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 3,135 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 48 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
Allen: A VC told me I was "too young and too Black"
“I remember my first company, I actually had a venture MD pull me aside and tell me I was too young and too black to get funded. Like they weren't gonna listen.”
Nadel: Founders investing VC money must pay the minimum possible wage
“When you're investing your own money, do the right thing. When you're investing my money, pay the minimum you can pay.”
Diamond: Hershberg's 20% equity versus PE's 80% is egregious
“You only own 20% of the company. Meanwhile, the original partners of the brewery own 80% of the company. It's our opinion that, like, fundamentally those numbers are a bit egregious, and we think, like, they literally should be swapped.”
Brown: Killers Will Join Uncovered and Have Their IPs Tracked
“The killers will come and become members of Uncovered, and we'll track their IPs, and we'll give that information to law enforcement to solve these cases.”
Stahl: HILOS operating profit margins will exceed Google and Amazon next year
“The, if you look at profit, we are, our operating profit by next year will be over. More profitable than Google or Amazon, because we don't fundamentally invest or hold the costs of the things that we fulfill for brands.”
Muccio: James Altucher ghosted every founder he committed to on The Pitch
“He did that to every founder he committed to on our show, and he also did it to the show.”
Allen: VCs issue performative diversity pledges while ignoring Black founders
“What they're doing is they're putting out messaging that, that is asking that a community at large, when they have us, Already here. But I see all these letters from the, you know, the managing directors of this firm or that firm saying, you know, we are commi…”
Downey: RealKey's AI pitch is 'snake oil' hiding a logic engine
“I'm saying that if, I agree with you, like, if they really had that, that would be something, but my intuitive sense when you said that, because I've just been steeled against this from so many pitches, is that you don't have true AI, it's not built, it's just…”
Phil Nadel argues third-party retail is not a viable standalone business
“Third party retail is not a business.”
Srinivasan Claims Spot On Is NYC's Most Profitable Ride-Hailing Company
“So we are actually the most profitable ride hailing company in New York City.”
Trenda: Good Talk is first since Instagram or Snap with celebrity PMF
“So we're the first company since Instagram or Snap to create product market fit with that segment of users.”
Hyatt: AI prediction engines will eventually make human user research obsolete
“I think I could invest in your company, and I think for the next two, three years, you can make some money, but I don't think you're going to be right for long, because I believe we have to wipe out all the people, and you have to make a prediction engine that…”
Jillian Manus sees no ethical conflict in profiting from homelessness solutions
“I don't see any ethical questions in this case. I see this as investing in hopefully a sustainable business That will provide paths to self-sufficiency and to salvation in many cases for people who've been marginalized and literally passed over, you know, ever…”
Jonathan Kumar says enriching VCs is acceptable if it speeds homelessness relief
“Like I am glad about getting to people in five years instead of 10, if we were doing banquet fundraisers and passing the hat for donations, it's all about how can we help people across the country experiencing homelessness the fastest. And if we need to make s…”
Josh Muccio: James Altucher never wrote checks to any Pitch founders
“He never actually wrote checks to any of the founders on our show.”
Sorensen predicts in-flight nut death will force overnight airline nut bans
“I, I'm convinced that in the next five years, there'll be someone that dies on a plane from nuts, and overnight, the whole industry will be nut-free, or allergy-friendly. Like, I am so convinced in my heart that that will happen.”
Clark: Atomos technology could get humans to Mars in 30 days
“Realized that the tech for this business could also get humans to Mars in 30 days.”
PopCom is launching an ICO aiming to raise $30 million
“We are launching an ICO and I'm pitching for the first time in Dubai. I'm, we're shooting for thirty million and that's why I didn't raise a lot of money.”
Smith: James Altucher Ghosted Sandbox Commerce After His On-Air Offer
“Yeah, so we, nothing happened. James has not invested yet.”
Jillian Manus: Female founders face a double standard regarding pitch assertiveness
“When a woman has to pitch, especially to a majority of men, alright, you have to come off tough. Yeah, that's fair. You have to, and it's, unfortunately, it's a catch-twenty-two for women. Either you're cocky or me. Yeah, if that was a man standing up here and…”
Bilizarian: If an investor doesn't close within 48 hours, I move on
“I mean, to me, if it doesn't close within 24 to 48 hours, I move on. It's just a test of responsiveness, responsiveness of the partner.”
Jake Chapman: Influencer social apps hook users like drug addicts
“And with certain social businesses, I don't like that the premise is really all based on We're going to trigger, like, a little dopamine high in all of these people and keep them coming back. It makes them, like, drug addicts, and, like, it literally is a dopa…”
Conwell: VCs Automatically Assume Black-Focused Startup Markets Are Small
“When VCs hear black, they automatically think small. Every time.”
Conwell: Podcast AI will be replicable as a weekend project by 2025
“Yeah, I hate to be the killjoy of the year, but literally a year from now, somebody wanted to recreate podcast AI, they'll probably be able to do it as a weekend project.”
Brown: Uncovered Will Track Killers' IP Addresses When They Join
“We do believe that the killers will come and become members of Uncovered, and we'll track their IPs, and we'll give that information to law enforcement to help solve these cases.”
Puga: Pure SaaS struggles in Latin America without transactional business models
“When you build a SaaS company in Latin America, Numbers are not easy to build a one billion company, but when you create a transactional model on your product, that changes.”
Yin: AI will benefit end users, but who will actually make money?
“Because I think AI technologies in the long run are going to be great for consumers and end users, but I don't know who makes money.”
Forenza: Aware projects achieving $100M ARR within five years
“We're projecting a hundred million ARR in five years. So about 400,000 units.”
Forenza: Exclusive patents prevent competitors from measuring EEG via ear cuff
“There is a IP in the hardware itself, in the form factor, in the ear cuff.
Ben Zices: Is that protected?
Antonio Forenza: Yeah, we have, yeah.
Ben Zices: So nobody else can measure EEG with an ear cuff device.
Antonio Forenza: Yes.”
Forenza: Aware's AI coach tracks emotions more precisely than a human therapist
“It's much more precise that a therapist or a life coach, but of course we don't see it as a replacement to that.”
CurieDx's strep diagnostic is 88% accurate, beating physician visual evaluations
“The rapid swab that you traditionally do at the doctor's office, the one that comes back in 15 minutes, that's about 95% accurate, so it's good, but it's not perfect, and, ah, the, you know, physicians are 64%, so we are around 88% right now accuracy”
Canaris: CurieDx Proof-of-Concept UTI Model Achieves 88% Accuracy
“And we have, just on the proof of concept model, we have 88% accuracy on that.”
Hudson: Jungle is a $50M to $75M ARR business, not venture-scale
“So, what I'm really saying is, I think this is a 50 to seventy five million dollar ARR business”
Hudson: AI in edtech compresses market opportunity rather than expanding it
“But when I think about, especially things in ed tech, where I think there's an AI element, I think like, what is AI good at doing today? Where do I think it will be in 12 and 24 months, and what does that do for the opportunity? And in most cases, I think it's…”
Material's proprietary nanomaterial blend eliminates the need for current collectors
“So our secret sauce is really our specialized nanomaterial blend that we developed in-house over the last couple years, and what this allows us to do is create batteries without current collectors. That's how we can make these conformable shapes.”
Elias: Competitors won't produce collector-free conformal batteries for a decade
“It's something that's not seen in the industry right now. It is emerging, I would say, in academia, and you might see it from other players in the next decade, but we're first movers because we had so much experience prior to starting this company.”
Material is targeting early-stage gross margins of 25% to 30%
“Well, I guess it depends on the complexity, but, you know, I'm going to be targeting in the 25 to 30% margin, at least at the early stage.”
Castellanos: Science On Call is only company automating in Toast POS
“So as far as we know, we're actually the only people automating processes and in toast right now”
Hudson: B2B financial wellness tools struggle with long cycles and low employee yield
“The challenge that we found is you actually need people to give you Mint-like access to their data, because if I, if all I know is your paycheck, I don't know your credit score. I don't know how much debt. You actually need people to give you a fair amount of …”
Callegari: 15 US Stores Will Generate $50M Revenue in Five Years
“15 locations provide us a scale that allow us to build the next five years a fifty million revenues business.”
Callegari Predicts $100M Acquisition at Just $20M in Revenue
“Already when we are in the range of 20 to twenty-five million, we are already the perfect target for luxury conglomerates, and I think the value is going to be in excess of one hundred million based on comparable transaction.”
FolioWorks has access to 3 million students approved for Federal Work-Study
“So we partner with every college career center, and so we have access to all of their three million students that are approved for work study.”
Burton: Lockstop Devices Generate $750 Annually From Data Monetization
“So each device generates about 750 dollars a year on its own.”
Burton: Lockstop Enforces a Strict $100,000 Minimum Check Size
“I absolutely hate to say this, especially on YouTube, but we've left the 50 K checks on the table, so we don't allow any investments under a hundred K.”
Robbins: Handle stores generate more revenue and higher margins than typical 7-Elevens
“Our stores generate more revenue and a higher margin than a typical seven 11.”
Robbins: Handle's customer acquisition cost is under one dollar
“So our customer acquisition cost is actually under a dollar.”
Robbins: Mature Handle stores will generate $2M in revenue and $500K profit
“There are 500 universities in the U.S. Where, that we've identified are viable markets for this, and if you just do the napkin math, our average store at maturity is going to be doing two million a year, so it's a billion in revenue, and then it's about 25% of…”
Luke Barkley Young: Fabric shower liners release carcinogenic PFAS in showers
“The material you're talking about it isn't, it's not cloth. It's a polyester. It's covered in what's called a DWR, durable water resistant, which is made of a PFA, which is a highly carcinogenic forever chemical. And when you stand next to it in the shower, th…”