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 32 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
Lopez: Prosecutors find it easy to convince juries of falsehoods
“They have it wrong, and I also realize how easy it is for them to convince a jury of something that really didn't happen”
Lopez: AI audio flood will increase the value of trusted human hosts
“And ultimately, the people who are afraid that AI is going to create an influx of so many low quality and cheap alternatives to actual real voices, I think what they're not seeing is that in that environment, if that environment does happen, the value of a con…”
Lopez: Federal bribery indictment stemmed from former partner falsely implicating him
“Everybody who knew me understood that this was a false accusation that stemmed from the actions of a former joint venture partner who himself was the one paying off soccer officials for his own benefit, and when he got caught, he falsely implicated me.”
Lopez: AI is not a threat to podcast creators
“I don't see AI as a threat to the podcast creating community. I think AI will be used as a tool to help everybody Produce better output to save time and to improve their marketing materials.”
Hernán López considers accent reduction coaching his highest-ROI career decision
“As far as time spent versus impact on my career, One of the best decisions I ever made, and I recommended this to so many people over the years.”
López: Would not have reached Fox C-suite without accent coaching
“A thousand percent. I don't think I would have.”
López: Building a media brand requires combining original and licensed content
“It's almost impossible to create a media brand with just your own content. You have to combine Content that you produce with content that you license from others”
Wondery rejected a 2018 acquisition offer exceeding $80 million
“We, they came with an offer that was four times when we had raised that.”
López: Listeners won't recommend narrative shows that lack clear endings
“One of the most tried and true things in Hollywood is that you need to have a satisfying ending to a story. And when you don't have a clear ending, people will not recommend the show to other people.”
López: Most jury members believe indictment equates to guilt
“Despite the presumption of innocence that we all taught in school, people that go to serve on a jury believe that indicted equals guilty.”
López: Build direct-to-consumer channels fast to own customer relationships
“Build your direct-to-consumer
relationship and outlet as fast as you can, because those are the relationships that you're going to own over time.”
López: Overexposing products in retail invites copycats and cheapens brands
“Go very strategically into the places where you can find consumers that otherwise would not become aware of you.
the minute that you overexpose your product, you invite copycats and you cheapen your brand.”
Lopez: Video streamers will drive the next wave of podcast growth
“I think we're going to see a new wave of growth driven by the video players, the streamers.”
Lopez: Acquirers value DTC customer relationships at higher multiples than retail
“The ability to essentially own those, which by the way, if you do entertain later on an acquisition offer for the company, they're going to value that list at a much higher multiple than your retail sales, because the retail sales, they will always in the back…”
Lopez: Brand names that require explanation create unnecessary consumer friction
“Any brand name that needs explaining puts another barrier between you and the consumer that you don't necessarily want.”
Lopez: Storytelling lifts products out of margin ruts into enterprise value
“Narrative is a big part of how they get the product Away from that competitive margin-based, utility-based you know, rut into a place where they can really build enterprise value.”
López: Operating in international markets allows executives to predict future media trends
“If you work in international, you have the ability to, quote unquote, read tomorrow's newspaper, because you're in a country, and You're seeing a trend, and that trend probably happened at some other country five years before, two years before, three years bef…”
Hernán López: Wondery received over 50 VC rejections in 2016
“I stopped counting the no's after I hit 50 on venture capitals”
A major company offered Wondery $5M at a $25M valuation
“In the middle of that happening, we got approach finally looked like we were going to raise money, and we, one major company agreed to essentially fund our CSA at five million dollars at a twenty-five million dollar valuation.”
López: No Wondery investors asked him to step down after federal indictment
“Not a single one said that.”
López: Wondery Might Not Have Succeeded if Launched in 2018
“My timing was, ah, really, really fortuitous in that if I tried to launch Wanderer, the exact same version of Wanderer in 2018, I don't know that it would have gotten to where it did.”
Lopez: YouTube logs 700 million hours of video podcast viewing monthly
“YouTube most famously has Being the number one platform for video consumption of podcasts, and they had a data point of seven hundred million viewing hours per month going to video podcasts.”
Lopez: Most aspiring founders wait far too long to start companies
“Most people take too long to make the leap for a number of reasons. It's really difficult to go from zero to one. But it, the journey is so rewarding, and once you've got to the conviction that you want to come up with an idea, And turn it into a product, it's…”
López: Entertainment Studio Profits from Catalog Libraries Fund Risky New Productions
“When you talk to anybody who has run a movie studio or a television studio, they will tell you that library funds new production, right? That the profits and the cash flow that comes from library typically is what funds new production because new production is…”
Hernán López: Fox invested $250,000 in Wondery's seed round
“Fox, and so they put a, 250,000 dollar check.”
The entire podcasting industry was estimated at just $125M in 2016
“The whole industry was thought to be worth a hundred and twenty-five million dollars.”
Apple gave Wondery's 'Dirty John' a rare carousel takeover promotion
“And then finally we went to the Apple podcast team and actually shared with them the first episode of the show. They loved it so much that they agreed to give us what at the time was called the Beyonce treatment, you know, the takeover of the top carousel of t…”
López: Dirty John was #1 on Apple Podcasts for 30 straight days
“It was number one on Apple Podcasts for 30 days straight. It made something like two million listeners within the first month per episode more, way more than we had predicted”
López: Greycroft led Wondery's Series A at a $22M valuation
“We closed our CSA run, which had valued the company at twenty-two million dollars”
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.”
Hernán López: First Media Project Was a Self-Funded Radio Show at 18
“I remember when I was 18 with four friends of mine, we bought airtime on a neighborhood radio station. This was late at night on Thursday at 11 p.m., and we had a radio show, and we financed it by selling advertising.”
López: A 2015 bank valuation pegged Fox International Channels at $10 billion
“There's a moment that I remember in 2015, there's this bank that generated or published a valuation of the whole company of Fox. It's called a sum of the parts valuation, where they go and value each part of the business. And there's FIC, which at the time had…”