Ryan McIntyre

General Partner, Foundry · 1 appearance on the record.

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

investorfounderengineerryanmcintyre.com ↗

In 1993, McIntyre co-founded Excite, an early web search engine that completed an IPO in 1996. After investing with Mobius Venture Capital, he co-founded the venture firm Foundry Group, where he has backed technology and software startups such as SendGrid.

10statements → 4claims → 3claims resolved → 33%fully supported → 3.9/5average certainty → 1.3/5average debate potential → 4.4/5argument clarity · the sources → 11said about them ↓

1 supported 2 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 4 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 assertions · 1 opinion · 1 insight · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 4 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved, and 1 names 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 Ryan 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

Foundry Group completes between seven and ten investments per year

“We do between seven and 10 investments per year, and there, there's probably, you know, 10 times that in terms of companies that we would invest in, in terms of the qualities of the teams or the entrepreneurs, but, you know, we have to keep a very high bar.”

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 11:40 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

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

4.4 / 5 directness 4.7 · coherence 4.6 · precision 4.4 · compression 3.7

answered every one of 15 assessed questions directly

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? →

221 words/min while actually speaking · 16.7 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 4,256 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 75%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 19:18“when investing in spaces that you love as much as you do these, how do you look to retain the same investing discipline and mindset that you would have for other sectors that you'r…” ▶ 22:26“But, but, but, but when you invest in Roley, say, how do you, with such passion in, in your kind of physical being about music, how do you remain core to the true, what's the TAM, …”

What they said10 What others said11 Episodes1

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

Assertion Partly supported

Excite@Home failed because cable companies refused revenue sharing with the startup

“Ultimately, the combined company met its demise due to, shall we say, the cable companies not really wanting to revenue share this new internet broadband subscription source with a cheeky Silicon Valley startup.”

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 4:04 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

Insight

Ryan McIntyre says self-awareness is the most critical trait for board members

“The bigger thing I think we all place a premium on is a high level of self-awareness among ourselves and the entrepreneurs and members of management teams that we work with. And I'd say that sort of self-awareness of, you know, your own role and dynamics in a …”

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 13:00 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Ryan McIntyre says new musical instrument categories emerge once every few decades

“The sort of opportunity for new instruments to really emerge is, you know, only happens, you know, once every few decades.”

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 23:12 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

Assertion Partly supported

SendGrid sends one billion daily emails and prepares for 2017 IPO

“They send over a billion emails a day. They've been profitable this year and they're an IPO candidate in in 2017.”

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 28:34 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

Disclosure

Foundry Group hired outside moderators for bi-annual partner 360 feedback

“So when we first started Foundry Group, you know, we would have an outside Person come in and moderate three 60 degree feedback sessions with us twice a year.”

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 10:02 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

Disclosure

Foundry Group requires three of four partners to approve investments

“Technically three of the four need to vote affirmatively to make to make an investment decision.”

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 11:09 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

Disclosure

All Foundry Group investment decisions have been unanimous in practice

“I think in practice, all of our investment decisions have been unanimous.”

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 11:17 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

Assertion Supported

Foundry Group completes between seven and ten investments per year

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 11:40 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

Disclosure

Foundry Group sets a higher diligence bar for passion-project music tech investments

“Jason and I spent a lot of time back and forth, almost, you know, giving ourselves a higher bar because saying, hey, we know we're excited about this because we're music geeks, but let's also, you know, make sure that before we start showing it to Seth and Bra…”

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 24:40 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

Opinion

Ryan McIntyre says HBO's Silicon Valley portrays the venture ecosystem painfully accurately

“Silicon Valley, which, by the way, is a great show, and sometimes gets things so, so right, it is , you know, it is painful to watch.”

Ryan McIntyre Feb 1, 2017 ▶ 17:04 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group

The other half of the tape: Ryan McIntyre's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 11 times in 4 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Seth Levine 4 Jeff Clavier 2 Jason Mendelson 2 Harry Stebbings 2 David Cohen 1