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 12 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
MasterClass will be in every American home within five years
“It will be in every home in America. And then after that, we will go more internationally and broad.”
Michael Deering invested $500K in David Rogier before he had an idea
“And he basically invested half a million and told me to go think of an idea.”
A founder's single job is preventing cash exhaustion
“I have one job, and that job is to make sure that we never run out of money. The only thing that can kill a startup is running out of cash.”
Early-stage startups should rely on a single advisor to preserve speed
“One of the most important things at early stage is speed, and by asking five people for their thoughts and advice, they aren't going to give the same advice, so then you're going to spend a whole bunch of time, and you're going to have to debate it and think a…”
Pre-sending pitch decks has never yielded an investment for MasterClass
“I can't think of one case where I sent out a pitch deck before the pitch, and the person then wanted to actually invest.”
Founders should double milestone cost and time estimates in startup planning
“And then I always times it by two, because however fast and efficient you think you're going to be, everything, when you actually work on it, just takes more time and just costs more.”
Rogier validated MasterClass demand using a fake website with 100 courses
“So what I decided to do was I created a fake website that had a hundred different online classes that I did not have. I paid a firm in Argentina, I think like I actually helped build the site. I hired some people on TaskRabbit to help write the class text inst…”
Founders should spend 5% of their time building VC relationships
“I think it is always smart to be spending five percent of your time on the relationship side.”
Rick Yang rejected MasterClass's Series A before leading Series B
“Rick Yang, who led our B round and is in a fantastic board member I actually pitched him for the A, and Rick passed.”
MasterClass raised $5 million prior to its public launch
“We had raised approximately five million before launch.”