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 8 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
Josh Udashkin: Building a consumer brand requires a physical retail footprint
“I think it's very hard to build brand, which is, you know, first and foremost, what we're up to here without some type of You know, physical footprint or place for consumers to interact with you being, you know, even your retail associate and how they're train…”
Josh Udashkin: The luggage category lacked strong brands and consistent pricing
“There were very few great brands. There are a couple of luxury products. You know, the merchandising seemed all over the place. The pricing seemed all over the place.”
Udashkin: A hardware startup is effectively multiple companies in one
“It's multiple companies in one. So you have a luggage firm, you have an electronics firm, you have mobile development, firmware development, then you have all the things around building a brand. Then you're a retailer, you're a distributor, you're a marketer, …”
Udashkin: Hardware founders should secure manufacturing partners before pitching VCs
“My advice to entrepreneurs is, you know, do the sourcing work, and a lot of the things around VC will come easier, because they're really the people that are going to invest in building your prototypes.”
Udashkin refuses meetings with VCs inexperienced in hardware investing
“I tend to generally stay away even when I get a request for a meeting. Don't really want to be their first foray into investing in a hardware company.”
Raden sold out initial inventory, driving shipping delay to 15 days
“We sold out of all the product that we had made, even with venture funding and working capital funding and everything else, and so now we're You know, 15 day shipping times when really we're meant to be a same day or second day business.”
Udashkin: Raden's five-year roadmap centers on mobile travel software
“Most of our roadmap is really around the mobile experience and really connecting with a travel experience that engages users of our product and provides them with all sorts of other information about where they're going and the airports that they're traveling …”
Raden hired former Beats by Dre designer Kenny Sweet for luggage design
“I met Kenny Sweet who had worked on the Beats project for a number of years, and we really vibed, and I had this merchandising concept around a single almost unlined product, you know, that was very stark and looked like many of the products that we've been bu…”