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 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
Tan: Founders who ask investors if they are failing succeed more often
“That was actually one of the big secrets of Y Combinator that if a founder frequently comes to their investors and asks, am I failing? That's almost always correlated and found in the founders who succeed because, you know, at that point you're actually asking…”
Tan: Operational VC coaching adds more value at pre-seed than post-Series A
“Post series A, series B, and later in particular, it really is about care and feeding the organization. So as a company, you've already chosen your direction. In fact, often you've chosen your go-to-market. And so now it's about taking that go-to-market and sc…”
Tan: Google and Facebook alumni lack experience fighting for early users
“A lot of people, especially coming from very hollered halls like Google and Facebook, they've actually never been punched in the face because the overwhelming fire hose of users means that they've never had to fight and scrap for a user.”
Tan: Highly controversial startup deals generate the best venture returns
“Our experience with the power law is pretty similar to a lot of other people's in that the things that are the most controversial, the things that have either strong yeses Or knows. Those are the ones that seem to perform the best”
Tech networking events deliver no value due to founder posturing
“You go to your average meetup, or hangout, or dinner, or networking event, and it's basically people running around always with a happy face on, saying, how are you doing? We're doing great. We're killing it. How are you doing? And we're also killing it, and s…”
The 'spray and pray' seed investing model does not work
“If you're spraying and praying, it's not going to work. You can't help the founders, and you can't keep in touch to actually increase their chance of success.”
Garry Tan: Founders should build Series A investor relationships over six-plus months
“You really can't expect to build a partnership with your Series A board member more or less in an abbreviated process of a week or two. Almost always what you need to do is sort of build relationships over the course of maybe six months or longer.”
Garry Tan: SaaS startups must move upmarket to achieve enterprise scale revenue
“One of the most common things we see in SaaS these days is that sometimes a company that gets started selling to SMB realizes they need to go up market to mid-market and enterprise, because that's where you can actually get to multi-hundreds of millions of dol…”
Tan: 24 months of runway is optimal for seed-stage startups
“We don't need 48 months of runway here. We don't really even sometimes need 36 months. 24 feels really good to us. It gives the company the right kind of cushion to be able to take risks and achieve the next round”