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Kent Goldman

Founder, Upside Partnership · 1 appearance on the record.

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

investorfounderexecutive@kentgoldman ↗upsidevc.com ↗

Kent Goldman is the founder of Upside Partnership, a seed-stage venture firm that shares fund carried interest with portfolio founders. Before establishing Upside in 2014, he served as a partner at First Round Capital, leading seed investments in companies such as HotelTonight, Airware, and MemSQL.

11statements → 4claims → 2claims resolved → 3.73/5average certainty → 2.36/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 5said about them ↓

2 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 4 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 2 assertions · 5 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 4 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are 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 Kent 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
Upside Partnership will remain small because scaling breaks the seed fund model
“The vision is to continue to be a small fund. Somewhere where it is now, the second fund that we raise is forty four million. I think sort of if I get too far above that, the model we're seeking to work with begins to break down a little bit. There may be addi…”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 20:52 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet 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? →

264 words/min while actually speaking · 1.1 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Kent Goldman: 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 14 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 3,764 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Kent Goldman 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 1/10
setup questions received 55%

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

Prediction Held up
Upside Partnership will remain small because scaling breaks the seed fund model
“The vision is to continue to be a small fund. Somewhere where it is now, the second fund that we raise is forty four million. I think sort of if I get too far above that, the model we're seeking to work with begins to break down a little bit. There may be addi…”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 20:52 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Upside Partnership expects to deploy 70% of its capital into follow-ons
“We expect about 70% of that will actually be deployed into follow-on investments.”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 7:44 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
Insight
Seed valuation serves as a conviction litmus test, not a price filter
“So internally, when I think about valuation, I almost use it as a litmus test for my own enthusiasm, my own belief in whether or not a company can achieve its high aims. But I don't focus on it sort of that much at the seed stage.”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 14:44 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
Disclosure
Upside Partnership stops writing follow-on checks at a $100 million valuation
“So before I mentioned, usually we Peter, you know, upside has been petering out as companies hit a hundred million dollars in valuation.”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 15:12 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
Disclosure
Upside Partnership prefers not to take board seats in portfolio companies
“So I don't worry about whether or not we have a board seat. I, in fact, I almost prefer to sort of not have a board seat.”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 15:51 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
Insight
Thematic investing fails at the seed stage because it happens too late
“I think it's very hard to be thematic at the seed stage. I think generally by the time you can identify a theme at the seed stage, it's probably too late.”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 18:22 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
Insight
Early product is the least important evaluation factor in seed investing
“Product is probably the last thing I worry about when I think about product, especially at the seed stage or what the early vision of a product is. That helps you understand how the team thinks about the space as opposed to sort of being, you know, the thing y…”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 18:44 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
Assertion Supported
Josh Koppelman ran Facebook ads targeting Yahoo employees during 2008 takeover
“Josh Koppelman, who had just started First Round Capital, had decided when he saw the news of the takeover attempt, he wanted to see if there's anyone at Yahoo who is sort of loose in the saddle and maybe thinking about joining a startup or starting a company.…”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 3:51 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
Insight
Seed funds expanding to write lead checks creates direct competition
“As all these funds are trying to grow up and everyone was trying to be a lead investor, they're putting themselves in deeper and deeper competition with one another.”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 6:41 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
Insight
Making portfolio founders fund partners increases mutual support
“If we could actually sort of make founders partners in the fund, they would be more supportive of one another.”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 10:04 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Seed and friends-and-family rounds were virtually identical in 2008
“In 2008, there's very little difference between a seed round and a friends and family round”
Kent Goldman Dec 28, 2016 ▶ 6:23 20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership

The other half of the tape: Kent Goldman's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 4 times in 4 episodes on 20VC. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 4

Statements about Kent Goldman, by other people (1)

Insight
Kent Goldman: Use valuation pricing as a litmus test for deal conviction
“Kent Goldman at Upside in stating to me that the best way to use pricing to your advantage is to use it as a litmus test. It's a leading indicator almost to determine your desire to do a deal. If you believe this is going to be a truly game-changing, transform…”
Harry Stebbings May 8, 2017 ▶ 8:57 20VC: Harry Stebbings on The Biggest Takeaways From Interviewing The World's Best Investors, What Makes A Truly Great Interview & Some Big News... with Mattias Ljungman, Co-Founder & General Partner @ Atomico

Every mention by year

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Dec 28, 2016 16m
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