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 16 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
Messerschmidt: Employee underperformance is always the sole responsibility of their manager
“My general, like, managing philosophy around why people don't perform is it's really the sole responsibility of their manager. You've either failed to give them the context of what you're trying to achieve, or you've hired a person with the wrong skills in the…”
Messerschmidt: Women hold just 9% of equity value in tech companies
“Women make up roughly 33% of the workforce of tech companies, yet they hold just nine percent of the equity value. Men hold the other 91%.”
Messerschmidt: Early founders must focus exclusively on metrics for next round
“So at the early stages of company building, like when you're pre-seed, seed, series A, you really shouldn't be focused on anything else other than do I have the right tactics in place to hit those metrics that are going to give you more money.”
Messerschmidt: Growth velocity beats overall revenue when raising a Series A
“So we'd much rather back a company who's gone from like zero to 500 K in a few months with strong organic traffic than a company who hit a million dollars a month rate, but the growth has slowed significantly.”
Messerschmidt: 70% of Fortnite users have made in-app purchases
“There's some crazy statistics of Fortnite, like, I think, 70% of their users have spent money in the app.”
Messerschmidt: Carta allocated over $8M in equity to correct gender inequality
“He measured his own cap table and he realized that it was not equal. And so he took swift action and he allocated more than eight million dollars in additional equity awards to women to correct the inequalities.”
Messerschmidt: Compressed VC deal timelines and inflated valuations harm everybody
“There's just so much competition for deals. And I think having to make these decisions too quickly or prices being driven up of deals, I think it's just bad for everybody, founders, investors, and employees.”
Messerschmidt: Netflix culture deck values were actively lived by employees
“These weren't just values that were thrown up on a wall or mentioned it in all hands once or twice. They really embodied what it was like to work there.”
Messerschmidt: Unprofitable startups must perpetually raise capital until profitable
“Unless you're running a profitable business, you're going to run out of money, typically one to two years after you raise. And so you're absolutely always going to have to raise more capital. So you're actually always raising until you're profitable.”
Messerschmidt: Startups cannot sustainably grow long-term on paid ad spend
“So I think in general, like you can't plan to grow your business on ad spin perpetuity and the channels just get too saturated and too expensive. So you've really got to find that distribution advantage.”
Messerschmidt: Asking VCs to define target metrics tests their partner quality
“Well, I think you can learn a lot about who you might want to work with by seeing if they actually do the work. And so it's a good first test of, you know, is this person going to be in the trenches with me? And are they going to help me?”
Messerschmidt: Founder negotiation leverage depends entirely on having strong alternatives
“Your power in the negotiation, it's driven by the alternatives that you have. So you want to go into your next fundraising with metrics that are so compelling that you're in control over who you work with and at what terms.”
Messerschmidt: Founders should avoid party rounds and secure institutional leads
“You're going to either want to have a lead or a co-lead of institutional investors. You want to avoid party rounds, but there's usually some allocation that you can leave over to bring strategic angels or individuals onto the cap table.”
Messerschmidt: #Angels syndicate has invested in over 100 startups
“And now, nearly five years later, we've invested in more than a hundred companies as a group, and those companies include Bird, Cameo, Gusto, Carta, Airtable, Lambda School, Carrot Fertility, Modern Fertility, Vector Space, and countless more.”