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: MLB announced return to previous uniforms following sheer jersey backlash
“Back in September, Major League Baseball announced that it was getting rid of those embarrassing see-through uniforms and returning to the old ones.”
Raz: Boulder Developed as a Food Hub Largely Due to Hain Celestial
“Boulder was and is an IT hub but it also was and is a food hub, I think in part, in large part, because of Hain, Hain Celestial, which I think is based there, and kind of started there, I think.”
A $200K payout from an early Izze investment helped fund SoulCycle
“I know that Izzy, a check from Izzy, also helped to finance the start of SoulCycle. We did that episode years ago, and I know one of the founders of SoulCycle was an early investor in Izzy, and they got a 200,000 dollar check, and that helped to finance SoulCy…”
Peloton founder John Foley lost nearly his entire billion-dollar fortune
“At one point, he was worth almost a billion dollars. And he lost all, almost all of it, actually. And I recently read an article where he, in the Wall Street Journal, where he basically said, look, I'm, you know, I lost virtually all my money, but he has start…”
Cynthia Tice founded Lily's Chocolate at 57 and sold for $425 million
“Cynthia Tice. 57 started Lily's Chocolate, sold it for four hundred twenty-five million dollars 10 years later.”
Banza is the fifth best-selling pasta brand in the US
“You, your brand has become the fifth best-selling pasta brand in the United States, which is extraordinary.”
Raz: Successful founders eventually overcome the discomfort of asking for help
“But I do think that if there's one thing I've seen in, in almost 700 episodes of how I built this is that virtually every entrepreneur on the show has figured out how to get over that and how to ask for help.”
Raz: Tinkercast gifts a classroom membership for every purchased subscription
“One thing that, that has been successful for us at Tinkercast, we have a, an online platform that teaches kids you know, critical thinking skills using our audio podcasts, is we basically, every time somebody buys a the, you know, a membership, we gift one to …”
Guy Raz: Groupon raised at a $1.3B valuation in April 2010
“In April of 2010, you raised around at 1.3 billion dollar valuation.”
Raz: Groupon's 2011 debut was the biggest internet IPO since Google
“You go public in November of 2011 and despite all of that, despite all of the negative press, it was the biggest internet IPO since Google in 2004.”
Raz: Groupon closed its first day of trading valued at $12.5 billion
“12 and a half billion dollar valuation at the end of the trading day.”
Guy Raz: Krispy Kreme sold majority stake in Insomnia Cookies
“By the way, shortly after we did this interview, Krispy Kreme did announce that they sold a majority of their shares to two private equity groups. Krispy Kreme is still a shareholder in Insomnia, and Seth will remain its CEO.”
Liquid Death launched with a $1,500 viral video
“Mike Cesario didn't have a big budget when he launched that brand. He spent 1500 dollars making a viral video that went, truly went viral.”
Guy Raz: Very few journalists ever consider starting a business
“Journalists are entrepreneurial in many ways in how they operate, but very few of them think about starting a business. They don't have that perspective for a variety of reasons.”
SmartSweets generated $11.5M in sales just 18 months after launching
“That year, a year and a half after you launched, you sold 11 and a half million US dollars worth of product”
Vuori succeeded by pivoting from men's yoga to general activewear
“Joe Kudla started that brand. They didn't resonate. And the reason why is they tried to sell yoga wear for men. In yoga studios. So they really kind of took the same product and just changed the way they marketed it. They basically said, Hey this is for hiking…”
Raz refuses to voice ads on children's podcast Wow in the World
“I don't read ads. We do have ads on the show, but my voice is not as an ad reader because kids don't differentiate between, I'm a character on the show, and they wouldn't differentiate between my voice on Wow in the World and me reading an ad, and so we're rea…”
Raz: S'well reached $100 million in revenue within six years
“Six years after launching Swell, the company made a hundred million dollars in revenue.”
Raz: Spikeball grew early on via church youth groups and Amish communities
“They ended up having a lot of success initially with church youth groups. Just, they had no idea. Like, church youth groups started to buy, and Amish communities randomly were just buying Spikeball, because it turns out that it's a game that was safe to be pla…”
Raz: Drunk Elephant secured early Sephora and Ulta meetings via trade shows
“What Tiffany did was, you know, she went to every trade show and eventually buyers from Sephora and Ulta came by and then she got meetings and it was just her and her sister at a trade show and a fold up table, you know.”
Raz: Nutpods announced raising over thirty million dollars in 2019 Series B
“And you did in 2019, you announced that you'd raised over thirty million dollars in a series B.”
Raz: Monique Rodriguez scaled Mielle Organics from 200 followers to $400M sale
“Monique Rodriguez started out with like 200 followers on Instagram talking about haircare products, and she scaled it to a business that she sold for, you know, four or five hundred million dollars many years later.”
Raz: Liquid Death reached nearly $200M in revenue within two years
“And Mike Cesario entered that saturated market, and you know, within two years, they're close to two hundred million dollars in revenue.”
Primary achieved $30 million in annual revenue within three years
“So by 2018, three years after launch, Primary is growing fast. They're up to a few dozen employees and around thirty million in revenue.”
Guy Raz: Briogeo reached $100 million in revenue before Wella acquisition
“By the way, since we last spoke in 2020, the company was acquired by Wella Company, and sales revenue has more than doubled to roughly one hundred million dollars a year.”
Guy Raz: Kona Ice reached 1,500 trucks and $375M in 2023 sales
“I mean, you've got 1500 trucks just in Kona Ice three hundred and seventy five million dollars in, in system wide sales in 2023.”
Raz: Global ketchup market exceeds $20B annually, with Heinz holding 50%
“We humans consume more than twenty billion dollars worth of ketchup a year, and half of it? Heinz.”
Keller was the first American chef with two three-star Michelin restaurants
“You became the first American chef and one of the very few chefs in the world to have two Michelin three-star restaurants”
Thomas Keller created the signature ratatouille dish for the Pixar film
“Thomas was a consultant on the film Ratatouille, and he came up with the recipe for the stew that's made by Remy and served to the food critic Anton Ego.”
Suitsupply's sales dropped by approximately 40 percent in 2020
“Your sales fell initially about 40% in, in that year.”
Raz: Orangetheory grew from one studio to 400 in six years
“Like you opened the first location in 2010, right? By 2014, so four years later, you've got almost 80 studios. By 2016, you have 400 Studios in six countries and 40 states.”
Raz: Commercial food services generate 60% of US food waste
“So about 60% of all food waste in the U.S. Comes from restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, and food service companies. That's according to the nonprofit Feeding America.”
Raz: First Beverage acquired a controlling stake in Health-Ade Kombucha
“Since we last spoke, the firm that was HealthAid's initial investor, First Beverage, well, they acquired a controlling stake in the brand.”
Guy Raz: Chobani Holds 20% to 22% of US Yogurt Market
“Today, you know, roughly Chobani's got about 20, 22% of the yogurt market in the U.S.”
Raz: 15% of US homes use wells; a fifth fail quality tests
“About 15% of U.S. Homes rely on water from wells. I know I've got one. And apparently about a fifth of people who have well water, that water would fail a water quality test.”
Yolélé products are available in roughly 2,000 United States retail stores
“I think your products are now available in like 2000 stores in the U.S., Whole Foods and some Target stores as well and obviously online.”
Raz: Three in four US kids aged 9-12 play Roblox
“It's estimated that in the United States, three out of four children between nine and 12 years old play Roblox.”
Raz: Happy Family generated over $250M in annual revenue by 2018
“When she left the company in 2018, it was doing more than two hundred and fifty million dollars in revenue a year.”
Fallon's Late Night generated almost $200 million for NBC in year one
“In your, I think in your first year on late night, you brought in like, Almost two hundred million dollars in revenue for NBC.”
Raz: Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang later became an investor in Zola
“And by the way, Jerry Yang, one of the heroes that Shan had hanging on a poster on her bedroom wall when she was a kid, he's actually now an investor in Zola.”
Guy Raz: The Civil War drew 40M viewers, setting PBS viewership record
“At the time, it was the largest audience in PBS history. Nearly forty million Americans binged it over the course of a week.”
Sukhi's reached $50M revenue and 7,000 stores with zero outside funding
“But today, without taking a shred of outside investment, Sukis is doing an estimated fifty million dollars a year in revenue, and its products are available in around 7000 stores across the country.”
Raz: Discord sees four billion voice minutes and six billion messages daily
“And by the way, there's something like four billion minutes of conversation and six billion messages on Discord every single day.”
Raz: M.M.LaFleur is closing in on $100 million in annual sales
“But since she launched MM LeFleur, it's grown into a business closing in on a hundred million dollars in annual sales.”
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”
Springfree Has Sold Nearly 500,000 Trampolines Globally Since Launch
“And according to the company, since its launch, Springfree has sold nearly half a million trampolines worldwide.”