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 66 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 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
Raanan: Venture market imbalance will lead to catastrophe and wasted capital
“I think it's going to end up with some serious catastrophe for many of the players. The market is not balanced. It means that a lot of that cash that's flowing into the market would be wasted.”
Gili Raanan: Selfishness and greed are good traits for seed investors
“We need to be selfish, and we need to be greedy. Those are good trades for an early stage investor.”
Raanan: The venture capital asset class does not work as a whole
“The venture business as a whole doesn't work. It doesn't work. It shouldn't work. And returns distribution are not divided equally between players.”
Gili Raanan: Over-Capitalizing Founders Is Not a Risk for VCs
“I'm not in a business of babysitting founders. And for me, this is like babysitting the founder. If we trust them to build, in my case, an important cybersecurity company that's critical to all the major banks in the US, and you put in their hands the safety o…”
Raanan: I never discuss gross margins with early-stage startups
“How much I discuss, how often I discuss gross margins with our, with my early stage companies? Never.”
Raanan: TAM and tech differentiators are useless for seed investing
“In the early days I was looking at markets and total addressable market time and technology and differentiators. And I simply realized that all of that is bullshit. You know, it's not important at all.”
Raanan targets founders who overcame severe childhood hardships like divorce and isolation
“So I'm looking for the individual who, whose parents went through ugly divorces. I'm looking for the individual who lived in a closet for a while. I'm looking for the individual who was a socially isolated child. I'm looking for people who went through real di…”
Gili Raanan: AI will not reduce capital needed for big startups soon
“AI, which at least in the next few years would not change that materially. And it takes a lot of money to build large companies.”
Raanan: Hyper-growth startups do not naturally regress to average growth rates
“Whenever a business is getting to a point it's growing super fast, year over year, It becomes part of their DNA. So it would not slow down just because, you know, averages and things like that. The need to be a significant external event to slow them down. So …”
Gili Raanan: Venture capital is the science of exceptions, not linear rules
“The conclusion, again, in my mind, is that we are exercising the science of exceptions. And it's good that we share that, those lessons, but if you just take those lessons and apply them linearly I think that it would be very hard for you.”
Raanan: Within five years, a startup will make Wiz's growth look slow
“I'm, Confident that five years from now, I, I'll be able to show you, I'll be able to demonstrate another team that, you know, showing that actually wheeze was a slog and they can move much faster and they've done whatever it is.”
Raanan: An IPO is a marketing event, not a liquidity event
“Going public is not a financial event. It's a branding event. It's a, it's an occasion where you tell your customers, your partners, your employees, your future employees, I'm here to stay. That's IPO. Cause typically it's not a financial event. It's not a liq…”
Raanan: All Cyberstarts portfolio companies are eventually for sale at the right price
“Eventually, all my companies are for sale at the right price. I'm not a collector. I'm an investor.”
Raanan: Cyberstarts interviews founders about childhood background rather than product or market
“When I started CiderStarts in 2018, I decided that I would not even ask them about market or technology or product, you know, so I meet with a team, a new team, which I don't know, and we spend an hour, you know, speaking about their childhood and their mother…”
Gili Raanan: Asking customers about pain points yields useless answers
“You don't ask the, what's your biggest pain point or what's your biggest need? Because again, you get so many BS answers. It's not even funny.”
Gili Raanan: Being first to market in cybersecurity is not an advantage
“I think that cyber security is, is a market where being first to market is not necessarily an advantage. Sometimes it's better to be number two, number three to market. And come in with more knowledge, more context, and simply, you know, deliver a better produ…”
Gili Raanan: 2021-level valuations have returned to private markets
“20, 20, 21 is back for the past four or five weeks. We are definitely in in at least in private markets when we are in a new Bull run, you know, valuations are high, skyrocketing.”
Raanan: Startups should make demand generation their first marketing hire
“You asked me a year ago, who would be the first hire at a marketing organization? That would be product marketing. My mind changed. My answer today is demand generation. And that can accelerate, that can make a huge impact on the business early on.”
Raanan: Founders claiming universal customer love are misreading feedback
“Whenever entrepreneurs tell me that customers love what we do. Every customer we spoke with like to get our product, you know, like to get their hands on a product. You probably misunderstood the customer. You probably didn't listen well in a conversation. Tha…”
Gili Raanan says he is not in the business of babysitting founders
“I'm not in the business of babysitting founders.”
Raanan: LPs who distribute venture allocations evenly should be worried
“If I'm a limited partner and I have distributed my venture allocation evenly, I wouldn't sleep well at night.”
Gili Raanan: Early-stage product and market analysis is mostly analyzing smoke
“We know very little when we get into investments. We, you know, we analyze, if we analyze product ideas and markets, mostly we analyze smoke cause, you know, the founders would change their mind In, in just a few weeks, and it would be a different product, dif…”
Gili Raanan: High startup valuations will eventually suppress tech innovation
“My concern is around entry prices and what, and whether that would Limit innovation at some point in time because disappointment would show up.”
Raanan: Wiz grew quarterly revenue from $1M to $24M in year one
“At Weez when you look at the first year of selling software, you know, the first quarter was a million dollar, and then second quarter of selling software was two million dollars, and then eight, and then 24.”
Raanan: Elite startup growth benchmark is 4x, 4x, 3x, 3x in new ARR
“Extremely high pace for me is let's say in the first five years from the moment you start to sell till the fifth year afterwards. If you go four X, three X and three X on you in a new ARR, not ARR, new ARR.”
Raanan: Cyberstarts created a recurring employee liquidity fund to retain talent
“At CyberStats, we created a vehicle we call it employee liquidity fund, which is focused not just on a, not on one-off type of secondary deals, but creating a program, a recurring program with a portfolio company where we provide liquidity to their employees e…”
Raanan: I regret selling every single secondary share in Wiz early
“Look, it's not a secret that, you know, we at Cyberstarts we have sold secondary shares at companies like Weez early on. By the way, I regret, I sold every single share at Weez. I regret it because, you know, if I sold it right now, I would make I would, Show …”
Gili Raanan: Venture Capital Is Difficult Because Feedback Takes Five Years
“And I think that, that's what makes this profession, you know, in many ways, it's a terrible profession. You know, it's a profession where you don't know if you are good in what you're doing for five or six years. You know, show me another profession where you…”
Raanan: Cyberstarts missed seeing only one or two Israeli cyber seed rounds in eight years
“Maybe once or twice over the past eight years, but there are deals that I'm telling myself, okay, I should have done it.”
Raanan: Laziness combined with the right traits drives focus and efficiency
“I think that laziness in, in, in the right combination is a wonderful trait. You know, it makes you think about efficiency. It makes you think about not repeating tasks you don't like and focus on the things you really like and you're really good at.”
Raanan: Seed founders should choose company-builder VCs over mere pickers
“I think that you pick early on, I mean, at the seed stages. I would go, if I'm an entrepreneur and I like to build a large business, I would go after the style of company builders. And there are many terrific investors who are not company builders. They are si…”
Gili Raanan: Entrepreneurs can reach greatness chasing either fame or fortune
“And you can get to real greatness By chasing fame, and you can get to real greatness by chasing fortune.”
Gili Raanan: Strong Venture Brands Create Virtuous Investment Cycles
“The venture business is, is, is, is a service business. You provide services and once you, I mean, it's very hard to tell, you know, if that, Service provider, if service provider A is significantly better than service provider B, because, you know, what you s…”
Raanan: Wiz co-founder Assaf Rappaport knew nothing about cloud security in 2012
“Now, did Asaf know anything about cloud and cloud security in 2012? I guarantee you not.”
Raanan: Average Cyberstarts portfolio company spends $100M on engineering
“That's the average for a cyber starts company. Hundred million dollars in the next three years on engineering.”
Raanan: Early-Stage Startups Should Front-Load Three Years of Customer Objections
“You take all the hypothetical objections you might face as a company in the next three or four years and bring it to present.”
Gili Raanan raised Cyberstarts' seed fund in 90 seconds via WhatsApp
“The last seed fund, you know, I think it took me like 90 seconds to raise the fund, you know, nine WhatsApp messages and it was done.”
Gili Raanan: Co-founder relationships work better when formed organically
“It's, ah, it has to be an organic process. It's very, very hard to create real connection that would last for, you know, a decade plus if you're thinking about, ah, ah, a long-term, ah, business. And, It simply works better when it's organic.”
Gili Raanan: Generation-defining startups are consistently expensive across all funding rounds
“And the best companies, if you look at it, were insanely expensive at SEED, insanely expensive at Series A, insanely expensive at Series B, and so on. It's, you know, it's like almost part of their DNA to be expensive companies.”
Gili Raanan: Investors' biggest mistakes come from passing due to high price
“Most investors mistakes were not to invest in the right company Because they thought it's too expensive.”
Gili Raanan: Enterprise software seeds require at least $5M to $6M
“Enterprise software companies, cyber security included. I found out that you need at least five or six million dollars just to get Team, product built, and a small go to market team to win few deals. That's what it typically take to build an enterprise softwar…”
Raanan: High startup valuations are necessary to protect founders from extreme dilution
“Our companies need to raise a lot of money. It means that valuations should be high because no founder would like to get 50% dilution just to get the cash they need.”
Cyberstarts has participated in every Series A and B for its portfolio
“So far we invested in all series A and series BFR companies.”
Raanan: Selling early is not an inherent trait of Israeli tech
“Selling early. That's the misconception. I think that anyone who sells early has a reason for that. It's not an ecosystem trait. It's not an Israeli trait.”
Raanan: Giving unicorn valuations to $1M revenue startups was ZIRP's worst mistake
“Attaching unicorn valuations to, you know, million dollar in revenue companies.”
Raanan invested in Adalom at $15M post-money valuation in 2012
“When I wrote the first check to Asaf Rappaport that we, at Adalom, at this, at the first company they started in 2012, it was done at, if I'm not wrong, Fifteen million dollars post.”