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 10 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
Ben Lerer: Best Early-Stage VCs Are Former Operators, Not Number Crunchers
“But for me, the best investors, particularly the best early stage investors are going to be people who have actually been in the trenches and built and sold their own businesses and raised money for their own businesses and gone through sort of that slog versu…”
Ben Lerer: Most Big, Obvious Tech Startup Ideas Have Already Been Claimed
“So many of the big obvious ideas have been taken and there's multiple companies building them. It's rarer that we see some life changing, brilliant invention or idea that we never imagined would be possible.”
Ben Lerer: Simply selling direct-to-consumer without middlemen is no longer disruptive
“I don't think Just being direct to consumer is disruptive anymore, though. Just selling products without a middleman is no longer enough to sort of consider yourself to be, you know, sort of breaking the old model.”
Ben Lerer: VCs Should Invest Institutional Capital Like Personal Money
“I think in its best scenario, you invest other people's money the same way that you would invest your own money.”
Ben Lerer: VC Firm Branding Drives Top-Tier Deal Flow To Spot Outliers
“Brand is what gives us so much Amazing deal flow, which enables us to really be able to see enough companies to be able to identify the ones that seem to be the outliers and the really special ones”
Ben Lerer: Seed Investors Must Rely On Imagination Because Startups Pivot Frequently
“So many of the businesses that we invest in don't end up looking like what we invest in. We need to be able to have an imagination.”
Ben Lerer: FOMO Is A Bigger Factor In Early-Stage Investing Than Late-Stage
“FOMO is a part of life as an investor, and I think more so a part of life in early stage than in later stage.”
Ben Lerer: Blinding Co-Investor Information Leads To Cleaner Venture Decisions
“Making sure that we in some cases have less information about who's investing makes me more capable of making cleaner decisions.”
Ben Lerer: Long-Term Independent Startups Must Provide Early Investors Periodic Liquidity
“Generally speaking, we'd love our companies to sort of take the approach that you've seen a war be take, for instance, which is we're going to build something for 20 years. We're going to put our heads down. And then in those situations, you would hope that th…”
Ben Lerer: Television made brand building easier 20 years ago
“Brand building 20 years ago was easier in that you, like, you sort of Could buy your brand growth, which was, there was really one channel that, that was so much more powerful than all the others from a marketing perspective, which was television advertising.”