5 Tips for founders from two Asian VC’s

Golden Gate Ventures (GGV) and East Ventures (EV) are two influential VCs based out of Singapore whom entrepreneurs rely on for mentorship, talent access, and possible acquisitions through the VCs’ extensive global network.
I caught up with Jeffrey Paine, GGV Founding Partner and Willson Cuaca, EV co-founder and managing partner, on separate occasions to talk about their firms. We chatted about how they are helping the startup community.

Golden Gate Ventures (GGV)

Jeffrey recalled in 2010 when he launched Founder Institute (FI) in Singapore, the startup scene had few mentors. After getting Vinnie Lauria’s help as a mentor for FI startups in Southeast Asia, many founders continually reached out to Jeffrey and Vinnie for guidance on how to raise rounds in the US. So in 2011, Jeffrey founded GGV with Vinnie and another former entrepreneur, Paul Bragiel, to bridge the gap in seed round investment. Paul is an investor/advisor in 33 Silicon Valley companies, including Uber, and previously founded three global tech companies. GGV has since invested in over 25 companies across Asia and has raised more than USD$50 million. Their investments range from USD$100K to USD$2M in fintech, marketplace, ecommerce, and supporting services domains.

East Ventures (VC)

EV was founded by four co-founders, Willson Cuaca, Batara Eto, Taiga Matsuyama, and Chandra Tjan in 2010. Batara was Willson’s high school classmate and Taiga was connected to him as an investor in Mixi which he co-founded. Five years ago, they recognized a huge untapped potential in Indonesia, a nation of 22 million active internet users. The company quickly put up an investment fund. EV invests in anything below USD$500K, with follow-on investment rounds. They have invested mainly in ecommerce and its supporting services.

Founder Thesis

It is common for Jeffrey and Willson to receive thousands of investment proposals and recommendations each year. They pour through these and interact with numerous founders with the goal of uncovering The Next Big Thing. They have each formed their own thesis on the characteristics of founders who have the material to be moulded for greater heights.

Be Yourself

Time is precious for both entrepreneurs and VCs so the first meeting sets the tone for further interactions. “I’ll expect the founders to be themselves, tell us the founding story, show the traction,” said Willson on his expectations for first founder-investor meetings. He added, “The product doesn’t matter and many a times the startup won’t have a product in the early days. What matters most are the founder’s traits such as being honest, patient and having a vision. Don’t cheat, lie or bullshit. It’s easily discoverable if you do.”

Focus on the Tangibles

In contrast, Jeffrey focuses on the tangibles in the first meeting. “The first bar to entry will be a prototype regardless whether it’s private beta or publicly used. This shows the founding team is able to execute. My own fund research data shows that 97% of the top 35 startups in Southeast Asia are clones. Hence, execution is preferred over presentation slides and ideas on a napkin.”

Show Your Resourcefulness

Jeffrey and Willson both echoed the same sentiments towards resourceful founders. Jeffrey shared:

Founders should have an unfair advantage of a domain knowledge that the rest do not know. Either they’re from the domain or they’ve figured out the drivers, challenges, current situation and alternatives after an extensive period of study. Resourceful founders ask weird questions that people normally don’t ask to test out their hypothesis.”