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
Carlson: Google and Facebook ad spend drives the US student debt crisis
“While I'm not a fan of the specifics of the Bernie free college plan, I wish more politicians were realizing the fact that a large percent of the student debt crisis is actually in the pockets of Google and Facebook.”
Carlson: Founders must live near employees and customers, not capital
“So I think that that's not a great idea. I think there are, and I'll be controversial about it, I guess. I think there are three groups of people you can live near. You can live near your employees, you can live near your customers, or you can live near your c…”
Carlson: The average US community college graduation rate is just 5%
“The average community college in the U.S. Has a graduation rate of five percent.”
Carlson: Guild Education ties its revenue entirely to ongoing student success
“Instead of getting paid by either of those entities up front, we want to get paid term over term as the students succeed. And so we've actually put all of our revenue at risk and said, we only want to get paid when the student is succeeding in school.”
Carlson: Higher ed CAC reaches $6,000 for bachelors, $14,000 for masters
“So the average cost to acquire a student in higher ed is about four to 6000 dollars for a bachelor's degree student, and about 14,000 dollars for a master's degree student.”
Carlson: Direct-to-consumer higher ed struggles with rising Google and Facebook CAC
“Our data shows that schools that are trying to acquire students in a B to C format today are struggling across the board, and I actually think while Lambda's newer to the game, you look at some of the older coding boot camps, they are also struggling as they'r…”
Carlson: Always-on tech culture forces a choice between career and family
“Tech and other high growth companies are making it Really, really hard for people to have both an ambitious career and an ambitious family life because of biological clocks and timing and the complexity of the always on work culture and a number of things.”
Carlson: Hire top executives before getting dogmatic about specific roles or titles
“So I think it's the long-term relationship nurturing with the smartest people you can find, and then making sure you don't get dogmatic about role and title, but instead get the very best people on the bus, and then figure out what role and what teams they sho…”
Carlson: Splitting tech and operational teams in different cities is "bananas"
“And so the starting advice was keep your leadership and your tech team in San Francisco and have everybody else go somewhere else more affordable. But I thought that was bananas because I needed our product team to be constantly working with our coaches to bui…”
Carlson: Early-stage startups win tech talent better in Denver than SF
“So you just have to think about it as a different funnel. So I think in San Francisco, the funnel is very, very wide, but your chance at winning at the bottom of the funnel when you're an early stage company is incredibly hard when you're competing with Google…”
Carlson: Employees trust employers over universities regarding future work skills
“So our data tells us that our students today trust their CEOs and their companies, and we work primarily with fortune 1000 employee bases. They trust their companies more about the future of work and the skills they need to acquire. Then they trust either the …”
Carlson: Walmarts outnumber community colleges within driving distance of Americans
“There are more Walmarts within driving distance of Americans than community colleges.”