Jeff Housenbold

CEO, Beast Industries · 1 appearance on the record.

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Jeff Housenbold leads Beast Industries, managing the media and consumer products empire behind MrBeast. He previously served as President and CEO of Shutterfly for 11 years through its IPO, and was later a Managing Partner at the SoftBank Vision Fund overseeing investments in DoorDash and Opendoor.

11statements → 6claims → 1claims resolved → 4.18/5average certainty → 1.73/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 2said about them ↓

0 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 5 assertions · 5 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, 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 Jeff argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Housenbold: Entry price is the highest determinant of investment returns
“If you look at all the historical data, both pragmatic data as well as academic data, the highest R-square determinant for investment returns is your entry price.”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 17:11 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today

How they sound: speaking style how? →

193 words/min while actually speaking · 1.6 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Jeff Housenbold: 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 3,772 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Jeff Housenbold 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 →

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

Assertion Not checkable as stated
SoftBank's scale frees founders from short-term quarterly public market constraints
“As a public CEO, you have to hit your numbers to the penny every single quarter, and you're boxed in in some ways into executing against that one strategy, and you think very carefully about your Capital allocation, your investment decisions day by day, week b…”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 8:30 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Housenbold: SoftBank portfolio companies will outperform competitors in market downturns
“Should we hit a economic speed bump, I think our portfolio companies and the entrepreneurs that we have the pleasure of partnering with will be in an advantaged state against the competition.”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 11:30 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Masayoshi Son meets every founder before SoftBank makes an investment
“Masa meets with every single entrepreneur and management team before we make an investment.”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 16:17 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
Assertion Contradicted
Housenbold: Entry price is the highest determinant of investment returns
“If you look at all the historical data, both pragmatic data as well as academic data, the highest R-square determinant for investment returns is your entry price.”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 17:11 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
Disclosure
SoftBank provides secondary liquidity in over half of its deals
“In more than half of our investments, we have provided a secondary component for seed and early-stage investors to have liquidity”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 20:38 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
Disclosure
Housenbold: SoftBank has done multiple follow-on rounds in DoorDash, Compass, Opendoor
“In my portfolio alone, We've already done follow-ons or multiple follow-ons into companies like DoorDash, Compass, Katerra, Opendoor, as some examples”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 19:08 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
Disclosure
Housenbold writes SoftBank checks ranging from $200 million to $2 billion
“And I've written checks between two hundred million and now close to two billion dollars.”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 25:25 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Housenbold: SoftBank Vision Fund's sweet spot is mid-to-late-stage minority investments
“We have the flexibility in our fund to do early stage, mid stage, late stage, to do private, to do public, to do minority investments, to do majority investments, but our sweet spot is meaningful size minority investments in mid to late stage”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 12:54 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
Disclosure
SoftBank's due diligence process takes four to ten weeks
“And so that may take between four and 10 weeks of diligence.”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 15:25 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
Disclosure
SoftBank Vision Fund is structured as a 14-year vehicle
“We're a twelve-year fund with two one-year extensions, so we're a fourteen-year fund pragmatically, and we're only 22 months into that journey.”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 20:12 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Housenbold: SoftBank meets with 10 new pitching companies weekly
“In a given week, I'm probably meeting with 10 new companies that are pitching SoftBank. I'm sitting in two board meetings, having a couple compensation calls, chatting with my CEOs, interviewing members of prospective members of their management team, helping …”
Jeff Housenbold May 20, 2019 ▶ 28:56 20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Construction, Their Optimal Investment Decision-Making Process and What Excites Softbank Most In Opportunities Today

The other half of the tape: Jeff Housenbold's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 2 times in 1 episode on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Johannes Reck 2

Every mention by year

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Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Softbank Managing Partner, Jeff Housenbold on How Softbank Approach Portfolio Constr May 20, 2019 20m
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