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 12 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
Harbaugh: Raising solely from operators increases follow-on financing and pro rata risks
“I think the risk with that is that the pro rata and a lot of risks and subsequent rounds just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Harbaugh: Informal 'no-deck' VC chats are evaluated as high-stakes pitches
“And they said, you know, come in, you don't have to have a deck, just come in and talk to the partners. And I was like, okay, sure. And this was a huge mistake. I went into this, what turned out to be a partner meeting, and I was completely unprepared. I had l…”
Harbaugh: Do not hire sales leaders on pedigree without customer persona fit
“The mistake I made was a little bit, I think, just being blinded by this guy with a great pedigree, without really digging into whether he really cared about our customers.”
Harbaugh: Unmonitored startup culture quickly runs away from founders
“If you don't pay attention to culture, culture will run away from you.”
Harbaugh: $1M ARR hires build systems while $50M ARR hires operate them
“Every single one of these phases of one, five, 10, 20, and fifty million, you're probably going to be hiring completely different people. The people you're hiring at one million are the people that want to build the machine. The people you're going to hire at …”
Harbaugh: Enterprise software must price high because procurement expects 10% discounts
“If you're in an enterprise sales cycle, people expect you to ask for money. People are paying for a premium service. They're paying for a premium ELA. They expect it to be higher. Ah, and the insidious thing is that they also expect it to go to procurement and…”
Harbaugh: Low initial SaaS pricing anchors customers for life against upgrading
“What happens if you have a customer that is paying you 29, 79 dollars a month, is that you have anchored them for life, that this is a product that is worth 79 dollars a month. So, no matter how much you have other customers who are now paying a lot more and g…”
Harbaugh: 500+ person companies need outside consultants to refresh company values
“When you're eight people, you can do a survey of your company very quickly. Ah, when you're 500 plus worldwide, you actually want a consultant who can come in and interview people, run focus groups, and get real input.”
Harbaugh: Early startups should hire number-twos before they become the perfect person
“So what you can do is you can look for somebody who's maybe the number two at a role or an adjacent industry. The adjacent industry doesn't always work out. But you could get kind of somebody who's just that one step below. But it is hard because people have t…”
Harbaugh: High ACV SaaS cannot rely purely on product-led growth
“The belief that SaaS is cheap and cheerful and something that's 29 dollars a credit card is being challenged, that now, like, SaaS can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. And at that point, a CFO does want to get involved, and that's not something that co…”
Harbaugh: Meet one VC monthly to avoid cold fundraising starts
“To build the actual relationship, I do really like it sounds stereotypical, but like a coffee or a lunch, and just slotting that into your schedule every month. So that way you can be 12 different VCs in a year. And so that when it is time to actually run a fu…”