Confessions

I love my work.

Many a times in the last year, when I met some one for the first time, the conversation went something like this:

X: So what do you do in Singapore?

Me: I work in a Japanese VC fund. I invest and manage the portfolio in Southeast Asia and India.

X: Ah that’s so nice! Do you like it?

Me: I love it!

X: (Quizzical gaze) You “Love” it? Nobody says that.

Well I do.

The thing about doing a startup is that it helps you realise the real priorities in life. Almost always when I meet startups I am second guessing them. All engineers and entrepreneurs are problem solvers. And while they are pitching I am usually thinking (or asking): Why are you doing this? Are you really interested in making sure people get their milk and bananas at 9 AM in the morning delivered to their doorsteps? Is that really what you want to solve as a problem around you? Does it keep you awake in the middle of the night? For me this is an essential part of forming a company, and usually my understanding of the answers to these questions guides me on whether to dive deeper into your business or not.

I left Microsoft when I realised that I no longer loved following the routine every day. I had an option of switching to another team, probably even in the HQ, but after much thought and frankly a lot of shoving by my dear friend and co-founder Parth, I decided to jump into a sector that I really loved, Music. Organising and attending events was my passion. Playing music was his. We combined the two and started TommyJams. It was a long grind, and I won’t go into the details here, but at the end of a hard day of work, when we would listen to this amazing indie band perform, we felt satisfied. It drove us in our mission the next day. But 3 years in, and we were still doing event management more and music tech less. The challenges of micro-managing every small event meant that my passion started waning again.

And now here I am writing this post. An MBA later, 1 year into a fund and continuously learning from the Japanese culture, based in Singapore and so happy to have this country open its arms for me, traveling to Manila and Jakarta and trying to dive deeper into their startup ecosystem, and last but the most important, entering India again and trying to make sense of the chaos that has unfolded in the Indian startup ecosystem in the last couple of years, how can I not love what I do? I don’t call it a job, it doesn’t feel like one. My bosses have been very kind to give me a free hand at my work, and that really helps in faster decision making and saving time for every one at the table. But what is it exactly that I enjoy so much about this work?

1. Meeting passionate founders — Hands down makes my day. If you see some one who has seen a problem and is giving it every thing she has got, I just love it. It reminds me of the thousands of problems worth solving in the world. Not every problem-solution is a VC investable business, but that doesn’t mean it should not be done.
2. Working on a portfolio — With my own startup I was facing the same problems every day. The stage of a company does not change quickly. It’s a natural progression and you don’t even realise how far you have come along as a company. But in VC, I am working with 5 different companies at the same time. All in different stages and sectors. While one startup is about to launch its product and has to fix its pricing, another is trying to squeeze every ounce from its marketing dollar at growth stage. Very different problems, very different solutions, and I love that I can be part of the brainstorming. Mark Suster has a great post on finding an investor who is in love with you. It really makes a difference.
3. Building a community — I know I need to do more on this side. I try to attend many events, but at some point I want to start leading the activities in the startup community. This blog is just a start, hopefully more will follow. But VC is surely a great way to meet amazing people.

What do I miss? Coding. I wish I had enough time to go back to my roots and just tinker around every day or every week a little. Right now I don’t find the time to do so, but hopefully at some point I will. I always find it surprising that VCs in Asia invest in “technology” without really understanding it enough themselves. I feel getting their hands dirty on the real tech is essential for all stakeholders in the Asian Startup ecosystem. The next wave of Asian Startups will be stronger and more advanced both in technology as well as business models. It’s easy to DD on business model innovation, all you need to do is ask the customers whether they’ll buy and make sure the math works out. It’s harder to DD on tech innovation and this is a skill-set I plan to focus on in the next few years.