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Kurt Rathmann

Former Founder & CEO, ScaleFactor · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutiveLinkedIn ↗

Kurt Rathmann is the founder and former CEO of ScaleFactor, an automated bookkeeping startup that raised over $100 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Coatue, and Canaan Partners. The company abruptly shut down in 2020 after reports revealed its automated bookkeeping relied heavily on manual human labor.

16statements → 3claims → 1claims resolved → 4.19/5average certainty → 1.88/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated → 1said 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 · 9 insights · 4 disclosures · 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 Kurt 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
ScaleFactor Operated Three Years Before Raising Venture Capital
“We've been around for six years, And so you could say that it actually took a long, long time to fundraise venture-backed dollars. It took three years to do that before we were operating for three years before I ever took any type of venture money.”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 7:16 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor

How they sound: speaking style how? →

263 words/min while actually speaking · 0.9 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Kurt Rathmann: 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 ≈4.0/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 5,590 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Kurt Rathmann 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 ▾ 1/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 75%

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

Insight
Rathmann: Founders Should Take Capital Whenever It Is Available
“I have generally a saying that's drink when you're fed. And so maybe more saying, you know, you take money when it's available, but it really comes into the circumstance, comes into the problem you're trying to solve.”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 9:22 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Insight
Rathmann: The boardroom belongs to the CEO, who must take control
“It's my boardroom. It's a founder's boardroom. It's a CEO's boardroom. And so, you've got to take control, and you've got to build a team around that.”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 16:36 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Rathmann: US small business market will be partnership-driven, not winner-take-all
“There's twenty-nine million small businesses just here in the U.S. I think that it's a variety of key players looking to evolve, and if anything, this is going to be a strong partnership market before it would ever be a winner-take-all market.”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 31:00 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Disclosure
Investors preempted ScaleFactor's Series B and C rounds
“Our B and C rounds were preempted.”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 9:07 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Insight
Rathmann: High-performing startup teams must operate between 80% and 130% capacity
“A great team, I have a saying and a philosophy that the great team is always throttled at between 80 to 130%. You can't run at 130% forever because you really start to break things. You can't run at 80% forever because then you become complacent and you might …”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 10:55 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Insight
Rathmann outlines the five core ways venture capitalists add value
“If you boil it down, I think VCs in general can do about five things for a company and varying levels and varying levels of expertise and execution. But the first would be they can write checks. The second is they can make intros to talent. The third is they c…”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 12:16 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Insight
Rathmann: Founders must actively extract value from VCs rather than expecting hand-offs
“As a founder, you have to know that all those things are available. It's really your job To extract it. I think folks get into trouble when they think that a lot of these things are these kind of marketing elements of a particular VC or particular firm are goi…”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 13:00 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Insight
Rathmann: Managing VCs is a competition for their time against portfolio peers
“It's my job to make sure that the board and that the investors are continually working for the company. And quite frankly, I kind of view it as a competition for their time, right? They've got other portfolio companies, and I want to make sure that they're spe…”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 15:47 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Insight
Rathmann: Physical office density directly dictates a startup team's energy
“If you have too much space, the energy level is not there. Obviously, if you don't have enough space, the energy level is there. It's just not the right type of energy you're wanting.”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 18:18 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Insight
Rathmann: Separating objective data from empathy helps employees self-correct
“It's important that you show the data which you're operating off of, and then you can bring in the human empathy and, you know, relational component, and if you can Keep those separate. It does wonders for how people are, will self-correct, and they'll realize…”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 21:10 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Insight
Rathmann: CEOs must travel in person to recruit top executive talent
“As a CEO, if you're really going to recruit, you've got to get on a plane. You've got to be willing to get on a plane for almost everything.”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 27:02 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Disclosure
Rathmann refused Zoom partner meetings with Bessemer and Coatue
“Byron would tell you, and I think Thomas from KOTU as well as, you know, as we were going through the partner meeting process, it was, you know, they're sending a zoom link over and saying, Hey, you know, just zoom in at this time. And that'll be that. And I s…”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 28:28 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Disclosure
ScaleFactor Oversubscribed Its Seed Round From $1M to $3.5M
“We set out to raise a million dollars. We ended up oversubscribing that round to three and a half”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 8:19 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Disclosure
Rathmann spent upwards of four years recruiting key ScaleFactor hires
“There's folks that have joined scale factor that I've been recruiting for upwards of four years.”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 26:00 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Assertion Supported
ScaleFactor Operated Three Years Before Raising Venture Capital
“We've been around for six years, And so you could say that it actually took a long, long time to fundraise venture-backed dollars. It took three years to do that before we were operating for three years before I ever took any type of venture money.”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 7:16 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kurt Rathmann connected QuickBooks to a Palm Pilot via 3G in high school
“I had a company in high school, it's a landscape lighting company. And so at that Well, not a tech company. What I was trying to do is solve a real time inventory environment. So I had a garage full of inventory and I had a QuickBooks desktop computer and I wa…”
Kurt Rathmann Jan 10, 2020 ▶ 4:01 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor

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

Who brings them up most Byron Deeter 1

Every mention by year

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0112019episodes it came up in
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2019 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Jan 10, 2020 23m
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