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 17 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
Overpaying 20-30% on seed valuations has minimal impact on fund returns
“If we're wrong by 20 or 30% on price in a seed in a series A company, it doesn't matter that much. If we're off by 50% on price, it does matter. And a hundred percent of price matters more.”
VCs must proactively issue term sheets instead of waiting for fundraises
“So you can't reactively wait for someone to raise their hand and say they're raising. You have to proactively be focused on the best companies and the best entrepreneurs, and basically proactively kick off a financing process by putting out a term sheet or bei…”
Venture capital will not lose its artisanal, craftsman approach
“I don't think we're going to lose it because there's folks like you or I who really treasure that, and they really view working with an entrepreneur as a partnership and not being, especially at the earliest stages, solely driven by quantitative and being data…”
Capital oversupply is depressing returns across all asset classes
“So as you're looking at a decade of a bull market, if you're looking at historically low interest rates across the board, and therefore a flight from fixed income, everything else is basically overcapitalized, and it's really depressing returns across all asse…”
VC reserve capital should target winners rather than downside protection
“Although you want to reserve some for downside protection, those dollars aren't really as valuable as opposed to making sure that your true winners, you're able to put dollars behind.”
Negative sentiment makes now a great time to invest in consumer tech
“I don't think so. I think that I would say enough people are down on consumer now. It's a good time to be contrarian on consumer.”
Snap and Pinterest broke Google and Facebook's acquisition duopoly
“I think Snap and Pinterest have kind of broken through that duopoly, and therefore there's some heterogeneous ways to acquire customers, but not as many as you'd hope.”
Hubble holds online private-label contact lens exclusivity in most markets
“For example, Hubble has a proprietary back end. They have a exclusive ability to sell Private label contact lenses on the internet in most countries. And by being able to do that, you're not competing with Harry and Rick's contact lens company. You're not comp…”
Cheap, unlimited capital allowed Uber and Lyft to take bigger risks
“So Uber and Lyft basically had an infinite financing pool, and they had a very cheap cost of capital. Therefore, they were able to experiment more and push themselves more out on the risk curve.”
Venture capital has transitioned from an artisan business to buyout-style structures
“It's gone from being an artisan business on the whole to being a structured business that looks more like a buyout group.”
Board members dilute their influence by talking too much during meetings
“I think what I was able to learn from them is talk less. So you might have an opinion on a lot of things, or, you know, maybe even if you're younger, an opinion on most things, but you're diluting your own voice by talking so much or opining on so much.”
Startup boards function best with short, issue-focused meetings
“There were also very short board meetings, you were constantly thinking and helping the company think through its meatiest issues. That's, I would say, the highest way a board can function with the company.”
New York has become the second-largest venture capital market globally
“New York was not a venture leader. It's quickly become second biggest venture market in the world.”
FirstMark re-evaluates portfolio board time allocation bi-annually
“So we go through, and my partners and I think about on a biannual basis, where are you spending your time on boards, and how do you prioritize your boards, and how do you prioritize the companies in the portfolio, and that's not a purely quantitative exercise.”
FirstMark Capital led the seed round for Pinterest
“We were excited to be the lead investor in the seed round for Pinterest.”
Pinterest's early seed extension round went unfilled and open to anyone
“Pinterest actually had a Seed extension round that wasn't even completely filled out. So, you know, there was a round very early on at Pinterest where anybody could have invested.”
Board decisions about headcount and expense cuts demand deep founder empathy
“Well, I think there's probably two things in that you don't really understand. And I was not a operator before when I was first in BC and then became an entrepreneur that you want, you understand that you have to have a deep empathy for entrepreneurs, right? W…”