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 6 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
Rountree: Selling low-cost commodities offsets deep tech technical risk
“Why I love commodities is because
It offsets the technical risk we're taking with less market risk, because I know if I'm selling a commodity, i.e., my product is molecularly identical to the competitors, but I have a cost advantage, I know you can sell that.”
Rountree: Startups with customer sales cycles over 18 months are de facto dead
“The main reason that startups are time limited is because you raise serially in, like, you know, whatever, you raise 18, 24 months of runway, and so, let's say you raise 24 months of runway, you need to start fundraising, let's say, six months before you run o…”
Rountree: Perfecting Technology in the Lab Delays Crucial Commercial Learning
“One of the things I didn't see there is that the learning curve matters. And once you start doing a thing, you tend to get better at it. And if you're commercializing something at small scale, you're kind of working out all the kinks that if you're, you know, …”
Rountree: Selling software to legacy industries limits operational innovation
“Every single time we've invested in a capable team or watched a capable team go after an industry with a lot of inertia there are a thousand little things that can be improved upon that if you're not, Taking that on, and you're just selling into the industry, …”
Rountree: Great science is only valuable if it produces excess profit
“The only point of a startup or a business in general is to create profit margins above and beyond its cost of capital. And technology can be a very interesting means to that end, But it is only a means to that end. And just because your technology is mind-blow…”
Rountree: Analyzing counterparty compensation reveals why enterprise sales cycles stall
“Like, whenever someone's behavior in a business context doesn't make sense to me, I try to learn how they're paid, and usually the answer comes to the fore that way. And so, if you can just understand people's incentives, you can navigate around that and somet…”