why aren't all 13 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
Insight
Levine: Venture capital is fundamentally an unscalable business
“Venture capital is not a scalable business by any stretch of the imagination.”
Prediction Partly held up
Levine: Foundry Group will cap all future funds at $225M
“We knew that that was going to be the number for the rest of our time as investors, because we'd always said in our fundraising process that we were going to raise a series of funds. They were all going to look exactly the same and in terms of dollar size. And…”
Opinion
Levine: Silicon Valley location is not required for top VC deal flow
“No, unequivocally no, and I think, I hope Foundry would serve as a case study that that's not the case.”
Opinion
Levine: Monthly board meetings chew up valuable time for startups
“When you have too much time on your hands and maybe a little bit too much proximity in some cases to your investments as a venture capitalist, you have a tendency to feel like you're doing a lot of good by, you know, swinging by for a day, for example, or hold…”
Insight
Levine: Financial independence makes founders more passionate, not less
“We sometimes talk about entrepreneurs who've had, you know, had their first win, and maybe they're not as worried about, you know, buying that house that they want, or, you know, the ability to send their kids to college. And in a lot of cases, they become eve…”
Opinion
Levine: AngelList syndicates enhance the traditional VC model
“No, I think that they enhance the traditional VC model, and it's great to see, I talked about the democratization of entrepreneurship, I'm equally excited and passionate about the democratization of capital.”
Disclosure
Levine: Foundry Group allocates only one-third of investments to California
“Only about a third of our investing has been in California. A third has been in, in Colorado, and a third has been spread really across the rest of the US which is our investment, you know, target market, the full US market.”
Assertion Supported
Levine: Foundry Group operates with zero analysts or associates
“We, all the partners do their own work. We don't have any analysts or associates.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Levine: Enterprise software will be rebuilt for small businesses
“There are a lot of technologies that can That have been built for larger businesses that now can be rebuilt for smaller businesses and really impact the U S economy and small businesses and the proprietors of those businesses, their lives in a positive way.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Levine: Brad Feld was the top performer at Mobius Venture Capital
“Brad, of course, had been really the top performer at Mobius and so he was integral in that process”
Disclosure
Levine invested his entire life savings to launch Foundry Group
“I'd really, I mean, it truly had put up my entire life savings to back my portion of the startup cost for Foundry.”
Assertion Supported
Levine: Over 30% of web traffic is ad-blocked in some countries
“My most recent investment is a company called SourcePoint, which is helping publishers around the web deal with the fact that 30% or more in some countries that their traffic is ad blocked.”
Disclosure
Slack and Voxer are Foundry Group's top tools after email
“Slack and Voxer, for example, probably the two most used pieces of technology inside of Foundry after email.”