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 42 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
Walmart acquired Bonobos strategically to change its image and attract elite talent
“The most strategic part of the plan was to change the narrative. I knew that we didn't have the talent inside of Walmart at the time to do what we needed to do. We had to attract the best people in the world, and at that point, you know, honestly, that wasn't …”
E-commerce platforms will vertically integrate proprietary brands just like Netflix
“The future of e-commerce was gonna look a little bit like the history of Netflix. That a platform that was streaming other people's content and distributing other people's content would vertically integrate and start to develop their own proprietary content.”
Shah: Winning commodity retail does not guarantee success in home goods
“If you're in any of these other categories, certainly there's a big business there, but that's effectively the business that the Walmarts and the Amazons and the Targets and the Costcos, they're all in that business, selling the same exact items to everybody. …”
Independent retailers needed premium coolers to earn viable square-footage margins
“A small sporting goods store with limited square footage, they can't make any money off of a 40 dollar cooler, you know... It's all about, at these small shops, it's inventory turns, you know, Dollars generated per square foot, and so here we are, we showed up…”
Koch: Walmart is surprisingly supportive and nice to small emerging brands
“You know, sometimes they have this reputation of being like really cutthroat and predatory and so forth, but they're nice to little guys.”
Being an employee is often harder than being a startup CEO
“And I have to say, it is such a profoundly humbling, meaningful, good, And challenging, sometimes maddening experience to realize that all these years you were, you know, woe is me, being a CEO is so hard, and it actually turns out that being an employee in a …”
Dunn: E-commerce platforms will vertically integrate proprietary brands just like Netflix
“The future of e-commerce was going to look a little bit like the history of Netflix. That a platform that was streaming other people's content and distributing other people's content would vertically integrate and start to develop their own proprietary content…”
Osher: Spinbrush bought 1M batteries daily, trailing only Walmart
“We were buying close to a million batteries from EverReady. A day. We were second only to Walmart and battery purchases at the time.”
Mark Cuban warns major retail shelf space does not guarantee product sell-through
“So many companies have, you know, people just get all excited thinking, okay, this is validation. If I get into Target, if I get into Walmart, if I get into Whole Foods, That's validation that this is great, and they presume that being on their shelves is goin…”
Nassif: Ignorance of expensive retail slotting fees saved early Mrs. Meyer's
“You know, I think ignorance in some ways is bliss. I knew so little about the promotional dollars required to sit on the shelf of a Target or a Walmart or a Kroger, and yet we went after it, and I think if I knew that, oh my gosh, those promotional dollars wer…”
Walmart and Toys R Us paid cash on delivery for Razor scooters
“These Toys R Us and Walmart were paying COD for scooters to me.”
Whole Foods builds brand image, but Kroger and Walmart drive real profits
“The real money is made in the Kroger's and the Walmarts, you know. But it's very cool to be able to say that you're in Whole Foods, and it definitely helps the brand image.”
Guayakí reached $100 million in revenue without Costco, Walmart, or Amazon
“We got to a hundred million without Costco, Walmart, Amazon, any of those big retailers that are usually a big part of it.”
Goodr rescued $30K of food during an Atlanta Walmart power outage
“A Walmart in Atlanta, the power went out, and I mean, went out for less than 20 minutes, right? And because of that, they were throwing away everything in their freezers and everything in their coolers, and so she calls us, and she was like, hey, I don't know …”
Andy Dunn: Backlash to Walmart acquisition subsided after 72 hours
“For 72 hours, there's a really big reaction and an availability bias of the most vocal people. And then business returns to normal. The vast majority of people don't think about this stuff that much every day.”
Walmart's $3.3B Jet acquisition was the largest US e-commerce startup buyout
“It was the highest anyone had ever paid to acquire an e-commerce startup in the US at that point.”
UPPAbaby Co-founder: Budget Strollers Inevitably Compromise on Material Quality and Durability
“It would be less. It's just not as good. I mean, it's just, is you know, Hyundai still has a radio. It's got wheels, tires, power windows, power, whatever, but it's not. And it's what your values are. There's somewhere in there. Either the rivets aren't stainl…”
Kamali: 650,000-unit orders grant designers tremendous manufacturing leverage
“Because when you order 650,000 units, you can get the quality you want and the fabric you want. That's a tremendous amount of power.”
Dunn: Brand acquisition backlash typically lasts 72 hours before returning to normal
“For 72 hours, there's a really big reaction and an availability bias of the most vocal people. And then business returns to normal. The vast majority of people don't think about this stuff that much every day.”
Retail buyer enthusiasm is dangerous if an emerging brand is unready
“One of the most significant dangers is when a buyer loves you because sometimes you're not ready and you couldn't say no to Walmart.”
Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond picked up Scrub Daddy post-Shark Tank
“And the Bed Bath & Beyond person that wouldn't talk to us before called us, and Walmart called us, and Lori was really gracious,
and, you know, she joined a bunch of the calls and brought star power, and they were, like, blown away and instantly took the produ…”
Walker: Sweet Paws by Five Dot Post will launch in every Petco
“We won three golden tickets at Walmart's open call, and in a few weeks, we're gonna be launched at every Petco nationwide, so.”
Toys "R" Us's bankruptcy caused significant, irreplaceable sales losses for Razor
“The most saddest dramatic shift for razor has been the loss of Toys R Us. You know, not only is it a loss from the kids perspective of a fantasy place to go, but they actually always carried our entire line. And when we came out with something innovative, they…”
Raz: Walmart acquired Bonobos for roughly $300 million in 2017
“And then in 2017, the brand was acquired by Walmart for around three hundred million dollars.”
Hantas: Retailers hold annual spring line reviews requiring finalized products by January
“And those line reviews happen once a year in the spring, and you have to be ready with your product, everything done in like January. And if you are lucky enough to be invited to present at a line review, you have an opportunity to pitch your product. And then…”
Max Brands more than tripled its online sales after exiting Walmart
“We, since we left Walmart we've tripled our sales online, more than triple our sales online.”
Ben Goodwin: Walmart approached Olipop 18 months before it was ready
“Walmart's one of our biggest customers now, but they approached us to go into the stores about 18 months before we felt ready to do it.”
Beneke: Busy Baby Launched on Target.com and Is Onboarding With Walmart
“We're we just launched on target.com, and we are onboarding right now with Walmart.”
Freshpet Has Deployed Over 30,000 Branded Refrigerators in Retail Stores
“If I have one problem, I've got 25, or today, over 30,000 problems. Out there across the market, the number of fridges that we have.”
Szaky: Four retailers control the vast majority of the US fertilizer market
“And when I looked at the, at who controls the fertilizer market, it's only four retailers control the vast majority of it, which in the U.S. Is Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, and Walmart.”
Szaky: TerraCycle used hair dryers on plywood to shrink bottle labels
“And since we couldn't afford a tunnel, like a heat tunnel to do this, we built this little rig where, imagine four hair dryers are placed on, like, this plywood pointing in a center direction, and if you dip the bottle into this hair dryer tunnel just right, i…”
Mielle Organics rejected Walmart's initial retail distribution offer
“We got the call from Walmart, and funny story, like, the call that we got from Walmart, we turned them down the first year. We didn't go into Walmart until, like, the second time that they reached out to us.”
Bonobos sold to Walmart for $300 million in 2017
“We sold the company for three hundred million dollars”
Velez: Back to the Roots is Walmart's fastest-growing garden brand
“And then Walmart presented for four or so years. And then within two years, we are the fastest growing garden brand in their entire department.”
Numi initially rejected distribution offers from Walmart, Target, and Trader Joe's.
“Walmart wanted us in year seven, eight, you know, Trader Joe's wanted us in year two, Target wanted us when we were young, and we kind of said, oh, we're not ready for them yet.”
Garza: Siete Foods is in over 16,000 retailers including Costco and Target
“So we're now in A little over 16,000 retailers were in places like Kroger and Costco and Target and Walmart”
Neistat's HBO series was shot on a $200 camera and cut in iMovie
“We shot this video on a 200 dollar camera we bought at Walmart. We edited this in iMovie”
Koch: Boston Beer limited its initial Walmart launch to just 200 stores
“I mean, we started with Walmart
Maybe 10 years in, and they put me in 200 stores, and I was very excited by that, and if they'd said, I want to put you in a thousand, I would have said, I don't think so, because, you know, if 600 of those fail, you're going t…”
Szaky: 20oz soda bottles share dimensions enabling mixed-brand packaging
“So the heights are the same, diameter is the same, the tread on the cap is the same. So you could do effectively mass production of mixed-use soda bottles, and that way the cases all look the same, everything was moving out, it worked nicely on the shelf”