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There’s no substitute for experience in all walks of life.
Everyone from athletes to software developers gets better at what they do the longer they do it. Or at least they should.
Experience stops us from making the same mistakes we made in the past. It also teaches us how to spot and take advantage of the opportunities in front of us.
Experience as a founder is one of the advantages VC firm Febe Ventures hangs its hat on. It’s run by entrepreneurs-turned-investors who believe that their experiences growing their own startups allow them to provide other founders with helpful insights alongside funding.
Today we look at:
- How Febe Ventures taps into experience to guide founders
- Singapore’s DCS scoops up US$75 million in new funding
- Other newsy highlights such as Malaysia’s MyTukar rebranding as parent firm Carro and Elon Musk promising to makehis AI chatbot Grok open source.
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A founder-first VC
Image credit: Timmy Loen
Olivier Raussin, co-founder and managing partner of Febe Ventures, has steered his Brazilian wine startup Evino back to growth amid a funding winter.
Raussin and his fellow partners at Febe Ventures have a combined history of building over 30 companies and backing more than 200 startups, so they’ve been around the block a time or two.
- By the numbers: In November 2023, Febe Ventures (short for “For Entrepreneurs, By Entrepreneurs”) launched its second fund, which aims to raise US$75 million. Speaking to Tech in Asia, Raussin says the fund’s investments will be about US$250,000 for pre-seed and US$750,000 for seed-stage companies, with the main focus being on Southeast Asian firms.
- Fundamentals: In this tough economic climate with many firms seeing their runway fast disappearing, Raussin advises going back to basics by working toward healthy unit economics and a sustainable profit and loss statement.
- You win or you learn: Raussin admits he made plenty of mistakes as a founder, such as being too slow to release products and aiming to scale too early before achieving product-market fit. These are the sorts of errors he helps his portfolio companies avoid now.
Read more: Founder-focused VC offers hope to startups facing end of the runway
Cards and funding on the table
Founders Meetup 2.0 is back by popular demand, and it’s bigger and better!
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