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 266 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
Rippling sues competitor Deel alleging a corporate espionage scheme
“Parker Conrad, the CEO of Rippling, the HR software platform, tweeted on March 17th that Rippling was suing its competitor deal for running a corporate espionage scheme and stealing trade secrets from Rippling for months.”
Rippling caught a Deel insider using a honeypot Slack channel
“Rippling's general counsel sent a legal letter to three Deal executives mentioning a fake Slack channel called D Defectors that had supposed reputationally damaging information about Deal. Prior to general counsel sending this letter, the channel did not exist…”
Lieberman: Stripe avoids official layoffs by forcing managers into a rating system
“Stripe, they're not doing layoffs. It's not called layoffs. It's what's known as backdoor layoffs, where basically they're requiring their managers to do a rating system of they're, they have to answer a question, would you hire this direct report if you knew …”
Lieberman: Elizabeth Holmes went to prison for defrauding investors, not patients
“Yes, claims about health care solutions warrant scrutiny beyond whether or not rich investors get their money back, but Holmes wasn't convicted for defrauding patients. She's going to prison because she ripped off George Shultz, not because her bogus blood tes…”
Siroker: Rewind raised Series A at $350M valuation with $700K ARR
“We raised it a three hundred fifty million dollar valuation with 700 K and ARR.”
Airbnb Boasts Higher Free Cash Flow Margins Than Apple or Google
“I didn't have an exact reference point for is that a lot or a little, but he basically shared that on a percentage basis, Airbnb is more efficient than Apple or Google when it comes to how much cash they actually generate for how much revenue they do as a busi…”
Jain: Major airline market caps are lower than standalone loyalty programs
“When you combine the card business and the loyalty business with their airline business is worth less because the airline business loses so much money that the overall company Is worth less than the actual loyalty program in bank business.”
Scudamore: Fired entire 11-person team at 1-800-GOT-JUNK over culture
“It was the day I fired my entire team. Now, literally, I didn't preserve one. There were 11 people in the company. I always say that one bad apple spoils the whole bunch, and I think I had nine out of 11 that were bad apples. Now, not bad human beings, but jus…”
Mailchimp Founders Split $11.7B in Intuit Deal While Employees Received $500M
“Ben Chestnut and Dan Curzius each owned 50% of Mailchimp. In 2008, Mark Armstrong, the other co-founder, was bought out of the business. Three hundred million dollars was given to employees as bonuses for the deal, and two hundred million dollars worth of rest…”
Deel reached $800M ARR and profitability at a $12B valuation
“The business grew from a hundred million dollars in ARR in twenty-twenty-two to eight hundred million in twenty-twenty-four and hit profitability with its most recent valuation hitting twelve billion dollars after raising around Anchored by General Catalyst.”
Pieter Levels' AI flying game reached $67k MRR in three weeks
“Peter Levels, a well-known internet entrepreneur on Twitter, launched an AI-coded flying game that has gotten to 67,000 dollars in monthly revenue in just three weeks.”
Nagpal: Founders can rent home to business 14 days tax-free
“Another crazy one is you can actually rent your house to your business for up to 14 days a year and pay no taxes on the income. It has to be legit. It has to be for like a meeting, an offsite or something, but literally, you know, income from one hand into the…”
Lieberman: Microsoft Learned of Altman's Ouster One Minute Before Announcement
“To cause the board to make this move, a move that Microsoft, OpenAI's biggest investor, found out about one minute before the press release and ended up losing fifty billion dollars in market cap from as their stock continued to trade.”
Lieberman: Scaling Morning Brew to 300 employees in 18 months forced layoffs
“I remember when I would tell people that Morning Brew post-acquisition, we scaled from 50 employees in October of twenty-twenty to 300 employees in a year and a half. People were like, oh my god, that is the most amazing thing, and then when I give them the pu…”
Lieberman: US Mental Health Funding Is at Record Highs While Outcomes Worsen
“We've had more mental health startups created than ever before, more venture funding for the space than ever before, yet mental health in the United States has never been this bad.”
Lieberman: Comcast Lobbied for Years to Block Free Public Wi-Fi in Philadelphia
“Another example is Comcast, who basically has lobbied for years to have citywide Wi-Fi blocked in Philadelphia. So there can't just be general public free citywide Wi-Fi, because of course that would hurt Comcast business.”
Lieberman: Only four of Y Combinator's top 100 companies had solo founders
“And then Gary Tan, who's now the CEO of Y Combinator, he said of the top 100 YC funded companies, only four Were solo founders, and those founders were able to create their own MVP on their own.”
Former Clearbit CEO Alex McCaw lost two companies to 50/50 equity splits
“Alex McCaw, who is the former CEO of Clearbit, he's a serial entrepreneur, he's one of Matt's clients, he wrote that the idea of not splitting equity Fifty-fifty is key, and he went on to say two of his previous companies were destroyed by a fifty-fifty split.”
Electric aircraft remove thousands of parts and improve safety over helicopters
“When you moved electric, you were basically removing thousands of parts that are not necessary in a helicopter. You're changing the dynamics, like, the aerodynamic dynamics of the rotors and the blades that Change, like, the acoustic signature significantly. Y…”
Airbnb Shifted From Traditional Product Management to Product Marketing
“They have a product marketing function versus a product management function.”
Brian Chesky Restructured Airbnb From Divisional to Functional During the Pandemic
“During the pandemic, Brian rethought the entire organization's design so things could move faster, so he could be closer to the product, and so the company would operate on one single product roadmap. And so what he did is he moved the company from being divis…”
Kan on shutting down Atrium: laying off 180, losing tens of millions
“By doing that, I was able to pay off a 180 people and tell a bunch of people I'd lost millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars, and be okay, and know like, oh, this is gonna pass, and I'm okay with it, and I mean, it sucks right now, it's, this experie…”
Starbucks, Duracell, and Bumblebee manufacture Costco's Kirkland products
“From Kirkland Coffee, which is being created by Starbucks, to Kirkland Batteries, which are being created by Duracell, to Kirkland Tuna Fish, which is being created by Bumblebee, brands are manufacturing Kirkland products to compete with their very own brands …”
Salesforce hired fake protesters to picket competitor Siebel Systems' user conference
“Salesforce staged a mock protest outside of Cybell Systems, the competitor I mentioned. They had a user conference, and Cybell was the largest CRM at the time. Salesforce literally hired protesters to carry large signs that said the end of software, had them c…”
Lieberman: Voice AI can now extract content ideas via automated interviews
“Now with voice AI and AI agents, it actually can be done by software, not to suggest that the role of the content strategist is obsolete.”
Kevin Ryan conceived Gilt Groupe by copying a French business model
“Kevin Ryan taught me that that's how he got the idea for guilt group is he saw that guilt was happening in France and he like took it into America.”
Lieberman: beehiiv is nearing $10M in ARR after 26 months
“I think I saw Tyler mention yesterday, the day before recording this episode, that Beehive is about to get to ten million dollars in ARR, and that's just in 26 months, so just over two years.”
Google AdWords Is an Increasingly Finite Global Marketing Resource
“The number one place on the planet for marketing spend is Google AdWords, and make no mistake about it, this is an increasingly finite resource.”
Lieberman: Andreessen Horowitz Grew to World's Largest VC With $35B AUM
“And Andreessen Horowitz, the investment firm that Mark co-founded in 2009, grew to become the largest VC in the world with thirty five billion dollars in assets under management.”
Harley Finkelstein advocates that Shopify employees annually evaluate if they requalified
“It reminds me of what Harley Finkelstein has said at Shopify, which is the idea that every year, every employee should think about, did they re-qualify for their job at the company?”
Press coverage drove early growth for over 20% of top consumer startups
“Though often advised against, getting press right out of the gate is a very legitimate early growth strategy, responsible for the early growth of over 20% of the most successful consumer startups.”
Hinge spent its last $25,000 on a 2,500-person launch party
“He said, we took our last 25,000 dollars and we threw a 2500 person launch party in D.C. We set the date and we just worked backwards from that. We were just like, we've got to get everyone on at once. No one's gonna stick around if there's not a lot of people…”
Brian Chesky recently eliminated a poisonous organizational chart at Airbnb
“If you want to see what it looks like to recognize and also remove a poisonous org chart, I highly recommend you listen to the podcast interview between Lenny Rachitsky and Brian Chesky, who is the CEO of Airbnb, and he recently went through this exact exercis…”
Lieberman: MLK had a 63% disapproval rating at peak activism
“MLK was a radical reformer who had a 63% disapproval rating at the height of his activism.”
Lieberman: Microsoft got its break by selling IBM an unbuilt OS
“Microsoft, perhaps the most successful tech company in history, got its break when Bill Gates sold IBM an operating system he didn't have.”
Lieberman: Magic Leap Burned Billions for a Failed $2,300 Headset
“Florida augmented reality company Magic Leap has, no joke, burnt billions of dollars since 2010 with nothing other than a failed 2300 dollar headset to show for it.”
Lieberman: Theranos hired David Boies to shut down the WSJ reporting
“The firm also engaged Harvey Weinstein's attack dog attorney David Bois To try to shut down the story.”
Lieberman: Martin Shkreli was convicted of defrauding investors, not gouging
“He's in prison, but not for price gouging. He was convicted of defrauding investors.”
In 2008, Tim Cook sent Sabih Khan straight to China mid-meeting
“In 2008, he was meeting with Tim Cook about a production snafu in China. Tim said, this is bad. Someone ought to get over there. 30 minutes went by and the conversation moved to other topics. Suddenly, Tim looked back at Sabi and asked, why are you still here?…”
Airbnb lost 80% of its business in eight weeks during early 2020
“And we lost 80% of our business in eight weeks.”
Gumroad turned a $351,000 monthly deficit into net profit within one year
“For the listener, it was June, 2015, this is a few months before Gumroad layoffs, revenue was 89,000 dollars a month net profit was 351,000, -351,000 dollars. They're burning 351,000 dollars. Obviously this was at the point in the business where still venture …”
Lieberman: Gumroad to Distribute 60% Profit Share in 2024
“I was actually talking yesterday to Sahil from Gumroad, and this year they're gonna do 60% profit share With employees and shareholders.”
Nagpal: QSBS rollovers allow founders to reinvest proceeds tax-free into new startups
“You can do something that is called a QSBS rollover that actually lets you take the proceeds and invest it in another qualifying small company And then your clock resumes ticking. So let's say you sold the company after three years. You only then have to wait …”
Gagliardi: 2022-2023 Fed rate hikes were most aggressive since 1982
“You'd have to go back to 1982 to find a Fed moving this hard, this fast, hard line, no exception, and just hawkish all the way.”
Corcos: NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang manages roughly 40 direct reports
“He has something like 40 direct reports, which is crazy, but he does it in such a way that it's not super burdensome, and the intent behind it, from what I understand, is that the closer you get to the ultimate decision maker, the faster decisions get made.”
Kajabi is profitable and has surpassed $100 million in ARR
“Like we are a business that are pretty healthy. So we're, you know, over a hundred million dollars an hour. We're profitable, but we're really strategic about the way we build the business.”
Kajabi's $550M funding is the creator economy's largest round by far
“I think it's probably I think it's the biggest round in the great economy by far.”
Sitting next to underperformers cuts individual performance by 30%
“It was basically this research showing that if you sit next to top performers, they increase your performance by on average, 15% as evidenced by a big study across multiple Years and hundreds of employees. And if you sit next to an underperformer, they decreas…”