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 91 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
Mehta: You cannot make a material difference working at a large company
“What would be fulfilling for me is to make a material difference in this world, and I wouldn't be able to do that working in a bigger company.”
Amazon Kept Its Promise of Autonomy Seven Years After Acquiring Zappos
“Happy to report seven years later, they've remained totally true to their word. And we've been able to continue doing our own thing and our culture is very different and distinct from Amazon's”
Online diaper sales did not exist at normal retail prices in 2004
“It might have been 2003, 2004, somewhere around there. You could not buy diapers at a normal price. They were, like, prices were, like, jacked to ridiculous levels. It just wasn't a thing. Nobody bought them online.”
Rubin: Indiegogo always planned expanding beyond film, copying Amazon playbook
“Since day one, the idea was to democratize it for all funding ideas. We just started with film because trying to take a, you know, page out of the playbook of Amazon, you know, starting with books only and then expanding to other stuff.”
Rahal: David launched DTC to avoid tying innovation to retail cycles
“We're just starting to, but yeah, most predominantly we're a direct to consumer in Amazon. We wanted to start direct to consumer because you can service people directly. You don't have to plan your innovation around a retailer.”
Hero Cosmetics Sold Out Initial 10,000-Unit Amazon Inventory in 90 Days
“I think within 90 days we had run out of our initial inventory, so, and I remember before launch we were talking about, like, how long do you think it's going to take us to sell through 10,000 units? Would it take us a year? Is it going to take us six months? …”
Hero Cosmetics Avoided COVID-19 Sales Dips Because Target and Amazon Remained Open
“No, we didn't. I mean. Luckily, we were in the channels that were still deemed, like, essential retailers, so Amazon was still online, Target was deemed essential retailers, so so we really didn't see much impact.”
Hero Cosmetics Bootstrapped for Three Years Using Amazon Profits to Fund DTC
“Amazon for us was a very profitable channel, and the money we made from Amazon, we put towards launching our DTC site, launching slowly in retail, and I mean, we were, we bootstrapped for the first three years, and I think largely the economics of our product …”
Tindell: The Container Store Lost Under-$25 Commodity Sales to Amazon
“Our average customer drove 21 minutes to get to our store. 21 minute drive time on average. So we began to lose our under 25 dollar sales. Because if you're going to buy three sweater boxes you might as well just buy it online from Amazon, you know, sweater bo…”
Therabody shut down up to 500 Amazon copycats in single months
“There were months in 19 and 20 and 21 where we'd shut down 500 Resellers or sellers on Amazon because they're copying us.”
Sonos Anticipated Apple, Amazon, and Google Would Enter the Audio Market
“What we were worried about is that Apple, Amazon, and Google would ultimately get into this space, and they understood software clearly they had a global footprint, They could do an amazing job, so we knew down the road we would compete, be competing with them…”
Lewis: Magic Spoon quickly became the best-selling cereal brand on Amazon
“We then launched on Amazon, very quickly actually became the number one best selling cereal on Amazon.”
López: Every single Wondery employee held equity prior to Amazon sale
“And we had hundreds of shareholders including every single employee in Wondery was a stakeholder.”
Abraham: Orgain was among the first protein brands on Amazon
“I was one of the first protein companies to put an Amazon up Amazon listing up.”
Simkhai: Grindr moved from Google App Engine to AWS over costs
“Eventually, we went on, we moved to Amazon because they became so expensive but largely because we had implemented them in not a very efficient way.”
John Green presold 150,000 books by promising to sign every single copy
“When it became an Amazon bestseller months before it came out, That was for two reasons. One was that I announced that I was going to sign the entire first printing of the book. So that was a 150,000 copies. And then the second reason was that I read the first…”
Retail affiliate programs were originally designed for small mom-and-pop blogs
“The affiliate program was, like, super cheap marketing for them, and it was designed to live on mom-and-pop Blogs. So they would have all these, like, cheesy widgets. If I'm, if like, some blogger wrote about something they like, and they could link on Amazon …”
Shear: Twitch's final funding round before Amazon was valued at $100M
“The last round we raised had been a hundred million dollar valuation, not that long ago, a year ago, year and a half ago.”
Armbrust kept mask prices flat despite surges and higher domestic costs
“And we haven't changed our price since. In fact, during Delta and Omicron Amazon went really high on their prices. People were complaining, but we have stayed exactly the same, but it is expensive because it costs more money to make it here.”
Otis Chandler: Amazon Allowed Goodreads to Run Unprofitably and Triple Headcount
“Amazon wanted to invest in social, and I finally had permission to Go unprofitable. So we grew from 35 employees to over a hundred, I think in two or three years.”
Otis Chandler: Goodreads was a top-100 US website when Amazon acquired it
“Yeah, but we owned most of a website that was one of the top hundred websites in the U.S. By traffic.”
Chandler: Shelfari had three employees and $1M seed from Amazon
“And then literally two weeks before we were going to launch, we discovered Shelfari, which had two co-founders, three employees, and a million dollars in seed from Amazon.”
Goodreads earned an 8% affiliate cut referring book buyers to Amazon
“So affiliate was, we get, you know, an eight percent cut of a book when we refer a customer to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or somewhere where they buy a book.”
Velez: Back to the Roots' Water Garden became the top-selling aquarium on Amazon
“At this time, Amazon was really starting to explode, so we put this item on Amazon, and it became the number one selling aquarium. And stayed that way for quite some time.”
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.”
Amazon acquired Audible for $300 million after it reached $110M in revenue
“In 2007, your annual revenue at Audible was like one hundred and ten million dollars. And in January of 2008, Amazon announced that they would acquire Audible for three hundred million dollars in cash”
Mitchell: Customers choose Good Books over Amazon because of personal storytelling
“Anyone can get a book from any other place. You can go to Amazon, you can go to thrift stores, Barnes & Noble. There's places people can get books, but people shop with Me and my mom because of our story and because of our passion and what we bring to the spac…”
Hsieh: Zappos rejected an early Amazon acquisition before Amazon launched Endless
“Amazon had actually approached us several years before 2009. They just wanted to acquire us, and then basically the company being acquired ends up joining the mothership, and kind of loses its original identity, and so we said, Know very quickly. And then they…”
Neustadter: Hello Sunshine paused The Morning Show, Daisy Jones, and From Scratch
“We had just started shooting Our second season of The Morning Show, and we were meant to have a show, start production for Amazon, a show called Daisy Jones and the Six was going to start in April, and then we had another show for Netflix called From Scratch t…”
Christina Tosi Expanded Milk Bar Products Into Whole Foods and Amazon
“We just launched Into Whole Foods and I think Next Week on Amazon.”
Zappos initially rejected Amazon's acquisition offer to protect its company culture
“Amazon had actually approached us several years before 2009. They just wanted to acquire us and then basically the company being acquired ends up joining the mothership and kind of loses its original identity. And so we said no very quickly.”
Foley: Competing Against Amazon in Core Categories Is a Nightmare
“Trying to compete with Amazon 15 years late. I mean, you don't wish on your worst enemy competing against Amazon in their core category, right?”
Butterfield originally paid co-founder Cal Henderson via Amazon wishlist purchases
“The original payment he got was me buying stuff off his Amazon wishlist.”
Zappos Rejected Amazon's First Buyout Offer to Protect Its Corporate Identity
“Amazon had actually approached us several years before 2009. They just wanted to acquire us, and then basically the company being acquired ends up joining the mothership, and kind of loses its original identity, and so we said, Know very quickly.”
Gordon: Standard Amazon Orders Had Two Items Versus 100 for Amazon Fresh
“It was like the normal Amazon order had two items, and Amazon Fresh had a hundred items because it was groceries.”
Abraham: Top-selling Amazon pasta sauce is in a 45oz plastic jar
“The number one selling pasta sauce on Amazon is in a 45 ounce plastic jar, right?”
Williams wrote 1990s essay arguing Amazon should strictly remain a bookstore
“There was a couple essays I wrote that were, the only one I remember is why Amazon shouldn't expand beyond books.”
Jan brothers aimed to build ten $100K niche sites for $1M revenue
“If we could create a site that sold a 100,000 dollars and we repeat those little niche sites 10 times, well, that's a million dollars. And for me, who was making 40, 45,000 dollars a year, that's a big deal.”
Scholl: Amazon was the exclusive launch retailer for the Segway
“Amazon back then was the exclusive retailer for the Segway.”
Chandler: Goodreads endured month of 18-hour diligence days for Amazon
“There was definitely a month, which was probably the most stressful month of our lives, where we couldn't talk to anybody, we had to stop talking to all the VCs, we had to stop talking to anybody else, and all we did, probably 18 hours a day, was due diligence…”
Lore: In 2004, consumers could not buy diapers online at normal prices
“It might've been 2003, 2004, somewhere around there. You could not buy diapers at a normal price. They were like, prices were like jacked to ridiculous levels. It just wasn't a thing. Nobody bought them online.”
Kharraz: Zocdoc gave patients Amazon gift cards for failed early appointments
“I was our customer service I personally would call the doctor and confirm the appointment was all set, and if it wasn't, I'd Personally contact the patient to let them know and then I would offer them an Amazon gift card alongside with an apology.”