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Bill Smith

Founder, Shipt · 2 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

13statements → 8claims → 3claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.77/5average certainty → 1.31/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

3 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

8 assertions · 2 insights · 2 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Bill argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Smith: Target acquired Shipt in an all-cash deal exceeding $550M
“Five hundred and fifty million dollars is actually a little more than that. That was on the table and an all cash deal.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 29:04 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Bill Smith on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Bill Smith said on the Pitch that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

What-if
Bill Smith: Shipt and Landing would have failed if launched two years later
“The timing of everything that I created, if you just rolled it forward two years, it wouldn't have worked. In, InSight wouldn't have worked. Shipt would have missed, completely missed the window. Even landing, we would have missed the window because there's ju…”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 40:02 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Disclosure
Graycroft pushed Smith to consider not selling Shipt to Target
“My partner there really pushed me to consider not selling. He said, look, I'm going to do whatever you want to do. I mean, you're the CEO and, you know, whatever you want to do, we're with you.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 28:30 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smith personally wired funds to cover Shipt payroll before Series B
“So I remember we were working on closing the B And we literally ran out of money to make payroll, and I had to fund it, you know, personally. I had to wire money in from my own bank account to cover payroll to get us through.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 22:04 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Insight
Smith: Absorbing acquired startups and stripping their identity often leads to failure
“Some companies can do an acquisition, and they will absorb the company they're acquiring, and integrate it in, and you kind of lose your identity, and a lot of times these acquisitions become failed acquisitions.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 26:47 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Assertion Supported
Smith: Target acquired Shipt in an all-cash deal exceeding $550M
“Five hundred and fifty million dollars is actually a little more than that. That was on the table and an all cash deal.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 29:04 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Assertion Supported
Smith: Green Dot acquired prepaid card startup Insight for eight figures
“I can tell you it was in the eight digit range. So it was big. So I thought, man, this could be cool. And we ended up selling to them.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 8:03 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Insight
Smith: Daydreaming about payouts distracts founders and kills acquisition deals
“Whenever I've sold a business, they never happen fast. It is very easy to get distracted and excited and thinking about what you're going to do with your millions. But if you take your eye off the ball, And the numbers turn or something changes. It's game over…”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 8:15 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Disclosure
Smith invested $1 million of his own money to launch Shipt
“I invested probably a million dollars total to get to this point.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 9:48 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smith: Shipt Presold 1,000 Memberships in 4 Weeks Before Building App
“My goal was to sell a thousand. I think within three weeks we had sold 750 or something like that. A week later we were at a thousand and that's when we stopped sales.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 13:41 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Assertion Supported
Smith: Instacart Raised ~$250M Before Shipt Opened
“So at the time there was a company called Instacart. They had raised something like two hundred and fifty million dollars before shipped was even open.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 16:07 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smith: Shipt grew roughly 300% in its second and third years
“I mean, it was, it probably grew 300% the second year, and 300% the third year.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 21:51 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Smith: Amazon's Whole Foods Buy Sparked Inbound Acquisition Interest for Shipt
“Multiple retailers called us within the couple of weeks from that transaction, and they wanted to meet, and, you know, you could tell they were looking to acquire somebody.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 24:46 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bill Smith: Made $5,000 monthly selling mobile phones at age 16
“I would get out of school and drive my minivan to the car dealerships in the area and sell phones to all of the new car salesman. And I was making 5000 dollars a month selling these phones.”
Bill Smith May 8, 2024 ▶ 3:13 Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit.

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Startup Funding Competition: Can This Founder Raising Venture Capital Secure a $550M Exit. May 8, 2024 25m
Startup Funding Competition: Will VCs Invest in AI-Powered Fashion Models Disrupting E-Com May 1, 2024 16s
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