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.

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why aren't all 12 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

Opinion
Young tech workers should join mid-stage growth startups like Stripe or Slack
“I think there's merits to all of them, but I would now lean more toward go to that medium-sized growth company. You know, if you can get in today at a company like Stripe or Slack, for example, I think you get incredible growth opportunities, and if you know, …”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 6:54 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Past McKinsey research claiming rapid corporate turnover was misleading
“I'd like to thank some somewhat misleading research that was put out 10 or 15 years ago by McKinsey and some other academics that suggested that the largest companies in the country were turning over at a very rapid pace. You can find a lot of articles, and yo…”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 8:16 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Large tech incumbents tend to maintain dominance rather than face disruption
“In fact, the big companies tend to stay very strong Across most industries, there are some sectoral differences, like retail right now, for example, but this is especially true, I think, with the large tech companies. If you're very big, you have the ability t…”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 8:40 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Insight
Paid user acquisition should remain a small fraction of overall growth
“We try to never let it go beyond a certain portion, a very kind of low fraction of our overall attainment of new users. If it goes too high For any brief period of time, then that suggests that we're out of balance and we're not kind of focused on the right ar…”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 16:23 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Opinion
Workplace communications remain a chaotic mess for enterprise users
“We wanted to do it in the space of workplace communications, which we thought was still something of a chaotic mess, frankly, for most users in the workplace.”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 5:57 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Insight
Startup success demands extraordinary commitment compared to corporate jobs
“You're rarely going to get extraordinary outcomes from ordinary type work, and I think in a lot of the big companies, you can do relatively ordinary work in terms of your effort and in terms of your contribution and the leverage that your contribution has. In …”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 10:36 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Disclosure
Astro paid a contractor above market rate to stop their moonlighting business
“We found and recruited an excellent contractor to work with our team based outside of the Bay Area, and he worked with us as a consultant for a while until we hired him on full time, but we made sure when we hired him on full time that we were compensating him…”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 11:29 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Insight
Founders cannot get good investor advice if forced to constantly pitch
“We know we can't get the best insights and the best advice. If I'm worried about with each conversation, having to sort of sell them or pitch them on the status of the company or what our next plans are, want to be able to have honest, open discussions about t…”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 19:25 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Insight
Narrow pitch propositions outperform broad visions in startup fundraising
“I think that the primary thing that we would change is consistent with how you want to run your business, which is the more narrow you can have of a focus on what your proposition is, the better that people can understand it and give you feedback on it, and th…”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 21:36 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Opinion
Access to early-stage capital remains unfairly difficult for non-Valley founders
“Well, I think we really need continued improvement in access to early stage capital for first-time entrepreneurs especially the ones who don't come in with deep connections here in the valley where the plurality of VC investment comes from.”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 25:15 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Astro will be a profitable, independent company within five years
“And in five years, we expect to be a thriving, profitable, independent company that's known for making its customers very focused, very productive, and happy.”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 26:07 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
Disclosure
Astro sourced its last two hires via Hired.com and Handshake
“Hiring services like hired.com and handshake. Our last two hires each came from those two services that previously we would have had to work through recruiter under a different and more expensive paid model.”
Andy Pflaum Feb 2, 2018 ▶ 14:10 20VC: The Biggest Growth Opportunities for Young People in Tech Today, Why Distributed Workforces Are The Secret To Beating Incumbents & Why It Has Never Been Easier To Operate A Company Than Today with Andy Pflaum, Founder & CEO @ Astro
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