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Rotman: Every startup experiment produces either proof or anti-proof

Frank Rotman · 20VC: Has Price Discipline Disappeared? Is it Possible to Build Ownership Over Time? Why Venture Is Less Collaborative Now Than Ever? How fast Do Breakout Companies Become Obvious? How To Construct an Optimised and Repeatable Investment Decision-Making Pr · Aug 26, 2021 · at 25:52

Frank Rotman, co-founder of QED Investors, outlines his framework for evaluating startup operational feedback and learning outcomes.

0:00 / 0:12exact quote · 12.6s
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“Everything that you do is either proof or anti-proof, right? Everything that you learn falls into one of those two categories. You're either proving that the assumption that you had is correct, Or you're getting anti evidence that it actually isn't correct.”

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Assertion Supported
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Insight
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“And if pricing doesn't correct at the earliest stage you're going to have a lot of no bids, you know, at the Series A because they wouldn't have gone far enough, fast enough for a Series A investor to come in and say they've earned their way into a significant…”
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Insight
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Insight
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“But if it was harder to get that doubling than you thought, or it costs you more to get that doubling than you thought, or your manufacturing costs went up, or the margins weren't there, you know, in that doubling, you're actually generating anti-proof of the …”
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