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 29 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
Excess Funding Drove NeXT to Buy Floating Staircases and $10,000 Chairs
“When you have too much money, you just don't have that hunger. And you start spending money on floating staircases and 10,000 dollar chairs.”
Steve Jobs: With Elite Talent, the CEO Works at the Bottom
“If you don't treat talented workers right, they can go get another job in 10 minutes. So a strange thing happens, which is the sort of the hierarchy of power inverts and the CEO is actually at the bottom. So I sort of feel like I work for most of these people …”
NeXT Team Used Channel Stuffing to Inflate Sales Figures to Jobs
“The team reported sales figures by determining the number of units given to distributors, not sales to final customers. Distributors didn't have to pay right away. They got the machines on credit. Next then immediately counted these as sales, even though no mo…”
Paul Rand to Steve Jobs: Before Launch, You Are the Product
“Between now and when you have a product, you are the product, my friend, and so you better be nice to people.”
Jobs and Perot Struck Secret Side Deal to Sell NeXT Hardware
“Steven Ross has struck a second secret deal. It would never appear in any press release or regulatory filing. They didn't even write the terms down to sell the next computer. Ross was willing to mobilize his high level government networks and his sales force f…”
Steve Jobs Respected Colleagues Who Actively Pushed Back Against Him
“Steve respected talented people who could fight. You had to be willing to push back against Steve. Your ideas would only survive if you could evangelize them and convince all the smart people around that this was the best option.”
Steve Jobs Fired NeXT Manufacturing VP to Cover His Own Indecision
“When Nexus factory schedule, inevitably slipped rather than blaming his own indecision. Steve took out his frustration on Linda, and he fired her, and the entire company gets stuck in this loop for months and years.”
Steve Jobs: A Company's Primary Competition Is Its Own Execution
“The most important thing you're competing with is not another company, but it is your own ability to execute.”
Jobs Threatened to Shut NeXT Unless Canon Bought Hardware Division
“And by this time, they'd already poured a hundred and forty million dollars into the company. And Steve says, if you don't deposit another check for twenty million dollars by Monday, I'm going to shut the doors. In exchange for the twenty million dollars, Cano…”
Excess Capital Caused Steve Jobs to Abandon Cost Discipline at NeXT
“Steve had too much money. He had too much personal money, and he got way too much money from his investors, and so he stopped watching his costs.”
Steve Jobs Learned Never to Overplay His Hand From IBM Deal
“Years later, he confided in Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull That he had learned a lesson from the collapse of the IBM deal. Never overplay your hand.”
The best hires will not always listen to leadership in key moments
“So this is one of those cases where you hire the right people. They don't always listen to you in key moments in time.”
Jobs: Turning doers into managers degrades product quality and schedules
“I believe that if we turn ourselves into managers instead of doers, both our schedule and the greatness of our product will suffer. Let's not let this happen. It is better to have fewer people, even if it means doing less.”
Steve Jobs Hired an Interior Designer as NeXT's 9th or 10th Employee
“Steve Jobs, one of the ninth employee, if I remember correctly, ninth or 10th employee at Next was an interior designer for the office.”
Jobs: Better to have fewer people even if doing less
“It is better to have fewer people, even if it means doing less.”
Apple's Acquisition Pricing Negotiation With Steve Jobs Took Five Minutes
“The whole pricing discussion took five minutes.”
Dell's WebObjects-powered online sales grew to $3M per day
“Within a year, Dell's web objects powered online sales exploded, growing to three million dollars a day and quickly becoming the core of the company's distribution strategy.”
Canon provided NeXT an emergency $40M investment to prevent bankruptcy
“Cannon agreed to give them another forty million dollars.”
NeXT Shipped Only 205 Computers By the End of 1988
“In November, the first cubes finally shipped by the end of the year. Next had shipped a measly 205 computers.”
Canon Invested $100 Million in NeXT For 16.67% Stake
“And so he convinces Canon to put a hundred million dollars into next in return for their a hundred million dollars. They get 16.67% stake in the company.”
NeXT Burned $1 Million Per Month Before Generating Revenue
“His company's burning through a million dollars a month.”
Ross Perot Invested $20 Million in NeXT For a 16% Stake
“Ross is going to put twenty million dollars into next for a 16% stake in the company. He becomes the company's largest outside shareholder. But as one prerequisite of the deal is that Steve has to have more skin in the game. So he asked Steve to put in another…”
NeXT Took Nine Years to Achieve First Profit of $1 Million
“That year, the company achieved its first profit of a million dollars on revenues of almost fifty million. After nine years of losses, Next was finally stepping into the black.”
Steve Jobs Opened Apple Acquisition Negotiation at $500 Million
“Steve opened, offering the company at 12 dollars a share, which would have made the total acquisition price five hundred million dollars.”
IBM agreed to $60 million licensing deal with NeXT
“IBM agreed to Thirty million dollars on signing the contract and another thirty million dollars on shipping and then royalties on every copy they ship. A total investment of sixty million, which is three times how much Ross Perot put in and a windfall that bro…”
Paul Rand Charged Steve Jobs $100,000 For One NeXT Logo Option
“When Steve spoke to Paul for the first time, he asked if Paul could present him with a few options for Next logo. No, Paul said, I will solve your problem and you will pay me. Paul's price, a 100,000 dollars, whether or not Next ended up using the logo. It was…”
Senra: Apple buying NeXT to rehire Steve Jobs was the ultimate bargain
“They paid half a billion dollars essentially to rehire Steve Jobs, and it was the bargain of the century.”