ClaimsVinod Khosla

“And massive outcomes for @khoslaventures and others but more importantly a big change in the devops landscape.”

Vinod Khosla, on X 20 October 2021 Post by @vkhosla on X, 2021-10-20 (X)

Factual Economics and markets

GitLab's outcome produced massive financial returns for Khosla Ventures and other investors.

Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

What would count as true or false

Judged as of 2021-10-20 (GitLab's IPO, 14 October 2021). True: Khosla Ventures was a significant GitLab investor, and its stake (plus those of other investors) was worth many times its invested capital at or around the IPO valuation (roughly $11-16 billion), per S-1 ownership filings or credible reporting. Mostly true: large returns are shown, but Khosla's stake or multiple was smaller than 'massive' implies, though still substantial. Mixed: Khosla's returns were moderate (e.g. under 3x), while other investors' returns were large. Mostly false: Khosla was a minor holder and its return was small. False: Khosla Ventures did not hold a GitLab stake, or the investment was not worth more than its cost at the time.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (3)

  1. E1 Which VCs are set to make a killing in GitLab's IPO | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 20 September 2021

    “Khosla: 19,028,320 Class B shares, or 14.1% of that equity class.”

  2. E2 Which VCs are set to make a killing in GitLab's IPO | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 20 September 2021

    “At a $6 billion price point, Khosla could net north of $1 billion. At a $10 billion price tag, the number scales materially.”

  3. E3 Which VCs are set to make a killing in GitLab's IPO | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 20 September 2021

    “Khosla Ventures led the company’s early rounds before GV, Goldman Sachs and ICONIQ Capital took the baton.”

Reasoning

TechCrunch reports that Khosla Ventures led GitLab's early rounds (E3) and held 19,028,320 Class B shares, or 14.1% of that class (E1). TechCrunch estimated before the IPO that the stake could net over $1 billion at a $6 billion valuation, and materially more at $10 billion (E2). The IPO valuation range in the criteria is above both figures. The evidence does not state Khosla's invested capital, so 'many times its cost' is a strong inference rather than a stated figure. That gap supports mostly true rather than true.

Cite this claim

Vinod Khosla, “GitLab's outcome produced massive financial returns for Khosla Ventures and other investors.” (said 20 October 2021). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_802559831015, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_802559831015

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Vinod Khosla, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More factual claims by Vinod Khosla

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  3. Mostly true Factual 16 May 2019
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    Rubrik is younger than Cohesity and is growing much faster than Cohesity.

  4. Mostly false Factual 14 January 2014
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  5. Mostly false Factual 14 January 2014
    “Cleantech subsidies are a miniscule fraction of one-percent of these amounts.”

    Cleantech subsidies are a minuscule fraction of one percent of the fossil-fuel subsidy amounts referred to.

All of them

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