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 6 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
Fenton: Well-executed bad ideas are dangerous because investors keep funding them
“It turns out that a bad idea well executed is a problem because then you give it more money. Or a good idea, poorly executed, well, that hurts because you think, oh, I mean, we can think of companies like Friendster and think, oh, but the bad idea of poorly ex…”
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…”
Benchmark Passed on Facebook Due to a Conflict With Friendster
“Which is what tied their hands and why they could not pursue an investment in Facebook.”
Rosenthal: Friendster had over 3 million users by late summer 2003
“And by the end of the summer in 2003, Friendster had over three million users.”
Segmenting by School Solved Friendster's Server-Crashing n-Squared Problem
“Friendsters out there trying to compute second degree friends of friends, which is this crazy hard computer science problem, especially as the global number of people growing, it's an n squared problem. And Facebook is over here, or the Facebook at the time, i…”
Gilbert: Facebook's Early Differentiator Was Authentic University-Verified Identity
“And that's what makes it different than all these other social networks. Myspace existed. Friendster existed. But anyone could sign up for these. And in part, that meant that they had more explosive growth, because there was no governor on the growth. And we'l…”