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 13 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
Founders who blindly follow board advice will definitely get fired
“If you don't listen to the board, you might get fired. If you do listen to the board, you will get fired. And I think that's true.”
Raising too much money at high valuations is impossible to fix
“There was one mistake that was really basically impossible to fix, and it was raising too much money at too high of a valuation”
Joe Fernandez suggests $10,000 internal bounties to disprove major startup initiatives
“So offering like almost a bounty of, you know, let's say, 10,000 dollars to somebody who could concretely say why this is a bad idea and why we'd be better off Putting our resources somewhere else is like a small price to pay to avoid taking that wrong turn.”
Investor updates should make investors terrified, not comfortable
“It's not at all about spin. It's not at all about like making them feel comfortable that they put all this money in the company. I want them to be terrified that they put money in this company.”
Founders should publicly praise helpful investors to subtly shame unhelpful ones
“I always want to create competition between my investors. I want the folks who have helped me to be recognized, to subtly shame the ones that haven't, and show appreciation for the people who are constantly going out of their way and making introductions and h…”
The social identity space should support a multi-billion dollar company
“The opportunity, I still believe, is huge in that space. Like, there should be a foundational, multi-billion dollar, like, fabric of the internet level company, and Doing what Cloud was trying to do.”
Joe Fernandez argues serial entrepreneurship status is inflated
“And startups are just hard. And I don't think it matters how many times you've been through it. It's gonna going to be hard. And some of the serial entrepreneurship stuff, I think, is inflated, though I appreciate the benefit I get from it daily.”
Fernandez: Joymode will iterate on its membership model until the company dies
“Like, there are things in our business, for example, we have this notion of a membership, which is kind of controversial in our structure, that I'm willing to basically kill the company to prove It is right, and I believe so strongly that that is kind of a cor…”
Startups need one initiative that investors fear will kill the company
“I think you should always have an initiative that you are working on that a huge portion of the team and investor base is afraid will kill the company. Like, that is a good barometer of, like, are you being daring enough?”
Klout's early hiring bar was simply a willingness to quit your job
“The bar to get hired at Clout was like willingness to quit your current job. If you were basically willing to quit your current job, you were on the team.”
Board input consists of data points, not instructions for CEOs
“Our, you know, provides data points that can be really helpful, but it's your job to synthesize those data points with everything else and with your vision and make decisions.”