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YZ Yuanzhe Fu + YY Yuyan Wang, founders of YUVC are thrilled to be joined by Dan Siroker, founder and CEO of Limitless/Rewind AI.
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Dan made VCs crazy by releasing a public pitch that attracted over 1k preliminary investment offers, 170+ term sheets, 30+ offers valued over 1b+. More recently, he charged $100 for an investor meeting (luckily, we got the meeting for free).
Rewind AI is a tool that many of the VC partners we talked to had regretted missing out.
Previously, Dan served as the Director of Analytics for Obama's first campaign. He also co-founded Optimizely, the #1 workplace according to San Francisco Business Times.
Dan has raised hundreds of millions in his career.
Highlights:
YZ: How do you select and filter investors, and what are the key traits you admire in them?
Dan: The most important thing I look for when evaluating investors is alignment around our long-term goals. Usually, you get into hot water when your goals are not aligned with the investor's goals. You really want to make sure that both the person you're working with at the venture fund and the fund itself are aligned with your values. For me, it's long term.
YY: Are there any fundraising advice you could give to other startup funders in 2024?
Dan: The core of that success has come from building a great product and building something people want. Usually, that's the most important thing.
YY: What's the biggest challenges for you in hardware?
Dan: How much you need to plan ahead. I'm a big believer in valuing responding to change over following a plan. So if something new comes in, new information, I want to be very nimble and quick as a team at incorporating, at learning, iterating. And hardware, you have physical atoms. And those physical atoms need to be put together, shipped to a customer. And once they're shipped, it's quite hard to change those atoms. And so that's been the biggest challenge for me.
Chapters:
00:01 Introduction
02:07 What's Dan's next fundraising move?
12:14 Is 10x easier than 2x?
23:47 The Limitless Pendant
31:11 Meaning of Life
Links:
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu + YY Yuyan Wang, founders of YUVC are super excited to have a round-2 with Lewis Hong, Partner of FP Solutions VC, face-to-face at Westin Shenzhen.
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Previously, we had an online chat with Lewis uncovering his SpaceX life, investment rationale, and interesting stories.
Since Lewis had a deep dive into the Shenzhen supply chains, we learned from him about these topics:
00:50 Chinese Founders Going Global
09:49 Where to Source Hardware Tech
16:26 AI in 3 years
17:30 AI workflow as a hardware tech VC
20:47 Meaning of Life
Highlights:
YY: Are there any interesting companies that have made some fatal mistakes in localization?
Lewis: From the bottom of your heart, how to overcome the resistance to you being a foreign enterprise. You do it by being more local than the local enterprises.
YZ: What are some obvious traits of entrepreneurs?
Lewis: Teamwork is crucial. We are not very keen on investing in entrepreneurs who work alone. We hope to find many Musks, but relatively speaking, they are rare.
YZ: What kind of capabilities will AI have in 3 years?
Lewis: For ourselves, we focus on AI-inspired hardware.
Links:
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We (YUVC) are thrilled to have a face-to-face chat with Song Chang, Partner of QF Capital, at their Shenzhen headquarters.
QF Capital is a leading early-stage RMB fund in China since 2013, now managing nearly 10 billion RMB. QF endured the first 5 years with a DPI close to 0 and witnessed a soaring number of portfolios going public ever since.
Song joined QF Capital as a fresh graduate and experienced the typical path of a VC investor from a newbie analyst to a senior partner, much like QF Capital itself.
00:00 Introduction
03:34 10 years at a Venture Capital firm
05:16 Investment Methodology (Take eVTOL for Example)
33:47 AI in the eyes of a Chinese VC Investor
42:04 Future of Venture Capital in China
50:43 Founders
53:40 Meaning of Life
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu + YY Yuyan Wang, founders of YUVC are joined by Sue Xu, Managing Partner at Amino Capital on the YUVC Podcast.
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Dr. Sue Xu joined the firm in 2012, with investment theme of data moat, network effect and domain agnostic. She has successful investments from inception to unicorn in Generative AI, Consumer, SaaS and Frontier tech.
Highlights:
YY: Your most hesitant investment so far?
Sue: Most early-stage deals are controversial. No one is a winner for sure.
YY: Advice for Younger Self?
Sue: Find your position in the society. Then you can ignite endless inspiration.
Chapters:
04:34 Gift Moments
15:29 Rationality in VC
20:21 Silicon Valley Angle
24:36 Founder Portrait
28:13 Women in Tech
31:46 Partners at Amino Capital
Links:
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu + YY Yuyan Wang, founders of YUVC are thrilled to have Andreas Munk Holm of eu.vc, since we've shared so many common traits and stories.
Yes and no. Let me tell you about how I think about venture (from the perspective of people raising funds, because that’s what I care about as an LP)Story about my own journey in venture + realizing how much of a networked industry it is and there being “the in-crowd” and those outside of it. And how this impacts the industry as a whole.Conclusion: There’s clearly an A and B team in venture. So I guess that statement goes even for people IN venture. Just look at the performance dispersion in venture. Even at the fund level, there’s a power law.
Andreas, together with David Cruz e Silva, shaped eu.vc to be Europe's headline VC community, where 2 VCs are invited on the show every week. After chatting with 1,000+ VCs, they are also angel LPs of 10+ VC funds.
Highlights:
Do you agree with ‘there are two types of people who want to enter the VC industry, either very smart and capable, or super naive’?What are some commonalities of promising European emerging VC funds?
More solo-GPs, some very strongMore specialized firms, obv in deep tech, climate, and some in diversityStarting to see more later stage firms, which is great for Europe.Eastern Europe is incredibly interesting, great tech talent, starting to have breakout companies that feed great angels and founders back into the ecosystem, Romania being the posterboy for this with UI Path.Where do you see eu.vc in five years?
We do everything with an eye to becoming the most well-respected VC centric platform for European venture. Be that in the form of podcasts, educational courses, dinners, survival trips or fund investments.
Chapters:
Links:
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu + YY Yuyan Wang, founders of YUVC are joined by Dr. Han Shen, Founding Partner at iFly.vc on the YUVC Podcast.
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YUVC had a brunch chat in Shanghai with Dr. Han Shen, founding partner of iFly.vc, a US-based early-stage consumer VC fund.
Dr. Shen is an early investor of Oculus, Weee!, and beyond.
A PhD in Chemistry from @UChicago and an MBA from @wharton , Dr. Shen broke into venture the hard way - visiting 100+ VCs at the Sand Hill Road, working for the series-C lead investor of @tesla (Vantage Point), joining Formation 8 and investing in Oculus (acquired by Facebook for $2b), and building his own fund iFly.vc and investing in @Weee_official the largest Asian fresh food e-commerce company in the U.S.
Highlights:
YZ: What’s the hardest part of building a venture capital fund?
Han: Consistently investing in the next big things.
YY: Your team setup and organizational culture?
Han: I’m a solo GP. I have operations team and associates. I remind them slow is fast, especially in one’s early years of VC.
YZ: Why was Weee!, your portfolio company and now the #1 Asian delivery app in the US, rejected by everyone?
Han: Some simply said TAM wasn’t big. But it wasn’t true. Minorities, including Asian, Hispanic, spend $360b on groceries. This market is under-served.
Chapters:
02:05 Entering VC in 2009
13:53 Investment Thesis of iFly.vc
34:57 the Next Big Thing
Links:
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu + YY Yuyan Wang, founders of YUVC are joined by Guy Kawasaki, the Wise Guy, on the YUVC Podcast.
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Guy is on a mission to make people remarkable. He is the co-author of Think Remarkable, the definitive guide to murdering your mediocrity, and the host of the Remarkable People podcast. He's also the chief evangelist of Canva and the ex-chief evangelist of Apple.
Guy’s new book, Think Remarkable, is out! Check it out!
Highlights:
YY: To become more remarkable people, which is better for me as a founder or VC to get an MBA?
Guy: I will tell you that to be a tech entrepreneur, an MBA is not necessary nor it's sufficient. It's two years out of your life where you could be building your product or service.
YY: Could you elaborate a bit more on how you would tailor content to the Remarkable guys?
Guy: I probably prep four to five hours for every episode. Many times the guest is coming on with a new book, so I have to read the new book. And when I start an interview, typically I have a sheet of paper with 20 to 30 questions ready to go.
YZ: Which stage of the three stages in your book, Growth, Great, and Grease, is more difficult for you in your personal development?
Guy: Well, first, I think grace has been the easiest. When you get to be 60, 70 years old, all the crap has been beaten out of you. So it gets easier. I would say the grit phase was probably the hardest. It just takes dedication and it just takes not giving up.
Chapters:
04:21 UCLA, Berkeley Haas, or Stanford?
06:36 Connect the Dots
07:06 How Great is AI?
10:52 Pain Points of VC
14:31 Getting Remarkable People on Your Show
16:21 What Do you Ask the Remarkable People
21:55 Commonalities of the Remarkable People
26:04 Writing a Book with AI
30:47 Meaning of Life
Links:
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu, founder of YUVC is joined by Lawrence Lundy Bryan, Research Partner at Lunar Ventures on the YUVC Podcast.
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Lawrence proudly carries out the State of the Future where 150+ frontier technologies were studied. From LLM, eVTOL, nuclear fusion, bitcoin, to Assisted Reproductive Technologies. Check it out!
Highlights:
YZ: What would be the single most powerful and important pieces of advice that you would give to the UK government in terms of technology adoption?
Lawrence: Ambition, it's a hard pitch and I don't imagine it to be successful. So in your framing of the question, would it be successful or not, unlikely. But what I would say is many of the challenges of Utilizing or getting the benefit of technology, especially AI, and we can think about synthetic biology, we can think about new forms of energy, is a lack of political will at a very senior level.
YZ: What does a good content-driven VC look like going forward?
Lawrence: I would strongly argue that maybe looking at it as content is the wrong way to do it. If it's part of your process, like it is with mine, then maybe publishing is a good way to share knowledge. But if it's specifically designed to build a brand or to hit a KPI, it's probably not worth the ROI.
YZ: How would you iterate investment thesis?
Lawrence: So first thing to do is to understand very broad landscape. This is often the hardest thing. What is the problem it is solving? Point to point transport. So instead of just doing a market analysis of vertical takeoff and landing, looking at the Kitty Hawk and looking at Lilliam and looking at the players within that market, say, what are the other ways to move from point to point? On the ground or in the air, whatever it might be, logistics or so moving things around or people around and to start at an extremely high level. What is the problem itself?
Chapters:
01:21 Consultant-turned-VC
08:36 Anything to Unlearn from Consulting?
11:45 Is Research a Must in VC?
15:33 Forming an Investment Thesis
24:59 State of the Future
32:00 Most overrated and underrated technologies
39:17 Meaning of Life
Links:
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu, founder of YUVC is joined by Aleks Shamis, Managing Partner at s16vc on the YUVC Podcast.
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Highlights:
YZ: $5M and 10 Countries, what was really the old days of a capital efficient company like?
Aleks: The best way to be capital efficient It's not to have a choice. Majority of companies starting 10 years ago outside of the United States didn't really have a choice but to be capital efficient.
YZ: What is the vision of s16vc?
Aleks: In five years, we just want to be one of the top five European founders funds. I think it's pretty boring, straightforward, very difficult, but straightforward.
YZ: Any advice for me?
Aleks: Say to yourself: today is the best day in your life.
Chapters:
02:19 Capital Efficiency
06:26 Going Global
09:17 Founder-turned-VC
12:11 Founders Fund
22:07 Digital Stack of s16vc
34:53 Startup Advisor
36:22 Advice to Younger Self
38:09 Meaning of Life
40:27 Advice for YUVC
Links:
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu + YY Yuyan Wang, founders of YUVC are joined by Kaye Han, Founding Partner at Antler Dragon Fund on the YUVC Podcast.
A Hospitality Management graduate from Cornell University, Kaye founded Woo Space, the WeWork of China and second largest of its kind in Beijing. There, Kaye witnessed a brief history of Chinese venture euphoria, as venture-backed startups move in and out the Woo Space.
After exiting Woo Space to NASDAQ: UK, Kaye now invests in early-stage startups leveraging Chinese strengths and addressing global markets.
Highlights:
YY: How can founders in deep trouble thrive?
Kaye: 1) Don't get loans to sustain your startup. 2) Stop loss in time. Be rational.
YY: Can you describe an experience in which you gave up on something you had meticulously planned?
Kaye: I was planning to build an Amazon Aggregator after exiting Woo Space. But since the interest rate hike, the key factor of this business, the cost of debt, wasn't sustainable anymore for us to carry on.
YZ: What is Antler Dragon Fund like in 5 years?
Kaye: We want to become the first choice of Chinese startups going global, especially for the founders who studied abroad.
Chapters:
00:00 Hospitality Management at Cornell
04:01 WeWork of China
07:39 Founders Playbook
15:50 Think about exit!
18:43 How to Thrive if you are in trouble
23:24 Redflags in Hiring
27:12 Team Setup of Global-minded Ones
32:30 Antler Dragon Fund
Links:
YouTube
Spotify
RED
Bilibili
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu + YY Yuyan Wang, founders of YUVC are excited to have Lewis Hong 洪力德, Founding Partner at FP Solutions on the YUVC Podcast.
Sr. Operation Leader, Launch Vehicle at SpaceXDirector of Manufacturing and Operations at Romeo Power, which was later acquired by Nikola Motor
Previously:
Highlights:
YZ: Did you go to Stanford because you wanted to start something?
Lewis: It's not you who choose Stanford, but the other way around. Startup and VC weren't obvious when I went to Stanford.
YZ: How to value an early-stage startup without metrics?
Lewis: Like all the negotiations, it is case by case. It depends on how much bargaining power you have. Since it's that early, we care not that much about valuation. Whether it could win eventually matters more - then the difference is like 30x vs 25x.
YY: When do first principles fail?
Lewis: First principles give you a guideline. It takes execution. The gap persists.
Chapters:
00:19 Social Media
00:57 Joining SpaceX in 2012
03:21Work-life Balance at SpaceX?
05:41 Inside Elon's Brain
06:38 Leaving SpaceX
09:05 FP Solutions VC
09:44 Idiot Index
12:02 Android for SpaceX
13:07 Timing Issue Founding a VC
14:43 Founders Lewis Love
17:39 Founders Lewis Hate
18:50 Founder-VC Dynamics
23:10 Early-stage Startup Valuation
24:33 Best Pitch
25:18 Silicon Vallley
26:38 Chinese VCs
27:24 Stanford
27:38 Garry Tan
Links:
YouTube
Apple Podcast
Spotify
RED
Bilibili
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu + YY Yuyan Wang, founders of YUVC are excited to have Alex Jiang 蒋亚萌, Founding Partner at Antler Dragon Fund on the YUVC Podcast.
Zhihu知乎 (NYSE ZH)每日互动 (China IPO)Mininglamp Technology 明略科技 (AI unicorn)Advance Intelligence Group 领创集团 (Fintech unicorn in SEA)Source 所思科技 (leading VR/metaverse company), etc.
Alex is a lead early investor in 3 unicorns and 2 IPOs:
Alex was voted two times Forbes China Top100 Investors by Forbes and 2019 China Top50 VC Investors. Previously:
Highlights:
YY: Are entry-level roles such as associates necessary at VC Firms?
Alex: Not really if the stage is quite early. But Matrix Partners China had a different approach.
YY: Any thoughts on follow-on investments & signaling?
Alex: You have to respect the rules of making money in VC. You have to double down on the winners.
YZ: How can YUVC thrive to be the next 20VC?
Alex: I see Chinese founders have a great deal of storytelling to do when they go global. If you could bridge this gap and provide such value, you could naturally enter their cap tables.
Chapters:
00:00 Big Corp → VC
04:11 Make a Partner at Sinovation Ventures
06:29 Hiring at Early-stage VC Firms
09:49 First Check: Confident yet Cautious
12:18 VC’s value add?
15:03 Macro, Macro, Macro
17:08 Antler Dragon Fund: Chinese Strength, Global Market
21:14 Tips for Founders Going Global
24:54 Content Creators as VC-Wannabes
Links:
YouTube
Apple Podcast
Spotify
RED
Bilibili
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YZ Yuanzhe Fu, founder of YUVC invited Konstantin Urban, General Partner at Generations Fund (G-Fund) to be the first ever guest on the YUVC Podcast.
Konstantin is the founder of ex-FSE-listed company Windeln.de, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Parship.com, Experteer.com. Creator of the largest Fantasy Football Game in Germany, Kicker Managerspiel. Former Partner and Managing Director at BCG Digital Ventures, Venture Partner with 42CAP.
Highlights:
YZ: Founding a 200 million euro turnover company, like what's your biggest takeaway?
Konstantin: I would say it's not all about growth. We grew too fast and our operations couldn't hold up with the growth.
YZ: What is the vision of G-Fund?
Konstantin: If you have visions, you have to go to the hospital.
YZ: If you had the chance to say something to yourself, who was just upon graduating from university, what would that be?
Konstantin: The determination in order to reach a goal. It's way more important than intelligence or education or anything like that.
Chapters:
00:00 Life of a Public Company CEO: Ad-hoc
02:09 Challenges and Rewards of Building a 200 Million Euro Turnover Company
07:00 BCG Digital Ventures Partner-turned-VC
10:32 G-Fund’s Vision and Investment Thesis
13:56 Getting a Term Sheet: the Key to Attracting Investors
17:08 Red Flags in Startups: Personality Traits and Corporate Investors
20:29 Biggest Missed Investment?
24:06 Meaning of Life: Leave Something Behind
Links:
YouTube
Apple Podcast
Spotify
RED
Bilibili
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