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 20 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
Kutcher: Traditional VC fund ownership demands are becoming increasingly egregious
“A lot of funds have these mandates about How much of a company they need to own to make the investment of value to them, and oftentimes I see those ownership percentages becoming, especially now, just becoming more and more egregious, where funds want to own a…”
Kutcher predicts many celebrity investors entering venture capital will lose money
“I think a lot of people are going to lose money.”
Kutcher: Future internet builders are perpetually young college graduates
“I believe that the people who are creating the future of the internet are perpetually young. They're coming out of college. They're seeing what's on the fringe of technology and capability.”
Kutcher sources deals by asking Twitter followers for home screen screenshots
“And I've actually like solicited my entire Twitter audience at times. Like, Hey, can you send me a snapshot of your home screen? I'd like to see what you're using, you know? And then I just run pattern recognition across thousands or hundreds of home screens. …”
Kutcher: Sound Ventures faces no direct competition from other VC funds
“I don't think there are other competitive VC funds to us. And it's why other very big VC funds love to work with us and love having us on the cap table to help the companies that they're investing in.”
Kutcher: I do not personally track Sound Ventures' investment returns
“We have folks in our team that are, it's their job to track the returns. I've never been one to track returns.”
Kutcher: Fatherhood expands an investor's consumer understanding through empathy
“When you have children, you have more than one head because you have such Empathy for those individuals. You have their lens as well, which gives you a broader scope of interest, investigation, compassion, and a broader scope for consumers that you otherwise w…”
Kutcher: Distance traveled is a better founder metric than past hardship
“So if you look at where somebody came from and where they've gotten to, that is the more important metric than what's the hardest thing that you've persevered through.”
Kutcher: Showing vulnerability encourages founders to drop their public personas
“If you're willing to be vulnerable with someone, they then open up and realize they see your humanity as opposed to the image of who they think you are.”
Kutcher lived exclusively in Airbnbs for six months after investing
“Like when I invested in Airbnb, I went and lived in Airbnbs for six months.”
Kutcher demands to use a startup's product before investing
“Before I invest in a company, I usually demand to use the product unless it's a product that I can't fundamentally use.”
Kutcher: Good product design simplifies the path to user desires
“Fundamentally at the end of the day, being good at product, Is understanding what people want and then simplifying their path to get there.”
Kutcher: Narrative drives startup mission, sales organization, and crisis management
“Being able to tell the story of your company, that is the narrative of your company, which is also the mission statement of your company, which also will dictate the sales org within your company, which also will dictate how you behave when chaos happens aroun…”
Kutcher: Sound Ventures does not take board seats or demand high ownership
“One of the things that we just haven't historically done is we don't take board seats. We don't demand an egregious check size.”
Kutcher mandates his team spends 40% of their time helping portfolio companies
“So the thing I'm constantly pressing on my team is let's make sure that we're proportionately spending enough time adding value to companies relative to looking for the next deal. And you should look at your day and really break down your day and go, am I at l…”
Kutcher's first angel investment was in A/B testing platform Optimizely
“I then made my first investment. It was in a company called Optimizely, and it was just small angel investment. And I thought this A-B testing platform could come in pretty valuable, could come in pretty handy.”
Kutcher's early angel portfolio included Skype, Alibaba, and Foursquare
“I invested in Skype and Alibaba and Foursquare and this platform called Brizly, which was like a Twitter client And just started putzing around and finding my way towards interesting companies and interesting people and had some early success, which then led m…”
Kutcher discovered and invested in Spotify before its US launch
“Spotify is actually one of the, it wasn't even in the United States yet when we found it.”
Kutcher: Sound Ventures' average check size is $1.5M to $5M
“Our check size has gone from, you know, when I was writing personal checks, it was like 25,000 dollars or 50,000 dollars. Then when we did our first fund, I think our average check size was, you know, a 100,000 to 200,000 dollars. And now our average check siz…”