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
Schneider: Remote software development teams will outcompete centralized teams
“And I believe that if you work on something that can be done by a remote team, software development being a prime example, That team will win because you have access to a global talent pool, and you have people who are happy and empowered because they get to w…”
Schneider: True Ventures passed on Instagram before its pivot
“So for example, we looked at Instagram really early and it was literally a different product with a different name and we passed on it and then they later pivoted to Instagram. But by then it was too late for us to invest.”
Schneider: Predicting successful startup pivots is impossible
“So now a successful pivot is impossible to predict and, you know, be a lousy investment strategy.”
Schneider: Fully distributed organizations outperform centralized companies with remote teams
“They try to build a centralized company with some remote teams instead of going all in and building a fully distributed company, which I just think is a better approach, and I advise every company I work with to at least consider that model.”
Schneider: Conventional wisdom views decarbonization as a poor VC fit
“Right now, I'm learning or trying to learn about decarbonization to see if there's a seed stage investment opportunity in that space, and it's been challenging because it's a totally new area for me, and also the conventional wisdom is that it's not a good pla…”
Schneider: Automattic experience represents only 25% of investment approach
“Even though my automatic experience is probably only a small part of my investment approach today, you know, maybe 25%, the rest is really based on being part of the team at True, and like I said before, we're a very collaborative group, and we're committed to…”
Schneider: True Ventures gets up to two years with early product-focused founders
“I don't really feel like it's that compressed, to be honest. I mean, it does, you know, when a startup takes off, it does move quickly, but I feel like we get involved so early. We actually have a good amount of time on that first year or two when it's just pe…”
Schneider: Automattic selected only 3-4 monthly priorities from 30+ potential tasks
“Matt and I always kept a running list of all the things we wanted to work on, or maybe should be working on at some point, and Usually had like dirty or 40 things on it, probably even more because there's a lot of growth and a lot of ideas everywhere. And then…”
Schneider: Single-list task prioritization scales up to 100 employees
“I think it definitely scales. I mean, you can get to, you know, maybe 50 to a hundred people, where you can almost keep that just one list approach, and then you scale it by spreading across your management team and different parts of your business and making …”
Schneider: Remote teams must meet in person at least twice yearly
“In automatic experience, I think once or twice a year for a team is enough to Get together, but you have to do that, and you can't slack off on it.”
Schneider praises Ellen Pao as a thoughtful, high-impact board member
“One example of a strong board member who has been a pleasure to work with for me is Ellen Pau from Project Include. I sit on a board with her in a diversity data analytics company called Typica, and Ellen has been very thoughtful and high impact, and she's som…”
Schneider balanced VC partner and Automattic CEO roles for eight years
“It was actually eight years of doing both of those jobs.”
Schneider: James Freeman spent 10 years perfecting Blue Bottle's experience
“Take, for example, James Freeman from Blue Bottle Coffee. He went super deep into every detail of creating a great coffee experience. The origin of the coffee beans, the experience of walking into a cafe, the smell, the weight, the preparation of the drink, th…”
Schneider: True Ventures' three recent major exits were outside Silicon Valley
“If you look at the True Ventures portfolio, we had three very big exits over the last two years. Ring.com to Amazon, Duo Security to Cisco, and most recently, the Peloton IPO. Now, these three companies have one intriguing thing in common. They were all built …”