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 1 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
Hoffman: Founders who exited 10 years ago lack modern tactical execution skills
“Almost everything in running a company has changed over the last seven years. So if you sold your company 10 years ago, you don't know anything about how customer success works, how new types of sales works, how product led growth works, how even like all the …”
Hoffman: Most successful startup founders have low emotional intelligence
“Well, most good founders have low EQ.”
Hoffman: Founder CEOs are paid 5x less than external CEO hires
“Founder CEOs are very undercompensated. Like the go forward comp for a founder CEO today, once you, let's say you're there for over four years, your go forward comp is probably five X lower than if they hired an outside CEO.”
Hoffman: Any time a CEO spends outside of work hurts the business
“I would say really any time a CEO is not spending on their company, it's bad for the business. But that's true. If you're dating, it's true. If you're being a spouse, if you're parenting kids, if you're working out, You're spending time with friends. If you're…”
Hoffman: LPs will cease re-upping with non-performing VC fund managers
“Well, I do think there were a lot of VCs with subpar returns that were still raising their third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh funds. That is very unlikely going to happen in the future. So I think you're the, sorry, VCs that were doing that from LPs. And so …”
Hoffman: Venture capital firms will increasingly specialize team roles
“You're going to start to see different firms start splitting the stack a bit, and they're going to have certain people who are going to be good... You're going to start to see that much more so with investing, where if you're going to have a team anyway, and i…”
Hoffman: LPs should prefer venture funds led by active CEOs
“It is actually, they're generally not happy when someone in the fund is like also a CEO, but they should be because that fund's going to end up doing so much better. You're going to get into better deals, et cetera.”
Auren Hoffman: High employee impact strongly correlates with working the most hours
“The people I've worked with who have been the most impactful people, it is extremely high, highly correlated that they also put in the most hours.”
Auren Hoffman: Most companies get far less than 40 weekly productive hours per employee
“Most companies are not getting anywhere close to 40.”
Auren Hoffman: Employee Retention Rates Do Not Reflect Company Performance
“Just because everyone's leaving, like in Facebook's case, where so many of the first 25 people left early doesn't mean that's a bad company. It turned out to be an amazing company. Just because everyone's staying doesn't mean it's a good company.”
Hoffman: Venture capital is more competitive than any SaaS business
“Venture is just like, is incredibly competitive. It's way more competitive than any type of SAS business that's out there. It's one of the most competitive, you're basically selling a commodity. You're selling money.”
Hoffman: Board Oversight Matters Little Compared to Securing 10x VC Winners
“I also don't, I don't know how much oversight matters in the, if it's really power law driven, like the bad ones are bad. And, you know, so yeah, maybe you could have got a one X and you get a .5 X or something out of this thing. If you, if you're really in it…”
Hoffman: VCs should focus their time on mid-tier portfolio companies
“The winners don't really need you. So spending time with them doesn't really change the outcome. The losers don't really need you either. Cause they're going to lose. So it's actually kind of the people in the middle that probably need you the most”
Auren Hoffman: Fully committed founders never lose investor capital
“If you ever see a scenario where a founder is putting more than a hundred percent in, I have never seen that company do less than a one X ever. That company has always been successful.”
Hoffman: Firing founder CEOs was commonplace in the 80s/90s but rare today
“Every VC today is founder friendly, right? It's pretty rare nowadays for a founder to get fired. Whereas like in the eighties and nineties, that was commonplace for a founder to get fired.”
Hoffman: 22 of Facebook's first 25 employees left within four years
“I think 22 out of the first 25 people at Facebook left after, within the first three or four years.”