This is a guest post by James Chan, Investment Manager at Neoteny Labs. James will be in Jakarta from August 13th – 16th 11th – 15th, and would like to meet people and get to know the startup community. Neoteny Labs is a hybrid incubator that combines early-stage venture capital with hands-on mentorship and incubation for its portfolio companies. James works closely with General Partner Joichi Ito on the fund and its portfolio companies, and is based in Singapore.
Since this is my first visit to Jakarta, I thought I’d introduce myself to the investor and entrepreneur community by way of a blog post. It is an adaptation of one of my previous blog posts. I hope you’ll enjoy it, and I looks forward to meeting each and every one of you in Jakarta soon.
What do VCs look for?
It is a question that has probably crossed the minds of many entrepreneurs who seek institutional funding. I’ve never built a startup before, much less raise angel or venture financing, and most likely lack the legitimacy to field my own answers to the question. I would like to think that my response is an aggregation of the collective wisdom of the coolest and smartest people that I’ve had the fortune to work with so far. I would also caveat that these points that are most applicable to early-stage deals.
The question begets two further questions; (1) What do VCs look for, for themselves? (2) What do VCs look for, from companies?