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
Kerrest: Successful Enterprise Software Founders Are Industry Veterans, Not 20-Somethings
“I think if you look at successful enterprise software founders, whether it was Mark Benioff and Parker Harris, Salesforce, or whether it was Anil Bushri, And Dave Duffield at Workday or whether it was Fred Luddy at ServiceNow, these are all folks who did not s…”
Kerrest: Exceptional Founders Are Constrained Without Large, Growing Markets
“You can have a super special founder, but if you don't have that big market opportunity and there's not that opportunity to create the growth and to figure out the go to market strategy and all these other things, I think you're going to be kind of constrained…”
Kerrest: Startups should dominate small markets with adjacent expansion opportunities
“What he's looking for, and I agree with, is you want to become a monopolist in a small market with a lot of adjacencies.”
Kerrest: Two to four co-founders is the optimal startup team size
“I think if you look at the data says that solo founders always have a tougher time. I think you really see a lot of success in the two through four group of co-founders. I think once you get five co-founders or more, there's just too many cooks in the kitchen.”
Okta was Andreessen Horowitz's first fund investment check in 2009
“We were the first check that they wrote out of their first fund. In the summer of 2009 was into our seed round, and then obviously they led our series A in 2010.”
Okta pivoted from small businesses to mid-market and enterprise in 2011
“We went from focusing on small, medium businesses to focusing more on mid-market companies and a little bit upscale because those companies, A, had more pain, B, they had more budget, and C, they were looking for solutions like the ones we had”
Kerrest: Okta restrained sales spending with a mandatory payback governor
“In our case, it was always about how fast can we grow, but we want to have a certain amount of payback on the investment that we made in sales marketing. So we kind of had a governor on how long it was going to take to get paid back for a dollar invested and g…”
Kerrest: Founders only need to make 3 to 5 key decisions annually
“And really at the end of the day, as a startup founder, there's probably three or five major decisions you have to get right every year. And that will really dictate what's going to happen with your company in the future.”