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.

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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

Assertion Partly supported
Western Union's high margins allow them to outspend Wise on search marketing
“Western Union is like seven to eight times more expensive than WISE. So they could spend seven to eight times more than us on marketing. And therefore there's no way we would ever be able to compete on those SEM key head terms.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 16:38 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Peiris: Wise halved marketing spend and lost only 1% of revenue
“We became profitable in about six to nine months, and there was only one cost we changed to get there, Which was our marketing spend. And I think I've shared this publicly before, and this is about four years ago. We halved our marketing spend. We dropped 10% …”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 42:30 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Wise CPO predicts AI will eventually eliminate human oversight in workflows
“You can kind of see how it gets to the point that, that, that human, that person will also not be needed in a while as well.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 51:10 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Wise charges a 0.3% fee compared to 6% at traditional banks
“Banks are at six percent. We're at .3 in most markets.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 18:10 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Jul 2034
Wise predicts majority of customers will use bank integrations within 5-10 years
“In a five to 10 year period, the majority of our customers won't be using our apps. They'll be in banks.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 34:27 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Wise consumer app has captured 10% to 20% of major UK banks' volume
“Our consumer business has taken something like between 10 to 20% of some of the major banks in the UK's volume.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 35:17 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Wise maintains a 70/30 split between word of mouth and paid acquisition
“It's about 30% of The 1.5 million customers we acquired last quarter came in through paid, about 70% came in through word of mouth. And if you went back 1012 years, it was about 30% through paid, 70% through word of mouth.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 6:26 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Only 10 to 15% of Remittance Customers Search Google Before Transferring
“There's still a bunch of the market, not much, so I'd say about 10, 15% of the market, that will Google before they send money.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 16:18 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Wise processes roughly £60 billion in instant cross-border transfers
“So we're moving about sixty billion pounds instantly from one side of the world to another, and that is the kind of experience to get people talking about it.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 18:39 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wise Saw 3-4x Higher Recommendation Rate After Adding Savings Graph
“We saw, like, I think it was a three to four x increase in our recommendation rate off the back of that.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 20:43 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wise targets 12 to 24 month payback on new initiatives
“We look for payback generally within 12 to 24 months, so you look at the costs, how much would it cost, and then you can work backwards to what that is.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 26:08 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Wise powers Google Wallet, Stripe, and most global neobanks
“Most of the near banks in the world use WISE. Google Wallet is powered by WISE, Stripe uses so platforms use us too”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 32:46 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wise asks product candidates at all levels if they've personally coded or designed
“The two ones I ask are obviously a product one of talk me through an example of where you've been hands-on in building something. And then I always explain, when I say hands-on, I mean, you ended up having to code it. You had to design it, you had to write the…”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 45:09 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Peiris: Wise uses LLMs to fully automate certain operational tasks
“We have big operational teams. We already use LLMs to augment those teams. Some places LLMs automate a hundred percent some of those tasks.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 49:40 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Wise had zero customers when CPO Nilan Peiris first joined as advisor
“Yeah, so I met them, you'll enjoy this. I got introduced to them by an angel who I had helped previously, and he said, you gotta meet these guys. They're just two of them. They have a great product. They have no customers and they definitely need someone like …”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 4:04 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Peiris: Consumer cross-border flows total $1T and SMB flows $10T
“So it's like about a trillion in terms of cross-border flows for consumer, about 10 trillion for SMB.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 4:57 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Wise built web pages and calculators for every bank BIC and IBAN code
“So obviously if you search for a BIC or an IBAN code, you'll find wise there because we've built pages on every BIC and IBAN code. We bought and built our own BIC calculator and IBAN calculator and converters so that you can look up your own banks, BIC and IBA…”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 9:03 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Wise allows customers to hold cash in government bonds earning 3-5%
“Wise, we offer this to our own customers as well. So in WISE, you can, in the WISE account, you can push one button and hold all of your cash in government bonds. And that means you'll get a three to five percent interest rate.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 14:10 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
60% of Wise Cross-Border Money Transfers Are Instant
“60% of our transfers are instant.”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 21:48 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Peiris: Wise's First Unknown Customers Came From Launch-Day TechCrunch Article
“Our first customers came from, ah, and the day we launched WISE was when the TechCrunch Blog post went up, and our TechCrunch, first TechCrunch interview happened, and I remember it, and then we, the post went out, and then you saw the first customer that we d…”
Nilan Peiris Jul 26, 2024 ▶ 5:25 Nilan Peiris: What Growth Hacks Worked and What Did Not, from Wise CPO | E1182 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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