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 9 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
Wilkinson argues school and MBAs are wasteful for tech entrepreneurs
“I think school is often a waste of time, especially if you're in tech. My number one piece of feedback to people is, Get experience. If you want to be in business, start a business. Don't do an MBA.”
Wilkinson: Agencies are usually terrible, low-margin businesses
“Agencies are usually terrible businesses. They don't really make very much money.”
Wilkinson: Board members are not there to be the CEO's friend
“Well, I think the biggest thing to remember is that you're not the CEO's friend, that you're not there to be a buddy. You're there to actually ask probing questions. And to rub their nose in the consequences of what could go wrong.”
Wilkinson: Boards cannot dictate execution, only whether to keep the CEO
“One of the things I've also learned is that on a board, even when you own the entire company, you can't dictate what they need to do. You can only guide and you can set guide rails. And so at the end of the day, you're ultimately deciding, is this the right pe…”
Wilkinson: Hiring executive candidates for unproven potential always fails
“Whereas if you hire somebody for potential, which is what I used to do, I'd meet somebody and go, I love this person's moxie. They're really sharp. They move really fast. They seem to kind of understand marketing. I think they can be a good CMO. We'll grow the…”
Wilkinson: Long-term business planning is just guessing
“I haven't had a lot of success with long-term planning. I find it's just kind of guessing.”
Wilkinson: Direct customer relationships eliminate Google and Facebook platform risk
“In a technology business, there's no middleman, so there's no Google or Facebook risk. There's no algorithm between Us and the community or the customer.”
Wilkinson: Tiny Capital prices acquisitions on 5-to-10-year earnings and risk
“What we do is we basically pay a fair price based on where the business is at. And that's typically based on what earnings are expected to come out of the business over the next five to 10 years. And then the other way we think about price is just risk. So yes…”
Wilkinson: Use 'anti-goals' to design your life around avoiding worst-case days
“Just doing things I want to do, and I have a system that I call anti-goals, where every year my business partner and I sit down and we say, what does our worst possible day look like, and how do we design our day to avoid that?”