Ashton Kutcher
Co-Founder and General Partner, Sound Ventures. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorentertainerfounder@aplusk ↗soundventures.com ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗
He is a tech investor who co-founded A-Grade Investments and Sound Ventures, backing companies including Airbnb, Spotify, Uber, and GitLab. He is also an actor and co-founder of the child protection organization Thorn.
2shows
2appearances
29statements
4resolved
4supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
22said about them ↓ Everything Ashton Kutcher said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Kutcher warns China could use TikTok to undermine US naval support.
“If I'm China and I want to create a problem in in in that area of the world specifically a Naval problem in that area of the world. I, in the South China sea, I would probably want to utilize TikTok in order to influence the minds of Americans in a anti-US pro…”
Kutcher argues architecture exists to bypass end-to-end encryption for CSAM.
“I think people need to realize and recognize that end to end encryption is great and valuable, but there's no reason why we can't create a carve out for this. And the architecture exists to create a carve out for this.”
Kutcher: Traditional VC fund ownership demands are becoming increasingly egregious
“A lot of funds have these mandates about How much of a company they need to own to make the investment of value to them, and oftentimes I see those ownership percentages becoming, especially now, just becoming more and more egregious, where funds want to own a…”
Kutcher predicts many celebrity investors entering venture capital will lose money
“I think a lot of people are going to lose money.”
Kutcher argues social networks must attach reputation scores to individual posts.
“I fundamentally believe that what we need more than anything is a social network that has a reputation score attached to every single post that an individual puts out in the world so that people will actually think about what it is that they're sharing and say…”
Kutcher Sees Promise in Decentralized Social Networks with Token Reputation
“I think that there's some promise in the decentralized social networks that are being built, where there's actual currency that's associated with every post that people are putting out. And I think that that currency could start to represent a reputation score…”
Kutcher: Future internet builders are perpetually young college graduates
“I believe that the people who are creating the future of the internet are perpetually young. They're coming out of college. They're seeing what's on the fringe of technology and capability.”
Kutcher sources deals by asking Twitter followers for home screen screenshots
“And I've actually like solicited my entire Twitter audience at times. Like, Hey, can you send me a snapshot of your home screen? I'd like to see what you're using, you know? And then I just run pattern recognition across thousands or hundreds of home screens. …”
Kutcher: Sound Ventures faces no direct competition from other VC funds
“I don't think there are other competitive VC funds to us. And it's why other very big VC funds love to work with us and love having us on the cap table to help the companies that they're investing in.”
Kutcher: I do not personally track Sound Ventures' investment returns
“We have folks in our team that are, it's their job to track the returns. I've never been one to track returns.”
Kutcher says his organization Thorn has identified 20,000 sexually exploited children.
“And to date, I don't have the exact numbers. I know that we've identified over 20,000 kids that are being sexually exploited.”
Kutcher: Thorn Locates Eight Kids Daily Across Five Partner Companies
“And right now with our tool, we're finding eight kids a day. Which is like, and we are only in like five companies that are utilizing our tool.”
Kutcher: Broken Foster Care Drives Incarceration, Trafficking, and Dropouts
“It's a wellspring for incarceration. It's a wellspring for human trafficking. It's a wellspring for child sexual exploitation. It's a wellspring for high school dropouts. It's a wellspring for early pregnancy.”
Kutcher: Fatherhood expands an investor's consumer understanding through empathy
“When you have children, you have more than one head because you have such Empathy for those individuals. You have their lens as well, which gives you a broader scope of interest, investigation, compassion, and a broader scope for consumers that you otherwise w…”
Kutcher: Distance traveled is a better founder metric than past hardship
“So if you look at where somebody came from and where they've gotten to, that is the more important metric than what's the hardest thing that you've persevered through.”
Kutcher: Showing vulnerability encourages founders to drop their public personas
“If you're willing to be vulnerable with someone, they then open up and realize they see your humanity as opposed to the image of who they think you are.”
Kutcher lived exclusively in Airbnbs for six months after investing
“Like when I invested in Airbnb, I went and lived in Airbnbs for six months.”
Kutcher demands to use a startup's product before investing
“Before I invest in a company, I usually demand to use the product unless it's a product that I can't fundamentally use.”
Kutcher: Good product design simplifies the path to user desires
“Fundamentally at the end of the day, being good at product, Is understanding what people want and then simplifying their path to get there.”
Kutcher: Narrative drives startup mission, sales organization, and crisis management
“Being able to tell the story of your company, that is the narrative of your company, which is also the mission statement of your company, which also will dictate the sales org within your company, which also will dictate how you behave when chaos happens aroun…”
Kutcher: Sound Ventures does not take board seats or demand high ownership
“One of the things that we just haven't historically done is we don't take board seats. We don't demand an egregious check size.”
Kutcher mandates his team spends 40% of their time helping portfolio companies
“So the thing I'm constantly pressing on my team is let's make sure that we're proportionately spending enough time adding value to companies relative to looking for the next deal. And you should look at your day and really break down your day and go, am I at l…”
Kutcher: Thorn's Spotlight tool is used across all 50 US states
“So we have one tool called spotlight that is used by in all of the states and law enforcement around the world to help identify trafficking victims and collaborate on caseload and prioritize caseload so that they can find the children first.”
The other half of the tape: Ashton Kutcher's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 20 times in 14 episodes across the shows. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 14Joe Lonsdale 2Rep. Ro Khanna 1Eddy Lu 1Arlan Hamilton 1Alex Pall 1
Statements about Ashton Kutcher, by other people (2)
Braun: Ashton Kutcher Quickly Eases Founder Nervousness in Pitch Meetings
“So while they might come in nervous because they're in front of the superstar Ashton Kutcher, I argue that he is so down to earth and good at what he does that he can fix that very, very quickly and bring the best out of people because he brings the best out o…”
Harry Stebbings: Calm has raised over $143 million from top investors
“To date, the company's raised over a hundred and forty three million dollars in financing from some of the best, including Lightspeed, Insight, TPG, and then some very cool names, including Ashton Kutcher, Harry Styles, Brad Feld, and Jason Calicanis.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 17
American Optimist 3
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2023 8 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
- Scooter Braun on Being Enough, Insecurity, Wealth, Investing, Fame, Marriage and Much More | E1002 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Emad Mostaque: These 5 Companies Will Win the AI War; Why We Need National Data Sets | E1015 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- How John Mack Saved Morgan Stanley & Transformed Wall Street · Joe Lonsdale
- every mention in 2023, scene by scene →
2022 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 4 mentions in 4 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Arlan Hamilton: "We Have Come For Cake, Not The Crumbs", Arlan's Plan To Return $1Bn in 10 Years, Why Arlan Plans To Giveaway or Invest 90% of Her Wealth & What The LP Class Can Do To Ensure More Under-Represented Managers Get Funded
- 20VC: The Chainsmokers on Raising Their First $35M Fund and Entering The World of Venture, Dealing with Vulnerability and Insecurity Today & How Music and Venture Compare; The Similarities and Differences
- 20VC: Calm Founder Alex Tew on What It Takes To Build Viral Products Today, The Current State of Customer Acquisition Costs, What Makes The Best Brands
- 20VC: How Founders Should Think Through Distribution and Customer Acquisition Today, The Challenges of the Digital Advertising Duopoly Currently & How To Structure Company Post Mortems Effectively with Gabriel Weinberg, Founder & CEO @ DuckDuckGo
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
2019 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 2 mentions in 1 episode
2017 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Duolingo's Luis von Ahn on How CEO's Can Scale With The Company, How VC Herd Mentality In The Valley Really Works and How Chatbots & AI Play A Role In The Future of EdTech
- 20VC: If You Do Not Like VCs, You Have Not Worked With a Good One, How Andreesen Have Added The Same Level of Value As A Co-Founder, Why Market Is The First Thing To Consider When Angel Investing & Why Series A Is A Hiring Decision with Roger Dickey, Foun
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Ashton's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Co-Founder and General Partner, Sound Ventures | 1 | 20 | — | full record on 20VC → |
| AMERICAN OPTIMISTLEDGER | Co-Founder and General Partner, Sound Ventures | 1 | 9 | 100% 4/4 | full record on American Optimist → |