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 315 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 2 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
Raz: Consumers buy for aesthetics and function, not just sustainability
“Cause the majority of people are going to buy it cause they look good and they're functional, not cause they're recycled.”
Raz: US managers today would not recommend accent coaching to employees
“And I think in the United States today, no boss would ever give somebody this advice. They would not give this advice because it would be considered to be toxic.”
Guy Raz: 1kg of beef produces 100kg of carbon emissions
“For every kilogram of beef, a hundred kilograms of carbon emissions are produced. And you know, for poultry, it's about 10 kilograms.”
Raz: Slutty Vegan reached $4M in revenue within six months
“I read that within six months of starting The Ghost Kitchen, your revenue is four million dollars.”
Robert Allbritton sold Politico to Axel Springer for $1 billion in 2021
“By the way, in twenty-twenty-one, Robert Albritton, Jim's co-founder and the man who financed and owned Politico, sold it to the German media giant Axel Springer, reportedly for a billion dollars.”
Guy Raz prefers interviewing founders in their 40s over 20-somethings
“We're often pitched on this show, and I understand founders who are like 25 of businesses, or, you know, and that's fine. I mean, and it's a great, great, often great stories, but we generally prefer to talk to founders you know, in their forties, fifties, and…”
Raz: 3,000 super fans are more powerful than 100,000 passive followers
“Having 3000 people Regularly coming to your podcast, your website, or whatever, that is massively powerful. That is a, that's 3000 super fans. I mean, there are people who have 50 thousand fans or a 100,000 fans, and if they have 3000 super fans, those are the…”
Raz: Marc Lore's food delivery startup Wonder reached a $3.5 billion valuation
“He was first on the show back in May of 2021, and he's back on the lab today to talk about his latest venture called Wonder, which was just valued at a whopping three and a half billion dollars.”
Guy Raz: The average US first-time founder is 41 years old
“Actually, the average age in the United States is 41, I believe, for the, for a first time founder. And generally, the outcomes are better the older you are when you start a business.”
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.”
Siete Family Foods reached $200M in US retail sales in 2020
“In 2020, Siete hit two hundred million dollars in total retail sales in the U.S.”
Guy Raz: Mormon missions prepare founders for relentless entrepreneurial rejection
“Young Mormons who go on missions, I think, are very well prepared to become entrepreneurs, because you're knocking on a thousand doors a week, and 900 of them are just, like, slamming in your face, and you still have to be polite, right?”
Health-Ade projected $200M in retail kombucha sales for 2020
“By the way, according to the company, HealthAid is on track to sell two hundred million dollars worth of kombucha in retail stores this year.”
Guy Raz: How I Built This accepts zero guest interview preconditions
“We have one precondition for everybody who comes on the show, and it's very simple. It's, we don't accept any preconditions.”
Raz: By 2025, many interviewed founders will have launched during lockdown
“I think in five years time, I'm going to be doing tons of interviews with people who came up with their ideas during this period.”
Founders invented chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream
“But it wasn't always a classic flavor, because in fact, it was invented by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in that tiny little shop in Burlington in the 19 eighties.”
Danone Sold Stonyfield to Lactalis for $875 Million in 2017
“By the way, back in 2017, the same year we first spoke to him, Danone sold Stonyfield to another company called Lactalis, one of the biggest dairy companies in the world. And the amount Lactalis paid for Stonyfield? Eight hundred and seventy five million dolla…”
Raz: Newell Brands acquired Chesapeake Bay Candle for $75M in 2017
“About a year after we spoke, in the fall of 2017, May actually decided to sell the company. She wound up making a pretty good deal with Newell Brands. It's a New Jersey-based business that also owns Yankee Candle. The purchase price? Seventy-five million dolla…”
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales' personal fortune is estimated at just $1 million
“His personal fortune is estimated to be not much more than one million dollars.”
Raz: Home Depot reached $40 billion revenue faster than any US company
“Home Depot went from zero revenue in 1979 to seven hundred million in 1985, the fastest company in U.S. History to hit 40
Billion dollars in revenue.”
Raz: Lactalis acquired Stonyfield from Danone for $875 million
“Earlier this year, Danone sold Stonyfield to another company called Lactalis, one of the biggest dairy companies in the world. And the amount Lactalis paid for Stonyfield? Eight hundred and seventy-five million dollars”
Raz: Rent the Runway is profitable and America's single largest dry cleaner
“Rent the Runway isn't just profitable. It's also become America's single largest dry cleaner.”
Berkshire Partners' 2016 investment valued Kendra Scott Design over $1 billion.
“Last December, Berkshire Partners made a large investment in her company. The size of the deal wasn't disclosed, but according to a report in Reuters, Berkshire's investment raised the value of the company to more than a billion dollars.”
Beyond Meat negotiated retail placement in meat cases alongside animal meat
“And unlike other veggie burgers, Ethan has negotiated with supermarkets to display the Beyond Burger
In the meat case, right next to the chicken and the steak.”
Reid signed Meghan Trainor against industry consensus, yielding three top-10 hits
“In fact, in 2014, against the instincts of most other record executives, L.A. Signed Meghan Trainor. And within a year, she brought Epic Records three top 10 singles.”
Raz: The Container Store filed bankruptcy and was acquired for $150M
“Soon after, you know, we spoke, the Container Store, which you are not involved with at all anymore, but it announced it was filing for bankruptcy, and then I think a few months ago, it was actually acquired by
Buy Bed Bath & Beyond for about a hundred and fi…”
Raz: Olipop Is Valued at Over $2 Billion
“It's now valued at over two billion dollars, maybe more. That was the last I saw, which was last year.”
Guy Raz: UGG reached its first annual profit of $140,000 in 1989
“By the end of that year, for the first time ever, UGG turns a profit, 140,000 dollars, which is great news.”
Justin's generated $20 million in annual revenue by 2012
“You're doing twenty million a year in 2012”
Guy Raz: High costs in the Bay Area cause contractor shortages, spurring DIY
“There is a shortage of contractors in the Bay Area. It is really hard to find them because, you know, cost of living is high, and contractors, they charge a lot here so a lot more people are doing DIY stuff”
Raz: Chomps aimed at male gym-goers, but found most buyers are moms
“The guys that, that created that brand were really targeting, you know, men who were going to the gym who wanted to, like, hit a protein. The majority of their customers are moms, on-the-go moms, and that's what they started to see very rapidly.”
VMG Partners valued KIND at $45 million in a 2009 investment
“This is VMG, the private equity firm, I believe, that bought a share. I mean, at that point, in 2009, they valued it at forty five million dollars, the business.”
Raz: WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey is part owner of American Giant
“Miguel is an owner of, part owner of a brand called American Giant.”
Healy co-funded a Salem biodiesel startup with Willie Nelson using waste oil
“By the way, in the early 2000, Cameron was looking for a way to make sure that all that oil used to make kettle chips didn't go to waste. So he funded a biodiesel startup in Salem that still exists today, and he did it with another old hippie who's also a voca…”
Raz: Osher produced Tony-winning musicals Jersey Boys and Hairspray
“By the way, over the years, John has had a pretty interesting side hustle, backing Broadway musicals. He's actually been listed as a producer on some pretty big hits, including at least two Tony winners for Best Musical, Jersey Boys and Hairspray.”
Raz: Liquid Death launched its billion-dollar brand with a $1,500 video
“You know, Liquid Death launched its brand with a 1500 dollar video.”
Raz: Specialized Almost Went Bankrupt in 2001 Before Adidas-Inspired Turnaround
“Mike Sinyard who founded that company, was struggling in, like, 2002 1001, and almost went bankrupt. And he happened to read an article about Adidas and how Adidas really turned around their business in the United States in part because of a brand Bible.”
Allison Ellsworth is the second Shark Tank contestant to become a Shark
“By the way, Allison is heading back to Shark Tank once again for its new season, but this time she'll be a shark. She's one of just two former contestants to ever appear in that role. The first one was also a guest on this show, Jamie Siminoff of Ring”
Guy Raz: Larry David was paid $10M for his FTX commercial
“Ask Larry David, who got ten million dollars, do an FTX commercial.”
Raz: Prebiotic soda Poppi rebranded four years before selling for $1.8B
“Poppy, which was sold for 1.8 billion dollars, did not start out as Poppy. It started out as like Mother's Earth or something like that. And they only changed it to poppy in 2019, like four years in.”
Raz: Chobani controls roughly 22% of the US yogurt market
“Today, you know, roughly Chobani's got about 22% of the yogurt market in the US.”
Figma filed for an IPO after its Adobe acquisition deal collapsed
“Shortly after we did this interview, and about a year after the deal with Adobe fell through, Figma filed for an IPO.”
Guy Raz: Zumiez's success is driven by obsessive inventory management
“And the secret to the success of that store is inventory management. They're just obsessive about inventory management.”
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.”
Raz: The perimenopause market is where energy bars were in 2008
“I mean, it's just really starting to explode. It's like where energy bars were in, like, 2008.”
Guy Raz: RXBAR's front-of-pack ingredient transparency transformed the company
“That rebranding on RX bar transformed that company because initially it didn't look like that. It didn't say, you know, four egg whites, three dates, two cashews. But once they did that and Peter Rahal talked about this on our show years ago. It just transform…”
Priority Bicycles built US awareness through boutique and chain hotel partnerships
“Their whole strategy was to work with hotels. There are hotels all over the United States That have priority bicycles. You know, when you want to borrow a bike, they've got like six of them. And so that's how they built awareness.”
Raz: Weee!'s aggressive referral discounts drove profitability in six months
“It cost we a lot of money. It put them in the red for three months, but it, but their customer acquisition as a result of that was so enormous that they became profitable in six months, and they, I think they've been profitable ever since.”