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 164 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 4 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
Rabois: Founders Fund generated top global LP liquidity from 2020 to 2022
“I think we produced the most liquidity for LPs or one of the two most liquid, most distributions over the last two years of any fund on the planet.”
Friedberg: Andreessen Horowitz pioneered Silicon Valley's over-capitalization strategy
“Andreessen was the first to kind of make the statement where Mark Andreessen said, when I was raising my Series B, Andreessen Horowitz actually gave me a term sheet. So did Founders Fund and Kosla, and I went with Kosla. Andreessen was like, look, we're going …”
Friedberg: Top VC firms like Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz are post-economic
“This bifurcation in the market that's underway, which is the folks that have made it, they've gotten to the top of Mount Everest. At this point, I would argue those funds are post-economic, and now they can operate more rationally over the long run, like Found…”
Founders Fund Has Never Had and Will Never Have Monday Partner Meetings
“Now, Founders Fund doesn't have any Monday morning partner meeting. We never have, and we never will.”
Generating Massive VC Returns Requires Non-Sector-Constrained Investing
“For my job at this fund is to generate massive returns. And for our funds, you simply have to invest in the world's most important companies in order to generate those returns. It doesn't need to be quick. It doesn't need to be overnight. But long-term, they n…”
Vertically Integrated Complex Coordination Companies Build Unclonable Moats
“These are the types of what we mean by complex coordination companies that once they've developed that the ability to operate in that complex way, it may, it's a huge moat. So that's a huge moat for us that other companies cannot simply clone. You can't just h…”
Petersen: Peter Thiel offered Flexport $300M valuation after Petersen asked for $275M
“Best offer I got was two 75, but the firm wants board control. So if you'll just do it without taking the control of the board, you guys can have it. And Peter just offered 300 instead of two 75, which wasn't as good as my 500, but he didn't need to do that. I…”
Swisher: Founders Fund's ultra-concentrated strategy has proven incredible over time
“I think Founders Fund's strategy of being ultra concentrated in a few companies has just been this incredible strategy over time.”
Stebbings: Founders Fund deployed $3B in under 12 months into mega-rounds
“Founders Fund, deploying three billion in under 12 months, but deploying it into Stripe, SpaceX, and Anduril.”
Randle: Matthias van Tienen Is the Most Underrated Venture Capitalist Today
“I think a lot of people at Founders Fund have very underrated track records. I think Matthias van Tienen, I think he's the most underrated venture capitalist that exists today.”
Lemkin: Founders Fund's $1B Anduril check shows superior conviction over standard AI growth deals
“They're putting a billion in, right? That's much more ambitious than throwing a growth fund throwing fifty million into the last round of Anthropic, right? Or throwing twenty million into Lovable. It's a big bet, right?”
O'Driscoll: Founders Fund scored 5x on Stemcentrx before program was canceled
“Got a five X, get money off the table. We're pointing out three years later, the acquirer canceled the program. You know, huge amount of risk. Made, I mean, you know, made it work, but never forget the risk was there.”
Stebbings: Founders Fund sees unprecedented institutional LP demand
“I've never had such institutional demand for any single fund asset than I have for founders fund. Every single LP wanted Founders Fund, and wanted Founders Fund gross, which is even more rare.”
Grimm: Any VC ranking that excludes Founders Fund from top is laughable
“Any list of, you know, top tier VCs, et cetera, you know, people that publish the list that doesn't include founders fund at the top is a laughable list.”
Asparouhov: I have not lost a wanted deal since co-founding Varda
“Once I've, you know, sort of chosen that I do want to invest in something since Varda, I have not, you know, sort of lost an opportunity where I've wanted to invest, even in situations where there've been phenomenal partners, general partners on the other side…”
Asparouhov: Founders Fund Has Only One Employee Under 27
“Technically, you know, sort of full-time at Founders Fund, there is only, you know, sort of one person that is under the age of 20, you know, sort of seven, and that is probably not a, you know, sort of sufficient class of, you know, sort of future up and comi…”
Asparouhov: Founders Fund operates with no rules to maximize IRR
“You to maybe again, go back to, you know, sort of one of Brian's, you know, classic isms internally is, you know, the only rule of founders fund is that there are no rules. If we establish any type of arbitrary rule, it almost certainly will basically decrease…”
Asparouhov: Peter Thiel structures arguments so opponents look like buffoons by default
“He does a phenomenal job of that, of structuring his, you know, sort of logistic arguments and frameworks in a way where if you disagree with him, You by default just look like a buffoon because of the fundamental way that the argument is basically, you know, …”
Asparouhov: First-time founders demanding $25M seed valuations lack independent conviction
“If you're like a first-time founder and, you know, demanding 25 posts, I have a little bit of a harder time getting excited, even if in theory, your vision is super compelling, your team is super compelling. It just shows a willingness to, you know, sort of su…”
Asparouhov: Founders Fund Skips Traditional Monday Partner Meetings
“We don't do Monday partner meetings. There's not some regular cadence where we all get together and discuss, you know, sort of deals and decide which ones, you know, sort of we're going to, you know, sort of do.”
Stephens: A Startup's Potential Is Clear Within Its First Six Months
“Definitely in the first six months I think you can get a sense for momentum. There's almost nothing as important as momentum in startups.”
Stephens: Founders Are the Atomic Element in Venture, Not Markets
“No, because I think the best founders are going to pick Really strong markets and they will increase the probability of success even in like a middling market. So I think the founder has to be the atomic element always, but obviously like there are going to be…”
Stephens: Operational Role at Anduril Makes Him a Better VC
“And so I think being in a place where I'm operationally engaged at Andrel, like, I actually, I'm up to date. Like I know what people are using. I know what like is impacting our business in a meaningful way. I know what stuff that we're, we started using that …”
Stephens: Thiel Based Founders Fund in SF to Avoid Sand Hill Gossip
“And this, for example, is why Founders Fund was why Peter put us in San Francisco when everyone else was on Sand Hill, because he wanted us to avoid getting caught up in this, like, are they going and meeting all the way down the street with all the other peop…”
Stephens: Founders Fund Was the First VC to Promote Being Founder-Friendly
“We were the first fund that was talking about being founder friendly”
Stephens: Every Big Founders Fund Win Had a $100B Advocate
“If you look at any of the big outcomes across our portfolio, whether it's you know, Spotify, Stripe, Airbnb, Palantir, SpaceX, Andrel stem centric. So if you look at all of these big outcomes for us, every single one of them, there was someone on the team bang…”
Stephens: Refuses Profitable Vice Investments Driving Dystopia
“And so as an investor, when I look at something and I'm like, yeah, this is a vice investment. Maybe it's probably going to make a lot of money because it leads to addiction or loneliness or You know, whatever. I don't want to be involved in that. I don't want…”
Lacaillade: Multiple billion-dollar-plus venture funds have achieved 5x-plus returns
“Founders Fund, like, there, if you, I mean, I'm saying some of the data, like, there's, I, there's a number of examples of big funds being five X plus, right?”
Keith Rabois advises VCs against simultaneously acting as company founders
“So there are real, real trade-offs to company building. I would not recommend that.”
Rabois: Over 80% of successful startups possess extreme work ethics
“I wouldn't say it's necessarily all of them universally, but more than 80%. It's a very Common characteristic of successful companies.”
Rabois: Founders should never practice their pitches with mediocre investors
“I think we need to, I don't think you should practice your pitch with mediocre investors, because really good investors are going to ask completely different questions.”
Singerman: In-person meetings were necessary to invest during COVID
“Brian Singerman at Founders Fund said on the show recently about how he was unable to do his job in COVID as he could not meet founders in person”
Singerman admits Founders Fund deployed capital too quickly in 2020 and 2021
“We've had so many discussions about this and about what the last couple of years means, and did we go too fast in 20, 21? And of course we did”
Singerman: Founders Fund Refuses to Hire 'Clones' or Generic VC Talent
“If it's a unique strategy that is differentiated from the current partners that are here, we are interested in hiring that person, and that's really paid off. Like our focus on not hiring clones, our focus on not hiring just people who are generically good, ou…”
Founders Fund distributes shares immediately because they lack public market expertise
“Our strategy has always been to distribute shares slash capital right when we can in companies simply because we don't think we know the public markets better than anybody else.”
Singerman: A strong VC brand creates noise and hinders deal sourcing
“Brand can be noise and detrimental for the seeing part for the diligence, you know, for the you know, seeing companies part, but the for the sourcing”
Singerman: Investors Who Demand Perfect Information Will Fail in Venture Capital
“If you are the type of person that is going to do work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, and make sure it's perfect before you invest or make sure it's perfect before you hire, you are just not going to do well in this business. Period.”
Singerman: I am terrible at venture capital without in-person founder meetings
“Meeting a founder in person is just critical. I was terrible at this job during COVID, right? Like when you couldn't meet founders in person. I'm just terrible at this job without being able to meet founders in person.”
Singerman regrets not putting $500M into Airbnb's $1.5 billion valuation round
“I wish I had written 500, I wish we had written a five hundred million dollar check into Airbnb at the, you know, one and a half billion dollar round instead of a, whatever, a hundred and fifty million dollar check.”
Founders Fund Distributed Holdings to LPs at Late 2021 Peak
“We don't have hubris about knowing the public markets better than anybody else with the fact that we were able to distribute. You know, end of 2021, when a lot of people kind of held was worked out in our favor this time.”
Singerman: I am comfortable writing single venture checks up to $500 million
“Where I'm best is at writing these two, three, four hundred million dollar checks. And so, you know, if I'm using my own, practicing what I preach, it's like, if I'm comfortable writing a, let's say the most, the biggest check I'm comfortable writing is a five…”
Rabois led 14 investments in 2021, but zero in H1 2022
“So I led 13 or 14 new investments or so plus or minus in 21. None, you know, basically halfway through 20, 22.”
Rabois: Founders Fund gives years of warning before stopping follow-on funding
“I think we'll, we'll be clear that like, look, I wouldn't count on us for additional capital. If there's things we can do to be helpful, you know, we'll, we'll try, but like, we'll give them, you know, a significant advance warning. Let's call it measured in y…”
Anduril won major government defense contracts within two years
“I think it took Andrel two years. The speed at which these guys were able to break in to these large government contracts was astounding.”
No other Silicon Valley company was innovating in defense before Anduril
“At the time when we did this, there was no other company in Silicon Valley innovating in defense.”
Eliminating Monday Partner Meetings Accelerates Founders Fund's Investment Decisions
“One thing that that gives us an advantage of is let's say somebody meets a company on a Wednesday. They don't have to wait till the next Monday morning partner meeting that has time to schedule for that team to come meet. We can do it much quicker than that.”
Maximizing VC Returns Requires Horizons Longer Than Standard 10-Year Funds
“I think if we're going to maximize returns, it would be over an even longer period of time.”
Hartz: Brian Singerman's Stemcentrx deal is a historic biotech outcome
“Brian Singerman is a computer science, you know, major from Stanford that worked at Google that led the STEM-centric steel, which was one of the best outcomes in biotech history, but even more so, it's done some groundbreaking work at curing cancer, and that's…”