Nathan Wenzel

Founder & CEO, LegalOperator.ai · 1 appearance on the record.

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

founderexecutiveoperatorlegaloperator.ai ↗

Nathan Wenzel co-founded legal operations software platform SimpleLegal and led it through its 2019 acquisition by Onit. He subsequently founded LegalOperator.ai to develop AI-driven tools for corporate legal teams.

8statements → 1claims → 1claims resolved → 4.5/5average certainty → 1.75/5average debate potential → 4.4/5argument clarity · the sources →

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted how the 1 claim stands · each chip opens the sources

1 assertion · 1 opinion · 1 insight · 4 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 1 claim: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved. 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 Nathan 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

Y Combinator Is Not Just for 22-Year-Olds, Says 35-Year-Old Alum

“We went through, I was 35 at the time, and I was not the oldest. So I think the idea that YC is really just for twenty-two-year-olds is, is kind of a myth.”

Nathan Wenzel Jul 28, 2017 ▶ 18:33 20VC: Construct Your Fundraising Process To Get 3 Term Sheets in 36 Hours, Why Slow and Steady Can Be Best For Startups & Why All Startups Must Know Their Zero Cash Day with Nathan Wenzel, Founder & CEO @ SimpleLegal

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

4.4 / 5 directness 4.5 · coherence 4.6 · precision 4.2 · compression 4

redirected or did not address 2 of 16 assessed questions (13%). 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? →

264 words/min while actually speaking · 9.5 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 3,065 words across 1 episode 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 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 2/10

pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10

setup questions received 40%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 4:48“Now, I want to ask, does this go contra to the more traditional thesis of kind of VC and SaaS businesses in terms of plowing money in, hiring big sales teams, and really testing an…” ▶ 7:09“So if we have a founder then that's decided on the slow and steady growth model, uh, I do have to ask what level of slow and steady is still enough for hope to be within the foundi…” ▶ 11:23“What makes you suggest that there's an impending one coming soon?”

when Nathan pushed back ▶ 19:14“You know, I disagree with that one. I think, I think the manager's job is really to Find how their team can be successful.”

What they said8 Episodes1

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

Insight

"Move Fast and Break Things" Fails for SOX-Compliant SaaS Startups

“The idea of move fast and break things really doesn't work if you need to be SOX compliant, and if you're asking your customers to trust you with their financials.”

Nathan Wenzel Jul 28, 2017 ▶ 6:11 20VC: Construct Your Fundraising Process To Get 3 Term Sheets in 36 Hours, Why Slow and Steady Can Be Best For Startups & Why All Startups Must Know Their Zero Cash Day with Nathan Wenzel, Founder & CEO @ SimpleLegal

What-if

SimpleLegal Would Have Reached Profitability by Q3 2017 Without Series A

“Had we chosen not to raise money, we would have been profitable by the beginning of the third quarter.”

Nathan Wenzel Jul 28, 2017 ▶ 15:35 20VC: Construct Your Fundraising Process To Get 3 Term Sheets in 36 Hours, Why Slow and Steady Can Be Best For Startups & Why All Startups Must Know Their Zero Cash Day with Nathan Wenzel, Founder & CEO @ SimpleLegal

Disclosure

SimpleLegal Waited Two Years Before Hiring Its First Employee

“We spent 18 months to get it right, but once we saw that it was working, we took another six months before we hired our first employee”

Nathan Wenzel Jul 28, 2017 ▶ 5:46 20VC: Construct Your Fundraising Process To Get 3 Term Sheets in 36 Hours, Why Slow and Steady Can Be Best For Startups & Why All Startups Must Know Their Zero Cash Day with Nathan Wenzel, Founder & CEO @ SimpleLegal

Opinion

Relying on Continuous VC Funding Availability Is Dangerous for Startups

“VC money is just always around the corner, and if you need more money, you just go and ask for it. It's a dangerous assumption to make, and we've already seen companies that have raised tens of millions of dollars just disappear overnight because they thought …”

Nathan Wenzel Jul 28, 2017 ▶ 10:13 20VC: Construct Your Fundraising Process To Get 3 Term Sheets in 36 Hours, Why Slow and Steady Can Be Best For Startups & Why All Startups Must Know Their Zero Cash Day with Nathan Wenzel, Founder & CEO @ SimpleLegal

Assertion Supported

Y Combinator Is Not Just for 22-Year-Olds, Says 35-Year-Old Alum

“We went through, I was 35 at the time, and I was not the oldest. So I think the idea that YC is really just for twenty-two-year-olds is, is kind of a myth.”

Disclosure

SimpleLegal Maintained Near-Zero Gross Churn During Early Growth

“Our gross churn was near zero.”

Nathan Wenzel Jul 28, 2017 ▶ 8:20 20VC: Construct Your Fundraising Process To Get 3 Term Sheets in 36 Hours, Why Slow and Steady Can Be Best For Startups & Why All Startups Must Know Their Zero Cash Day with Nathan Wenzel, Founder & CEO @ SimpleLegal

Disclosure

SimpleLegal Maintained Near-Zero Company Net Burn for Its First 18 Months

“For us, we were net zero burn for the first year and a half. Our personal burn rates were not net zero, but our company net burn was near zero.”

Nathan Wenzel Jul 28, 2017 ▶ 10:40 20VC: Construct Your Fundraising Process To Get 3 Term Sheets in 36 Hours, Why Slow and Steady Can Be Best For Startups & Why All Startups Must Know Their Zero Cash Day with Nathan Wenzel, Founder & CEO @ SimpleLegal

Disclosure

Leo Polovets Made a Personal Angel Investment in SimpleLegal

“One of the partners saw something in us, and so he made a personal investment. And so that was Leo Polovets from Sousa Ventures.”

Nathan Wenzel Jul 28, 2017 ▶ 16:51 20VC: Construct Your Fundraising Process To Get 3 Term Sheets in 36 Hours, Why Slow and Steady Can Be Best For Startups & Why All Startups Must Know Their Zero Cash Day with Nathan Wenzel, Founder & CEO @ SimpleLegal

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
20VC: Construct Your Fundraising Process To Get 3 Term Sheets in 36 Hours, Why Slow and St	Jul 28, 2017	13m

Nathan Wenzel

The record, in short

Their most notable supported claim

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

How they sound: speaking style how? →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Appearances (1)

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