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 94 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
Sanchez struggles to find women founders building sufficiently large businesses
“I actively look for women to invest in, and I have a really hard time finding women who are building big enough businesses.”
Sanchez: Fired podcast vendor who refused to work on Joe Lonsdale episode
“So, Joe Lonsdale was gonna come on the show, and we had a vendor that was working on our podcast. They do some, what's called pre-production stuff, like come up with thumbnails or their interesting tidbits on the internet. And this young gentleman reached out,…”
Sanchez: Applicants must complete unpaid audition projects to prove authentic interest
“Now we make everybody do a creative project, and I don't like to pay people for it, not because of the expense. I don't like to pay people because I want to know how they feel about Doing work with us. Are they really interested? Or are they merely kind of cur…”
Sanchez: Passed on early Robinhood investment over gamification concerns
“I remember back in the day, I had a chance to invest in Robinhood when it was, like, super, super early on, and I'm an idiot, and I didn't, but the reason why I didn't, I actually kind of stand by, which is that I really don't think you should gamify Stock mar…”
Sanchez: Feedback at Contrarian Thinking is Delivered in Groups, Not One-on-Ones
“Any feedback I have to give goes to those two groups as opposed to one-on-ones. I do not do one-on-ones.”
Sanchez: San Diego is where young people go to retire
“We would never have an office there and we would never live there full time because We call it the place where young people go to retire.”
Sanchez uses real-time AI objection coaching to level up sales reps
“We take all the data from Avoma and actually feed it into something that in real time can give you feedback on these objections. And it sort of voice triggers based on what you say on the phone call. It's been a game changer, especially for, we had an underper…”
Sanchez: My company's strict rule is to learn AI or leave
“In my company, the rule is learn AI or move on.”
Sanchez attended a private meeting vetting US governors for presidential runs
“I sat in a room where these couple of guys literally brought in governors from different states, sat the governors down, listened to the governors get peppered with questions, And then in the end, they circled around. I don't know why they let me in here, you …”
Sanchez: Employees saying "not my job" or "can't do that" get fired
“And I like kind of proactively will say to the team, if you ever say like, we can't do that, or that's not my job, like you're fired.”
Sanchez enforces three strict governance rules on every acquisition deal
“Whenever I do a deal, I make sure three things are true. One, that there is no personal relation between the people on the cap table, the bank, and the accounting firm from my founders. We gotta make, it turned out he had like, 47 cousins, they were all involv…”
Sanchez prefers executing business deals with founders in long-term relationships
“In fact, when I do business deals, I like to see people that can have a longterm partner because at least that guy can tolerate them.”
Sanchez: I passed on investing in Robinhood because it harms society
“I had a chance to invest in Robinhood way back in the day, but I'm glad I didn't, because that is one platform that I actually do not think is better for society. I think it is worse.”
Sanchez: Kirchner nationalized industry and outlawed my Argentina investment business overnight
“We got pushed out of Argentina entirely when Cristina Fernandez came in, took over, nationalized all industry, and actually made my business illegal, which was, all we did was, we have international investments, and so if you want to invest outside of Argentin…”
Sanchez: We screen job candidates' Twitter replies and reject negative trolls
“We started running the screen when we hire people, which is that we look at their Twitter replies. And what we found, I don't know if it's dark triad or not, but if it's largely negative, And trolling or hateful comments. There's a high correlation between the…”
Sanchez: Founders' spouses must sign away business rights before I invest
“I always make the partners
Of the founders that I invest in and the founders or investors in a fund, usually their partner needs to sign documentation to waiving their rights to the business.”
Sanchez: Her blue-collar workers out-earn average marketing degree holders
“And I can say this firsthand, we have plumbing companies and landscaping companies and boring blue collar service businesses where the guys make way more. Than the average marketing degree.”
Sanchez: Employees Must Attempt Direct Peer Resolution Before Escalating Conflicts
“If you guys talk to each other and you can't work it out and you are doing it direct, then you can bring it to me. But if you are not even having a conversation, I don't want to hear about it because all you're teaching me is that you're not good enough or str…”
Sanchez rejected a senior job candidate for submitting an obvious ChatGPT brief
“Guy must have gone to ChatGPT, you know, listed out a few questions, and wrote me the most obvious AI ChatGPT brief of all time. And because of that, didn't get the job.”
Sanchez mandates access to every Slack channel across her companies
“I have access to every Slack channel across my companies. It's a mandate.”
Sanchez: 90% of day-one employees left as companies tripled annually
“We found in our companies, we about triple every year. And that's crazy, by the way. Well, we've only been in business for like, you know, four years, but I think that originally used to freak me out. And I'd be like, my people who are here from my first day, …”
Sanchez: Refuses outside investors to retain permanent business control
“Somebody was asking me the other day... Why haven't you taken investors?... And I said, cause you got to pull this thing out of my cold dead fingers.”
Sanchez restricts investing strictly to her business, mutual funds, and private equity
“I literally only have three investments I worry about. That's it. My business, mutual funds, and equity and private businesses. I don't do single stocks. I don't mess around with gold. I don't try to speculate on Bitcoin”
Sanchez Bans Executives From Emotional Cussing at Her Companies
“Executives at my companies, they don't cuss emotionally. So if you need to take a minute and stand outside until you can emotionally re-regulate, that's perfectly fine, and come back in. But we don't do angry cussing at the executive level.”
Sanchez: Every hire who badmouthed a past employer failed
“I always say if, like, the person you were gonna hire, if you ask them, like, tell me what happened in your last job. Like, why did you leave? Why did you choose to move on? If they start going negative, the company was terrible, the boss was awful, everything…”
Codie Sanchez Enforces Age and Weight Minimums When Hiring Nannies
“And my two main rules are, I have age and weight minimums, and they're pretty high.”
Sanchez: Placed vending machines in multiple locations without paying rent
“Like we did this whole experiment with vending machines where we put vending machines in a bunch of different locations. And then we did videos about them and shared the numbers. And everybody was like, you left out the rent. I'm like, I didn't pay rent.”
Codie Sanchez: I have never lost money for other investors
“I have never lost money for other people, which is always, like, kind of the line that freaks me out, you know, and that's probably a bad thing in some ways, I should probably get more comfortable with losing.”
Sanchez aims to build a multi-billion dollar Bloomberg competitor
“I want this business to be a multi-billion dollar media and investment firm. I want it to be like the Bloomberg plus CNBC plus like the trusted investment firm of our generation.”
Sanchez uses media content to source deal flow and institutional investors
“We have, ah, Contrarian Thinking Capital, our venture capital firm, where we let some large institutional investors come in and invest alongside us. So from the content, I get deal flow. I get investors, and I get to fulfill our mission. That's our flywheel.”
Sanchez: Adverse regulatory shifts killed four of her past businesses
“I had a business in Argentina, business folded. I had a business in money markets. Change one regulation made the company unprofitable. I had a business in Brazil. The 51% owner, because you have to have that locally there, took over the small business through…”
Sanchez tells her employees their exact phrasing dictates their pay level
“I get on our Monday morning meeting and I say, hey, by the way, guys, if you say these sorts of lines, you get paid this sort of level. If you say these sorts of line, you'll get paid that sort of level.”
Sanchez lists 22 portfolio businesses, but directly operates only one
“You can see them all on Main Street Holding Company. You know, I think there's like 22 listed on there, and I only run really one.”
Sanchez: Most portfolio companies review pricing every three months
“Inflation is the benchmark, but most of my portfolio companies are on a three-month rotation. So every single three months, we look at the right pricing.”
Sanchez: Company rule prohibits employees from ever speaking badly about customers
“We have a rule at our company that you're never allowed to talk badly about a customer ever.”
Sanchez: Pushed out of two firms for outshining superiors
“I was pushed out of two companies before. And both times, it's because I violated rule number one.”
Sanchez: Employees must wait a full year before discussing equity opportunities
“Every single employee at my companies will have an ability to earn in or invest into one of our companies, but they don't get it for an entire year. So your entire first year here, we're not even talking about it.”
Codie Sanchez Refuses to Buy Team Food or Coffee from Big Corporations
“I'll buy any of their food that they want, you know, while they're at the office working or whatever coffee you know, lunch, whatever, but not from a big corporation. I'm like, if you want a coffee, it's not from Starbucks. It's from the local coffee shop.”
Sanchez: Employees must leave meetings if they are not adding value
“Now, at our companies, I say, if you're not relevant, leave. If you don't send a brief, start. How can we waste less time?”
Sanchez: Loving Tim Grover's 'Relentless' predicts employee fit at her companies
“Tim wrote a book called Relentless, and I think it's a really good screen. If people love that book, they're gonna like working in my companies. If they don't, they're not.”
Sanchez: Turning down $100M to avoid building institutional small business rollups
“It is very alluring when people call you and say, hey, do you want a hundred million dollars to go invest in all these small businesses? And instead I got to kind of check myself because I do have an ego and I do think I'm kind of good at this and say like, ac…”
Sanchez: She would not invest personal capital in car-free neighborhood developments
“I wouldn't bet against those guys. They're much smarter than I am at those firms, but probably wouldn't be something I'd put my own money in.”
Sanchez: Copycats have turned my creator business into hand-to-hand combat
“In my business, at least right now, I'm thinking in lots of different ways, God, I just feel like we're hand-to-hand combat. We're just like fighting against all these other people who are trying to do something just like us. They copied us in some way, and th…”
Sanchez: Raised $5M for business marketplace BizScout
“We've, we have one business that we raise for now BizScout, which is our business buying and selling marketplace. We didn't raise that much, five million bucks.”