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Don Katz

Founder, Audible · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveauthorjournalistinvestor@don_katz ↗donald-katz.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Don Katz founded Audible in 1995, pioneering commercial downloadable audiobooks and portable digital audio players before Amazon acquired the company in 2008. Prior to entering technology, he spent two decades as an investigative journalist and author of books including The Big Store, Home Fires, and Just Do It.

20statements → 11claims → 6claims resolved → 17%fully supported → 3.9/5average certainty → 1.65/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 2said about them ↓

1 supported 4 partly supported 1 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 4 not checkable as stated how the 11 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

11 assertions · 1 opinion · 7 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 11 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 4 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Don argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Katz: Audible raised ~$40M at IPO with 5,700 customers
“We walked away with almost forty million dollars. We had 5700 customers.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 45:11 Audible: Don Katz

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Katz: Audible's first player cost $208 to manufacture and sold for $215
“But it cost us 208 dollars to make that little device, and we tried to sell it for 215 dollars.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 41:43 Audible: Don Katz

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
60% certainty 4
0% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Don Katz on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Don Katz said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Katz: High entrepreneurship often correlates with patterns of fatherlessness
“I, I've heard, and you probably have heard this too, that, ah, there's a lot of patterns of fatherlessness in highly entrepreneurial people.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 6:30 Audible: Don Katz
Insight
Katz: Single patents are worthless without an entire patent portfolio
“Now I know, of course, you know, without a portfolio patents are worthless, but, you know, at that point I didn't.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 26:29 Audible: Don Katz
Opinion
Katz: In the 1990s, Microsoft targeted any startup building a platform
“If anyone said they were building a platform, Microsoft would make it their business to destroy your company.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 49:24 Audible: Don Katz
Insight
Katz: The book publishing industry inherently resists technological change
“Book publishing is a, is, is people who love books, meaning that they're willing to get paid less, or they have the wherewithal to not get paid a lot, and you know, and they go into a world, and usually, they stand for the status quo and they usually resist, y…”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 51:53 Audible: Don Katz
Insight
Katz: Entrepreneurial success is roughly 51% grit and 49% luck
“I think it's something on the order of 50.5 to 51% purposeful good calls and brave moments, and times when you just didn't give up, the rest of it is definitely luck, because otherwise, how could I have made so many stupid, boneheaded decisions along the way t…”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 1:13:03 Audible: Don Katz
Insight
Katz: Building Sears Tower shattered company's friendly image and sparked decline
“They made this genius conception of every customer thought Sears was the friendly guy down the street, the member of the Kiwanis Club, and that Sears was this localized reality. And once they built that tower and said that they're one of the most powerful comp…”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 19:43 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Partly supported
Katz: First Audible download occurred on October 31, 1997
“The first download when it finally happened was in, I remember October 31st of 97, it was Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus, the self-help book, and I remember it was to a customer in Cave Creek, Arizona, and that was, and it was done at that then pre…”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 37:34 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Contradicted
Katz: Audible's first player cost $208 to manufacture and sold for $215
“But it cost us 208 dollars to make that little device, and we tried to sell it for 215 dollars.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 41:43 Audible: Don Katz
Insight
Katz: When capital costs almost nothing, businesses should take it
“When capital costs almost nothing, you probably should take it.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 44:30 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Partly supported
Katz: Robin Williams bought ~500k Audible shares before IPO
“Robin Williams had come in and bought, like, 500,000 shares of common stock before it went public.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 44:46 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Supported
Katz: Audible raised ~$40M at IPO with 5,700 customers
“We walked away with almost forty million dollars. We had 5700 customers.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 45:11 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Partly supported
Katz: Audible stock collapsed from ~$29 to four cents in 2000
“The stock price, you know, which was once 29 dollars or something, it went down to four cents at the end of 2000.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 47:36 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Katz: Steve Jobs pledged $15M to market the original iPod
“Steve said he's going to spend fifteen million dollars marketing their audio player.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 55:22 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Katz: Audible became the largest employer of actors in New York
“We were becoming at that point the largest employer of actors in the New York area, which we've been for a while.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 1:06:18 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Katz: Zero employees quit when Audible relocated to downtown Newark
“We moved in with a 120 people and nobody left.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 1:06:46 Audible: Don Katz
Insight
Katz: Anyone pursuing bold ideas experiences imposter syndrome
“The attack that actually, I think, attacks all people who go way out with crazy ideas whatever they are, which is that, oh my god, I'm a fraud, and they're about to find it out.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 12:37 Audible: Don Katz
Disclosure
Katz: Funded Audible's original downloadable audio patent with $14k on credit card
“And we got a patent together on a downloadable system Of, for media that would be captured by a solid state device, and I remember it was 14,000 dollars that I put on my credit card.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 26:11 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Katz: Took an 85% pay cut at 43 to found Audible
“I was 43 years old, and I took an 85% year-over-year pay cut to start Audible.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 30:55 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Katz: Audible cut audiobook production costs by 90% using technology
“We also figured out how to make an audiobook for about a 10th of the cost. That the, just using technology, you know so we just started making a lot of audiobooks”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 59:29 Audible: Don Katz
Assertion Partly supported
Katz: Amazon stock was trading around $50 during the Audible acquisition
“And also, you know, come on, let's face it, most people know that, you know, senior people at Amazon get paid in Amazon stock. And so we did the transaction, the stock was like 50 dollars a share.”
Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 1:11:44 Audible: Don Katz

The other half of the tape: Don Katz's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 2 times in 2 episodes on How I Built This. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Guy Raz 2

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
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01120222023episodes it came up in
000.50.51120222023episodesmentions per episode
2023 1 mention in 1 episode
2022 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Audible: Don Katz Nov 1, 2021 48m
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