He later goes on to claim he's "never read a pitch deck". https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1492696791434731529?s=20&t=...
What an eye roll.
I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
71–80 of 346 posts
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#72Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#73Very similar to Sam's confession on Econtalk [1]:
> I probably shouldn't admit this--I'm on the Board of a public company: I can't read a balance sheet or income statement or anything like that.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#74Can’t read what he says as I was blocked years ago. I had expressed the mildest degree of cynicism one can possibly express in response to a straight up lie.
A lot of people are very sensitive to cynicism. It's easy to burn Bridges this way. I think it's kind of sad.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#75This is probably meant to be, partially, in comparison to Warren Buffet, who famously claims to invest based on reading of financial statements (and other documents) in search of “good businesses.” https://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffett-Interpretation-Financi... Suspect that both Buffet and Paul’s real methods rely heavily on instinct, context, relationship networks, combination potentials, personality and pattern mat…
they fundamentally do different things. VC investors make money when a company goes public or is sold off, it's effectively a Keynesian beauty contest. Buffett tries to find companies that are long term viable.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#76He later goes on to claim he's "never read a pitch deck". https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1492696791434731529?s=20&t=... What an eye roll.
I love the man's essays and he is clearly a genius, but he's getting carried away a bit on Twitter.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#77Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#78This is probably meant to be, partially, in comparison to Warren Buffet, who famously claims to invest based on reading of financial statements (and other documents) in search of “good businesses.” https://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffett-Interpretation-Financi... Suspect that both Buffet and Paul’s real methods rely heavily on instinct, context, relationship networks, combination potentials, personality and pattern mat…
Or all sorts of things you cannot publicly admit to without undermining your reputation.
For example, say that you have a resume packed with awards. The secret to getting nominations for awards and scholarships is usually to write it yourself and send it to a friend/teacher/colleague for signature, not waiting around hoping that someone deems you worthy.
As most wait for someone to deem them worthy, many awards are less competitive than they appear to be.
But you could never admit to this, as it would devalue you in the eyes of others.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ummm...in order to know what the company looks like after the investment, you need to know what the company looks like before the investment.
Please don’t start comments in that patronizing way. This field is highly counterintuitive. It’s easy to feel smart by parroting the obvious-seeming positions whilst being utterly wrong. To your point: when YC interviews companies, they are mostly very early stage and pre-revenue. What YC cares about is how much money they could make if everything goes right, and whether the team is capable of making everything go (c…
Even if you are an early stage company, you've still got to have something resembling the concept of a balance sheet, even if it's an excel spreadsheet with a list of two computers, a bank account, and an AWS bill that hasn't been paid yet. Maybe he's right that he personally has never read a balance sheet, but for literally any company that has already formed before the investment, they would be extremely foolish to overlook it.
I've personally seen A-rounds fall through because of balance sheets...turns out that when you promise hundreds of thousands of dollars in future services in exchange for a little bit of present cash flow, it can drastically affect your balance sheet and prospects for future investment.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#80Very similar to Sam's confession on Econtalk [1]: > I probably shouldn't admit this--I'm on the Board of a public company: I can't read a balance sheet or income statement or anything like that. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAYXUgNHHc4&t=1656s
"Can't do arithmetic, that's for beancounters"