drug, What VCs Expect From Founders Once They Have Nov 23, 2016 15m
20 VC 089: Eric Paley @ Founder Collective on Outliers, Inspirational Founders and Pro Rat Nov 18, 2015 25m
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