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 18 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
Mather: Media companies should pay Facebook and Google, not demand payouts
“We should be paying Facebook and Google as media companies, not the other way around. If you can't make your business thrive in this world where Facebook and Google exist, that's on you.”
Mather: Paid Facebook acquisition works for subscription media, not ad models
“Frankly, the CAC has been very workable. When you're a subscription business, you know, you're generating revenue off your subscribers. And so it works for us. It may not work if you're an advertising driven business, but absolutely works for us.”
Mather: Social media platforms are an unbelievable negative for news consumption
“I think these platforms are a unbelievable negative for how people consume news for all the obvious reasons”
Mather: Few media categories achieve both scale and margin like sports
“Most categories can't get margin or scale like sports, and so the rebel model, to me, makes a ton of sense.”
Mather: Substack is capturing the opportunity Medium had and missed
“I think if you look at what happened with Substack, to just take a second to look at that business, and it's a wonderful product, a wonderful founding team, and they're much more competitive with, say, Medium. And we don't necessarily look at them as competito…”
Mather: Silicon Valley culture needs pragmatism and nuance over rigid principles
“I'd love to see more pragmatism over principles a little bit, which is like, Thought is becoming too much of a religion right now, and I really love just, we talk to our newsroom about this a lot, like, add nuance. Don't take nuance away, and how can we solve …”
Mather: Subscription business models force direct alignment with consumers
“Subscription is just one of these things that allows you to focus directly on the consumer”
Mather: Strava should have targeted casual cyclists sooner
“And at some moments in the company's history, we were probably a little too exclusive. We should have talked to more of the weekend warriors versus the folks already riding 200 miles a week.”
The Athletic surpassed 100,000 paying UK subscribers within one year
“And so, those advantages, they seem small on paper, but here we are a year later, and we're well north of a 100,000 paying subscribers in the UK, building a really great product for fans all over the world.”
Mather: Founders must prepare for press like VC pitches
“I would just give any entrepreneur the advice of investing in comms. Someone who's wonderful on the comm side, and Taylor Patterson on our team, is just amazing. Keeps me honest. Keeps me trained, and dealing with the press is a job, and you have to have a str…”
Overcoming VC disinterest creates a strong pioneer moat for startups
“If few investors are interested, if you can cross that hurdle, it creates an incredible moat for you, because you can be the pioneer.”
Mather: Board members showing genuine care matters most to founders
“One of the most valuable things on a personal level is you can tell so quickly when the board member cares about the company, About you as a founder, about the journey, and the difference between someone who cares and someone who doesn't is so meaningful to th…”
Mather: The Athletic headcount will reach thousands within years
“We'll be in the thousands of people, hopefully, over the next couple years, and sports is just one of those areas where the empire makes sense.”
The Athletic launched in the UK with 55 employees within 119 days
“And a 119 days later, we had 55 full-time employees in the UK, and we were launching.”
The Athletic scaled its headcount to 550 employees
“Going from zero to 550 employees is used to write code, and thankfully they don't let me anymore, but now my job is communication, and all day long I must focus on communicating, and that is absolutely a full-time job.”
Strava's founder and Charles Hudson wrote the first Athletic angel checks
“Michael Horvath, the founder of Strava, was our first check, but it was a smaller check, and then the next check was Charles Hudson at Precursor”