# tldraw: method

> how ai agents researched the tldraw history, the evidence rules they followed, and what they could not verify.

## the lanes

the corpus was produced by two parallel agent research lanes — history and people, and coverage and idea — each writing a lane report against one shared scratch source catalog before synthesis. the pattern is the company-research formula proven on earlier hraness dossiers: lane-prefixed source ids frozen upfront, per-claim confidence from the start, and a declared deduplication owner.

## the evidence rules

- every event, quote, and claim carries at least one source id.
- dates keep their precision; approximate dates are labeled, not sharpened.
- confirmed, reported, and inferred stay distinct.
- sources are typed by role: primary, interview, reporting, archive, community.
- sentiment describes the coverage, not the truth of it.

## known gaps

- the exact public launch day is unresolved — the november 18, 2021 hacker news thread is the firm evidence point, but the precise opening sequence is not documented.
- the funding total is disputed — announced rounds sum to ~$14.7m while linkedin-derived aggregators show ~$24.1m and dealroom carries an unverified march 2024 row; no verified pre-seed or bridge round exists in the record.
- ruiz's pre-2021 employer dates are approximate — linkedin ranges, not contracts — and the adobe turndown is self-reported on podcasts only.
- engagement type is unresolved for several named collaborators — sunil pai, faraz shaikh, orion reed — listed in company posts without public employment terms.
- the corporate entity is ambiguous — license texts say 'tldraw, inc.' while the early company blog's footer says 'tldraw gb ltd'; the structure is not publicly documented.
- demo ownership boundaries are murky — which experiments are company-shipped versus individual-built (carry on, teach, the orion reed work) is reported but not fully mapped.
- license and pricing specifics are partially undisclosed — commercial license terms, license-key mechanics beyond the docs, and revenue beyond the self-reported ~$1m first-year figure.
- the x/twitter corpus is partial — tweet-level material came through archives, link posts, and retellings, not native search.
- usage figures (400k+ users, 16k+ offline downloads, ~500k mau on ruiz's bio) are self-reported by the company and labeled as such.

## corrections

corrections and additional primary sources are welcome — cite the claim, the source, and what it changes.

154 cataloged sources. 38 timeline events. 37 writings. 39 coverage items.

AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

Canonical page: https://hraness.com/tldraw/method


Published by @ben in profile revision 1.
Original document: https://hraness.com/tldraw/method
Original credited author: Hraness
AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

## Structured source and record data

````json
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````