Scott Raney

Partner, Redpoint Ventures · 1 appearance on the record.

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

Scott Raney focuses on seed, early-stage, and growth investments in cloud infrastructure, developer tools, enterprise SaaS, and open-source software. He has led Redpoint's investments and held board seats across tech companies including Stripe, Twilio, Heroku, HashiCorp, and LaunchDarkly.

18statements → 4claims → 1claims resolved → 3.5/5average certainty → 2.44/5average debate potential → 4.5/5argument clarity · the sources → 11said about them ↓

0 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 4 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 assertions · 3 opinions · 11 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 4 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 3 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 Scott argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

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

4.5 / 5 directness 4.9 · coherence 5 · precision 4.2 · compression 4

answered every one of 20 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? →

263 words/min while actually speaking · 6.1 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 3,618 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 ▾ 3/10

pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10

setup questions received 55%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 15:56“Is it a unanimous voting structure, though? Is it a conviction-driven on individuals? How does that work?” ▶ 12:40“Do you get concerned when you see VCs enter into these previously unknown markets where kind of software knowledge and domain knowledge on all the traditional software skills isn't…” ▶ 19:28“And I ask, at Series A, does that level of product market fit achievements? Does that actually translate to a, to a kind of core metric in itself in terms of, is it kind of MRR gro…”

when Scott pushed back ▶ 3:35“There's a lot that you can learn. I would tell you, though, that I think that's overplayed a bit.” ▶ 21:08“No, and I, maybe that's not the answer you're looking for, but it's, It's, it's not, because I, I honestly, I think that, as we said, every situation is different, but I think that…”

What they said18 What others said11 Episodes1

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

Insight

Raney: Early sales repeatability is more valuable than 15% MoM MRR growth

“If we're seeing repeatability, but maybe not, you know, kind of steady, consistent growth month over month, but we're starting to see the signs that this is really resonating with a certain set of buyers and a message that's beginning to resonate. That's far m…”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 21:24 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Insight

Raney: Applying past VC market cycles to present startups is dangerous

“I think that's overplayed a bit. I think that the times have changed and evolved. The nature of startups have evolved quite a bit, and so I think it's very, very, it's dangerous to try to apply too many lessons in the past to the market of today.”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 3:36 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Opinion

Raney: VC funding decline reflects a shift toward sustainable investment levels

“I think what we're doing is we're going from an unsustainable level investing to something that's more sustainable.”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 6:14 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Insight

Raney: Public market scrutiny forces operational and capital discipline on startups

“Sometimes it allows a lack of discipline to creep into those businesses, and there's something about the bright lights of being a public company that forces discipline onto companies and ensures that they're making best use of their capital and behaving in the…”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 10:00 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Insight

Raney: Bridge rounds for struggling startups usually fail

“You know, I would say that I think the way the floodgate describes it is probably accurate most of the time. It's really difficult, I think, for companies to be able to transition through these periods, and if you've gone out and talked to a bunch of investors…”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 11:13 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Insight

Raney: VCs investing in complex tech without domain depth face losses

“People that go out and read a handful of blogs and then decide that they're going to be investing in these categories are likely to experience a lot of pain.”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 14:01 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Insight

Raney: Unanimous VC voting filters out the best, most controversial investments

“We have found that unanimity is a bad thing in venture capital, that, you know, a lot of the best ideas are the ones that are the most controversial”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 16:02 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Opinion

Raney: Redpoint avoids spreadsheet investing and rigid metric checkboxes

“We are not spreadsheet investors. You know, we don't try to The fit, all these numbers into a set of checkboxes, and then determine whether or not they're achieving these things, or they've met some minimum threshold, because every opportunity is different, an…”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 19:48 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Opinion

Raney: Posturing and positioning in venture capital is distasteful

“I think sometimes there's a lot of posturing positioning in this industry that I think is distasteful.”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 22:30 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Raney: Starting a company costs far less today than ever before

“I think it costs far less to start a company and get it up and running today than it ever did before. And so, Some of the challenges associated with fundraising environments during downturns before are probably not quite as applicable as they once were.”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 3:49 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Insight

Raney: Company creation slows when saturated markets reduce visible white space

“I think entrepreneurs are looking at the landscape and realizing it's harder to find white space right now because there are so many companies out there. It's hard to find opportunities that are truly disruptive.”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 6:40 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Insight

Raney: Investors refuse capital-intensive startups lacking clear profitability

“Companies that are maybe are scaling, but have more speculative business models, ones that aren't converging on profitability, Are finding it very, very difficult to raise money, and it's, I think investors are kind of unwilling, are becoming increasingly unwi…”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 8:48 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Insight

Raney: Startups stay in growth mode longer to pursue bigger market opportunities

“I think, you know, the first way I look at it is I think these companies are going after bigger opportunities than we ever have before as an industry. You know, as a result, they're in growth mode far longer than companies ever used to be.”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 9:29 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Insight

Raney: Opportunistic bridge rounds in top startups benefit VCs and founders

“The second time that we see these things applied is, is really opportunistically where, you know, you're very excited about a company. It's doing very, very well. You just think there's an opportunity for the company to hit an additional set of milestones that…”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 11:47 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Insight

Raney: Startups with weak unit economics face severe funding risk

“Businesses that, that aren't converging on profitable, you need economics or have subpar gross margins. And there are many of those out there right now are scary for investors because you know that you're going to put in a certain amount of money, but that is …”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 14:54 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Raney: Redpoint requires convincing only one other partner to make investments

“You only need to convince one other partner at Redpoint that this is a good investment, and if you do, then it's an investment that we can do.”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 16:12 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Assertion Partly supported

Raney: Very early stage venture deals expanded 10x from 2007 to 2015

“We saw a 10 X increase in the number of very early stage investments and we saw 40% increase in the number of You know, kind of series A and series B invest.”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 5:38 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Raney: Redpoint signs a moral contract to back founders post-investment

“Once we invest in the company, we've signed a moral contract with that entrepreneur that we are going to support them, that we're going to be there for them.”

Scott Raney May 17, 2017 ▶ 18:02 20VC: Why It Is Good Company Funding Has Been Down 6 Quarters In A Row, Why Unanimity Does Not Work In VC Decision-Making & Why It Is Dangerous To Be A Spreadsheet Investor with Scott Raney, Partner @ Redpoint Ventures

The other half of the tape: Scott Raney'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 Harry Stebbings 10 Rachel Carlson 1