Joe Fernandez

Co-founder & CEO, allUP · 1 appearance on the record.

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

founderexecutiveinvestor@JoeFernandez ↗Wikipedia ↗

Joe Fernandez is the co-founder and former CEO of Klout, an online influence measurement platform acquired by Lithium Technologies in 2014. He later founded Joymode and launched allUP.

13statements → 3claims → 1claims resolved → 4/5average certainty → 2.62/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 18said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 2 assertions · 1 opinion · 8 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 2 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 Joe 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

Prediction Held up

Fernandez: Joymode will iterate on its membership model until the company dies

“Like, there are things in our business, for example, we have this notion of a membership, which is kind of controversial in our structure, that I'm willing to basically kill the company to prove It is right, and I believe so strongly that that is kind of a cor…”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 12:36 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

How they sound: speaking style how? →

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

No argument clarity score for Joe Fernandez: 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 4,082 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Joe Fernandez 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 ▾ 2/10

pushed back at the host 2/10

setup questions received 30%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 6:27“Why did you raise at such a high valuation then?” ▶ 5:04“What's the single greatest learning from the experience with clout?” ▶ 18:18“can you discuss a time when you maybe made one of these big bets, and it created conflict with the board, and how did you communicate that?”

What they said13 What others said18 Episodes1

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

Insight

Founders who blindly follow board advice will definitely get fired

“If you don't listen to the board, you might get fired. If you do listen to the board, you will get fired. And I think that's true.”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 18:26 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Insight

Raising too much money at high valuations is impossible to fix

“There was one mistake that was really basically impossible to fix, and it was raising too much money at too high of a valuation”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 5:49 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Insight

Joe Fernandez suggests $10,000 internal bounties to disprove major startup initiatives

“So offering like almost a bounty of, you know, let's say, 10,000 dollars to somebody who could concretely say why this is a bad idea and why we'd be better off Putting our resources somewhere else is like a small price to pay to avoid taking that wrong turn.”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 11:15 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Insight

Investor updates should make investors terrified, not comfortable

“It's not at all about spin. It's not at all about like making them feel comfortable that they put all this money in the company. I want them to be terrified that they put money in this company.”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 22:31 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Insight

Founders should publicly praise helpful investors to subtly shame unhelpful ones

“I always want to create competition between my investors. I want the folks who have helped me to be recognized, to subtly shame the ones that haven't, and show appreciation for the people who are constantly going out of their way and making introductions and h…”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 23:34 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Opinion

The social identity space should support a multi-billion dollar company

“The opportunity, I still believe, is huge in that space. Like, there should be a foundational, multi-billion dollar, like, fabric of the internet level company, and Doing what Cloud was trying to do.”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 6:34 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Insight

Joe Fernandez argues serial entrepreneurship status is inflated

“And startups are just hard. And I don't think it matters how many times you've been through it. It's gonna going to be hard. And some of the serial entrepreneurship stuff, I think, is inflated, though I appreciate the benefit I get from it daily.”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 10:21 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Prediction Held up

Fernandez: Joymode will iterate on its membership model until the company dies

Insight

Startups need one initiative that investors fear will kill the company

“I think you should always have an initiative that you are working on that a huge portion of the team and investor base is afraid will kill the company. Like, that is a good barometer of, like, are you being daring enough?”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 17:03 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Klout's early hiring bar was simply a willingness to quit your job

“The bar to get hired at Clout was like willingness to quit your current job. If you were basically willing to quit your current job, you were on the team.”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 8:11 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Insight

Board input consists of data points, not instructions for CEOs

“Our, you know, provides data points that can be really helpful, but it's your job to synthesize those data points with everything else and with your vision and make decisions.”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 21:10 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Disclosure

Joe Fernandez spends six to eight hours writing each investor update email

“I write really in-depth investor emails, like spend 6:08 hours on one, They're all archived on a Google doc that is like almost 200 pages long.”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 22:12 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Joe Fernandez was fired from a dry cleaner in four hours

“I managed to get fired from a dry cleaner in four hours, so I've been very unemployable for a very long time.”

Joe Fernandez Jul 6, 2018 ▶ 4:35 20VC: Why Serial Entrepreneurship is Overrated, Why You Will Get Fired If You Listen To Your Board & How To Construct Investor Update Emails The Right Way with Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO @ Joymode

The other half of the tape: Joe Fernandez's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 18 times in 12 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 11 David Waxman 4 Hunter Walk 3