Author: michael_msft

GM Microsoft for Startups APAC

Alibaba Bets on Frenchman to Lead High-Stakes Southeast Asia Expansion – Bloomberg

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I’m not a huge fan of the product but I use it from time to time and it works, but let’s admit that Singapore is easy.

I used to use redmart but saw no reason to when amazon prime arrived. Personally I think it’s a mistake that they are rolling redmart into the platform but I am sure they have their reasons.

All that aside I think appointing Pierre is the right move and good to see Alibaba learning a trick or two. Pierre has the history and knows what he is doing. The competition will be stiff but I think having a founder in charge is a better look versus what it looked like Alibaba was planning to do.

Congrats and good luck!

Pierre Poignant will have to vanquish well-funded regional rivals if he is to achieve Alibaba’s vision of becoming a global player.

— Read on www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-03/alibaba-bets-on-frenchman-to-lead-high-stakes-southeast-asia-expansion

Customer Service :: Example Stripe

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

This is why I like cruising twitter sometimes.

You will see perfect examples of a good thing in action.

Take this tweet for example:

This is the founder of Stripe responding to Andrew Hyde, will admit also reasonably famous, saying he could help Andrew with a tech issue.

Patrick could have waited for someone else to respond but I am sure he knew that responding right when he saw would delight Andrew and practically anyone who saw the interaction.

No wonder Stripe is so successful.

Customer service is one of the best forms of virality on the planet.

More on the know how VC works…

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Well – clearly this is the most incendiary post I have written in a while.

https://seedvc.blog/2019/03/02/know-how-vc-works-before-asking-for-money/

The traffic is reminiscent of when I would write my Yahoo flame posts. Or should I say my thoughts about Yahoo management posts.

I was wondering if I took too hard a line given some of the tweets like this:

If people really think that we should just let founders think it’s a charity business – well I rest my case then.

I was heartened to know that my favourite Singapore super angel, Shao Ning, told me that she agreed and couldn’t understand when founders press her and husband just to give them money cause they want it versus having a great business to invest in.

She may have couched it better than me but it goes back to my case – we are looking for great investments, not just places to park money cause it looks like we are doing our job or something.

Anyways.

Let me see who else I can stir up with my next post. 😉

How to Stop Your Board Meeting from Going Down a Rat Hole (The list is awesome)

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

How to Stop Your Board Meeting from Going Down a Rat Hole

I think this is one of the best in the series – I love the “characters”.

  1. “The detail merchant” — Some people are just wired to want to ask 55 questions and understand every last detail. They don’t have a strong sense of “aperture” of their responsibilities. If they thought about it they’d realize that asking 55 questions is wasting the time of every board member and they probably don’t mean to do it — it’s just in their nature. A great way to deal with the “detail merchant” is to say, “these are great questions, how about if I put in a pin in it and you and I huddle up post meeting and I can walk you through it details. These are great questions. I’m just concerned we may not get through the agenda.” Most good natured people get the super polite hint — especially if you have a reputation for actually following up.
  2. “The negative nelly” — These are people who can’t help but find fault with anything you present. You might have 5 really positive signs but his or her mind is wired to find the one thing that didn’t go well. If that thing is truly more important than others — fair enough. But if it’s just catching you out for the sake of it to make the negative nelly feel good — it’s your job as CEO to stop it.
  3. “The distracted, senior person” — We’ve all been on boards with super senior investors or executives from companies who don’t read the materials in advance or are on their phones so they miss the tenor of the conversation. They ask 101 questions that were in the deck or they ask about topics you’ve already covered. Listen, it happens. As a fellow board member I try not to get too upset. But what drives me bonkers is when the CEO caters to this bad behavior by spending valuable time going through information that was already available. It is disrespectful of the time of the people who did do the pre-read and pre-call. If somebody isn’t paying a attention I would probably re-answer the question in the first instance to be polite. If it persists I would revert back to, “we covered that point a bit earlier. If it’s ok with you I’d really love to move on but I’m making a note to come back to it at the end of the meeting and make sure you get that answered.” (and actually write it down so they see it)
  4. The ADD Director — This is near and dear to me because this is, well, me! I can’t help it. I sometimes get distracted by what you’re talking about and really want to ask you a question about something not on the agenda. I don’t mean to do it and if I get a gentle brush back I will gladly say, “oh, yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry. Let’s cover that later.” The problem with the ADD Director is that we literally can’t stop ourselves from asking whatever we want. The definition of somebody with ADD is somebody who has “impulse control” issues. Save us from ourselves. Politely answer any one line questions but don’t let us take you off track.
  5. The Ally — This is what you need the most. You need an ally. You need a non-executive board member who is your point person to help keep the meeting on track. This is the person who will step up when you can’t. Have a code word so they know when to help. This is the person who says, “Steve. Your questions are great and I have some similar questions, too. I see Mary trying to stay on agenda and I think this is the agenda we all agreed. Would you mind if we just note that topic and try to come back to it at the end of the meeting? I’m really sorry but I just don’t have time to overrun and I’m worried this is taking us off track.” I’m this guy. I do it without being asked. My ADD is prewired to be super annoyed when meetings waste my time. I start mentally struggling to pay attention because I become distracted by the fact that we’re talking about something completely non-strategic and off agenda. Obviously if it’s a great question and a worth debate and needs to be covered — I’m in. But mostly it’s just somebody’s pet interest to talk and talk and TALK about and it’s off topic. A good CEO finds allies and gets help keeping meetings from going down rat holes.

Know how VC works before asking for money

~ michael_msft ~ 4 Comments

This post may come across as rash or maybe just useless. Your mileage may vary.

Increasingly as the startup scene continues to grow – yes it’s still expanding from where I sit in SEAsia region, but this means there is a lot of first time founders. That’s fine, everyone has to start somewhere. I am not knocking the first timers nor am I talking about age. I see young and old starting for the first time.

Let me pause for a promotional break but seriously, if you are new to being a founder and have never fund raised before – read this book :: Venture Deals.

Back to the main line.

If you want to raise money from a VC please know the basics of how VC works.

VC’s typically take money from other people or institutions and essentially are promising these people that we will take good care of the money, try to lose very little of it and return them far more than they gave us over some period of time. Generally it is considered a risky asset class that has the potential to pay back more than other places they would put that money over the same period of time.

Put it simply it is just another form of investing. We buy shares in companies in hopes that the future value of those shares is way more than we paid for them.

This should dispel any myths that VC’s are playing with money or that we don’t need to be thoughtful about where the money goes.

You will always hear the stories about how VC’s lose lots of money in some deals and then really crush it on a few deals. That essentially means that in a certain amount of deals we lose or don’t make a lot and in some deals there are huge returns. That is mostly true but that is not the goal. The goal is to consider each and every investment with the belief that it will return the fund. We never bet on a few known losers just to prove out our own statistics.

We expect every deal to do well.

I know this explanation may sound silly or stupid but why do I bring it up? I am continually floored when I meet a few startups with no angel money, no grants and no accelerator money that expect the first money into a startup to be a neat and tidy institutional round from a VC. These founders are usually shocked when I tell them they should go back to the drawing board and understand that their job is to build something first or get smaller chunks of capital to prove the business.

De-risk it a bit.

When I press these founders it is their next response that knocks me back down on the floor. They assume that since VC’s will lose money anyway why can’t they take more risk given that some companies always fail and some always win. I can assure you that anyone who thinks like this will never get funded – at least not by good investors.

We are not in the charity business. We don’t owe a founder a chance to realise their dreams. We simply look to connect with founders who have a real vision, have thought through all the permutations and would like a capital partner to see it through.

My summation of all this is most founders shouldn’t be starting companies. They should work at some startups, get some experience and read more than they do about how it all works. Not everyone should do a startup. Not everyone is a good founder.

However if you think you are then go for it but figure out how it works before going hat in hand to the VCs.