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 37 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
Glass rebar is twice as strong as steel and sold in Lowe's
“Yeah, rebar for buildings, for driveways, for, and it never rusts. It's twice as strong as steel, and it's one quarter the weight, and it's available in every Lowe's store in America.”
Goba Sports Group refuses to abandon Chinese manufacturing despite US tariffs
“Look, I'm, you know, we've invested so heavily and their family, like, I'm not running away from China. It's not that easy. We've done too much.”
Springfree's Redesign Eliminated 90% of Product-Related Trampoline Injuries
“Keith started writing research papers, and of measuring our statistics, and we were going, you know, we remove 90% of the product related injuries. So he's taken, his design has removed 90%”
Holmes: Springfree Trampoline Design Eliminates 90% of Product-Related Injuries
“Keith started writing research papers, and of measuring our statistics, and we were going, you know, we remove 90% of the product related injuries. So he's taken, his design has removed 90%”
Goba Sports Group aggressively loaded US inventory ahead of expected tariffs
“We had enough cash that we loaded the U S market with product. So much so we were bursting at the seams and everybody was saying to me, are you nuts? Do you know how much inventory we have? I said, we don't have enough. Keep shoving it in. And so we got a lot …”
Holmes: Cash-strapped businesses will become casualties of rising tariffs
“Now, those people who don't have cash and are unable to preserve cash, we will see them as casualties in this marketplace.”
Costco CEO Jim Sinegal Initially Refused to Sell Trampolines Over Safety
“The CEO of Costco was a man named Jim Senegal, and Jim said, I will not sell trampolines.”
Holmes: Springfree dropped major retailers attempting to enforce 180-day payment terms.
“So we cut out almost all of our big retailers. We had a big retailer right at the start who sent us a notice and say, we, we're in 90 day terms with them. And they sent us a note and said, we're going to a 180 day terms. And we said, have a nice day. You're no…”
Holmes: Employees only need clarity when they have motivation and competency
“If I can teach any entrepreneurs about their people, there's three things they want to know. They want to know what's my job. How does it impact the company? And minor, how do I get paid? Interestingly, if you go back to Dan Pink, you know, on what motivates p…”
Costco CEO Jim Sinegal Refused to Sell Trampolines Over Safety Concerns
“The answer was yes, and that was Costco. The CEO of Costco was a man named Jim Senegal, and Jim said, I will not sell trampolines.”
Holmes: Springfree Sold Initial Canadian Units at a Loss to Test Demand
“It was more than that. We were losing money on every product. We had to do that to find out if we could create a market.”
Goba Sports Group manufactures fiberglass rebar in a North Carolina facility
“We've built a very, very large facility in North Carolina and focused on, on Build America and Buy America, and we make rebar out of glass.”
Holmes: Consignment retail traps critical working capital in unsold inventory
“The scary part for me there was the word consignment, you know, like, cause you can get a sizing or an item. That'll sit on that shelf for a long, long time cause there's nobody moving it and you've got your, you know, your costs stuck in there.”
Former Costco CEO Jim Sinegal refused to sell trampolines over safety concerns
“Did any retailer in America believe that trampolines were dangerous, and so dangerous that they wouldn't sell them? The answer was yes, and that was Costco. The CEO of Costco was a man named Jim Senegal, and Jim said, I will not sell trampolines.”
Holmes: Springfree paused sales for a year to develop soft enclosure
“So we didn't sell any products. We didn't make any products. We just spent a year building an enclosure for the spring.”
Costco Canada Placed Springfree's First Commercial Order
“We got one important order by Costco Canada.”
Springfree Lost Money on Every Initial Unit Sold at $999
“We were losing money on every product. We had to do that to find out if we could create a market.”
Holmes: Early Springfree trampolines cost $1,450 each to manufacture in New Zealand
“They were costing about 1450 dollars. To make one.”
Holmes: Springfree kept proprietary rod manufacturing original while moving assembly to China
“Even to this day, most of the original Manufacturing components, the rods and the net material that we use, we are using the exact same manufacturing partners. They've come a long way, the whole way through the whole journey. We've never deviated from that, bu…”
Holmes: Costco placed an order for 3,265 Springfree trampolines in 2005
“Worked out to be about 3265 pieces in oh five.”
Holmes: Costco accounted for basically 90% of Springfree's Northern Hemisphere distribution
“Virtually in, in the northern hemisphere and our only. We were selling direct in places where we could, but they were basically 90% of our distribution.”
Holmes: Springfree invested $5M to build its own factory in China
“And we skipped apart guy, which is in 2008, we decided to build our own factory in China because we weren't satisfied with the quality. So I invested about five million dollars in building a Chinese factory.”
Holmes: 50% of Springfree Trampoline sales came from customer word-of-mouth
“If a spring-free customer has a spring-free trampoline, if a parent who says, well, I really don't like trampolines, they'll sell it for me to other friends and neighbors, and 50% of our sales came from our customers.”
Holmes: Springfree sells around 30,000 trampolines annually
“We look at, you know, our probably 30,000 is our annual volume, and we build our business model around that.”
Holmes: Springfree redeployed retail staff to field 700 to 800 calls daily
“So when our retail stores shut down, those people stepped up, they got on the phone, We were running, you know, seven, 800 calls a day, not missing one of them.”
Holmes: Acquiring the Springfree Trampoline Patent Cost Close to $1 Million
“To buy everything when everything was all said and done and all the settlements at the university, I think it was probably close to that, yes.”
Holmes: Springfree Spent an Entire Year Developing Its Safety Enclosure
“So we didn't sell any products, we didn't make any products, we just spent a year building an enclosure for the Spring Free Enclosure.”
Holmes: Early Springfree Trampolines Cost About $1,450 Each to Manufacture
“They were costing about 1400 and 50 dollars To make one.”
Holmes: Springfree Kept Proprietary Parts Local While Moving Steel to China
“Even to this day, most of the original Manufacturing components, the rods and the net material that we use, we're using the exact same manufacturing partners. They've come a long way, the whole way through the whole journey. We've never deviated from that, but…”
Holmes: Costco Represented 90% of Springfree's Distribution Prior to 2007
“Virtually in, in the northern hemisphere and are only. We were selling direct in places where we could, but they were basically 90% of our distribution.”
Holmes: 50% of Early Sales Came From Word-of-Mouth Customer Referrals
“If a spring-free customer has a spring-free trampoline, if a parent who says, well, I really don't like trampolines, they'll sell it for me to other friends and neighbors, and 50% of our sales came from our customers.”
Holmes: Springfree Invested $7M in Manufacturing and Raised $3M in Debt
“We probably invested maybe five to seven million dollars in the factory construction and then a couple more million in some other stores. And I think we had a debt raise of about, at the time, three million dollars.”
Holmes: Springfree Trampoline Sells Approximately 30,000 Units Annually
“You know, we look at, you know, our probably 30,000 is our annual volume, and we build our business model around that.”
Holmes: Global trampoline market was roughly $500M-$600M in 2003
“I think that we had measured that we thought that the trampoline market, that maybe it was a five to six hundred million dollar trampoline market globally.”