Every argument clarity score on this site is built from rows on this page. Each
question and answer was assessed with names hidden, the host's own answers included, on
four things from 1 to 5:
directness (does it answer the question asked), coherence (do the ideas follow),
precision (concrete details and clear references), compression (says a lot per word). The weighted
mix (30/30/25/15) is the exchange score. A person's published score averages their exchange
scores on raw tape only, at least 8 of them, shrunk toward the cohort mean.
Full method →
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 5 5.00
Q And, and what did they say when, when they saw it?
A Well, they were coming into town for another meeting, and we Put this business plan in front of them and began to describe it, and then they started talking to each other. You know, one of them said, uh, you know, I had this idea, you know, like three months ago, and I said, well, if you think it's such a good idea, why aren't you more excited about it? And they said, well, look, We like the idea. We like you guys, but we're new in this industry, so what you need to do is we need to send you out to Silicon Valley and go meet with Klein or Perkins, and if they'll invest, then we will. So we, ah, we basically flew out to, ah, To Silicon Valley, and we went in to, ah, meet with John Doerr, and we spent a good morning, probably three or four hours, being questioned, and sure enough, ah, about a week later, ah, we got a call that they were willing to invest, and so it was a go.
AI assessment note: “they said, well, look, We like the idea. We like you guys”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q And, and, and of course, your portable would run any software, uh, written for the, for the IBM, and, and none of the competition did that, right?
A That's right. And basically, late in 82, as we had our first prototypes, Bill Murto and then I joined him because there were a lot of computer stores around the country. We would go out and make an appointment and go in and, and show the computer store owner our product. And showed them the computer. They liked the way it looked, and when we showed them how it worked, it was very nice. The screen was nice. But when we told them, okay, just pick a, uh, any of the IBM software off of the shelf. It's in a shrink wrap box. And, uh, put it in the computer and see if it runs. And when they did that, and it ran, Their eyes lit up. They got excited. They thought about it a minute, and they wanted to order some right then. They would say something like, okay, I need five of these next week, or I've got a, I'll give you an order for 25 if you can ship them in the next month. Bill and I got back to Houston and compared notes. It was like, wait a minute, every one of these dealers said the same thing. What we just stumbled onto is this pent-up demand for a portable version of the IBM PC. Now, it seems subtle, but we had never thought of our product that way. This is a portable computer. It fits a niche. And you have software because it runs all the IBM software. But if you just step back and turn that over and say, everybody out there has an IBM PC in their office, and what they need, ever…
AI assessment note: “That's right. And basically, late in 82, as we had our first prototypes”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q And, and what did they say when, when they saw it?
A Well, they were coming into town for another meeting, and we put this business plan in front of them and began to describe it, and then they started talking to each other. You know, one of them said, uh, you know, I had this idea, you know, like three months ago, and I said, well, if you think it's such a good idea, why aren't you more excited about it? And they said, well, look, We like the idea. We like you guys, but we're new in this industry, so what you need to do is we need to send you out to Silicon Valley and go meet with Kleiner Perkins, and if they'll invest, then we will. So we, uh, we basically flew out to, uh, To Silicon Valley, and we went in to meet with John Doerr, and we spent a good morning, probably three or four hours, being questioned, and sure enough, about a week later, we got a call that they were willing to invest, and so it was a go.
AI assessment note: “And they said, well, look, We like the idea. We like you guys”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q And, and, and of course, your portable would run any software, uh, written for the, for the IBM, and, and none of the competition did that, right?
A That's right. And basically, late in 82, as we had our first prototypes, Bill Murto and then I joined him because there were a lot of computer stores around the country. We would go out and make an appointment and go in and, and show the computer store owner our product. And showed them the computer. They liked the way it looked, and when we showed them how it worked, it was very nice. The screen was nice. But when we told them, okay, just pick a, any of the IBM software off of the shelf, it's in a shrink wrap box, and, ah, put it in the computer and see if it runs. And when they did that, and it ran, their eyes lit up. They got excited, they thought about it a minute, and they wanted to order some right then. They would say something like, okay, I need five of these next week, or I've got a, I'll give you an order for 25 if you can ship them, ah, in the next month. Bill and I got back to Houston and compared notes. It was like, wait a minute, every one of these dealers said the same thing. What we just stumbled onto is this pent-up demand for a portable version of the IBM PC. Now, it seems subtle, but we had never thought of our product that way. This is a portable computer. It fits a niche. And you have software because it runs all the IBM software. But if you just step back and turn that over and say, everybody out there has an IBM PC in their office, and what they need, eve…
AI assessment note: “That's right. And basically, late in 82, as we had our first prototypes”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q How did you, how'd you get that news?
A Well, we had a board meeting where Ben proposed that idea, and I left the room, and they deliberated it for quite a while, and then made the decision to make the change. But it was clear that was the direction they were going. I knew that's what it was going to be. I was also somewhat burnt out, and I was of a strange mindset, you know. I kind of wanted to get out of that, that pressure. It was, it took me a while to really look back and understand that I was a big part of the problem of why it ended up going down that path, and I, and I regret that. But it is what had happened, and I guess under the stress I was under and kind of gotten into this frame of mind where I need to get away, the, uh, disagreement over the low cost speed to market was just the catalyst that, that allowed it to happen. I almost guided it to the point where I was going to be fired.
AI assessment note: “we had a board meeting where Ben proposed that idea, and I left the room”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q How did you, how'd you get that news?
A Well, we had a board meeting where Ben proposed that idea, and, uh, I left the room, and they deliberated it for quite a while, and then made the decision to make the change. But it was clear that was the direction they were going. I knew that's what it was going to be. I was also somewhat burnt out, and I was of a strange mindset, you know. I kind of wanted to get out of that, that pressure. It was, it took me a while to really look back and understand that I was a big part of the problem of why it ended up going down that path, and I, and I regret that. But it is what had happened, and I guess under the stress I was under and kind of gotten into this frame of mind where I need to get away, the, uh, disagreement over the low-cost speed to market was just the catalyst that, that allowed it to happen. I almost guided it to the point where I was going to be fired.
AI assessment note: “we had a board meeting where Ben proposed that idea, and, uh, I left the room”
