The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 15 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
John Frankel Warns Oversubscribed Deals Frequently Lead to Premature Scaling
“We often find that the hot deals where everyone's scrambling to get in, where they raise the round size and they raise the round price, they prematurely scale, and they're often challenged as the company approaches the next round and the like.”
John Frankel Says High-Volume Seed Investing Degrades Portfolio Returns
“The problem is that doesn't lead to high returns to that portfolio. Because for, you know, every one in a thousand companies you had, you also have the other 999.”
Teten: ff Venture Capital Maintains a One-in-Six Portfolio Write-Off Rate
“We have a one out of six write-off rate, which is well below industry norms, and that attracts to us over 2000 inbound companies per year, and we filter through them for the approximately one dozen new companies per year in which we invest.”
Teten: Only a Handful of VC Firms Build Full Platform Teams
“Besides us and Google ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, first round capital OpenView does some work on this area. A lot of other firms talk about it, but they've hired one or two people, right? They don't have a whole set of resources”
Teten: Seed Stage VCs Should Be Generalists
“The philosophy of FF Venture Capital is that as seed stage investors, we should be generalists. We should keep our doors open wide to the broadest possible array of companies.”
Teten: 12 Academic Studies Show Angel Returns Median 18% to 54%
“We have collected 12 different academic studies on angel investing, which show median returns of 18% to 54%.”
ff Venture Capital Gave Wade & Wendy a Term Sheet in First Meeting
“We, I think we took the First meeting that Drew Austin, the CEO, had with VCs, and in the, in that meeting, we gave them a term sheet and renamed the company.”
John Frankel Notes Each Venture Round Dilutes Startup Equity by 20%
“Each round is 20 to 30% diluted plus or minus.”
John Frankel Warns High Valuations Box Startups in for Future Rounds
“You can raise too much money at too high valuation, and then box yourself in for the next round.”
Teten: ff Venture Capital Is Largest East Coast Seed Fund by Headcount
“FF Venture Capital is, we believe, the largest by headcount seed-focused VC on the East Coast.”
ff Venture Capital Evaluates 3,000 Companies Annually to Invest in 15
“We look at two to 3000 companies a year and we end up investing in 15 to 20.”
Teten: ff Venture Capital Employs Nine Accountants Providing Startup CFO Services
“We have a team of nine accountants who provide outsourced CFO services to our companies.”
Teten: ff Venture Capital Employs Three Engineers to Build Internal Tools
“We also have three in-house engineers who are building tools for us that are not broadly available.”
Teten: ff Venture Capital Uses Addepar to Run Its Back Office
“We not only invested but became a client. We run part of our back office on Adapart because we, of course, own interests in about 80 different companies with lots of different types of securities and amounts and so on, and we need some mechanism to track all o…”