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 12 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
Turning Off Meta Ads Actually Reduces User Engagement in Some Markets
“There are markets in the world today where I think Meta has run this test, where if you turn off ads, In the, you know, meta family of apps products, engagement in those products actually goes down, which is just, like, freaking wild.”
Facebook Became Consistently Profitable Roughly 18 Months After Founding
“They lost money and not that much money for like a year and a half, and then from that point on, they were just profitable.”
Rosenthal: Facebook's Newsfeed was the invention of the web feed
“They didn't exist. This was the first one. This was the invention of the feed.”
Friendster CEO Tim Koogle blocked Benchmark from investing in Facebook's Series A
“Specifically what happened was Benchmark had invested in Friendster, and so was conflicted out. Now you could argue that was an unavoidable mistake, you know, but like, boy does that hurt. And supposedly, I think it was Bob Kegel who was on the board of Friend…”
Microsoft's $240M Facebook Stake Became Worth $8 Billion Post-IPO
“That two hundred and forty million dollar investment, by the time they start selling it down years after Facebook is public, ends up being worth eight billion dollars.”
Rosenthal: Facebook was potentially the first startup with an open office plan
“I think Facebook was potentially maybe the first company, first startup, to have an open office plan.”
Benchmark returned Fund VI entirely from Facebook's acquisition of Instagram
“I mean, they returned the fund on the investment, but, like, with the sale to Facebook.”
Rosenthal: Facebook was the sixth most-trafficked website globally in May 2007
“It is the sixth highest trafficked site in the world, and they're announcing to all the developers in attendance, Facebook API, Facebook Graph is now open to you.”
Gilbert: Original 'Facebook Guy' Header Image Was J. Geils Band Singer Peter Wolf
“There's a great Quora post about this where there's unmistakably the photo of Peter Wolf that Facebook guy is based on. They just sort of pixelated it and You know, made it duotone instead of the original photograph.”
Rosenthal: Facebook daily user additions surged to 70k post-OpenReg
“So over the summer, Facebook was adding, like, five to 10,000 users a day. By late fall after launching open registration, they're now adding 70,000 users a day.”