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Ben Williamson

2 appearances on the record.

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Ben Williamson is an engineer and entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of YoShirt, an iOS-based custom on-demand apparel platform launched in 2014. Prior to founding YoShirt, he spent a decade working in engineering and retail at Apple during Steve Jobs' tenure.

25statements → 14claims → 2claims resolved → 3.84/5average certainty → 1.32/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 9said about them ↓

0 supported 1 partly supported 1 contradicted 2 not yet assessed 10 not checkable as stated how the 14 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

14 assertions · 3 opinions · 1 insight · 7 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 14 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, 2 are not yet assessed, and 10 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 Ben argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Yo Shirt was Kleiner Perkins' first seed-stage investment
“We were the first seed stage investment that they ever made. And we were, you know, very happy to have them in the deal.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 3:16 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson

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 Ben Williamson on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Ben Williamson said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Contradicted
Yo Shirt was Kleiner Perkins' first seed-stage investment
“We were the first seed stage investment that they ever made. And we were, you know, very happy to have them in the deal.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 3:16 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Opinion
Williamson: Stanford and Berkeley Grads at Apple Couldn't Fix Production Systems
“When I ended up at Apple, I was working with, you know, all these kids coming out of Stanford and Berkeley that had a lot of theory, but couldn't actually do anything. You know, I'd say, hey, you know, we're doing 360 transactions per second to this MySQL data…”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 20:51 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Insight
Williamson: Engineers Should Leverage Technical Debt When Testing Uncertain Features
“It's useful to be a hacker and use technical debt for your, you know, as leverage. If you're not sure something's going to work, you've got to be willing to throw it away and you don't want to invest too much.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 21:28 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Opinion
Ben Williamson rejects hypothetical $10M cash buyout offer for Yo Shirt
“I don't know, Nathan. I think that's a little low.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 12:49 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Williamson: Periscope Data gives Yo Shirt more operational insight than suppliers have
“It's periscopedata.com, and it basically, Nathan, I have better insight into suppliers we work with. I have more insight into their business than they do. And it's because I have real time data.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 18:30 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Opinion
Williamson: Snapchat UI has strong product-market fit for its core audience
“What I've realized about their product is that it speaks to the audience very, very well. If you watch a Use Snapchat. They know the app inside and out. And it's intuitive to them, but it's speaking to their customer. And it's not something, you know, that you…”
Ben Williamson Mar 1, 2016 ▶ 22:12 How YoShirt App Went from $0-$1m Fast with Ben Williamson of YoShirt Episode 23
Disclosure
Yo Shirt raised its seed round at a $5M post-money valuation
“It was five.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 3:38 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Yo Shirt ships 95% of custom apparel orders within five days
“And right now, 95% orders ship within five days.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 4:38 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Disclosure
Yo Shirt COGS on $36 t-shirts ranges from $16 to $18
“So cost of goods are between 16 and 18 bucks.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 5:39 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Williamson: Yo Shirt reached over 3M lifetime downloads
“All in over the life of the app is over three million people that have downloaded the app. There were two million last year.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 7:26 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Williamson: Yo Shirt has over 100k paying customers
“We have over a 100,000 paying customers.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 7:40 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Williamson: Yo Shirt generated $3M in top-line revenue in 2015
“So total top line revenue in 2015 was three million dollars.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 9:19 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Disclosure
Williamson: Yo Shirt is targeting $10M in 2016 revenue
“We're shooting for 10.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 9:25 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Williamson: Yo Shirt boosted Fall Out Boy merchandise sales over 20%
“The Fall Out Boy activation was incredibly successful, and in terms of net overall merchandise, we were able to add over 20% to their merchandise sales.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 9:57 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Assertion Partly supported
Williamson: Apple's original iTunes application was built by two developers
“You know, if you look at like the original iTunes application, that was two guys.”
Ben Williamson Mar 1, 2016 ▶ 4:48 How YoShirt App Went from $0-$1m Fast with Ben Williamson of YoShirt Episode 23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Williamson: YoShirt has surpassed one million app downloads
“So we're north of a million downloads now.”
Ben Williamson Mar 1, 2016 ▶ 9:38 How YoShirt App Went from $0-$1m Fast with Ben Williamson of YoShirt Episode 23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Williamson: YoShirt achieves month-over-month double-digit percentage growth
“We've had double digit percentage growth really since we turned on the marketing engine and started any outbound marketing month over month.”
Ben Williamson Mar 1, 2016 ▶ 9:43 How YoShirt App Went from $0-$1m Fast with Ben Williamson of YoShirt Episode 23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Williamson: YoShirt's conversion rate is around two percent
“So it's over, you know, our conversion rate's about two percent right now, and we're actually in the process of going back and really instrumenting every single step and going back to the drawing board and looking at what's critical, what can we do to make the…”
Ben Williamson Mar 1, 2016 ▶ 10:54 How YoShirt App Went from $0-$1m Fast with Ben Williamson of YoShirt Episode 23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Williamson: YoShirt average order value is $38 to $42
“The majority are t-shirts, and the average purchase price, like, the average value per transaction is held steady. It's fluctuated between 38 and 42 dollars, so we're very consistent there.”
Ben Williamson Mar 1, 2016 ▶ 11:42 How YoShirt App Went from $0-$1m Fast with Ben Williamson of YoShirt Episode 23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Williamson: YoShirt achieves 60% gross margin on custom apparel
“So we have a 60% gross margin. Across the product. So we can produce a shirt, you know, if it's 40 bucks to your door, then, you know, let's say it's around, you know, 12 to 15 bucks for us to produce.”
Ben Williamson Mar 1, 2016 ▶ 14:25 How YoShirt App Went from $0-$1m Fast with Ben Williamson of YoShirt Episode 23
Disclosure
Williamson: YoShirt Raised $1.125 Million in First Seed Round
“Yeah, we actually, so we did a release on the initial raise and I, yeah, so we raised one, two, five in the first seed.”
Ben Williamson Mar 1, 2016 ▶ 20:37 How YoShirt App Went from $0-$1m Fast with Ben Williamson of YoShirt Episode 23
Disclosure
Williamson: Yo Shirt closed an oversubscribed $1.1M seed round
“So we raised we're oversubscribed around. We ended up closing at 1.1 million. We'd gone up for one.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 2:59 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Disclosure
Yo Shirt raised its $1.1M round as priced equity
“No, we did a price round.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 3:33 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson
Disclosure
Yo Shirt employs 13 full-time staff members
“We've got 13 full-time employees now.”
Ben Williamson Jun 10, 2016 ▶ 4:10 This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP 273: Ben Williamson

Show 1statements(1 left)

The other half of the tape: Ben Williamson's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 9 times in 6 episodes on Top Founders. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 9

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
00531062016episodesmentions
0362016episodes it came up in
000.831.562016episodesmentions per episode
2016 9 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
This App is Redefining On Demand Apparel Commerce with 3m Downlaods and $3m+ In Sales, EP Jun 10, 2016 11m
How YoShirt App Went from $0-$1m Fast with Ben Williamson of YoShirt Episode 23 Mar 1, 2016 14m
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