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 1,245 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 39 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
The CIA Was Oracle's Very First Commercial Database Customer
“And so the very first customer turned out to be the CIA.”
Early Oracle Won Deals Across Major US Intelligence Agencies
“We had won several deals, the CIA, Navy intelligence, air force intelligence, and the NSA.”
Ellison Sacrificed Near-Term Profits to Eliminate Vulnerable Rival Sybase
“I wanted to knock out Sybase while they were technically behind and vulnerable, even if it meant sacrificing profits in the near term. If we were successful, the profits would be greater in the long run.”
Oracle Once Paid Salespeople More to Route Deals Through Partners
“The sales force convinced their boss that the best way to fix this was to pay more money to the sales force if the deal went through a partner than if the deal came directly to Oracle. For example, if you sold a million dollar deal directly, Oracle would get a…”
Senra: Jensen Huang mandates whiteboards as primary communication in meetings
“Jensen wants the whiteboard to be used as the primary form of communication in meetings.”
Senra: Jensen Huang is tech's longest-running founder CEO
“Jensen is the longest running founder CEO of a tech company in the world.”
Jensen Huang spotted early machine learning signals in employee status emails
“One of the weak signals that he intercepted years ago was a wonky but exciting development in machine learning that kept popping up in the emails. Jensen decided that Nvidia needed to invest more in tools for accelerating workloads on its GPUs.”
Senra: Jensen Huang insists on blunt communication and haiku-like emails
“Jensen believes in direct, blunt communication. Jensen's emails are short and sweet, like a haiku.”
Jensen Huang assigns a directly reporting 'pilot in command' to every project
“Under the mission is the boss philosophy, Jensen would start every new project by designating a leader, which he calls a pilot in command. That pilot in command will report directly to Jensen. We always have a pilot in command for every project. Whenever Jense…”
Jensen Huang organizes Nvidia by function rather than separate business units
“Jensen organized his employees into groups centralized by function. So like sales, engineering, operations, and so on. They were treated as a general pool of talent and not divided by business units or divisions. We take the people that we have, and we're able…”
Jensen Huang awards Nvidia stock directly without waiting for annual reviews
“Jensen can also reach down into the organization at any time and award stock directly without waiting for an annual compensation review.”
Nvidia's stock fell 80% during its massive initial investment in CUDA
“The company invested so much in converting its GPUs for CUDA compatibility that its gross margin fell from 45 to 35%. At the same time it's increasing its spending on CUDA, the global financial crisis destroyed consumer demand And Nvidia's stock fell by more t…”
Peterffy built a partial differential equation to price options using computers
“Peterfi had used his computer to invent a partial differential equation that priced options based on variables, such as the underlying assets price, volatility, and the options time to expiration.”
Peterffy hacked a Quotron wire with an oscilloscope for real-time market data
“He essentially hacked the system, cutting the wire and attaching the oscilloscope.”
Thomas Peterffy invented the first handheld trading computer in 1983
“In 1983, 27 years before Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad. Peterfi invented the first handheld trading computer.”
The CBOE banned analytical devices on trading floors in response to Peterffy
“They actually passed a rule that analytical devices may not be used on the trading floors, Peterfi said.”
Interactive Brokers generated $3.7B profit on $5.2B revenue in 2024
“A pure play brokerage with four million customers, over seven hundred billion in client assets, and just 3000 employees, most of them engineers. In 2024, it generated 3.7 billion in profits on 5.2 billion in revenue. The company he took public at a twelve bill…”
Senra: Gates was obsessed with cost control and pressured staff on waste
“Bill was obsessed with cost control, and he is constantly hounding everyone in the company about it.”
Microsoft priced early software at under half in-house engineering costs
“In the early days, our sales approach was to say, if you had to write the software in-house, your fixed engineering budget would be X amount of dollars. And Microsoft's price is less than half of X dollars. We competed. Against in-house engineering budgets.”
Atari founder Nolan Bushnell declined 30% of Apple for $50k
“Nolan Bushnow, the founder of Atari, recounts in his book and a bunch of other interviews I've seen with him. Biggest regret in his life, he was offered 30% of Apple, I think for like 50,000 or a 100,000, it was something like that. And he said, no”
Steve Jobs eliminated 70% of Apple's product roadmap upon returning in 1997
“We actually got rid of 70% of the stuff on the product roadmap.”
Rival F1 teams rejected Bernie Ecclestone's $100k offer for 10% TV rights
“Bernie said that he paid a million dollars to get the TV rights for F one. There's 10 teams. I will sell each of you 10% for a 100,000 dollars. And one of the team owners is actually interviewed in the documentary. And he says us nine idiots all said no.”
The FIA traded its 30% stake in F1 TV rights for $9M
“The FIA Got spooked about the future of television, which suited Bernie perfectly. They traded away its 30% stake of the TV rights for nine million dollars.”
Bernie Ecclestone was Britain's highest-paid executive in 1993, earning $44M
“He was the highest paid executive in Britain. In 1993, his combined salary from the two companies he used for selling television and sponsorship rights amounted to forty-four million dollars.”
Dietrich Mateschitz bought Ford's Jaguar F1 team for one pound
“So he buys The Ford Jaguar F-one team, which I guess was in bad straights because he gets it for one pound sterling, renames it Red Bull Racing.”
Luxottica Pulled Ray-Ban From 13,000 Outlets to Reposition and Hike Prices
“Over the next year and a half, Luxottica withdrew Ray-Ban from 13,000 outlets, hiked their prices, and radically improved the quality, increasing the layers of lacquer on a pair of Wayfarers from two to 31.”
Oakley Stock Fell 37% After Luxottica's Sunglass Hut Dropped Its Products
“Sunglass Hut stopped selling Oakley's. Sunglass Hut accounted for a quarter of Oakley's business and its share price fell by 37%.”
Essilor Controls Nearly Half of the Global Prescription Lens Market
“Essilor controls almost half of the world's prescription lens business and has acquired more than 250 other companies in the past 20 years.”
Mark Zuckerberg Spent $3.5 Billion for a 3% Stake in EssilorLuxottica
“Mark Zuckerberg, just spent three and a half billion dollars buying a three percent stake in Essilor Luxottica.”
Leonardo Del Vecchio Turned a €6,000 Stake Into €25 Billion
“In 1961, Delvecchio invest 500,000 lira for 33% of the company. So that's about 6000 euros today. So he puts in 6000 euros for 33% of this company. 60 years later. His shares will be worth twenty five billion euros from 6000 euros to twenty five billion in 60 …”
Del Vecchio Bought a US Distributor for $11M on $14M Revenue
“He buys 50% of his largest American distributor for eleven million dollars at a time when his entire company is just doing a fourteen million in revenue.”
Luxottica Launched a Hostile Takeover of a Conglomerate Five Times Its Size
“He launches a surprise hostile to offer to buy the U S shoe corporation, which owns lens crafters, which is the largest optical store chain in the world. U S shoe. This is the nutty part was a conglomerate. That had a stock market value five times higher. Thei…”
Michelin Invented the World's First Removable Pneumatic Tires in 1891
“No one else in the world had this invention at the time.”
Michelin Built Thousands of Free Road Signs to Increase Tire Wear
“They built road signs across France. The job of the government was done by a private company. They built all these road signs, thousands of them for free. Why? Because better signs meant longer trips, more driving, more wear on those, on the tires and therefor…”
Ferrero Group generates $20B in annual revenue with zero outside debt
“So Ferrero owned a hundred percent of his company. He had no outside shareholders. He had no debt today. That company does twenty billion dollars a year in revenue with very high margins.”
Ferrero purchased one-third of the global hazelnut crop by the mid-2010s
“By the mid 2010 Ferrero is purchasing roughly one third of the entire world's hazelnut crop and had even become the world's largest hazelnut supplier itself.”
Michele Ferrero recreated 600-meter altitude hill air conditions inside his office
“He felt that the air that he was breathing was so conducive to thinking that he hired architects to recreate the characteristics of those walking paths. In his office, they exactly replicated the characteristics of the air in the hills at about 600 meters in a…”
Ferrero operated Italy's largest private delivery fleet, second only to the army
“And at the very beginning, you know, in the 19 forties, he has 41 vans. You fast forward, 20 years later, he's got thousands of them. And by this time Ferrero had the largest private fleet in Italy, second only to the Italian army, all completely controlled by…”
Jimmy Choo launched with $150,000 in seed capital and sold for $1.2B
“Now, remember, this is a company that's going to sell for 1.2 billion dollars in about 15 years from where we're on the story. They start the company with just a hundred. Her dad puts up a 150,000 dollars. That's all they start with the company.”
Jimmy Choo scaled to a $1.2 billion acquisition through sequential PE sales
“In 2001, Jimmy Choo sells 50% share to Phoenix Equity Partners and leaves the business. Three years later, Lion Capital buys Jimmy Choo for one hundred and one million dollars. Three years after that, Lion Capital sells Jimmy Choo for one hundred and eighty fi…”
Akio Morita rejected a 100,000-unit Bulova order to protect Sony's brand
“In this case, Akio just turned down an order for a 100,000 units, which was worth several times the total cap capital of his company.”
Norio Ohga started as a paid product critic before becoming Sony president
“Nurio, who starts out as a paid critic is now the president of Sony.”
Dell's annual revenue grew from $6 million to $25 billion.
“Dell's revenue during our first 16 years. Okay, so it's going to start in 1984 at six million. It's going to end in 1999 at 25 Billion.”
Compaq operated at 36% cost of revenue compared to Dell's 18%.
“Compact had no price advantage. Their operating costs were 36% of revenue as contrasted with our lean and mean, 18%.”
Dell's equity value increased over 625% in the eight years post-buyout.
“The value of our equity in the eight years since the announcement of the go private increased by over 625% and our enterprise value increased to over a hundred billion dollars.”
Citadel lost 50% of its equity in just 16 weeks during 2008
“In 2008, that tuition bill bill almost became getting expelled from school because we lost half our equity in 16 weeks in a firm. That had never had a double digit drawdown in 20 years.”