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 13 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
Chesky: Reinventing an industry requires looking at orthogonal industries
“I often find that to reinvent an industry, you do not take inspiration directly from that industry, that you need to look at orthogonal industries.”
Chesky: Raising less capital forces startups to build novel, frugal solutions
“I think startups raise way too much money. The less money you raise, the more control the company you keep, but more importantly, the more constraints you create. They develop a scrappy culture. The scrappy culture requires you to build more novel solutions, u…”
Hoffman: Most tech disruptors avoid partnering with the industries they disrupt
“Daniel is a disruptor, but most disruptors don't actually work with the industries they're disrupting. Most of these disruptors just reinvent, push things aside, and create their own closed loop. Uber Doesn't work with taxi companies. Airbnb doesn't work with …”
Chesky: Ask users what sparks word-of-mouth rather than minor improvements
“If I say, what can I do to make this better, they'll say something small. If I were to say, Reed, what would it take for me to design something that you would literally tell every single person you've ever encountered? So you start to ask these questions, and …”
Chesky: Map out an unfeasible 11-star experience to find the sweet spot
“The point of the process is that maybe nine, 10, 11 are not feasible, but if you go through the crazy exercise of keep going, there's some sweet spot between they showed up and they opened the door and I went to space. That's a sweet spot. And you have to almo…”
Kagan: Marketplace platforms exist because creators cannot market effectively themselves
“If Google was cheaper or Facebook was more efficient or people could do marketing themselves, like there wouldn't be AppSumo. There wouldn't be Airbnb if you could just promote your home yourself.”
Chesky: Airbnb operated by doing everything manually until it became painful
“We had a saying that you would do everything by hand until it was painful. So Joe and I would photograph homes until it was painful, then we got a photographer's. Then we'd manage them with spreadsheets until it was painful, then we got an intern.”
Chesky: Founders must spend direct time with users to earn their love
“It's really hard to get even 10 people to love anything. But it's not hard if you spend a ton of time with them.”
Chesky: Startups make their biggest product leaps when subscale
“The biggest leaps you ever get is when you're small. And another way of saying it is your product changes less the bigger you get, because there's bigger, more customers, more blowback, more systems, more legacy. The most innovative leaps you'll ever make, oft…”
Chesky: A startup's product roadmap often exists in its users' minds
“The roadmap often exists in the minds of the users you're designing things for.”
Maples: Maples foolishly passed on making an early seed investment in Airbnb
“So for example, Airbnb, which I foolishly passed on, I noticed that Airbnb was a movement.”
Chesky: Find the single high-leverage action that clears your entire task list
“I have this kind of interesting way I do to-do list. I make a list of, like, long tasks, and I try to be as exhausted as possible, and then I try to group them. And I say, it's like a game of leverage. What one action can take out of those three? And then I do…”
Hoffman: Even Facebook and Airbnb faced existential 'valleys of the shadow'
“All startups go through a valley of the shadow. All of them, PayPal, LinkedIn, things that I've done personally, things that I've invested in, Facebook, Airbnb, all have valleys of the shadow where you're like, why did we think this was a good idea?”