Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levels shares meeting notes and performance reviews internally with all staff
“We share basically everything, including all of our one-on-ones and team meetings are all shared within the company. So you can see all of the one-on-ones between every other person at the company performance is shared within the pump within the company. So yo…”
Opinion
Corcos: Product management should play a much smaller role in tech
“Product management, broadly, should play a much less significant role than it does as a default in most software development companies.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Corcos: Hitchhiking is statistically not dangerous
“Hitchhiking is actually not dangerous.”
Assertion Partly supported
Levels publicly posts all investor updates and all-hands meetings
“We post all of our investor updates publicly online. All of our team, all hands are publicly posted online.”
Insight
Corcos: Founders Should Target Believer VCs Rather Than Convert Skeptics
“It's a little bit challenging because when you're fundraising, you're a prophet, not a missionary. You have the vision, and you're trying to get people who already get it. You're not trying to convert people to your religion.”
Assertion Supported
Corcos: Child stranger abductions are as rare as lightning strikes
“Say if you have a child, the odds that your child is kidnapped by a stranger Is about the same as them getting struck by lightning.”
Insight
Corcos: News consumption creates a false perception of global risk
“Ultimately the news is poison and it makes you view a, It gives you a perception of the world that is not real.”
Insight
Corcos: The Main Downside of Starting a Company Is Mild Embarrassment
“Like starting a company feels risky, but really what's the worst that can happen? Like it doesn't work and you feel like mildly embarrassed. It's actually the downside situation is not the worst thing that can happen.”
Insight
Corcos: Co-founders who cannot commit to CEO decisions should leave
“There's a point at which, you know, you can disagree behind closed doors, but once the path is defined, which is defined by the CEO, you've got to get behind it or you've got to leave. Frankly, like if you can't get behind the idea and you can't get behind the…”
Insight
Corcos: CEOs have a 1% impact on everything and no direct deliverables
“When you're the CEO, you have a one percent impact on everything, but you have Almost nothing that you can actually point to as your own work product.”
Assertion Contradicted
Levels eliminated corporate titles beyond basic functional roles
“We've done away with titles beyond just, yeah, beyond just functional definitions.”
Insight
Corcos: Job Titles Serve as a Form of Non-Monetary Employee Compensation
“Titles are a form of compensation.”
Insight
Corcos: Employees outside an immediate team rarely identify low performers
“They actually very often don't. The people who work directly with them, maybe like the two or three people who are closest to them know, but everyone else at the company, if they end up leaving, it's a complete mystery why they left.”
Insight
Corcos: Startup talent quality follows a U-curve as companies scale
“I think in many ways there's also a U-shape to this, where in the very early days, sometimes you just hire the best person that you can get. Because you don't have a lot of choices. And then over time, as you see some amount of traction, you can attract really…”
Insight
Corcos: Fundraising transparency works when founders build internal trust
“If you've built up enough social capital internally, think of it like you've built up the trust bank with enough of enough credibility that people know that you're not lying to them, then it's totally fine. And it's never been an issue.”
Insight
Corcos: Employees must know company financials so they can contribute
“People should know the financial state of the company. People should understand what's going on because people can contribute to these things.”
Assertion Supported
Corcos: Levels has 25% retention, which is insufficient long-term
“I mean, churn is still very high. It's like 25%. We have 25% retention, which is not what it needs to be for this to work in the long term.”
Insight
Corcos: Founders Should Take as Many Investor Meetings as Possible
“I think you should take as many meetings and do as many pitches as you can.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Corcos: VCs spend only an hour a month thinking about your startup
“They spend maybe An hour a month thinking about your company and you spend all day, every day thinking about your company.”
Disclosure
Corcos: Levels sent over 3,000 targeted investor asks with 50% conversion
“I think we've had something like more than 3000 specific investor asks that I've sent people. And I think our conversion rate is maybe 50% from that group, but pretty high.”
Insight
Corcos: Founders Should Turn Down Capital From Unengaged Investors
“If it is a really an expectation of you that your investors will be engaged and respond to your emails and participate to some degree, you should set that as a clear expectation and say, this is what we expect from our investors. If that's not you, Totally. Ok…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Corcos: Levels Has Extracted Value From Over 110 a16z Operating Partners
“I think our team has extracted value from, I think more than a 110 of the operating partners. From the Andreessen team.”
Opinion
Corcos: Most VC Platform Services Fail, but a16z Is the Best
“I think part of the answer is that most firms are not good at it. It's sort of the short answer. I think most firms, they understand when they talk to founders, they say that it's the thing that they want, but they're not very good at delivering on the value. …”
Insight
Corcos: Pre-Meeting Rejections Are Wins Because Founder Pitch Time Is Finite
“The number of investors available is effectively infinite, and the amount of time that you have to pitch people is finite. And so if you can get them to say no before you have to spend any time with them, that's actually a win, not a loss.”
Sam Corcos