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 66 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 2 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
Saper: Enterprise software buyers purchase problem-solving perspectives, not code
“When you're buying software from a vendor, you're not just buying the code, you're buying an opinion perspective on how to solve a problem.”
Saper: AI-enabled services are the easiest model for outcome pricing
“The easiest form of outcomes based pricing today in AI is AI enabled services.”
Saper: Veeva's market was only $400M when Emergence invested
“When we made the investment in Viva, a CRM for pharmaceutical companies, the entire market for that was four hundred million dollars globally.”
Saper: Emergence Capital targets double-digit ownership on partner-led seed bets
“So when we make a seed investment, we treat it like a core bet. It's a partner that's doing the deal. We're generally owning double digit percentages so that we really care.”
Saper: Fragmented customer use cases create mirage product-market fit
“One of the cases in traditional SaaS is you're selling a product to a very diverse audience. Who's all using it for different things. And so you think like, oh, I've got product market fit, but the reality is like someone's using your thing for this over here …”
Saper Discloses Emergence Capital Has Participated in Pay-to-Play Rounds
“I personally have not yet been part of a pay to play. My firm certainly has but it sucks. It just feels bad on all accounts, but sometimes it's necessary to get the company funded.”
The Tech IPO Market Will Not Reopen Until Early 2026
“I tend to think next year. Like, I think there's enough uncertainty in the market right now, particularly in the macro and the political situation that there's a lot of people that are nervous. So my best guess would be like the beginning of next year.”
Jake Saper: Microsoft is the safest 10-year stock index for B2B software
“I think Microsoft, and the reason that's the case is because I'm obviously long B to B software, and that's probably the best index.”
Jake Saper lost the Ironclad deal to Jess Lee at Sequoia
“The first deal I lost, I think I've lost two or three deals in my career so far. The first deal I lost was Ironclad. And I lost it to Jess Lee at Sequoia.”
Ironclad has surpassed $100 million in annual revenue
“The company's now north of a hundred million in revenue.”
Ironclad built an AI product named Jurist that competes with Harvey
“And in addition to contract management, which is a much, you know, bigger thing, we also have this AI product that we've built. It's called Jurist, which is a Harvey competitor. It's pretty cool. And it's grown real quick.”
90% of Emergence Capital Deals Raise Follow-On Rounds
“Nine out of 10 of our deals have gone on to raise successful following rounds.”
Jake Saper: Emergence Capital requires a 3-5 hypothesis chart for diligence
“Every diligence exercise results in a chart, and the chart is, what are the three to five what you have to believes? What is the data supporting is what you have to believe? And what is the data negating is what you have to believe?”
Regal.ai Reached $1.5M Revenue and 6 Term Sheets Pre-Series A
“There was a Series A in a company called Regal.ai. It was very hot. I think he had Six term sheets from top venture firms. Company had grown from zero to, I think it was one and a half million in a year, which pre AI was like very, very good.”
Emergence Capital bought extra Doximity shares at IPO and returned 3x
“In some cases we buy. So in the case of Doximity, you know, we were huge believers. We invested at the A, accompanied really well. We actually bought more at the IPO. And that's been a great investment. We've already returned three X you know, from where that …”