Mike Smith

Everything Mike Smith said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.

a16z Prediction Didn’t hold up

Smith: Amazon will restrict same-day delivery to groceries and next-day elsewhere

“I don't buy that there's a lot of product demand for same day. I think that Amazon will do same day for grocery because it makes sense on fresh. I don't, I believe they'll do next day on everything else.”

Mike Smith Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 41:25 a16z Podcast | Where's My Stuff? -- The Lowdown on Logistics and Ops

CAPITAL ALLOCATORS Insight

Smith: VC firms operate like golf teams rather than true team sports

“On a good day, I think venture firms on their best day Our golf teams, like individuals shooting their best score, their lowest score, and adding them up at the end. We really think about our team and our approach more like a basketball team or a soccer team, …”

Mike Smith Sep 23, 2021 ▶ 32:00 Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)

CAPITAL ALLOCATORS Insight

Smith: The best founders master all three financial statements

“The best founders, I think, just know like all three financial statements and can talk really intelligently about how their business needs to scale and what capital is required to scale their business.”

Mike Smith Sep 23, 2021 ▶ 26:56 Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)

a16z Disclosure

Smith: Stitch Fix builds custom software because off-the-shelf tools fail

“I don't have, we're building it all ourselves, and so we use Zendesk for customer service but I'd say that the tie-ins to Zendesk are very proprietary in terms of, like, how tickets how we think about tickets related to customer segmentation, or how we think a…”

Mike Smith Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 50:42 a16z Podcast | Where's My Stuff? -- The Lowdown on Logistics and Ops

a16z Disclosure

Smith: Stitch Fix caps fulfillment volume using inventory, styling, and warehouse limits

“At Stitch Fix, ah, we try to have quality be the foundation, and the three constraints being quality of inventory, how many stylists can pick the five things after the algorithm runs, and ops capacity, And that drives what we actually do.”

Mike Smith Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 55:31 a16z Podcast | Where's My Stuff? -- The Lowdown on Logistics and Ops

CAPITAL ALLOCATORS Assertion Not checkable as stated

Smith: Footwork was ~2x oversubscribed on Fund I by early March 2021

“We felt very fortunate to be in a position in early March of being, call it, two X oversubscribed our target.”

Mike Smith Sep 23, 2021 ▶ 35:04 Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)

CAPITAL ALLOCATORS Disclosure

Smith: Footwork raised Fund I without meeting most LPs in person

“Most of the LPs we did not meet in person during this process”

Mike Smith Sep 23, 2021 ▶ 37:26 Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)

a16z Assertion Not publicly verifiable

Smith: Stitch Fix scaled warehouse space from 500 to 450,000 square feet

“When I first started at the company, ah, we did pick, pack, and ship out of 505 hundred square feet. Which was half of our office. Then two months later we moved to a thousand square feet. Then two months after that, we moved to 9000 square feet, and now we're…”

Mike Smith Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 2:58 a16z Podcast | Where's My Stuff? -- The Lowdown on Logistics and Ops

a16z Assertion Not checkable as stated

Smith: Walmart.com had at least eight management layers above warehouse staff

“The, you know, sort of warehouse staff at walmart.com versus where I was in my position, there was at least eight layers”

Mike Smith Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 11:37 a16z Podcast | Where's My Stuff? -- The Lowdown on Logistics and Ops

a16z Assertion Supported

Smith: Stitch Fix hired a Chief Operating Officer as its fourth employee

“Katrina, the founder, and sort of the investor's early stage, said, this needs to be a core competency, because we're sending stuff out and getting stuff back, and I mean, it's shocking to me now, and I'm very grateful that they sort of hired a COO as employee…”

Mike Smith Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 22:15 a16z Podcast | Where's My Stuff? -- The Lowdown on Logistics and Ops

CAPITAL ALLOCATORS Assertion Supported

Smith: Stitch Fix scaled to 10,000 employees and $2B in revenue

“The specific seat I got to sit in at Stitch Fix, taking the company from five people to 10,000 people from basically zero revenue to two billion.”

Mike Smith Sep 23, 2021 ▶ 13:27 Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)

CAPITAL ALLOCATORS Disclosure

Smith: Footwork assigns one GP as director and the other as observer

“And so the way we work organically is one of us will take the board seat and the other one will be a board observer.”

Mike Smith Sep 23, 2021 ▶ 17:30 Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)

The other half of the tape: Mike Smith's own voice is left out of every number here. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Statements about Mike Smith, by other people (2)

HOW I BUILT THIS Prediction Not checkable as stated

Rising Import Costs Will Allow Custom Woodworkers to Profitably Raise Prices

“The prices of goods from abroad are going up. So I'm optimistic that Mike's going to be able to raise his prices and find a path.”

Jon Stein Feb 5, 2026 ▶ 31:12 Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment

CAPITAL ALLOCATORS Assertion Supported

Trivedi: Footwork closed debut venture fund at $175M in April 2021

“That culminated in our decision last fall to go build Footwork together, to start to speak to limited partners, and then in January of 2021, Mike left Stitch Fix, and in April we closed our first fund with one hundred and seventy five million in commitments an…”

Nikhil Basu Trivedi Sep 23, 2021 ▶ 16:05 Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)

One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Mike's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.

Show	Role there	Eps	Statements	Record
a16zLEDGER	Co-Founder and General Partner, Footwork	1	6	50% 1/2	full record on the a16z Podcast →
CAPITAL ALLOCATORSLEDGER	Co-Founder and General Partner, Footwork	1	6	100% 1/1	full record on Capital Allocators →
HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER	Co-Founder and General Partner, Footwork	1	0	—	full record on How I Built This →