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 290 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 5 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
Mobilewalla monitored swing state polling locations in real-time for campaign teams
“What we did for this particular party, who spent way less on, feet on the street than the other party, we were monitoring every polling booth, every polling location in a certain number of states, And we were telling the ground team who showed up to vote and w…”
Gamito: Nathan Barry fired him two weeks before ConvertKit equity vested
“I think my equity was supposed to vest and that director position was supposed to vest the next month, like two weeks after that. So it was a very strategic move on his part.”
Harris: The Venture Capital Model Is Effectively a Ponzi Scheme
“Because that VC model is, if you were, if you're being a little bit mean about it, you'd call it a Ponzi scheme. Because people have to lose.”
Zach Resnick believes Craig Wright is very likely Satoshi Nakamoto
“Most of our thesis and our focus on the reason we're really long BSV and not other blockchains comes from the technology of Bitcoin and is, doesn't have to do with Craig Wright, but yes, you are correct in that I do think that Craig Wright is very likely to be…”
Zach Resnick sees no compelling evidence that Craig Wright is a fraudster
“I personally haven't seen any compelling evidence of him doing kind of unethical things or being a fraudster the way that a lot of those arguments are painted in kind of the crypto media.”
Chernis: Most Lately staff went unpaid for two years during cash crunch
“And so, but that also means most of my staff didn't get paid for the last two years.”
Pysh: Bitcoin will probably peak between $200,000 and $300,000
“It's going to go straight through that number. It's probably going to go to two to 300,000.”
Pompliano: Bitcoin will hit $100,000 by the end of 2021
“I think that from now where we're recording this in April of 2020, I think that by the end of 2021, we'll see Bitcoin hit a 100,000 dollar price point”
Organ: Venture-backed software jobs are more important than serving food
“You know, the restaurant business is not actually one that is sustainable. That doesn't sustainably create lots of, you know, lots of, you know, high tech Innovative jobs. Whereas I think what I'm doing does. So I know that might sound selfish, but I don't thi…”
Malone: Tech will create a permanent underclass of zero-economic-value citizens
“We've got zero, we have what are called ZEVs coming, and those are zero economic value citizens. Which are people that even if you had a job opening, you would never hire them, because technology will do the job instead, and this is going to represent a sizabl…”
Antonopoulos: State agencies and corporate banks fund most global terrorism
“The truth is that the vast majority of terrorism is funded by state agencies, intelligence agencies, and large corporate banking consortia.”
Latka claims 99 percent of people on Earth are totally useless
“I think 99% of people on earth, they're totally useless. They don't think much, and they rely on other people.”
Latka deceptively lists unconfirmed speakers to sell conference tickets
“What it said, if you go look at that particular part, it said confirmed and invited. They have been either confirmed or invited. And what I will tell you, as sales come in and I have more money to play with, the likelihood that I actually confirm all of them i…”
Ley: SSRIs are very likely causing many mass shooting incidents
“And then the second thing is that it's very likely that SSRIs are actually causing a lot of these.”
Tim Draper Defended Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes as 'Terrific' in 2016
“Oh yeah, she's terrific.”
Danzy: European engineers offer better technical quality than equivalent-budget US engineers
“We have more stability and more, frankly, a better technical level with European engineers than what we could find in the US for the same budget.”
Garg: Henry Schein and Patterson lack software engineering capabilities
“These are owned by Henry Schein and Patterson. These are large supply companies. They don't have their technical skills or even the people to be able to build software the way we can.”
Kahlow: 1Mind is building AI to replace all GTM roles
“We are building what we call go-to-market superhuman. So we are replacing all roles across go-to-market.”
Kahlow: 1Mind's AI agent Fiona does the work of 89 SDRs and 19 SEs
“The transcripts, and the number of conversations, and the quality of conversations, the depth, and the content she was talking about, and it would have taken 89 SDRs and 19 sales engineers to do the job that Fiona is doing today.”
Kahlow: Buyers will soon trust AI sales agents over human reps
“I actually think we're about to cross the chasm where people trust AI more than humans because we have the ability to put the AI on really tight guardrails. And if you do this right, and once society actually moves to that point, they're going to demand to tal…”
Kahlow: Customer support AI platforms operate as low-margin businesses
“They're solving the problem of, you know, solving support cases and tickets. That is a very low margin business, right? So, like, you can't have a million conversations and have it cost a lot because there's not a big upside to that.”
Spiegel: Pure SaaS companies will see revenue drop to zero within years
“So, I mean, look, my general thought on this is SAS is dead. So if you're just SAS, your revenue is going to go to zero in the next couple of years.”
Romain Torres: Every single ad will be AI-generated in three years
“Every single ad will be AI generated in like three years. So if you don't start doing this right now, Basically you will get left behind.”
Alina Vandenberg says traditional corporate organizational hierarchies are broken
“And that is the traditional org chart in which we all have an SVP, a VP, a director, an IC is broken. I believe that the best way to run a company is by having a flat structure.”
Alina Vandenberg says the traditional advice to hire senior leaders fails
“So what he's referring to by Founder Mode is that we're told that we can run our company by hiring great people and get outside of their way. Senior, great people. That sounds lovely in theory, in practice, because we're founders and we're very particular abou…”
Singh: Software Has Been a Horrible Investment Category Since 2018
“Software has actually been a really horrible category to invest in for the last five, six, seven years.”
Yampolskiy: The best investors won't help you; founders are on their own
“The best investors are not going to bother you. They're not going to help you. Nobody's going to help you. You're in by yourself, no matter who promises what to you, but the worst investors will actually give you better advice and really create more headache f…”
Yampolskiy: 50/50 founder equity splits are a huge mistake
“And then I do think it's actually a huge mistake to have a fifty-fifty split with your founder when you start a company, because even if it's 51, 49, somebody needs to be in charge and control the board.”
Yampolskiy: Founders Should Ignore Advice from Investors Who Never Operated
“Do not listen for advice from people who've not done your job. That's my number one advice. It doesn't matter if you have a Investor from Sequoia or Andreessen. We've taken money from top investors, including Sequoia. It doesn't matter if you are a board membe…”
London: International hires work harder and are more appreciative than US workers
“A lot of people that we've hired from, ah, different countries are harder working and more appreciative of the job than the people in the U.S.”
Jain: An 80/20 SaaS-to-services ratio significantly increases customer stickiness
“Now, as SaaS companies, most SaaS companies are told Not to get into services. But the services layer actually can add a lot of stickiness. So think of it as 80% SaaS, 20% services. That thin layer, I think, can make accounts much more stickier, especially whe…”
Sales teams should reduce headcount if reps average under 15 weekly meetings
“So if your reps don't have 15 meetings a week, then what that means is one of the ways that you can drive improved efficiency is by reducing the number of reps. I'm sorry to be callous like that, but the point is great companies are routing more resources, mea…”
Omnisend CEO Rytis Lauris: Content SEO fails unless you buy backlinks
“You could be a good writer, but if you don't buy backlinks, if you don't buy referring other domains, it will not work.”
Novoselsky: The Traditional SaaS Playbook Is Dead
“And one of the things that TLDR on all of my research, basically the SAS playbook as we know it is dead”
Microsoft screws channel partners by cutting renewal commissions to 5%
“Microsoft screws their channel program partners. What do they do? They give them a nice 30% commission on the first year, and a nice five percent commission on the second year when the customer renews.”
Martin: Bootstrapped SaaS Grows 6.7% Faster Than VC-Backed Past $10M ARR
“Another statistic that I saw was SaaS median growth rate over ten million ARR is 24%, so growth goes down obviously a little bit as you're scaling the organization.
However, if you split out venture-backed companies, Bootstrapped actually grows 6.7% faster
Tha…”
Martin: Applying Venture-Backed Playbooks to Bootstrapped SaaS Hurts Growth
“And I would also add on that bootstrapped companies learning from venture-backed companies is counterproductive.
To their overall growth.”
Robinson: Successful founders should take millions yearly instead of awaiting exits
“If you create a successful startup I believe that you should make millions of dollars every year, and not just be waiting for this maybe exit, or like maybe secondary, that maybe will happen, but maybe will not, probably will not.”
Bootstrapping Is Often a Better Path to IPO Than Venture Capital
“I think bootstrapping is actually, in many ways, a better way to get to be a public company.”
Hawkins: Arrowroot Capital forced an unwanted exit on Agilence
“All I know is that they forced our hand and it was not not what we wanted to do.”
Sanwal: Best practices produce average results and will not build exceptional companies
“Best practices are for losers, full stop. They're for people who want to be average. Like, nobody who follows best practices builds great companies or builds exceptional companies.”
Maruthavanan: Product-market fit is a fraud mental model and not actionable
“Product market fit. It's not even a framework, it's just a phrase. Some people like to call it a mental model. And I think, you know, it is a fraud mental model. I have not found a single entrepreneur who could look at the definition of product market fit and …”
Founders should exploit venture capitalists for upfront capital, not seek friendship
“And they're not your friends. You know, what they're doing is they're making money from your decision to go into business as an entrepreneur and make money. And that's a different thing, and you, my view would, oh sorry, my view would be, you know, exploit the…”
Singh: Buying lowest-NPS stocks outperforms high-NPS companies over time
“I've always told investors just, you know, you'd be better off buying a basket of stocks that have the lowest NPS of all, and they'll outperform the companies that have the best NPS. And you'll be like, well, it doesn't make sense, but think about the companie…”
Yampolskiy: Startups under $10M ARR probably lack product-market fit
“Like, I mean, I think if you're under ten million in ARR, you actually probably did not reach your product market fit yet.”
Suski: SaaS Under $10M ARR Should Charge Upfront Instead of Free Trials
“If you are just starting, or if you are just below ten million dollars ARR probably, you should focus on building a shut up and take money money product. So, focus on getting those early adopters. They will basically Either buy your product or not. They don't …”
Bhaskaran: Not rewriting an acquired company's codebase is a huge long-term mistake
“The first time I did it, I did not rewrite the platform. I rewrite their code base and I, that's, in fact in long term, a huge mistake, right? So because now you have multiple code bases, and my team doesn't want to work on better, and there's all this, all th…”
Latka: Upfront service fees prevent SaaS churn and boost retention
“This is the counterpoint guys, the VC argument that you shouldn't sell services inside of your SAS. I would always argue the opposite, which is if you touch a SAS sale with a big upfront fee, like five K, they're just not going to turn your net dollar retentio…”