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Grant LaFontaine

Co-Founder & CEO, Whatnot · 1 appearance on the record.

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

founderexecutiveoperator@grantlafontaine ↗LinkedIn ↗whatnot.com ↗

Grant LaFontaine is the co-founder and CEO of Whatnot, a livestream shopping marketplace tailored to collectibles and enthusiast goods. Earlier in his career, he worked in product management roles at Google and Facebook and co-founded Kit.com.

34statements → 12claims → 5claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 4.03/5average certainty → 2.53/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 4said about them ↓

5 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not yet assessed 5 not checkable as stated how the 12 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 10 assertions · 1 opinion · 15 insights · 6 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 12 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, 2 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 Grant 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
Whatnot Operates Without Product Managers, Jira, or Ticketing Systems
“Because we're in a world where we basically don't have PMs, there's so many decisions and bits of ownership that engineering is required to take control of. We don't have JIRA. No one writes tickets.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 12:20 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

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

277 words/min while actually speaking · 0.4 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Grant LaFontaine: 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 24 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 6,727 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Grant LaFontaine 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 ▾ 3/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 4/10
setup questions received 45%

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

Prediction Open · timeframe Mar 2032
Whatnot Will Have the Largest IPO in History by 2032
“We're the biggest social commerce marketplace in the western world. We've had the biggest IPO ever.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 37:04 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Assertion Supported
Whatnot Operates Without Product Managers, Jira, or Ticketing Systems
“Because we're in a world where we basically don't have PMs, there's so many decisions and bits of ownership that engineering is required to take control of. We don't have JIRA. No one writes tickets.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 12:20 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Opinion
Clubhouse, OpenSea, and Whatnot Are the Only Notable Recent Consumer Startups
“I think in the past year, there's probably been like Three really interesting consumer companies. It's been Clubhouse, OpenSea, and us.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 22:14 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
A/B Testing Slows Product Execution and Encourages Incremental Thinking
“I think it just slows you down, encourages incremental thinking.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 23:59 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Whatnot Operates With 50 Engineers and Only One Product Manager
“So today we have about 50 engineers in the team. We have one product manager.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 5:46 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Team Performance Drastically Improved After Every Employee Firing at Whatnot
“But what I can say is after every one that we have done, the team's actually improved quite drastically.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 19:16 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Building Consumer Products Requires Deep Empathy Rather Than Metric Formulas
“Building great consumer companies is not a mathematical equation. It's like when I go and look around, like all of the materials about how do I build product? How do I think about this? There's so much stuff on retention and cohorts and metrics and this and th…”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 21:36 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Disclosure
Whatnot's Growth Team Ships Fast and Refuses to Run A/B Tests
“At most Fang companies. The growth team is heavily oriented towards A-B testing and metrics. Our growth team is just building things and doesn't test anything and ships it fast.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 22:41 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Grant LaFontaine Claims Whatnot Is the Fastest-Growing Marketplace in Tech History
“We're the fastest growing marketplace ever.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 33:21 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Startup Founders Should Never Engage in Angel Investing
“Don't do it. Never. I think there are founders I know who do it, and some of them have, like, reasonably good logical reasons for why they do it. I think if you're a founder, it's incredibly important that you fully optimize the success of your company.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 34:16 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Empowering Engineers to Drive Product Decisions Significantly Accelerates Execution
“When you have the people who are actually executing and building the thing, driving the decisions, they're way more empowered and you have fewer people in the equation so you can get things done way faster.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 6:02 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Big Tech Product Managers Focus Too Heavily on Strategy and Numbers
“In terms of hiring PMs, the biggest pool of PMs today are coming from like the fan companies, Facebook, Google, et cetera. And they tend to be Strategy and numbers focused.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 6:57 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Pre-emptively De-risking Projects Is Inefficient for Early-Stage Startups
“Most of the risks that you enumerate are never real, and so instead you kind of have to just push something out there and understand what the real risks are.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 13:43 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Startups Should Not Reward Failure, But Ensure It Is Not Punished
“We actually don't explicitly reward failure, because I also don't think you want to reward failure. We make sure that failure is not punished, right?”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 14:30 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Taking Insufficient Risk Is a Primary Reason Scaling Startups Fail
“I actually believe one of the bigger failure points for startups, they do not take enough.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 15:29 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Software Features Rarely Require Teams Larger Than Six People to Build
“Most things in software, you don't need more than six people to actually make happen.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 16:27 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Whatnot's Mobile App Experienced System Outages Every Day in February 2022
“You know, I think in February of this year, our app went down every day, literally every single day.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 20:13 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Organizational People Conflicts Cannot Be Solved Using First Principles
“Like all the people problems that you run into, they're not like the business problems where you can work back from first principles. People are really like complicated. When you start to run those conflicts and getting like organizations to work well together…”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 30:52 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Openly Roasting the CEO Builds High-Trust Executive Leadership Teams
“He'll kick it off with me where it'd be like, all right, you can go and roast Grant on all of the bad things he's doing. Give him like the toughest feedback you can give him. I'll sit there and listen to it. And most of the time it's accurate. And so I'll ackn…”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 32:02 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Leaders Must Let Problems Burn so Teams Build Problem-Solving Muscle
“I see a problem, I let it burn for a little bit, so we can get the team focused in on that problem, and actually solve it on their own.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 36:18 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
Startups Are a Long Process Without Singular Aha Moments
“I think, like, you know, many start-ups, It's a long process in there. I don't think there is an aha moment.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 3:52 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Assertion Supported
Whatnot Requires All Engineering Candidates to Pass a Product Interview
“All of our engineers actually go through a product interview so that they can make sound product decisions and judgments.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 5:57 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Prediction Held up
Whatnot Plans to Maintain Unusually High Engineer-to-PM Ratios Long Term
“We'll probably always keep the ratios very high relative to standard companies because we want to optimize for speed.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 6:42 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot
Insight
User Empathy Enables Fast, High-Quality Product Decisions Without Large Datasets
“If you are really grounded and empathetic to your users, you can make high quality decisions Without huge amounts of data, ultimately what that allows you to do is speed everything up. Add value to users exceptionally fast.”
Grant LaFontaine Mar 23, 2022 ▶ 7:21 20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot

Show 10statements(10 left)

The other half of the tape: Grant LaFontaine's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 4 times in 4 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 4

Every mention by year

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient a Mar 23, 2022 27m
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