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Shoaib Makani

Co-Founder and CEO, Motive · 1 appearance on the record.

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

founderexecutiveinvestorLinkedIn ↗gomotive.com ↗

Shoaib Makani co-founded KeepTruckin in 2013, which rebranded to Motive in 2022 and provides fleet management and operations software. Prior to launching the company, he was an investor at Khosla Ventures, where he led early-stage investments in technology startups including Instacart.

19statements → 3claims → 1claims resolved → 3.84/5average certainty → 1.95/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 1said about them ↓

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

1 prediction · 2 assertions · 1 opinion · 12 insights · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, 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 Shoaib 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
Makani: North America has roughly 25 million commercial vehicles
“There's something like twenty-five million commercial vehicles in North America.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 13:00 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin

How they sound: speaking style how? →

233 words/min while actually speaking · 3.1 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Shoaib Makani: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 24 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 4,231 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Shoaib Makani is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. 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 ▾ 1/10
setup questions received 65%

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

Insight
Makani: Venture Capital Experience Helps Founders Avoid Pursuing Bad Ideas
“And I think venture doesn't by any means guarantee success as an entrepreneur, but I really do think it kind of makes sure that you don't at the minimum pursue bad ideas. And that does improve the likelihood of having an outcome.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 6:43 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Makani: No major company is ever built on a single product
“The reality is no big company is Has ever been built with just one product.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 10:40 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Assertion Not checkable as stated
KeepTruckin expands every single customer cohort across all time periods
“And in fact, it's net negative from a revenue retention perspective. We expand every one of our accounts, every cohort all time.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 25:26 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Opinion
Makani: Silicon Valley would compound faster by letting more talent in
“Let more people in. This place can and should compound at much higher rates.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 27:04 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Makani: Building Freight Marketplaces Requires Bringing Supply Online First
“To build an electronic marketplace for freight, you had to first bring the drivers and trucks online.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 4:45 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Makani: Full startup resets almost invariably lose people and momentum
“If in fact, you know, you're not digging in the right place, it is really, really hard to redirect a team around a whole new opportunity or a whole new market. You can generally kind of pivot on the margins, but doing a whole reset, you almost invariably lose …”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 7:59 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Makani: CEO responsibility shifts from building product to building the company
“In the early days, you have to be so narrowly and obsessively focused about the detail and in the micro. You have to really be inward focused. And for me, that meant to build the product. But really, I think it was the inflection point happened when I realized…”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 8:59 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Makani: Never launch a second product while forcing core product growth
“When you have to still force your first product, I think that's when you know you're perhaps not ready to go on to number two.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 12:02 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Shoaib Makani: Attracting talent is a board member's highest-leverage role
“Really, I think the highest leverage thing a board member can do for you is to help you attract and close great talent.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 17:59 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Prediction Not publicly verifiable
Makani: I will hire a full-time recruiter from day one next time
“I think next go around, if there is one, I will hire a full-time recruiter from day one.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 18:37 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Shoaib Makani: Startups should use external specialist search firms for executive hiring
“It's possible that you can build an executive search Capacity internally, but they're not going to be exceptional. One individual is not going to be exceptional at four different types of roles. And so you do want, I think, to leverage the external specialist.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 19:48 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Disclosure
KeepTruckin used a free driver compliance app as a fleet management wedge
“Give away a free application to the driver around compliance, and then use that to then wedge into the broader fleet management opportunity.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 21:44 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Makani: Startups should never fight a fair fight in sales
“I never want to fight a fair fight. When it comes to sales, I want to have a leg up and, you know, I'm constantly looking in our own business for what is our advantage.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 22:34 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Makani: Direct Distribution And Retention Must Precede Paid Advertising
“Branding and performance are Can be an accelerant to your business, but ultimately you have to be able to reach your audience directly. You have to be able to. Buy your product, and your product has to be good enough that it stands out on its own, that people …”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 23:00 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Disclosure
Makani intentionally omitted hardware from KeepTruckin's seed pitch deck
“And to be honest, I actually just left the hardware piece out of our seed deck.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 23:40 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Makani: Hardware SaaS has higher acquisition hurdles but vastly superior retention
“While the threshold for winning an account is high, the retention dynamics are dramatically better than versus like pure optional software, what I'll call.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 24:58 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Disclosure
Makani: KeepTruckin initially focused solely on 1.5 million for-hire trucks
“We focused initially on the 1.5 million for hire trucks. That's all we cared about, the trucks that carry goods for others.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 13:03 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Insight
Makani: Founders must track where regulation is heading, not current rules
“Deeply understand the regulation, both what is the current regulation and what's proposed. Regulation is constantly evolving, and you actually want to be close to where it's headed, not just to the current state.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 27:49 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin
Assertion Supported
Makani: North America has roughly 25 million commercial vehicles
“There's something like twenty-five million commercial vehicles in North America.”
Shoaib Makani Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 13:00 20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Built with 1 Product and When To Release Your Second & What Founders Can Do To Extract The Most From Their Cap Table with Shoaib Makani, Founder & CEO @ KeepTruckin

The other half of the tape: Shoaib Makani's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Shabih "Shabby" Rizvi 1

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0011112018episodesmentions
0112018episodes it came up in
000.50.5112018episodesmentions per episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Why You Never Want To Fight A Fair Fit For Distribution, Why No Great Company Is Bui Feb 7, 2020 19m
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