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 8 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
Wilson: User value and team quality matter more than early business models
“I don't care about the business model because we can tweak the business model. We can get the business model right. What I care about are do you have users and are they getting value out of your product and how much value they're getting out of your product an…”
Wilson: USV will not invest in porn, spying, or gambling
“I won't invest in porn. I won't invest in spying. I won't invest in gambling. Those would be three things I wouldn't do.”
Fred Wilson: Successful healthcare startups will bypass hospitals and insurance companies
“And I think what will work for us in healthcare is to service the doctors and the patients and ignore the hospitals and the, Insurance companies and all the big honkin' bureaucratic institutions in healthcare.”
Wilson: USV invested $2.5M in Indeed before its $1.4B acquisition
“We put two and a half million dollars into the company. That's all the money that they ever needed and They sold for a 1,000,000,004, you know, so you know, that's as good as it gets, really, in the venture business.”
Wilson discloses USV's early investment in crypto exchange Coinbase
“We're invested in a company, Coinbase, that does that stuff, and they're great, and I love it”
Wilson: USV avoids investing in 'pitchforks and shovels' big data infrastructure
“We are not investors in companies that are providing the pitchforks and shovels for the big data business.”
Wilson: USV thesis targets developer platforms like Twilio and MongoDB
“We have started to have a thesis around platforms that developers build on top of. Twilio SIF Science Firebase, and MongoDB. So we do like to invest in platforms for developers.”
Wilson: USV studied education for three years before investing in Duolingo
“We looked at education for about three years before we made our first education investment, and then we quickly made about five or six. So we have Edmodo, Duolingo, Codecademy, Skillshare, Stack Exchange, if you want to call that education.”