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 23 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
Suster: Entrepreneurship does not pay off economically for most founders
“I think it's stressful, it's hard, it leads a lot of people to depression, and conflict, and stress, and for most people it doesn't even pay off economically. And so if you're going to dedicate yourself to it, you sure as hell better love the product concept o…”
Suster: Rejections come quickly in fundraising while commitments take months
“I used to tell people about fundraising, which is lemons ripen early. And what do I mean by that? So if you go ask 30 people for money, five or 10 of them are going to tell you no quickly because no's come quickly and the yes's take months.”
Suster: Venture fund managers should pitch the smallest viable fund target
“Put the smallest number on the front of your pitch deck that you're possibly raising.”
Mark Suster: All investors act like sheep and follow herd mentality
“All investors are sheep. End of story. Like, I don't want to pick on LPs, like LPs are no different than VCs. They're no different than retail investors.”
Suster: Combining hardware and software produces differentiated VC returns
“Hardware plus software is incredibly valuable. So the hardware actually provides you with a differentiated return if you also have a services business.”
VCs without follow-on reserves risk being wiped out to zero
“And don't forget that in that eighty million dollar round that gets cut back to a forty million dollar, if you don't participate, sometimes you get flushed down to zero. And so if you don't have reserves and you're playing in a game where big checks are being …”
Suster: Prospective Entrepreneurs Should Start Their Startup Journeys Earlier
“Entrepreneurship's not cut out for everybody, but if you want to give it a try, it's infinitely better to start earlier.”
Suster: Every Tech Leader Needs a Fundamental Understanding of Programming
“You need to take some programming course, even if you want to be the CEO or the head of sales or the head of marketing or the head of biz dev, Understanding, having a fundamental understanding of how systems work is critical to being in the business.”
Suster: Telesales and Direct Sales Experience Are Essential for Tech Careers
“Is to get some sales experience, and usually the best way to do that is telesales, and even if you want to be in marketing, even if you are in customer support, even if you want to do biz dev, ask the CEO if you can, you know, just do an hour a week of sales c…”
Suster: Prior founder experience gives VCs a key coaching advantage
“I feel like you're at a great advantage if you've been an entrepreneur, because so much about being a good coach, being a good mentor, is really understanding the journey that the entrepreneur is going through psychologically, physically, emotionally, and what…”
Suster: Excess capital breeds startup laziness while constraints force creativity
“A certain amount of constraint actually forces creativity, and when you have a little too much capital, you can take shortcuts, or you can throw money at problems, and it masks certain problems as well. So I'll just give you an example for anyone who's ever wo…”
Suster: VCs should evaluate founders over time using 'lines, not dots'
“But probably the best known post I've ever done was a post I wrote saying I invest in lines, not dots. And the metaphor is an x-axis is time, and a y-axis is your performance. And on any given day, I'm judging your performance on that day. How well did you pre…”
Suster: VCs who chase hot market trends late will lose
“Investors are like lemmings, and when an idea works, everyone chases the same idea. By definition, if you're chasing a hot idea, and you weren't early in that market, you're gonna lose.”
Suster: Doubling fund size to $100M doesn't change core strategy
“50 to 500 fundamentally changes your strategy. 50 to a hundred, you're still playing in the same ballpark.”
Mark Suster limits secondary sales to 40% maximum during market run-ups
“Usually, in a run-up, I'll usually sell 33 to 40% maximum.”
M&A prices drop in downturns as acquirers prioritize cost-cutting
“Yeah, no question. Because if there's a limited set of buyers and a whole bunch of companies that want to be acquired and remember my mindset at the start of the podcast was people right now are not paid to innovate. They're not paid to innovate. They're paid …”
Longer fund deployment pace is necessary to capture platform shifts
“So being across time and time diversity is important for catching platform shifts And changes to a regulatory environment, changes to geopolitical environment, and changes to the economy itself.”
Great board members focus on granular work and difficult budgets
“The things that really matter are people who turn up, roll up their sleeves, have a point of view, will do the detail work, actually read spreadsheets. And be thoughtful and be one step ahead of the game on things that are harder that people don't like to do, …”
Suster: Startups should aim to raise 18 months of runway
“I mean, the ideal amount of capital, if you can raise it as 18 months.”
Suster: Investor trust requires rapport built in meetings, not presentation data
“There's no great presentation, there's no amount of data that can get someone to want to take that bet on you other than Trust, and trust is established through rapport, which is built in meetings.”
Suster: Seed and Series A investing relies on intangibles over traction
“There's all these intangibles that I'm trying to judge because I'm a seed or a round investor. So I'm usually not betting specifically on traction, which tends to be more of a B round activity.”