why aren't all 11 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
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Direct listings will not happen during market downturns without first-day pops
“Well, not in the current capital environment, and that's because public company shares are trading at such a steep discount, that the only way you're going to get a company public is if you essentially promise to the institutions who are going to buy the IPO, …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Daniel Ek intentionally delays decisions to allow Swedish culture to build consensus
“The decision-making process in a Swedish culture and at Spotify can at times to an American feel a little bit like watching them paint dry. I mean, the amount of time that Daniel invests in allowing the organization to work its way through the decision-making …”
Assertion Supported
Reed Hastings originally intended to only fund Netflix as its chairman
“Well, his original vision was to be retired and to fund the company and be its chairman. And the performance kind of got sideways and he came in off the sidelines. And replace Mark Randolph as a CEO.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Reed Hastings forced a $30M to $50M feature film spend that failed
“In this particular quarter, we had, I don't know, 30 or fifty million dollars to spend. And Reed Really wanted Ted to invest it in, in in feature film content, and which Ted thought was a really stupid idea and argued about it for weeks, and finally, you know,…”
Assertion Supported
Catalog titles drove 70% of Netflix DVD rentals versus 10% for Blockbuster
“90% of what Blockbuster rents is new release. 30% of what Netflix rents Disney release and 70% is catalog.”
Prediction Held up
Peloton is currently on track to reach cash flow breakeven
“I think we're on track to get the business to cashflow breakeven, which enables us to control our own destiny”
Assertion Partly supported
Netflix doubled annually for five years after switching to a subscription model
“And then eventually we found product market fit as a subscription model, as it turned out, not as an a la carte business. And once we stumbled into the subscription model, the business literally started doubling each year. And for gosh, five or six years, it j…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Spotify's financial model was a mess with low-hanging fruit when McCarthy joined
“And I would say the business model from a financial perspective was sort of a mess when I walked into, well, there was a lot of low hanging fruit. Let me put it that way. When I got involved in, in Spotify.”
Assertion Partly supported
Direct listings open trading using the exact same mechanism as traditional IPOs
“I think the thing that most people don't understand Even very experienced bankers , I have to point out, the stock opens in a direct listing exactly the same way it opens in a traditional IPO, which is exactly the way it opens for already traded public compani…”
Assertion Supported
Jay Hoag funded Netflix post-dot-com bust when capital markets completely froze
“I remember when Netflix was actually going down after After the dot-com bust, we were running out of money, even though we were going, we're doubling every year, but the world is in meltdown. You couldn't get capital from anybody. And he stepped up in a moment…”
Assertion Partly supported
Pure Software's IPO was the second most successful ever at the time
“Now he had been very successful building company called pure software, which ended up selling and been taken public by Morgan Stanley. And I think was maybe the second most successful IPO of all time. If I'm recalling correctly, a little bit out of my depth th…”