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Thomas Jones

Founder & Partner, Charlotte Street Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

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

investorfounderexecutiveLinkedIn ↗charlottestreetcapital.com ↗

Thomas Jones is a London-based early-stage venture investor who founded Charlotte Street Capital, a pre-seed and seed fund backing UK software and technology startups. Earlier in his career, he co-founded SMARTS Group International, a financial market surveillance software company acquired by Nasdaq OMX in 2010.

11statements → 5claims → 2claims resolved → 3.55/5average certainty → 2.27/5average debate potential → 4.3/5argument clarity · the sources →

2 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 5 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 predictions · 2 assertions · 2 opinions · 2 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are 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 Thomas 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
FCA survey shows two-thirds of UK crowdfunding investors lack experience
“I mean, the FCA, which is the regulator here in the UK, they commented on a survey recently, which suggested that I think nearly two thirds of crowdfunding investors admitted they had no previous investing experience.”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 21:38 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones

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

4.3 / 5 directness 4.6 · coherence 4.7 · precision 4.1 · compression 3.8

answered every one of 13 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? →

256 words/min while actually speaking · 30.8 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 4,251 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 ▾ 1/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 85%

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

Prediction Not checkable as stated
Retail investors making only a few Crowdcube investments will likely lose money
“So if you're making a couple of early stage investments on Crowdcube, you know, you're probably going to lose your money.”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 21:27 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones
Disclosure
Charlotte Street Capital ignores spreadsheets and exit plans for early-stage deals
“We don't spend time looking at spreadsheets and projections. We don't spend time looking at potential acquirers or exit plans.”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 6:08 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones
Opinion
High tech startup valuations in 2015 are not a bubble
“So I don't think the valuations themselves are symptomatic of a real bubble. Even if I do think they are pretty high.”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 17:31 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Late-stage VCs impose aggressive, restrictive terms on companies
“So the later stage VCs will Potentially have quite aggressive agreements with their companies with lots of you know, first rights to any income or to any proceeds at their disposal you know, conditions that the company, tying the company down, what they can do…”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 9:40 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones
Opinion
Product culture is stronger in the US, services culture in Europe
“The product culture is stronger in America, and the services culture is stronger in Europe, and in particular in London and the UK.”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 11:57 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones
Insight
Early-stage startup valuation is a distraction for investors
“When you're in the early stage worlds which is the really early stage world you know, valuation is, is a bit of a distraction, and probably the right way to think about it, and this is what early stage investors should do, is to first of all say, well, how muc…”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 17:48 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones
Assertion Supported
FCA survey shows two-thirds of UK crowdfunding investors lack experience
“I mean, the FCA, which is the regulator here in the UK, they commented on a survey recently, which suggested that I think nearly two thirds of crowdfunding investors admitted they had no previous investing experience.”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 21:38 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Thomas Jones predicts insurance is the next major industry for tech disruption
“Yeah, I think my answer there is probably insurance, and the reason is, and you know, it's a big area, it's boring, it has a lot of data you know, the kind of young startup kids don't tend to focus on it, they focus on retail things.”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 23:48 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones
Prediction Held up
Charlotte Street Capital makes five to six investments yearly
“We now find ourselves probably actively making five or six investments a year, and also these days, we tend to, we're trying to both lead the investments, or sometimes actually set the businesses up ourselves, because in some cases, we spot a market opportunit…”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 4:10 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones
Insight
Thomas Jones says a startup's vision inevitably changes every 12 months
“In 12 months time you know, the vision to the future will look quite different, and another 12 months later, it will probably look different again”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 7:01 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones
Disclosure
Charlotte Street Capital avoids founders lacking market fit to prevent boredom
“If they don't have a natural, if they don't naturally belong in the market they're operating in, then That's a bigger risk, and probably not one that we'd want to take, because the risk of them getting bored, even, is, you know, is material.”
Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 ▶ 8:20 20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20 VC 011: London's Early Stage Funding Scene with Thomas Jones Feb 9, 2015 20m
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