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John Colgan

Founder & CEO, CellBreaker · 1 appearance on the record.

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

founderexecutive@JonColgan ↗cellbreaker.com ↗

Jon Colgan is an entrepreneur who founded CellBreaker, a legal tech startup backed by 500 Startups and NC IDEA that helped users avoid cell phone early termination fees. He later evolved the service into Veeto to assist consumers with broader vendor contract cancellations.

12statements → 6claims → 1claims resolved → 3.83/5average certainty → 1.75/5average debate potential → 8said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 predictions · 3 assertions · 1 opinion · 1 insight · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is 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 John 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
Colgan: 2011 Supreme Court Ruling Shut Down Cell Contract Class Actions
“In 2011, the Supreme Court of the United States basically issued a ruling that said the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state law, and so it all but shut down the efficacy of class action lawsuits in the case of things like cell phone contracts.”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 9:39 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker

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 John Colgan on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

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

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Colgan: Cellbreaker has never lost a contract dispute case
“A hundred percent. ... The only exception to that is especially early on when we were figuring out what our model was going to be, we would occasionally issue refunds if somebody said, okay, like that's not what I thought I was getting. So we would improve our…”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 7:44 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Opinion
Colgan: Sprint has the highest density of customer hatred
“I would say the highest density of hatred for a carrier would be Sprint.”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 8:17 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Assertion Supported
Colgan: 2011 Supreme Court Ruling Shut Down Cell Contract Class Actions
“In 2011, the Supreme Court of the United States basically issued a ruling that said the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state law, and so it all but shut down the efficacy of class action lawsuits in the case of things like cell phone contracts.”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 9:39 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Insight
Colgan: Founders must play the strength of their hand, not their bank account
“Play the strength of your hands, not the strength of your bank account. So basically a lot of times when you're building an early stage startup you know, your ambition outstrips your resources. And it takes a lot of courage and a lot of boldness to make the de…”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 17:30 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Colgan: Chances of a class action against Verizon are slim
“So, to answer your question, yeah, there are probably lots of people wanting to sue Verizon for the exact same reason, but the chances that that's going to happen as a class are slim to none.”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 9:55 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Colgan: Cellbreaker's next valuation will exceed $10M if run rate holds
“If we hit our run rate numbers, if we stay on track there, it'll be above ten million.”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 14:33 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Disclosure
Colgan: Cellbreaker charges 35% of saved contract termination fees
“We charge 35% of what we save the customer, which consists exclusively of early termination fees.”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 3:20 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Colgan: Cellbreaker reached a $13M run rate in August 2015
“So we saw about 13,000 users pass through. And we were on track for a thirteen million dollar annual run rate.”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 5:55 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Colgan: 'Justice as a Service' Startups Will Eventually Overlap and Compete
“The companies that are in the space all kind of started with a different segment, and we've all said publicly that we intend to eventually overlap with our competitors”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 11:32 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Disclosure
Colgan: Cellbreaker is launching vertical-agnostic brand Vito
“Our next move, we're launching a new brand called Vito, which is going to be vertical agnostic.”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 13:48 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Disclosure
Colgan: Cellbreaker has raised just under $300,000 to date
“Just under 300,000 to date.”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 13:10 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker
Disclosure
Colgan: Cellbreaker is planning to raise around $1.5 million
“We haven't opened the round yet, but we're thinking something in the one and a half million range.”
John Colgan Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 14:10 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker

The other half of the tape: John Colgan's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 7 times in 3 episodes on Top Founders. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 7

Statements about John Colgan, by other people (1)

Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Latka: Colgan was Diane Sawyer's final ABC World News interviewee in 2014
“To talk about CellBreaker, John was the last scheduled interviewee with Diane Sawyer before she retired as ABC World News nightly anchor in 2014.”
Nathan Latka Jan 22, 2016 ▶ 1:16 He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0042832016episodesmentions
0232016episodes it came up in
001.31.52.532016episodesmentions per episode
2016 7 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
He Sue's Cell Phone Companies that Pray on You with Jon Colgan of Cellbreaker Jan 22, 2016 9m
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