I gave a talk on Social Media and Entrepreneurship Forum on "Smart Money for Social Media", at the invite of Nanyang Technopreneurship Center. Key concepts of my talk:
Ten Things To be Smart about Smart Money 1. Don’t assume you need to raise money 2. Umbrella law of VC 3. Laser-focused people in laser-focused funds 4. Hit where the puck is going to go 5. Focus on the forest, not the trees. 6. To woo a turkey buzzard, you have to play a buzzard game 7. Masterful Chef 8. Find a Bridge Over Troubled Waters 9. Are you a “Smart” Tiger? 10. If all else fails, move to an elite city
Brad Feld is an extremely thoughtful guy. He laid out valid points for the determinants of an entrepreneurial landscape. I certainly hope that we don't have to wait 20 years to see a vibrant entrepreneurial community in Singapore. Read more here.
Harvard Business School’s graduating class of 2010 asked HBS professor Clayton Christensen to address them.
His set of guidelines resonated deeply with me as I welcomed my second child last weekend.
Have a purpose in life; seize opportunities to learn and contribute; make time for family; create a culture of excellence; hold fast to your principles; and be humble.
With Koh Kim Huat, Executive Chairman of UPP holdings on my left. He explains that stock is the specialized; and it an arena where amateur play with professionals with no handicap, on a level-playing field. He stays out of it. Most of the people who buys stock do not even read the prospectus. Most cannot answer basic questions: Who are the major shareholders? What is net profit? What is annual turnover? He is bullish on China, energy and healthcare.
Josh Lerner, Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School Many gems:
Q Private Equity in Asia - too much money, too little deals and signs of bubble? A The ugly secret - returns of PE in general are 15 percent per annum. This is not horrible, or great. If you look at subset of private equity mkts in developing markets - returns per annum drop to five percent. Private Equity magic which works in states and Europe does not work in emerging mkts.
Two possibilities: First twenty years of PE market in US saw mediocre returns. Maturation process similar in the states in developing markets. Over time, PE seem to do much better. Growing pains and will still mature. Other skeptical reason is that investor rushing into this category. No intellectual reason why PE is not effective or not effective
Betting on emergent technology in Asia is not easy. Trend has been for entrepreneurs to create application for existing technology. Another trend is to move away from venture technology (e.g. Budget airlines startup business) in emergent mkts
RMB funds in China: Introduce a wedge in a lot of funds, create two set of investors in one fund. Reminds us of Biotech fighting with IT investor in US - different organizational complexity and different lp perspective. Pe already complex enough in china
Join internationally-published author Tan Yinglan in celebrating whirlwind "Way Of The VC" book tour at The Bar, Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley (2050 University Avenue) for book signing, drinking wine, and having fun. Also catch synopsis of new release: "Chinnovation - How Chinese Innovators are Changing the World"
To attend any of the Nov 4th - 5th events, please RSVP in the table below:
Session 1: (Nov 4 (Thurs) 7pm) "Global Venture Capital Trends and Fundraising For The Entrepreneur"
Session 2: (Nov 5 (Fri), 1.30pm) "Segmentation of Venture Capital" and extra bonus on "How Chinese Innovators are Changing The World" - Featuring VC panellists: Eric Young, General Partner and co-founder of Canaan Partners Dr Stephen Chiao, Managing Partner of Sycamore Ventures
We’ll be at: The Bar Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley 2050 University Avenue East Palo Alto, California, U.S.A. 94303 Tel. 1 (650) 566-1200
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Had coffee with a good friend in Singapore, Morten Lund. Lund has founded or co-invested in more than 40 high-tech start ups in the last decade, most famously Skype, the VoIP star snapped up by eBay for $2.6 billion in 2005.
Venture capitalist Tim Draper, the investor behind Hotmail, calls him "brilliant,"
He shares his entrepreneurial wisdom. More videos at http://www.wayofthevc.com
I was impressed with the benefits of Liquid Scenarios to manage cap tables and liquidation waterfalls.
The software is excellent and has made all processes around cap tables (current management and financing forecast, etc.) and liquidation waterfalls (both for internal and external proposes) significantly easier.
There are several benefits of Liquid Scenarios over traditional Excel. It improves the accuracy, reliability and justifiability of the valuations you are reporting to your limited partners It increase the productivity of your analysts, your finance team and your investing partners in one step It empowers an administrative assistant to do in seconds 40 hours of CFO/CFA level transformation and analysis It creates an unfair advantage for funds, portfolio companies and founders using it
If you have been searching for a solution or improvement from excel/other tools I highly recommend checking out their solution. The contact is Lorenzo Carver, lorenzo@liquidscenarios.com, http://liquidscenarios.com/. Do mention that you heard about it from Yinglan from Way Of The VC and he will be nice. :-)
Techventure 2010 took place at Marina Bay Sands, where top-tier venture capitalists, angels, entrepreneurs congregated. New relationship forged and old friends caught up.
After some hard work, culminated in the final execution of the event.
Dr Forrest Zhong, managing partner of KPCB China
Huang Yan, General Partner of CDH China
My Kauffman Fellow Classmate, Daniel Heaf, Director of BBC Investments and Mabel Chu, Managing Director of Horizons Capital (Lee Ka Shing's investment arm)
My ex-students, Shannon and Cailin, now co-founders of Artyii (www.Artyii.com)
My ex-student, Andy, co-founder at Tocco Studios
Lunch with Kauffman Fellows and hopefuls with Lunch Speaker with Mr Lee Kheng Nam
Had breakfast with Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a leading venture capital firm. He sportingly obliged to my request to provide an inspirational spiel to youths in Singapore thinking about entrepreneurship. Sneak preview below. Charming, lilting and vintage Tim Draper.
