Assertion Partly supported
Housenbold: SoftBank made roughly $12 billion in profit on DoorDash
“So for example, I put roughly six hundred million dollars into DoorDash and got a 17 or 18 X. My dear friend Pagemon at Pear put two million in and got like a 300 X. But the quantum of dollars, we made about twelve billion dollars in profit today on that inves…”
Prediction Partly held up
Housenbold in 2021: Disinflation and low rates will drive continued multiple expansion
“In fact, disflation is probably a bigger risk than inflation over the last few years. I don't think the feds worried about interest rates, and that will continue to allow multiples to expand. It'll allow equities to continue to rise and allow startups to have …”
Assertion Contradicted
Housenbold: Made eBay Google's first advertising customer in the world
“In that role, I also became Google's first customer in the world. Having ran AltaVista and competed with them, they were starting to monetize their search, and I became the first customer, and that really changed the trajectory for both Google and for eBay”
Disclosure
Housenbold: SoftBank passed on investing in Zoom at a $6 billion valuation
“I could tell you how I passed on Zoom at six billion dollars because I thought that was too expensive, or I passed on Procore.”
Assertion Contradicted
Housenbold: Entry valuation is the greatest determinant of PE and VC returns
“If you look at all of the academic research and it doesn't matter if it's a private equity or venture capital, the greatest determinant of your returns With the highest R square is your entry valuation. Some people call that vintage, but it is your entry valua…”
Disclosure
Housenbold: SoftBank Vision Fund 2 is funded entirely by SoftBank Group
“And in fact, that led Masa to decide that fund two is a sole LP fund. It's just SoftBank's money.”
Assertion Partly supported
Housenbold: Shutterfly grew to 77% market share and bought 17 competitors
“And when I joined, we had one percent of the market, and when I left, we had 77% of the market. And I went on to buy 17 of my competitors, including Yahoo Photos and Kodak, American Greening, Sony, Fuji, etc.”
Assertion Supported
Housenbold: SoftBank Vision Fund 1 averaged $900 million per investment
“For us as late stage investors, where in fund one, our average investment was nine hundred million dollars.”
Assertion Contradicted
Housenbold: Billion-dollar VC funds average a 1.44x net MOIC
“If you look at all of the Kauffman Foundation or the NVCSA or the Cornerstone Research, the average fund of a billion or greater returned a one seven one gross and a one four four net MOIC.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Housenbold in 2021: SPACs will replace late-stage growth venture rounds
“Over the intermediate term, my anticipation is that companies will now have greater choice if they want to raise a late stage growth round with someone like a soft bank or they want to tap the public markets. So it is in some way a form of substitution Of capi…”
Prediction Partly held up
Housenbold in 2021: Central bank liquidity will continuously buoy asset prices
“You look at central banks around the world and they're all pledging to do roughly the same thing. That will continue to buoy assets and assets in the form of gold, in the form of Bitcoin, in real estate, and in equities.”
Disclosure
Housenbold: SoftBank was the largest shareholder in 17 of his 18 investments
“So at the vision fund, I've had the pleasure to take, I've done 18 investments, 17 of which we were the largest shareholder.”
Assertion Supported
Housenbold: SoftBank Vision Fund 1 was backed by six limited partners
“In the Vision Fund one, we had six limited partners. One was SoftBank itself, so SoftBank's a big operating company, spits off a lot of free cash flow. The second was the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Saudi Arabia called PIF. The third was the Sovereign Wealth Fund…”
Assertion Supported
Housenbold: SoftBank deployed $88 billion of Vision Fund 1's $100 billion
“We raised a hundred billion dollars and we deployed about eighty eight billion of that in fund one, held back some for follow ons.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Housenbold: SoftBank met 600 global unicorns and invested in about 90
“When we got started, there was a stock of what I'll call pre-unicorn and unicorn companies, i.e., companies that are going through hyper growth that can use a hundred million dollars to three billion dollars of growth capital. And there were 600 of those aroun…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Housenbold: 13 of his 18 SoftBank investments were not actively fundraising
“And of the 18 investments I did, I think 13 of them were not fundraising when I put the money in.”
Assertion Contradicted
Housenbold: 120 VCs passed on Starbucks and 88 passed on Facebook
“And if you look at, I think, Starbucks, when Howard was raising money, a 120 different venture capitalists passed on Starbucks. And I think 88 passed when market Facebook was looking to raise capital, right?”
