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 15 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
Levine has never invested right around the $1M ARR threshold
“As far as I know, I have not once done a deal right before, right after hitting a million dollars of ARR.”
Levine: Investors make the most money in a market's second or third inning
“And so a lot of markets, when people think, oh, that's new, it's interesting, that's actually not when you make the most money as an investor. You often make the most money in the second or third inning or later of a market, because all of a sudden the market …”
Levine: Y Combinator founders' skepticism toward VCs is often merited
“I think the default posture of YC companies and founders is a little bit of fun, fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the venture community, which I think is merited in some cases”
Levine: Venture capitalists are not the difference makers in startup success
“I'm trying to do my marginal best, and the company's doing extremely well, and I like to think I'm helping somewhat, but I'm not the be-all, end-all. I'm not the difference maker.”
Levine refuses to invest in unlikable founders despite potential financial returns
“There's a lot of ways to make money backing people you might not particularly like, and I effectively will forego those.”
Levine: Individual personal branding within a VC partnership hurts firm cohesion
“I'm very nervous anytime somebody tries to develop an individual brand at a venture firm, because I really believe that it's a team sport. I really, really, really fundamentally believe that you need a group and a partnership, and it makes everyone stronger.”
Levine: Sequoia's seed deals in Airbnb and Dropbox are history's best
“Two of the best deals of all time were seeds by Sequoia. I think an initial almost 600,000 dollar investment in Airbnb and a million dollar investment in Dropbox to get very large ownership positions.”
Levine: Accel typically buys over 10% ownership in seed rounds
“So typically in our seeds, we're buying over 10% of a business.”
Levine: Accel bought 20% of Sentry at $6M, 25% of Scale
“The first investment I led in Century was at a six million dollar post money, and we purchased about 20% of the business. That was five years ago. Scale, the first deal was at a fifteen million dollar post money, and we bought 25% of the business.”
Levine: Liquid, Fast-Moving VC Markets Favor Established Market Leaders
“A very liquid market where things move quick tends to bias towards market leaders over periods of time”
Levine: Solo Capitalists Will Persist as a Long-Term VC Model
“I think the sole capitalists are here, and I think many of them will continue to be a thing for a long period of time, and it might become a new mode in our industry, a bimodal or trimodal situation”
Levine: Accel's Slack, Sentry, and Cloudera investments originated as seed deals
“Even at Excel, our first investment in Slack was a seed. Our investment in Sentry started as a seed. Our investment in Cloudera was an EIR.”
Levine: 18 of 25 mature Accel seed deals successfully raised Series A
“So every deal we'd done at the seed stage in three years, we'd done about 40 deals, and we termed 25 of them at maturity. So 15 of them were still too new at the time we did this analysis. So they were like, you know, six months in, so they weren't looking to …”
Levine: Founders should deeply interview prospective board members
“Really interview the person you're working with. These people are going to be with you forever. You should really want to get to know them, and it doesn't mean you get to know them by telling them about your business. Ask them about theirs. Ask them about thei…”