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 19 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 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
Mullenweg: Tumblr was mismanaged by Yahoo, AOL, and Verizon
“It had been mismanaged, I think under Yahoo and AWOL and Verizon, and we felt like we could turn it around.”
Gotthilf: PR was the primary growth lever for Tumblr LatAm and Duolingo
“And it honestly was the most important lever that helped Tumblr grow in Latin America and that helped Duolingo grow.”
Mullenweg: All Automattic business units besides Tumblr are very profitable
“Now, fortunately at our business, all the other businesses are doing very well and very profitable.”
Gary Vee invested his entire 20s savings into Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr
“Saving my money in my twenties And then deciding to spend all of it in a one year period on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr based on at that .10 years of very hard work, diligence of saving and not wasting my money and looking for the opportunity to strike.”
Hyatt: Spark's Biggest Wins Like Twitter Were Impossible to Model Initially
“If you look at all of our big wins from Oculus to Twitter to Tumblr to Cruise, like all of these companies were, at the day that we invested, were very hard to actually model the exact market size of that company,”
Pishevar: Closed Uber, Warby Parker, Tumblr, and Machine Zone in 90 days
“In my first 90 days, I closed Uber, Warby Parker Tumblr, and Machine Zone.”
Gotthilf: Tumblr failed to pay her for six months over wire issues
“I wasn't paid at Tumblr for six months, because they couldn't figure that out, and I was like, I was living with my parents, like in my childhood bedroom at the time when I was 25, and like working out of like my childhood bed, literally.”
Gotthilf: Leaders at successful early-stage startups rarely know what they are doing
“One of the things I learned at Tumblr that I think a lot of people in early stage startups that succeed learn is that no one knows what they're doing at most points in time in life and in business.”
Mullenweg: 60% of Tumblr users are under 25 and majority female
“60% of Tumblr's users are under the age of 25. They're majority female. They're, you know, primarily mobile.”
Young Women Are the Primary Early Adopters for Social Platforms
“Whether it be Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest or Vine or Tumblr back in the day or TikTok, you know, it's always been young women who've been that first set of early adopters”
Top Social Platforms Were All Founded by People in Their Early Twenties
“If you look at Snap, if you look at Vine, if you look at Facebook, if you look at Instagram, if you look at Tumblr, they were all started by people who were, you know, in their early twenties.”
Wenger angel invested in Tumblr and Etsy before bringing them to USV
“Started making some angel investments, some of which became USV investments, and some of which were USV investments, so it's an angel in Tumblr, and it's an angel in Etsy, and I brought that deal to Union Square Ventures”
David Karp became a great CEO after hiring Derek Godfrey
“David Karp's CEO chops went from good to great when he brought in Derek Godfrey to run engineering.”
Matt Mullenweg took over day-to-day CEO duties at Tumblr in February 2022
“In February, I took over as the CEO of Tumblr. I've been running that personally day to day since then.”
Gary Vee's first three angel investments were Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr
“The first three companies I invested in, in my entire life as an investor were Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.”
Tumblr operated with just two employees for its first two years
“David Karp, you know, 19, he starts Tumblr, and him and another fellow named Marco Arment, you know, for two years, just two of them were working on it, and they had the ability just to focus on the product.”
New York City consistently produces billion-dollar tech exits like Etsy and Tumblr
“New York, we believe, has now shown that it consistently can produce billion plus dollar exits, and so that's companies like Etsy and Mongo and Tumblr and a bunch of others, you know, a bunch of e-commerce companies as well.”