A few things you’re not supposed to say during VC pitch meetings 🙂 1/ “No rush! Take your time, review our materials, and let us know” – You should have a firm (and ideally, short) window and clearly communicate it 2/ “It’s now or never – this round will be filled very quickly” – No … Continue reading Don’t Say These During Pitch Meetings
Ideally, entrepreneurs can plan their fundraising in what I call “2+2+2 fundraising”: 2 years – Build relationships with investors. Doesn’t have to be 2 years; can be 6 months, or 4 months, whatever. The point is, it takes a long time to build a good relationship, and the best time to build a relationship with … Continue reading 2+2+2 Fundraising
A guy sees a girl. At the first sight, he immediately falls in love with her – he even thinks he might be able to build a life with her. He thinks “one day I’ll show up in front of her, and I’ll make sure she gets totally impressed.” He gets into a hard training … Continue reading Don’t Show Up At The Last Minute
No one cares about how many lateral passes you made; the only thing that matters is scores. Lateral passes = emails, slack messages, zoom callsScoring goals = closing a deal, shipping a new feature, hiring an A-list talent Lateral passes are often necessary part of the game, but they’re not the end goals in and … Continue reading What Matters Is Scores, Not Lateral Passes
A few quick things to keep in mind for those who only worked at big companies and are now joining a startup: Continue reading When You Transition From A Big Company To A Startup
One of the questions that I got most frequently when I did the last company was, “Is Tapas a tech company or a content/IP company?” (*For those who don’t know, Tapas was/is a creator platform for serialized digital comics and novels) I’m sure big companies get the same questions all the time too. Is Airbnb … Continue reading Are You a Platform Company or a Content Company?
Recently I had a chance to sit in a startup pitch event where the theme was scientists (mostly university professors) pitching about their startups built around their research. Without generalizing too much, here are my quick observations / wishes from some of those founders: Better storytelling: People forget about technology, but they remember stories. Scientist … Continue reading Research Scientists and Startup
Someone I know (who’s a Gen Z) recently remarked: “The world is literally burning, and all we got is short videos.” Many of this generation’s biggest problems, such as social divisiveness and mental health issues, can be traced back to social media as one of the main culprits. Instagram makes you feel miserable; Twitter (X) … Continue reading The New Manhattan Project
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur aiming to build an internet/mobile based product, you should consider building for the US/English-speaking market first. Why? It’s not only because the US is a bigger market (which it is, with 300M+ population and high % of paid users), but the success in the US will lead to an even … Continue reading Why You Should Build for the US/global Market
My wife recently asked me a random question – “What do you regret the most in life?” I hadn’t really thought about the question, so I gave it some thoughts. Then, my answer was – “I can’t really think of anything that I really, really, really regret about.” Trust me, I do have many regrets: … Continue reading What Do You Regret in Life?