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.

clear all ✕

why aren't all 7 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

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sequoia demanded Qualtrics formally name a single CEO to secure its investment
“When we took money in 2011, Sequoia, I remember, was like, We're only doing this if there's a CEO. Which one of you is the CEO?”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 18:33 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Assertion Contradicted
Qualtrics raised the largest tech Series A since 2008 in 2012
“We've taken this money from Excel, this is the largest Series A raised in 2000, in 12, since 2008, in all of tech, it's outside of the Bay Area”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 19:37 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Assertion Supported
Dave Goldberg's SurveyMonkey attempted to acquire Qualtrics before its Series A
“You know, the gentleman who was doing it ran a company, I'll just be honest, it was called Survey Monkey at the time.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 26:53 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ryan Smith based his Utah Jazz offer on a Forbes mobile valuation
“It was literally a meeting where it was like, well, are you serious? Make us an offer. And we pulled up the Forbes valuation on the phone and I said, well, how's this?”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 41:19 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Assertion Supported
Jared Smith co-ran Google China with Kai-Fu Lee before joining Qualtrics
“And he had been assigned to go run China for Google. So he was living in Beijing. He was working with Kai-Fu Lee and like running Google China.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 15:25 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Assertion Supported
A Qualtrics competitor raised $40M with a cheaper, better product in 2004
“Our competition had just raised a bunch of money. The product was cheaper than ours. They raised forty million dollars, and their product was better than ours.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 21:31 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ryan Smith earned $1,000 monthly teaching English in South Korea at 17
“And then I started getting a schedule and like literally like a month later, I was making like a thousand dollars a month is a 17 year old teaching English.”
Ryan Smith Nov 5, 2025 ▶ 9:32 The High School Dropout Who Made Billions & Bought An NBA team
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