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 27 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
Ramadan: Instacart Retail Ads Deliver 2x–3x Higher ROI Than Meta Ads
“When you get into those stores, really focusing on services like Instacart, I've seen that have a much higher, I'm talking like
Two to three times higher ROI than spending on Meta.”
Advisors almost universally told Ramadan to oust co-founder Scott Norton
“The advice I mostly got was, number one, this happens to every co-founder set.
[4357] Mark Ramadan: It always happens.
[4358] Mark Ramadan: Co-founders have falling outs or fights.
[4360] Mark Ramadan: And then number two, the only solution is to remove Scott …”
Ramadan: Restaurant Debt and Outside Equity Distract Founders from Operations
“I work with a lot of restaurants, and those that are loaded up with debt can't focus on operations, and those loaded up with equity investors also are distracted from finding opportunities with their operations.”
Ramadan: Product formula alone does not determine food market dominance
“I think when we read this as food people, it didn't make sense to us that the only thing that matters to market dominance is the formula of a product. Of course it's not. That takes zero account of how people think about brand, how people discover brands, how …”
Ramadan refused to fire co-founder Norton, opting for temporary step-away
“I ended up, I wouldn't say fighting with the board, but informing the board that that wasn't the path I was going to take, but that we would go down a slightly different path, which is that I would ask Scott to step away from the business for a little bit.
[44…”
Ramadan: Consumers Are Far Less Emotionally Attached to Mayonnaise Than Ketchup
“People were not as emotionally connected to mayonnaise as they were to catch up. Ketchup is associated with all of these, like, childhood memories for people, whereas mayonnaise is, is just not.”
Ramadan: Sir Kensington's was first in the US to use free-range eggs
“We were the first company in the country to use free range eggs and that took longer.”
Ramadan: Consumer inertia and habit are the real competitors in condiment markets
“If anything, we saw inertia as the competitor. People are on, you know, they're not impulse buying different catch-ups every week, and so the real competitor was Habit. And so we thought about how do we break a habit rather than how do we switch people away fr…”
Ramadan: I pretended everything was fine to investors when building Sir Kensington's
“I felt like I was constantly putting on some sort of suit of armor every day, like pretending things were great, pretending that everything was going well, including with investors, even when they could have helped.”
Ramadan: Moving from specialty to natural brand perception is difficult
“And when you become a specialty brand, it can be really hard to change people's perceptions into your natural brand.”
Ramadan: High-end restaurant distribution serves as both revenue and marketing
“If we could be the first ones to really break through, not everywhere, but at some select, very famous, in the spotlight restaurants, hotels, This is an opportunity to have a revenue channel that actually serves also as a marketing channel.”
Ramadan: Mayonnaise buyers lacked the diehard brand loyalty Heinz commanded in ketchup
“Our experience pretty quickly was that, especially the natural food shoppers, they weren't really buying Hellman's and Best Foods anyway, because they perceived it to be gross for whatever reason. And so it was an opportunity to actually say, well, here's a hu…”
Ramadan: Promising post-acquisition stability destroys startup employees' psychological safety
“One huge mistake that we, that I made Is post acquisition, we wrongfully and maybe naively painted a picture of there won't be change or the change will only be good, right? They're going to grow our sales and everything else will stay the same. And so we, in …”
Ramadan: Mayo Outsold Three Years of Ketchup Sales in Six Months
“We were selling more mayonnaise within six months than we were selling after three years of selling ketchup.”
Mark Ramadan: Restaurants Account for 70% of US Ketchup Volume
“70% of ketchup by volume is consumed on premise in the U.S. At restaurants.”
Ramadan: Sir Kensington's used double the egg yolk of industrial mayonnaise
“And the reason that our mayo tastes thick and creamy and dense and like a culinary mayo is we don't pump air or nitrogen into it. And we use almost double the amount of egg yolk that a more industrial mayo would use because that's all we could do at our scale.”
Mark Ramadan: Sir Kensington's Conducted the Most Whole Foods Demos in 2015
“And I think in 2015, actually, we were the brand that did the most Number of demos in all of whole foods, the most number of demos in any category, we pushed it as far as we could.”
Ramadan: Sir Kensington's CEO and CMO simultaneously stepped away for months
“So on Wednesday, the company has both a CEO and a CMO, and by Monday, we're both gone for months.”
Ramadan: Sir Kensington's 2016 revenue was around $20 million
“I think it was probably about 20 million-ish.”
Ramadan: Sir Kensington's was unprofitable prior to its acquisition
“But then the truth is, we weren't profitable, and so when you're not profitable, you have an end date to your cash, and you can either keep raising money, you can find a way to make your business profitable, or you can sell it.”
Ramadan: Acquisition deal champions differ significantly from day-to-day integration staff
“The reality of any deal is there is a big difference between your deal champions who acquire your business and the on the ground people who you have to work with day to day.”
Mark Ramadan: Industrial Ketchup Is Made From Rehydrated Paste
“The way ketchup is made industrially is pretty difficult to replicate at home, because it's essentially a rehydrated paste.”
Ramadan: Sir Kensington's initial checks came from founders' parents
“And I think the very first check into the business was my parents, and then Scott's parents, and a few other people who were very close to, and that allowed us to order this minimum run”
Sir Kensington's originally split equity equally at 25% across four founders
“When we first incorporated the business, none of us were full-time. I believe it was 2009, and so I say it was easy in the sense that there were four of us, so it was You know, 25% all around.”
Ramadan: Sir Kensington's ketchup launched at nine dollars per jar
“When we launched in stores, they hit the shelf at nine dollars.”
Ramadan: Food service was never the majority of Sir Kensington's revenue
“It was never the majority of our revenue in part because it was so difficult. It was not a scaled strategy.”
Ramadan: Sir Kensington's raised roughly three rounds in its first three years
“That 250,000 that we had raised up front lasted us probably about a year. Until we needed to raise again, and then we raised, I think it was maybe just shy of a million in the second round, and I think we did three rounds over the course of three, the first th…”