Disclosure certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Dearing: Harrison Metal cut reserves over values violations only twice in 100+ deals

Michael Dearing · 20VC: Michael Dearing on 5 Key Principles He Uses To Assess Startup Founders, Why Benevolent Dictatorship Is A Beautiful Thing & Why Markets Are Better Capital Allocators Than CEOs · Oct 9, 2017 · at 17:10

Michael Dearing, founder of Harrison Metal, explains how often he decides to completely withhold follow-on reserves from portfolio companies.

0:00 / 0:13exact quote · 13.8s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I've rarely come into a situation where I've completely pulled out. I mean, it has happened, but usually for real values violations, you know, dishonesty, and thank God that's only happened, like, you know, two times out of more than a hundred cases.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Michael Dearing

Opinion
Dearing: Convertible debt seed market is terribly toxic and undisciplined
“On the convertible debt side of the market, I think it's terribly toxic and about as undisciplined as it could possibly be.”
Michael Dearing Oct 9, 2017 ▶ 14:50 20VC: Michael Dearing on 5 Key Principles He Uses To Assess Startup Founders, Why Benevolent Dictatorship Is A Beautiful Thing & Why Markets Are Better Capital Allocators Than CEOs
Opinion
Dearing: It is a pathetic indictment that basic management makes founders exceptional
“And I also think this checklist of five things that McCallum gave us, if they are good at those five things, they are in the Pathetic indictment of the state of general management that it's that easy to be exceptional, but it really is.”
Michael Dearing Oct 9, 2017 ▶ 10:48 20VC: Michael Dearing on 5 Key Principles He Uses To Assess Startup Founders, Why Benevolent Dictatorship Is A Beautiful Thing & Why Markets Are Better Capital Allocators Than CEOs
Insight
Dearing: Founder exceptionalism is independent of pedigree or brand-name experience
“That personal exceptionalism, that sense that they are special, that they are destined for really unique outcomes relative to their peer group, I think that shows up early in somebody's life. And it's independent, quite independent of pedigree or brand name wo…”
Michael Dearing Oct 9, 2017 ▶ 5:44 20VC: Michael Dearing on 5 Key Principles He Uses To Assess Startup Founders, Why Benevolent Dictatorship Is A Beautiful Thing & Why Markets Are Better Capital Allocators Than CEOs
Insight
Dearing: Perfect market timing is impossible, making survival a management challenge
“I would say, though, that if you start with the premise that timing is always slightly wrong, I mean, listen, what are the odds that we invent something, we productize it, and we turn it into a company at exactly the right moment? It's practically impossible. …”
Michael Dearing Oct 9, 2017 ▶ 11:36 20VC: Michael Dearing on 5 Key Principles He Uses To Assess Startup Founders, Why Benevolent Dictatorship Is A Beautiful Thing & Why Markets Are Better Capital Allocators Than CEOs
Insight
Dearing: Corporate capital allocation fails because CEOs lack true pricing signals
“One of the biggest problems with internal capital allocation inside a company is, Very rarely do CEOs have access to true opportunity cost-based prices. And the market's really good at that. The market's really good at saying, well, if you're going to use my f…”
Michael Dearing Oct 9, 2017 ▶ 21:28 20VC: Michael Dearing on 5 Key Principles He Uses To Assess Startup Founders, Why Benevolent Dictatorship Is A Beautiful Thing & Why Markets Are Better Capital Allocators Than CEOs
Insight
Dearing: Executives are paid for judgment, not running A/B tests
“And listen, this is what we pay people for is to make judgments. We don't pay people to run AB tests. We don't pay people to do boil the ocean analytics on what is the quote right answer. We pay people for their judgment.”
Michael Dearing Oct 9, 2017 ▶ 23:53 20VC: Michael Dearing on 5 Key Principles He Uses To Assess Startup Founders, Why Benevolent Dictatorship Is A Beautiful Thing & Why Markets Are Better Capital Allocators Than CEOs
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 1,200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.