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 11 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
Enterprise buyers only buy software for their top two pain points
“I'll tell you the one thing I've learned is that if you're addressing something that's pain point number three, four or five on somebody's list, they just never get around to it. They just don't have enough time to buy that solution.”
Agrawal: Deal structure and price terms do not matter for winning investments
“What I've learned through that deal and many others since then is you should really be willing to do a deal regardless of the exact terms that you get, the exact structure you get, because that's how you really test your conviction in an investment thesis. You…”
Agrawal: Prior experience is not required for founder success
“Prior experience is not required for success.”
Agrawal: Mis-hiring a sales leader delays startups 12 to 18 months
“It's a high-risk game, because if you pick the wrong person, you're not going to know that for at least 12 or 18 months. And many times that's the difference between the number one and the number two person in a market, is that critical 12 or 18 months.”
Battery rejected $400M offer before selling Brighttree for $800M
“This is a SaaS software company in the healthcare space, and we had offers to sell the business for, say, a four hundred million dollar range. After a long conversation with the CEO, we collectively decided to turn that down and to keep going, and we were fort…”
Agrawal: Ideal target markets start near zero and inflect within 18 months
“In the ideal world, what you're looking for is actually a market that might be close to zero today. And that's going to be like 500,000,003 years from now. And it's really the new opportunity, however you want to define it. And there's a rapid and Rapid growth…”
Agrawal: Startup success does not depend on the number of co-founders
“I've worked with companies that have had no co-founders like Raji at Sprinklr, and I've worked with companies that have had six co-founders, like Guidewire, and they've been equally successful, so I don't think it's a one-size-fits-all.”
Agrawal: Seasoned executives working for young founders is no longer an issue
“I think five or 10 years ago I would say it was harder for seasoned executives to maybe work for younger founders. I think that, you know, with the enormous success folks like Anne Levy has had, or Zuckerberg's had, I don't think that that structure is an issu…”
Agrawal: The executive needed for $0–$20M revenue differs from $20–$200M
“So sometimes the person who's right for you for zero to 20 is not the person who's going to be the executive that takes you from 20 to 200.”
Battery Ventures lost early social market lead with Friendster to Facebook
“Battery was an investor in Frencer way back in the day, and I think they were way ahead, but unfortunately grew too fast, they couldn't keep up, and Facebook ultimately won that market, which is unfortunate for us.”
Agrawal: Product management will shift from gut-driven to data-driven
“The one liner here is we saw a dramatic transformation in the marketing function where it moved from being very gut driven to being data driven. Hence our investments in companies like exact target and Marketo and Omniture. We believe the same thing is now hap…”