Vickers Venture Partners’ Jeff Chi seeks young, talented, world-changing entrepreneurs

Gwen and I caught up with Dr Jeff Chi of Vickers Venture Partners (VVP) at the sidelines of DEMO Asia to catch his views on the startup scene here in Asia. Jeff is currently based out of both Singapore and China and he is always looking for “young talented entrepreneurs with a dream to change the world”.

Background on VVP

VVP is an early stage investment focused on the IDM space. We got Jeff to clarify his definition of early stage since they sound more like a private equity fund. Jeff described basically to date, all companies they’ve invested in had no profits and up to half had no revenues at time of investment. Jeff emphasized that many of them are now profitable. Jeff described VVP as having three main criteria for investing:

1. Is the space large and growing? Can good profits be made?
2. What’s the startup’s competitive advantage and whether they will become the top three player in their space?
3. The team — the most important of the three criteria. Jeff says that VVP believes people they invest in are partners and it’s important to like your partners so the team make up is very critical for them.

Views on startups in Singapore

Jeff feels that entrepreneurs in Singapore are exposed and more plugged into the West. Making a comparison to Chinese startups, Jeff’s opinion is that Chinese startups have an advantage in that a lot of services are closed to Chinese consumers which has enabled local players in China to compete. This has given Chinese startups a shield and opportunity to nurture from a younger stage.

Singapore startups on the other hand doesn’t have that luxury. Our startups do see and catch on to trends a little more quickly and are able to penetrate due to language strengths. The main disadvantage for Singapore startups is the market size and Jeff strongly encourages entrepreneurs to start with the right mindset and think outside Singapore.

In fact, Jeff’s advise to startups in Singapore can be summed up in two words: Think big. The main challenge for startups in Singapore is the need to think outside Singapore and handle a larger market, which may or may not be China. For the US market for example, you need to have the right team and skillsets to handle the market.

Jeff’s advise is to think beyond the shores of Singapore not just from a market viewpoint, but also in the way you do and carry out things. On the same note, Jeff also advises entrepreneurs to share and split the pie with co-founders and partners who might give you the necessary expertise that you lack. Citing that it’s better to own a small slice of a larger pie then a large slice of a small pie since it will be more easy to succeed.

Advice for startups looking to enter Asian markets

China is a market with one and a half billion people and yet fairly uniform. For startups looking to enter China, Jeff’s advise is to start with a good strategy and make sure you do proper market research. You will also need to find the right partners to work with.

South East Asia as a whole is half a billion strong with probably more Internet users than in the United States. It’s definitely attractive. Markets are young and have lots of growth opportunities. Startups looking to enter Southeast Asia must have the right market entry strategy, on your own or through partners.

Jeff’s advise is to seek out young promising local companies to partner. Entrepreneurs that have tried to enter the market on their own, especially in China, historically have not enjoyed much success. Those who succeed, in Jeff’s opinion, identified the right partners early on.