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 12 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
Matt Williams: First-time founders should bootstrap until achieving clear product-market fit
“So if it is a if it's a relatively new founding team that's never founded another company my advice is quite simple, which is to bootstrap as long as you can until you see some very clear traction, some very clear product market fit For the offering that you h…”
LiveBid built the first real-time engine for physical online auctions
“And we decided to focus you know, the entire company on the auction space and built the first real time the real, you know, first real time engine for competing in a physical auction for online bidding.”
LiveBid amassed $100M in inventory before acquisition interest from Amazon and eBay
“And in about a year we're able to amass close to a hundred million dollars in inventory that was, you know, being offered through auction through our website, which at the time was quite a bit, and we then had, had interest from eBay, Yahoo, and Amazon for acq…”
Matt Williams: Most acquired founders leave within three years; he stayed twelve
“Very few founders ever kind of last longer than two or three years at most startups that get, then get acquired. I, you know, I think there's, there are very few, I happen to be one of the rare, you know, kind of rare ones that I was at Amazon for about 12 yea…”
Matt Williams laid off 40% of Digg staff in his first six weeks
“It was a really hard, you know, kind of first six weeks, which included laying off about 40% of the staff”
Matt Williams: Digg turnaround needed fresh outside talent sooner after v4 launch
“That probably would have more quickly brought in some additional talent that that, that hadn't kind of lived through the pain of, you know, kind of the V four launch and brought in new blood more, kind of more quickly to really help not only carry new perspect…”
Matt Williams: EIR roles range from passive holding desks to active support
“I think it's different for every VC, and I think it's, it is what you make of it. I think in some VCs, it is a it's a desk, you know, for you to just have and figure out what you want to do next. And I think for on the other kind of end of the spectrum, you re…”
Matt Williams: LiveBid delivered a 10x return when acquired by Amazon
“I started a company called LiveBid that was founded back in 96 and sold to Amazon in 99 for about a 10 X return to investors”
Matt Williams: LiveBid sold an official movie Batmobile online in 1998
“We in fact sold the Batmobile online. Wow. Through our platform, you know, from the from one of the Batman movies.”
Matt Williams funded LiveBid employee salaries with his personal credit card
“You know, I was already at the point of starting to put, you know, salaries on my credit card for those employees that had families.”