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 15 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
Marini: Angels must make 30 investments before they know what they're doing
“If you're serious about becoming an angel investor, you're going to need to do probably 30 investments before you really know what you're doing.”
Marini: Silicon Valley is far more open and collaborative than Boston
“I'm originally from the Boston area, and anytime somebody wants to talk about their idea, they want you to sign an NDA, and you know, they're really secretive and closed, and when I came to Silicon Valley back in 2000, it was so different. You know, sign NDAs,…”
Marini: Acqui-hires prioritize employee retention, leaving early investors with pennies
“In an acqui-hire, the acquiring company, they don't care about the investors, right? They only care about retaining the employees. Therefore any kind of cash compensation that's going towards the acquisition is going to be earmarked for the employees, and the …”
Marini: Silicon Valley turned on Color after its pre-launch $40M Series A
“They raised, like, a forty million dollar Series A, and Silicon Valley turned on them before they even launched.”
Marini: Demonstrating pre-investment value motivates founders to include investors
“So for me, I would rather prove out my expertise to an entrepreneur. I would rather contribute to the ecosystem. And hope that they see that value, and instead of cutting me out of a deal, they're more motivated to bring me in.”
Marini: Angels should review 300 to 600 companies to make 30 investments
“If you're going to do 30 investments, you should probably have a investment rate of, let's say, five to 10%, which means you should see 300 to 600 companies if you're investing at five to five to 10% acceptance rate before you hit 30 companies.”
Marini: 85% of startups fail
“Most, you know, 85% of startups fail, and you can't say yes every time, or you'll go bankrupt.”
Marini: Network effect market leaders capture 85% to 90% of sector value
“Often in markets, you'll see the number one company accrue 85 to 90% of the value, and then the next company, especially network effect companies and then the next company might get five or 10%, the number two, and then the long tail shares the last five or 10…”
Series A VCs Typically Require 10% to 15% Employee Option Pools
“Typically, the VC is going to require a 10 to 15% option pool for the employees, which makes sense, but usually the angel investor is getting squeezed by that as well.”
Founders Only Fight for Angels Who Provide Value Beyond Capital
“But the entrepreneur has to go to bat for you. Which means you have to add value along the way. You can't just write a small check and go away and expect that the entrepreneur is going to go to bat with you with a new investor.”
Rick Marini Insists on Single-Digit Million Valuations for Seed Deals
“I've tried to stay disciplined for seed investing. I'm almost always going to be single digit millions for the valuation.”
Marini: Getting Great Investors Outweighs Optimizing Seed Valuations
“It's far more important for an entrepreneur to get great people around the table, people that can help them raise a series A. People have a certain domain experience and expertise that they can bring. To me, it's far more important to bring people around the t…”
Marini: Uber and Lyft valuations perfectly illustrate the 90/10 market value rule
“If you were an angel in Lyft, you're still very happy if they're worth, you know, roughly five billion. But you really want to be an Uber who's worth over sixty billion. Right. And that math actually, you know, kind of works out to that kind of 85, 10, and fiv…”