Scale-up_dos_and_don'ts

From a venture investor’s diary #4: 7 scale-up dos and one don’t-do

To help young companies increase their odds of success, I continue to add to my typology of “scale-ups” mistakes to avoid: too early, wrong direction, lack of focus, and so … Continue Reading

Simplify

From a venture investor’s diary #3: a few scale-up lessons

My mind has recently been preoccupied by a number of founder-CEOs who have been doing too many things, or, more accurately put, having too many people doing too many things … Continue Reading

Painkiller

Nuts and bolts #4: six more delightful things about product market fit

We are having more delightful thoughts about product market fit once again! We thought to revisit this topic because we really harbour the hope that young founding teams can cut … Continue Reading

Move_fast

Dear Founder #8: moving fast, intellectual honesty, and tapping into the “unknown unknowns”

As investors, we enjoy many of our discussions and interactions with founders – probably a good thing – and often gain much happiness (even excitement) when, after “following” founders and … Continue Reading

Going_global

Dear Founder #7: Thinking global from day 1

One of the happy things in my day-to-day life is that we are increasingly seeing founders who are thinking global from day 1.  Substantive thoughts about building a “global” company … Continue Reading

Align

Dear Founder #5: Managing growth pains – 8 alignment tools to manage complexity

Anyone who has worked at large organisations will know what organizational inertia feels like.  There was once this much-read corporate tome titled “Can elephants dance?” (written by the then CEO … Continue Reading

Not_all_revenues_are_created_equal#2

Dear Founder #4: not all revenues are created equal

[A note from 5 Oct 2019: “gross margins” and “sustainable revenues” has become talk of tech town this past week, and a big-name Silicon Valley VC has made a similar … Continue Reading

drawn-shooting-star-draw-571838-7268031

The Power of the Power Law, “super-stars”, and moving the returns curve “to the right”!

I finally get to jot down some of my thoughts here about the “power law”, and more specifically the “power of the power law” …. I. The phenomenon of superstars OK, … Continue Reading

Value_map_for_blog

Nuts and bolts #3: your financial model and your understanding of your business, your market and your customers, and your value drivers

Dear founder. This is a letter to all you founders who are preparing a financial model for your Series A or even Series B round. First, may I congratulate for … Continue Reading

freebirds

Great founding teams – a revisit

[An earlier version of this post was titled “Builders of the world, design and surf once in a while!”] As 2018 draws to a close, we reflect on how we … Continue Reading