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 8 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
Patel: Very few seed investors act as accountable lead investors of record
“We believed then still believe it's true that there are very few investors at the seed stage who are willing to be the investor of record, so to speak, or the accountable party.”
Patel: An investor's operating experience becomes less relevant over time
“One is, as you get further away from operating, your experiences and kind of how you did things is less and less relevant to the founders that you work with.”
Patel: Setting VC fund size before strategy is a recipe for failure
“And we're big believers that your fund size needs to reflect your strategy. If you Set your fund size and then try to create a strategy around it. We think that's a recipe for failure.”
Patel: Early VC portfolio data is mostly negative because failures precede successes
“And as an investor, you really have to be committed to your strategy because the data takes a long time to get back. And the early data is mostly negative because your failures come before your successes.”
Patel: Winning product strategy starts with a narrow wedge solving one problem
“So what we really like to hear articulated is a product vision that starts with a very narrow near-term focus. One problem solved really well for one type of customer, but a broad long-term vision, a path for how you move from that wedge to something that take…”
Patel: Underrepresented VCs are empirically more likely to fund underrepresented founders
“It's empirically true that underrepresented venture capitalists are more likely to fund underrepresented founders who are more likely to hire underrepresented employees.”
Screen Door targets 10% fund stakes with a $55M initial vehicle
“We try to represent 10% of the funds that we back. And with the size vehicle that we have now, which is on the order of fifty five million, that really means that it's really hard to do anything above a hundred million in fund size”
Patel: Homebrew prioritized institutional LPs over friends-and-family capital from inception
“And so a little naively and a little strategically, we decided we wanted to focus on institutional capital. And we were fortunate having worked in the Valley for a long time and having a lot of relationships that we knew we'd be able to raise some amount of ca…”