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 11 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
Qualtrics raised venture capital to de-risk after rejecting a buyout
“We actually raised venture capital because we turned down an offer, and we wanted to be able to live with ourselves.”
Ryan Smith: Startups should recruit board members with past failures
“Oftentimes, we bring board members in who life's only gone good for, and it's one of our problems in tech, is like, we need to bring people in that, you know, have some battle wounds, and like, maybe there was some successes that happened, but also some things…”
Smith: Capital constraints are a necessary forcing function for startup creativity
“And so I believe that creativity comes from resource construction. You know, you're never clipping coupons if you'got fifty million dollars in your bank account, and I think that that's the necessary forcing function to be able to actually do something great.”
Smith: Building a great enterprise software company takes 10 to 13 years
“I think that You know, most people think to do something great, it's going to take a couple years. And I think those are such outliers. I think for the rest of the world, especially in the enterprise, you know, 10, 1213 years are really what it takes. And I'm …”
Smith: Companies fail from internal politics or scattered external focus
“Companies fail for two reasons. They either get internally focused on each other, Or they get externally focused in a million different directions and can't execute.”
Smith: Workplace conflicts must be discussed with all parties in the room
“One of the things that I believe in is, is, is complete escalation where if someone's talking to me about someone else, we're doing it in the room together.”
Ryan Smith: Tying happiness to company performance makes founders miserable
“If your happiness is tied up in your business, you're never going to be happy because it's nothing but problems, whether it's customer problems, whether it's Employee problems, whether it's just frustration, like, you've got to find happiness outside, and it's…”
Ryan Smith: Giving away equity is irreversible, whereas hiring is reversible
“So if you're giving out equity of your company, it's a one way door. You can't get it back. You know, oftentimes if you're hiring someone, it can be a two way door. If it doesn't work out, you part ways.”
Ryan Smith: Stack family and work commitments into single time blocks
“You'll always see me doubling up everything I do. Like, if I have a meeting that I need to go do, I'll just bring them with me to the next meeting. If I've got to go to a game, I've always got people with me that I was supposed to meet with, and we just do it …”