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.

clear all ✕

why aren't all 6 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

Prediction Held up
Most funded consumer startups will sell below their last valuation
“Consumer companies typically it'll be a graveyard. There'll be some exceptions. Unilever bots, Dollar Shave Club, because they needed the capabilities of DTC. That'll happen a few more times, but many times they will be sold for half of the last round valuatio…”
Ryan Caldbeck Nov 2, 2018 ▶ 30:39 20VC: Ryan Caldbeck on Why The Business Model of VC is Broken, Who is To Blame, How The Best Funds Will Use Data Intelligently Moving Forward & Whether We Are In A Consumer Bubble Or Not?
Disclosure
Dollar Shave Club sold to Unilever to accelerate global scaling
“Michael and the management team were ultimately convinced that Hey, we can get so much bigger, so much more quickly by working with these guys, then continuing on the independent path, and we like them. So that was really what led to the decision to undertake …”
David Pakman Aug 10, 2016 ▶ 16:19 20VC: Dollar Shave Club's Series A & B Lead Investor, David Pakman on The Requirements For A Successful Subscription Business & Why A Lot of Investors Do Not Like Consumer
What-if
Dollar Shave Club was headed for an IPO before the Unilever buyout
“We were likely to become a public company really as a financing opportunity to add, you know, many more hundreds of millions of dollars to the company so we could expand internationally into more products and into more territories.”
David Pakman Aug 10, 2016 ▶ 15:34 20VC: Dollar Shave Club's Series A & B Lead Investor, David Pakman on The Requirements For A Successful Subscription Business & Why A Lot of Investors Do Not Like Consumer
Assertion Supported
Eurie Kim: Consumer E-Commerce Acquisitions Fetch 4x to 7x Revenue Multiples
“Dollar Shave Club being acquired by Unilever for five X revenue and Shoei's acquisition of by PetSmart, which are four X and even more traditional commerce deals that you see, which are as high as six or seven X for some beauty deals that L'Oreal and Unilever …”
Eurie Kim Jan 22, 2018 ▶ 5:54 20VC: Why Brands Can Have The Same Revenue Multiples As Enterprise Companies & The Right Way To Think About Amazon In Today's World of Commerce with Eurie Kim, General Partner @ Forerunner Ventures
Opinion
Unilever's acquisition model allows acquired companies to operate independently
“In fact, it's really brilliant at what they do. They buy a company and they say, congratulations, you just acquired Unilever. What they mean by that is, you know, you will continue to remain an independent company and operating, but you now have all of the res…”
David Pakman Aug 10, 2016 ▶ 16:00 20VC: Dollar Shave Club's Series A & B Lead Investor, David Pakman on The Requirements For A Successful Subscription Business & Why A Lot of Investors Do Not Like Consumer
Disclosure
LADbible's business model relies heavily on consultancy for major global brands
“Even our business model today has a big aspect of consultancy. So we work with Nike, Vodafone, Unilever, P and G, some of the biggest brands in the world.”
Solly Solomou Feb 14, 2025 ▶ 17:08 Solly Solomou, Founder & CEO @ LADbible Group: From Penniless Shop Offices to Public Company | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 1,200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.