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Matt Ocko

Co-Managing Partner & Co-Founder, DCVC · 2 appearances on the record.

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

investorfounderengineer@mattocko ↗LinkedIn ↗dcvc.com ↗

Matt Ocko co-founded DCVC, a venture firm investing in early-stage deep tech across AI, robotics, and computational biology. Over a multi-decade investing and operating career, he has backed companies including Zoom, Uber, Facebook, and AngelList, and holds dozens of patents.

20statements → 8claims → 3claims resolved → 33%fully supported → 3.9/5average certainty → 2.95/5average debate potential → 4.5/5argument clarity · the sources → 16said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 2 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 predictions · 4 assertions · 2 opinions · 6 insights · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are 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 Matt 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
Three Scan maps tissue 1,000x faster than human pathologists
“So follow on, three scan, because they are transforming both drug development and medicine by delivering a three D map From the subcellular level all the way up to complete organ systems a thousand times faster and with essentially infinitely greater accuracy …”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 25:05 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Planet Labs is the world's second or third largest space power
“Planet Labs is delivering massive informatics advantage to its customers by virtue of having become the second or third largest space power in the world measured in satellites.”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 15:46 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.5 / 5 directness 4.8 · coherence 4.9 · precision 4.4 · compression 4

redirected or did not address 1 of 24 assessed questions (4%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

166 words/min while actually speaking · 23.5 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 5,111 words across 2 episodes of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 2 rated episodes:

host pushback ▾ 3/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 3.5/10
setup questions received 45%

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

Prediction Not checkable as stated
Ocko: Non-AGI can unemploy 30% of G20 workers within 10 years
“Well, first I'll say you don't need AGI to unemploy 30% of all Pink collar and white collar workers in the G-Twenty within the next 10 years.”
Matt Ocko Nov 21, 2016 ▶ 10:36 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on The Dark Side Of AI & What Happens When 3-4m People Become Unemployed Overnight
Opinion
Segregating venture funds by size destroys signal quality, says Matt Ocko
“I sincerely believe, and there's a large but quiet group of other experienced VCs with successful track records that who also believe that the strict segregation of funds by size has an information destroying or signal reducing aspect.”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 4:03 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Insight
Early-stage VCs bias investments to please late-stage investors, says Matt Ocko
“Meanwhile, the early stage investor Because they have to consider this capital formation risk is at best unconsciously and at worst very consciously biasing the nature of the investments that they pick towards what is popular or acceptable or soothing to the t…”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 5:36 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Opinion
LPs uncomfortable with 15-to-20-year lifecycles shouldn't invest in early-stage VC
“I think that some LPs who over time are uncomfortable with Perhaps a 15 year, or some of my VC colleagues have quietly mentioned, maybe the equivalent of a 20 year long bond in venture. You know, those LPs may not be the right ones to go forward in the early s…”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 19:18 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Ocko: Self-driving trucks could displace 4 million US workers
“So with self-driving trucks, they're you're talking about potentially vastly reducing, if not completely disemploying, I guess to coin a term, three or four million of the last non-college educated middle class people in the United States, and quite a large si…”
Matt Ocko Nov 21, 2016 ▶ 5:37 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on The Dark Side Of AI & What Happens When 3-4m People Become Unemployed Overnight
Insight
Ocko: First entity controlling semi-AGI gains imperceptible advantage over competitors
“Whoever gets that AI first, not only has a huge advantage, but an advantage that is beyond the reach of human intellect to perceive until they have quote unquote lost the game.”
Matt Ocko Nov 21, 2016 ▶ 12:33 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on The Dark Side Of AI & What Happens When 3-4m People Become Unemployed Overnight
Insight
Ocko: High-growth startup founders cannot sleep eight hours a night
“Ordinary, ordinary humans like us can't respond to the demands of a truly successful startup, one that has this hard, sharp arc of takeoff and sleep eight hours and cook our own organic breakfast and get in a brisk six mile walk and then write a little bit of …”
Matt Ocko Nov 21, 2016 ▶ 16:59 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on The Dark Side Of AI & What Happens When 3-4m People Become Unemployed Overnight
Disclosure
Data Collective passed on Gusto follow-ons because it wasn't deep tech
“We didn't follow on. We didn't raise our hand to be the big dog in successive rounds. And it had nothing to do with the quality of the company. And people trust us when we explain that because the company was a wonderfully engineered, great SAS company deliver…”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 13:44 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Insight
Ordinary founders cannot build high-growth startups while sleeping eight hours
“Ordinary, ordinary humans like us can't respond to the demands of a truly successful startup. One that has this hard, sharp arc of takeoff and sleep eight hours and cook our own organic breakfast and get in a brisk Six mile walk and then write a little bit of …”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 23:35 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Insight
Ocko: AI adjudication surrenders human judgment to opaque black boxes
“Likewise, as AI software begins to sort of perform idiot savant roles inside courts and legal systems and insurance companies in mainstream companies to adjudicate whether someone is employable, you have surrendered what used to be human decisions to a black b…”
Matt Ocko Nov 21, 2016 ▶ 6:18 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on The Dark Side Of AI & What Happens When 3-4m People Become Unemployed Overnight
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Ocko: Corporations will not hire AI-displaced workers with Udacity degrees
“The near-term likelihood that global corporations or even startups, whatever engine of economic growth you want to point to, are going to accept a Udacity degree from an unemployed welder or an unemployed truck driver whose job was just taken by a truck driver…”
Matt Ocko Nov 21, 2016 ▶ 9:45 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on The Dark Side Of AI & What Happens When 3-4m People Become Unemployed Overnight
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Ocko: AI will vastly reduce the 10,000 hours required for mastery
“The people who are creative or have an interesting idea may find themselves lifted up by even this simpler AI so that the, you know, 10,000 hours required today to become an expert in something can be vastly reduced.”
Matt Ocko Nov 21, 2016 ▶ 13:28 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on The Dark Side Of AI & What Happens When 3-4m People Become Unemployed Overnight
Insight
Early-stage investors evaluate follow-on funding better than late-stage VCs
“In a perverse sense, their adjudication of whether that company deserves another three million or five million or seven million dollars is at least as good, if not better, than the next guy up the line, especially if that next guy up the line is by necessity D…”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 6:43 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Disclosure
Data Collective's Opportunity Fund is contractually forbidden from outside investments
“Our opportunity fund is in fact contractually prohibited from chasing deals outside of our portfolio.”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 8:55 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Assertion Contradicted
Planet Labs is the world's second or third largest space power
“Planet Labs is delivering massive informatics advantage to its customers by virtue of having become the second or third largest space power in the world measured in satellites.”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 15:46 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Disclosure
Data Collective passes on standard SaaS deals favored by Jason Lemkin
“We regretfully either say no up front or don't follow on in the kind of companies that somebody like Jason Lempton is going to make a fortune in.”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 16:30 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Data Collective's early portfolio targeted $2B in 2016 revenue and bookings
“In aggregate in just a couple of our early stage funds are companies have hard contracted gap bookings and or fully recognized gap revenue approaching what should be about two billion dollars in 2016.”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 20:04 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Disclosure
Data Collective avoided micro-VC fund size to write larger initial checks
“We made a very conscious decision from the very beginning of our first institutional fund not to be a micro VC, not to be in the 30 to fifty million dollar fund size category, because if you disagree with conventional wisdom about a series A and you want to wr…”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 7:54 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Assertion Supported
Three Scan maps tissue 1,000x faster than human pathologists
“So follow on, three scan, because they are transforming both drug development and medicine by delivering a three D map From the subcellular level all the way up to complete organ systems a thousand times faster and with essentially infinitely greater accuracy …”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 25:05 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
Assertion Contradicted
Tradeshift serves 1M businesses, dwarfing competitor Ariba's footprint
“They have almost a million discrete companies in a 140 countries worldwide from tiny companies in China up to a huge chunk of the fortune 100 addicted to their stuff. And they dwarf the footprint of Ariba and any other, you know, would be competitor.”
Matt Ocko Aug 8, 2016 ▶ 25:51 20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?

The other half of the tape: Matt Ocko's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 16 times in 7 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 10Paul Martino 6

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
005210320162017201820192020episodesmentions
02320162017201820192020episodes it came up in
001.51.53320162017201820192020episodesmentions per episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2019 2 mentions in 1 episode
2017 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2016 9 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on The Dark Side Of AI & What Happens When 3-4m People B Nov 21, 2016 14m
20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycl Aug 8, 2016 20m
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