For this VC, being an investor wasn’t an obvious career choice

Peng T. Ong, managing partner at Monk’s Hill Ventures

This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with The Jay Kim Show where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with top entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original show transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

Peng T. Ong is a serial entrepreneur and the managing partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures, a technology venture fund based in Southeast Asia. He started and exited three companies in the US, including Match.com, and has extensive experience in China and Southeast Asia as a VC.

He talks about his journey and how his fund evaluates entrepreneurs.

Could you tell us about your career history?

I grew up in Singapore, then I went to Texas. I have a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois. I started working in startups right after graduate school and ended up in the Bay Area. Then, I eventually started my own company with Gary Kremen, which became Match.com.

After a few years, I started a company called Interwoven, which went public on Nasdaq in 1999, about a year before the bubble burst.

Why did you decide to go into startups and tech right out of school?

I don’t know why, but I asked myself this question very early on: what is the purpose of my life? What can I do that will be meaningful? Then, I realized that I’m a tech geek but I also like to work with people and build non-technical things like companies and teams.

I decided to become an entrepreneur probably right after or during high school since my dad’s an entrepreneur too.

What made you go to the other side and be an investor?

It’s all about purpose. What I realized after a few years working with government-type funds and spending time in China with GSR Ventures is that I could actually have a lot of fun and make a big difference investing in companies and being a VC. I never thought I would be a VC. That was not one of the obvious career choices for me.

What is your mission building Monk’s Hill Ventures?

I want to help build global companies in Southeast Asia, like how LinkedIn and Baidu are global names. I think we’re starting to see the equivalent of these from the region. Who doesn’t know about Grab in the tech world today? Go-Jek is also coming up. And there will be a bunch of others.

In China, I saw the impact on entrepreneurs’ confidence when the country started becoming successful globally. It gives you that stature and confidence to stand up on the world stage and go, “Yeah, we are just as good as anyone in terms of being able to do this.” I hope we can get that sooner than later for Southeast Asia.

What are the criteria you look at when picking an investment?

This is consistent around the world: we look for great entrepreneurs. It’s hard to see that in a pitch deck.

Great entrepreneurs go after big chunks of the economy. We’re not interested in small-potential businesses. I’m not saying that small businesses are not good, but they don’t work with a VC model. We need to go after big total addressable markets.

Then, of course, we also look at how the company is using tech to be different. How do you build up your proprietary data set so that the value of your company grows exponentially as you grow?

Which growth stage are you investing in?

How hands-on is Monk’s Hill Ventures with their portfolio companies?

If I’m a VC who wants to come into Southeast Asia, what trends should I look out for?

What is one piece of advice you could give to aspiring entrepreneurs?