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 9 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
Janeway: Low launch costs make spray-and-pray seed investing rational
“This means, on the one hand, a step function increase in the number of startups, in the number of Darwinian hopeful monsters. Most of which will fail. Most of which will fail Pretty fast, and without costing an enormous amount of money, so that at the front en…”
Janeway: Cash and control are the only hedge against startup uncertainty
“The central theme of the whole first half of my book is that there's only one way to hedge against uncertainty in venture startups. You don't have credit default swaps. You know, you don't have instruments that you can buy to hedge your position. It's two word…”
Janeway: Venture capital functions as distributed R&D for incumbent corporations
“Well, what I'm saying is that because getting public is so difficult and so rare for venture-backed tech companies that, practically speaking, we should be thinking about that what we're doing is funding distributed research and development for big companies.”
Janeway: VC funding fundamental science instead of technology commercialization is dangerous
“I mean funding science. Rather than funding, funding the commercialization of technology and finding commercially valuable new innovative applications of technology.”
Janeway: Speculative tech bubbles are necessary to finance major new infrastructure
“Bubbles are banal, but every once in a while, they're not only necessary, they're productive, because they bring together the magnitude of capital you need to build out the new network infrastructure and to finance the exploration of the new economic space tha…”
Janeway: Positive cash flow frees founders from capital market dependence
“Positive cash flow from operations means that you, the entrepreneur, the venture capitalist, Own options. You own the options about whether to sell or not sell, whether to raise more money or not raise more money. You're not a prisoner of the capital markets.”