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 20 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 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
Naval Ravikant: Sand Hill Road Series A firms actually invest at Series B/C
“And the Sand Hill Road investors stopped doing this, and even though they called themselves As being in a series A business, they really aren't probably in a series B or the series C.”
Naval Ravikant: Drones will replace every weapon system on the planet
“I think drones are going to replace every single weapon system on the planet. They're going to replace Everything from aircraft carriers to airplanes, to infantrymen, soldiers. Once drones get small enough and effective enough, no other form of character will …”
Naval Ravikant: Venture funds above $20M inevitably bleed into Series A
“The moment a fund is managing more than 10 or twenty million dollars in capital, it's unlikely that it's purely in the seed business. It's at least bleeding into the series A business.”
Naval Ravikant: Y Combinator is likely the most successful venture investor
“If you look at the, probably the single most successful venture investor in on the planet right now is Y Combinator, and they have an incredibly broad portfolio, thousands upon thousands of companies, but they're very, very early.”
Naval Ravikant: Good founders unbundle venture capital advice, control, and capital
“Venture is a bundle of advice, control, and money, and good entrepreneurs unbundle those things and kind of purchase what they need at market rates.”
Naval Ravikant: Founders should prioritize control over maximum valuation
“So I would rather take a low valuation and keep control in terms of board control and control of protective provisions, rather than vice versa, just maximize the valuation, but give up control.”
Naval Ravikant: VCs earn high fees because money is a commodity
“So VCs get paid really well because they're selling a commodity at its core, and that commodity is money. So they have to add on advice and brand, and those advice and brand become really important.”
Naval Ravikant: VC brands are unbundling from firms to individual partners
“And as part of that, what's happening is that brands are unbundling. They're unbundling from the firm level to the individual level.”
Naval Ravikant: Cryptocurrencies will replace extraneous financial infrastructure
“If you look at how Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are going to play out, they'll probably do away with a lot of the extraneous financial infrastructure that we have.”
Naval Ravikant rejects five-year strategic plans due to rapid tech changes
“I don't believe in five year plans or grand master strategic visions because I think the world just changes too quickly these days.”
Naval Ravikant: VCs should offer explicit SLAs and clear pricing online
“I'd love to see venture capitalists provide an SLA, a service level agreement, put their principles and values directly online, concretely, talk about control versus not control, what valuations that they offer, et cetera. I'd like them to sell and price their…”
Naval Ravikant: Protocol innovation is moving from VC startups to blockchains
“I think a lot of the protocol level innovation is moving away from venture backed startups and moving into blockchain based protocols.”
Naval Ravikant: VCs should not make a living arbitraging information
“And it seemed odd to me that in day and age of free information and the internet that you could still make a living by essentially arbitraging information. And that just didn't seem right to me.”
Naval Ravikant: Investors cannot make money on uncapped convertible notes
“So, for example, some entrepreneurs have gotten very good at raising uncapped notes, but you can't make money on that.”
Naval Ravikant: Talent platform is AngelList's largest business unit
“And then I think the final one is, which came out a little bit in some of your questions, is that Angelus is mainly about fundraising, but the reality is that our talent platform is probably the biggest piece of what we do today.”
Naval Ravikant: Hit Forge made 120 investments and produced multiple unicorns
“In my hit forge, which was the name of my little fund that I ran for a while, I did a lot of investments. I probably did about a 120 investments, but in that group, you know, I've got at least three, maybe five so-called unicorns.”
Naval Ravikant: AngelList processed 1,200 deals and raised hundreds of millions
“We have now run about 1200 deals through the AngelList platform, raised hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars for entrepreneurs”
Naval Ravikant: AngelList began as a free community service without a business model
“So Nivi and I basically decided to take venture hacks and use that as a launching platform and basically start distributing deal flow for free to all of our high quality investor friends. And there was no grand plan or business model in mind. It was more of a …”