Category: Apprentice VC

(LINK) Asia Tech Review: September 9 2019 | Revue

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Always a fan of Jon and his writing.

We got to hang again for breakfast – always a good chat. I think we need to do a breakfast meetup. 😉

Asia Tech Review: September 9 2019 | Revue

I like this part in this week’s newsletter:

And finally… on the future

Visiting Singapore always gets me thinking. This week it was triggered by Bloomberg’s ‘Sooner Than You Think Event’ – as the name implies it is focused on current companies, tech and trends that will impact the future.

It didn’t take long to notice how so many of the faces on stage for interviews were people who I had met/got to know years ago when their companies were much smaller. Now they are the big guns, and I can think of countless others who weren’t at the show but fit that bracket.

Southeast Asia and tech are on such a growth spurt that it propels founders and startups. That’s not a bad thing at all, but it is quite something to see familiar faces consistently on stage at events, on TV interviews, or managed by large entourages such has been their rise.

The last five years have seen so much growth that it is impossible to imagine what the next five or ten will bring. Putting aside the tech and business models, I can say with certainty that many of the biggest companies/founders of the future are already active in the region today. That may sound obvious, but it is easy to lose perspective. (I’m not alone in thinking this.)

A recent report from Golden Gate Ventures – an investor in tech startup, of course – predicts “at least 700 anticipated startup exits between 2023–2025.” While, in the here and now, a new report from Preqin shows an increased interest (and activity) in Southeast Asia from global investment firms.

I’m not in the business of predicting numbers, but it is clear it’ll be a heck of a ride. That applies to tech anywhere in the world, but I do think it’ll be even wilder in Southeast Asia where the region is moving upwards despite challenging global conditions.

(This is also why I joined The Ken, I believe we need more analysis and thoughtful commentary. Shameless plug over.)

I think that the growth in the SEAsian tech scene over the next 10 years, even with a possible slowdown, will be much bigger than the last 10 years.

Singapore will continue to be a factor and the center of the SEAsian growth story.

Pretty amazing to see the folks that are becoming big players in the scene.

Also fun to he hear and be a part of it all.

(LINK) What is We!? Understanding the WeWork IPO – Byrne Hobart – Medium

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I used to use Regus back in the day and have always been amazed at the current co-working craze. Personally I prefer a good, old-fashioned office but maybe I am just getting too old.

Anyways – I get the notion of just needing some space and wrapping the whole tech world around it.

However I don’t get Softbank or WeWork. Just baffling to me. Stuff that is allowed to go on in deals like this would have kept a simple seed investor like me from even going in. It would not have passed basic due diligence IMHO.

Here is one of the better reads on it:

What is We!? Understanding the WeWork IPO – Byrne Hobart – Medium

(LINK) Don’t work in venture capital

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Don’t work in venture capital

What a read – I don’t agree with it all but a lot of it.

Pretty much all of what I know today is from making mistakes – lots of them.

I have done a bunch of different careers – so I speak from experience more than anything else.

I always get asked should I do this gig or that gig, should I start a startup, should I do VC or should I go work for google.

I think the advice I would give to my kids is similar to the advice I would give someone asking me these same questions.

The first bit of advice I have is gain experience in your chosen field. I knew early on I wanted to be in tech and I like to travel. So my first gigs were in tech – they were not great gigs but they were in the trenches of tech and I learned. With each thing that I learned I started to come to grips with what I wanted to do and what I didn’t. 

I loved tech but I did not want to be an engineer. Too lonely for me. Then I get into sales engineering and learned how to sell and traveled a lot.

Looking back though I have done some gigs I regret and there was moments when I think I wasted a lot of time doing stuff I didn’t like or realizing the gig was going nowhere but I stayed anyway. 

So I have a few rules that might be of use and these I will most likely share with my kids:

– Nothing wrong at all with working for a big company – it will pay well and you can see how things work but you may not get a varying sense of experience across different disciplines.

– For the varying experience try a startup but either work to becomes a C level where the equity counts or just do it for a period of time to get the experience you need. More than likely if you are being underpaid due to equity, chances are the equity will be nothing and you will work many years below average pay. Not a bad trade-off for a short term goal of learning a lot but don’t camp too long.

– If you want to do your own startup just wait till the time is right. That time to me is when you have some cash to rely on so you don’t have to raise money too early and when you have a great idea. Don’t force either one of these things – you will either not be convicted enough to follow through on the idea or you will give away too much of the company in order to raise funds.

– For VC – I won’t go into it much but my view is you also want to have some money prior to going in and you want carry – otherwise it’s like the startup scene in that you are not paid well and don’t have the upside.

And remember – the grass isn’t always as green as you may think it is.

(LINK) Dark emerges from stealth with unique ‘deployless’ software model | TechCrunch

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There is always the promise of a new way of building stuff.

I am always dubious of a new way that requires a new language.

I also wonder how tweakable it all is once launched – can the devops person adjust it at the GCP level or is a roundtrip needed to go from editor to launch?

Interesting times.

Dark emerges from stealth with unique ‘deployless’ software model | TechCrunch

(LINK) Parenting – AVC

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

This is a great post and as I only have young kids, I don’t know what it is like when they are grown up. I am excited for it though but of course I don’t want to age that quick yet and I am enjoying the baby.

One thing I like is how he describes the going all in:

I have loved all of parenting; rocking them to bed, the late feedings, changing the diapers, teaching them things, family vacations, the teenage years, leaving home, the college years, and the early adult years.

As I have an 8 month old right now the nights are rough but I also try to enjoy them. One thing I know is the state changes are fast and you miss all the moments more quickly than you associate any sort of suffering from them. I fed her at 3AM and she didn’t really want to fall asleep after that. She was just smiling and relaxing but wanted to be held. I love holding her.

Now it is 5:30AM and I got her back to sleep around 4:45AM. Of course now I am up and might as well get cracking.

Parenting – AVC