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 14 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
Flint: The most valuable tech companies are built during market corrections
“The biggest and most valuable businesses are those that built Precisely the point when there's market corrections.”
Flint: Sequoia pressured Trulia to make deep cost cuts in 2008
“You know, we're under a lot of pressure at the time to, from Sequoia, to cut deep, deep, deep to get profitable.”
Flint: Startups break growth ceilings by evolving into 'software plus' models
“So I think there's, you know, there's a real view in Silicon Valley today, particularly with founder-driven companies that are able to transform their businesses moving from one business, which may be a pure software business, to being what I often call a soft…”
Flint: Founder peer learning is more valuable than board members or coaches
“Learning from my peers, I always found was sort of way more valuable than learning from sort of board members and often coaches, quite frankly.”
Flint: VCs should pass on early-stage deals if genuine passion is missing
“At the early, early stages, there is so much about passion involved in really foreseeing success, and if you as an investor are not passionate about this, you're not feeling the true passion for the entrepreneurs, you're not seeing that passion in them, then I…”
Flint: Investors overemphasize market size instead of problem size
“What they often get wrong is that it's really not about the size of the market, it's about the size of the problem, and what is the available market for that, and kind of often the most interesting businesses have no market today.”
Flint: Technology platforms will transform venture capital just like Wall Street
“I think just in the same way that Wall Street has been transformed by technology over the last decade and platform businesses have built, I think you'll see the same thing in Silicon Valley, where technology will transform it and platforms will be built.”
Flint: Meaningful startups either drive or ride cultural change
“You know, I see really every significant, meaningful startup has an impact on the culture, either It's driving that cultural change, or it is really cresting and surfing that cultural change.”
Flint: Startup timing is about scaling near critical mass, not being first
“I think what's really important is it's not about whether you're Earlier or later than your competitors on an absolute basis. It's really about who can achieve the necessary scale to be a breakout leader when they're closer to this critical mass point.”
Flint: NFX targets a 1:2 ratio for initial versus follow-on capital
“So I think the ratios that we think about are kind of roughly one dollar initial capital and two dollars for follow on capital. So that's the sort of benchmark we think about. We're pretty early on. We're like nine months in into the fund. So it's hard to see …”
Flint: Marketplace defensibility requires high fragmentation and low multi-tenanting
“Fragmentation aids the aggregator. And so understanding what is the degree of fragmentation in a marketplace, and often the more fragmented and the less multi-tenanting, either the kind of less cost usage between substitute platforms, the more defensibility is…”
Flint: No obvious free distribution channels exist for startups in 2018
“I think at this time in 2018, it's just like, there's not a sort of obvious free and open distribution channel that is driving a whole bunch of startup innovation.”
Flint: Network effect businesses remain tremendously capital efficient
“Building sort of core, building business on top of core distribution platforms like Facebook and Google is just so much harder these days, but fundamentally, you look back over the sort of course of history and see these network effect businesses are tremendou…”
Flint: Startups must scale aggressively immediately upon reaching product-market fit
“So when you start to kind of see that spark, when you start to see that product market fit, then it's essential to scale extremely rapidly. Spending significantly to capture market share, and doing that when you can, you know, spending really as much as you ca…”