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 17 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
Webb: Founders should delay creating formal boards until required by investors
“I wouldn't have a board until I was required to have one, because I had to raise enough outside comfortable that they would not give it to me until it came with a board seat.”
Webb: Startups adding VC board members must also add independent directors
“Always if you add a VC partner. Make sure you have an independent with you, whether that's on top of the co-founder or not.”
Webb: Expecting strong work-life balance as a CEO is impractical
“The top jobs require lots of energy and time, and that doesn't mean you can't find moments and have a great family, and I want you to do that, but it's really hard. So I think people that dream about having the best jobs in the world and the best work-life bal…”
Webb: External rockstars often make worse hires than internal stretch candidates
“Some of my worst hires were when I went outside to get the Rockstar that had done the job way before, but they didn't want to do it again. And some of my best hires were when I gave my internal team a chance, and they stepped up in a big way”
Webb: eBay required opposing white and black hat deal presentations for boards
“One of the things we did at eBay is we would have, you know, one of the things you worry about is deals get momentum and get excitement, and everybody gets aligned around that. And sometimes you're not willing to actually do the parade of horribles about what …”
Webb: A lack of market competition usually signals an unimportant problem
“If you don't have any competition, you're probably working on something that you actually, either you're so smart that no one else can figure out how to do and the world needs, or more likely, no one thinks they need it, and you might not be working on somethi…”
Webb: Mega-funds and angel capital allow VCs to wait for proven startups
“There's a lot more money in the market today, both at the low end, which frankly makes it even easier for the VCs who used to have to do more of their funding. They're able to see things that are more Proven out by the time they actually deploy big bucks, but …”
Webb: The 2018 venture capital market is less frothy than 2000
“I don't think it's nearly as frothy as what I saw in the 2000.”
Webb: High-quality startups take over ten years to reach an IPO
“The good ones all take generally over 10 years to get to a liquidity event if it's going public”
Webb: Maynard Webb invests $5M to $7M of personal capital annually
“I'm investing five to seven million a year, which is a lot of my personal money, and so I'm very selective in going deeper into later rounds.”
Webb: Marc Benioff is uniquely talented at executive recruitment and retention
“I think Mark Benioff is one of the best at finding and keeping talent. He knows everybody in the industry, and he knows for every slot he's got. Who are the three others if they're not? First of all, there's a lot of growth from within companies. But if they'r…”
Webb: Meg Whitman hired executive talent before eBay explicitly needed them
“Meg used to go hire people before we needed him, because she knew we were going to scale into needing them. By the way, I used to think that was crazy, and then I fell in love with it, because they all got gobbled up within three to six months, end of Meaningf…”
Webb: Board members should operate on an 80/20 listening-to-talking ratio
“As a board member, you probably need to be 2080, talk 20% of the time, and listen 80% of the time, but you need to make sure your talk percentage is impactful.”
Webb: Seed round valuation caps were around $5 million in 2010
“When I started in 2010 doing Web Investment Network, a cap on a seed around it was more like a five, and today that's higher than that.”
Webb: eBay grew from 300 to 14,000 employees during his tenure
“When I joined eBay, I think we had 300 people. When I left, we had 14,000.”
Webb: eBay evaluated the Skype acquisition using a waterline risk framework
“When we were looking to buy Skype at eBay, we used that analogy to say, okay, if it doesn't work, is it going to hit us above the waterline where it's going to be ugly and we're going to have to fix it, but it's fixable? Or is it going to hit us below the wate…”