UVC

Michael Blakey is the Managing Partner and co-founder of Singapore-based venture capital firm Cocoon Capital. Set-up alongside Will Klippgen in 2016, Cocoon adopts a hands-on, founder-first approach to early-stage investing. Before this Michael was an entrepreneur and since 2000 was a full-time angel investor who was named ‘UK Angel Investor of the Year 2015’, selected as one of the Maserati 100, and classified as a ’Business Angel you should know.

Key Takeaways

• Challenges of growing up with dyslexia and how that prepared Michael to be a better entrepreneur
• The hideous shoe story - Unique approach by a founder to stand out and get Michael’s attention while pitching to him
• How to make a good first impression and mistakes to avoid while pitching to a VC 
• Most important slides on a pitch deck that founders tend to overlook
• Why some entrepreneurs can raise millions of dollars pre-revenue while some other entrepreneurs struggle to raise funding even after making significant growth
• How founders can organise the fundraising process efficiently
• How founders can answer 'what if Google tries to build this' effectively
• Difference between Seed and Series A round investment
• Realities of raising a bridge round or down round investment
• Ways founders can create urgency to close the funding round quickly

🔗 Follow us:

🏠Website : https://understandingvc.com/

🤝🏻LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/understanding-vc/

🎧 Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/1q7DxW3FEyP7EhH8m0VvAD

🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/understanding-vc/id1551524895

 

💌 Connect with Rahul: 

🤝🏻 LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulthayyalamkandy/

📩 Email : [email protected]

🐣 Twitter : https://twitter.com/rahul0720

 

📍 About: 

Understanding VC is a podcast that provides founders with the knowledge and resources they need to understand venture capital. Our goal is to create the best and most comprehensive resource on venture capital on the internet, so that founders can make informed decisions about their businesses and secure the funding they need to succeed.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.uvcmedia.com

Fred Seibert is one of the leading independent animation producers and a serial media entrepreneur. 

He was the first creative director of MTV, the last president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, and the founder of Frederator Studios and Next New Networks (acquired by YouTube). His production hits include shows on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon (Adventure Time, Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly OddParents, ChalkZone, and My Life as a Teenage Robot), Netflix (Castlevania), Cartoon Hangover, the home of original programming like  Bravest Warriors and Bee and PuppyCat (history’s most backed animation on Kickstarter).

Fred’s on the board of directors of Sawhorse Media and was the first investor in Tumblr (acquired by Yahoo!). He’s received the Lifetime Achievement Medal from the American Institute of Graphic Arts and is in the Animation Magazine Hall of Fame.

Key Takeaways

• ‘Stay Original. Always.’ - Why Fred do things differently and not follow trends
• Story of how Tumblr was created and why Fred invested in Tumblr
• How David Karp, the founder of Tumblr ran board meetings
• Frameworks Fred uses to spot and nurture talent
• How VCs assess startups and the important questions they ask during fundraising
• Why storytellers targeting niche audiences do really well nowadays and how the definition of success is dramatically different now in comparison to the early days of television
• Decisions that led to the Jonny Quest cartoon series not doing well and why it’s okay to have failures
   

🔗 Follow us:

🏠Website : https://understandingvc.com/

🤝🏻LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/understanding-vc/

🎧 Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/1q7DxW3FEyP7EhH8m0VvAD

🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/understanding-vc/id1551524895

 

💌 Connect with Rahul: 

🤝🏻 LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulthayyalamkandy/

📩 Email : [email protected]

🐣 Twitter : https://twitter.com/rahul0720

 

📍 About: 

Understanding VC is a podcast that provides founders with the knowledge and resources they need to understand venture capital. Our goal is to create the best and most comprehensive resource on venture capital on the internet, so that founders can make informed decisions about their businesses and secure the funding they need to succeed.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.uvcmedia.com

Peng is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Monk’s Hill Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage tech companies, primarily Series A, in Southeast Asia. Peng is an industry veteran with over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, founder, and investor in Silicon Valley and in Asia. He is based in Indonesia and is a board member of Glints, ELSA, Finaxar, and Intelligent Video Solutions.

Prior to Monk’s Hill Ventures, he was a Venture Partner at GSR Ventures in China. The firm is known for its successful investments in companies like Didi Chuxing and Qunar. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded a series of successful companies including Electric Classifieds (today known as Match.com), Interwoven and Encentuate, which combined today generate over USD$1 billion in revenues annually.

Peng is currently the Chairman of SolveEducation! and serves as a board member of the International Advisory Board for the University of Texas at Austin and SEA Founders.

Peng earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois.

Key Takeaways

• Why the best investment Peng has made is being an entrepreneur and how that helped him as an investor
• What is first principles thinking and how founders must use the framework while building startups
• What questions should you as a founder ask a VC while pitching to them
• What stage a startup must be in terms of product, distribution, and team to successfully raise a Series A round
• How Monk’s Hill Ventures support their portfolio companies in scaling their businesses
• Importance of Board of directors in the success of a startup
• Strategies startups use while expanding their business to different countries in Southeast Asia
• Why artificial intelligence and bioengineering are the most important technologies for the future of mankind

🔗 Follow us:

🏠Website : https://understandingvc.com/

🤝🏻LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/understanding-vc/

🎧 Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/1q7DxW3FEyP7EhH8m0VvAD

🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/understanding-vc/id1551524895

 

💌 Connect with Rahul: 

🤝🏻 LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulthayyalamkandy/

📩 Email : [email protected]

🐣 Twitter : https://twitter.com/rahul0720

 

📍 About: 

Understanding VC is a podcast that provides founders with the knowledge and resources they need to understand venture capital. Our goal is to create the best and most comprehensive resource on venture capital on the internet, so that founders can make informed decisions about their businesses and secure the funding they need to succeed.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.uvcmedia.com

Ivan Kirigin is an Investor at Tango VC. Tango VC is a new seed-stage fund focused on machine learning and robotics. Before Tango VC, Ivan was a two-time technical startup founder and also worked for companies like iRobot, Facebook, Dropbox, and Lyft. He holds a masters degree in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and was also an earlier investor in Cruise automation.

Key Takeaways

• How Ivan helped Dropbox grow 12X in 2 years
• How Ivan became an early investor in Cruise which sold to GM for $1 billion
• Why founders must focus on how fast they learn and how fast they improve
• When autonomous cars will become the norm
• As a founder, ways you can get the timing right while building a product
• Why Machine Learning and Robotics are good investment opportunities
• How Machine learning can reduce health care and how healthcare policies need to change for it to get better
• How you can do due diligence on a VC
• His decision making processes while investing in startups

🔗 Follow us:

🏠Website : https://understandingvc.com/

🤝🏻LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/understanding-vc/

🎧 Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/1q7DxW3FEyP7EhH8m0VvAD

🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/understanding-vc/id1551524895

 

💌 Connect with Rahul: 

🤝🏻 LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulthayyalamkandy/

📩 Email : [email protected]

🐣 Twitter : https://twitter.com/rahul0720

 

📍 About: 

Understanding VC is a podcast that provides founders with the knowledge and resources they need to understand venture capital. Our goal is to create the best and most comprehensive resource on venture capital on the internet, so that founders can make informed decisions about their businesses and secure the funding they need to succeed.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.uvcmedia.com

Will Klippgen is a Singapore-based Norwegian entrepreneur and technology venture capitalist who co-founded the price comparison portal Zoomit.com (later merged with Kelkoo, which was sold to Yahoo! in 2004). He served as one of the judges on the television series Angel's Gate, which was broadcast on Channel NewsAsia in 2012. Will is a co-founder and serves as the Managing Partner at Cocoon Capital. He holds an MBA from INSEAD where he is an Entrepreneur in Residence.

He has invested in over 55 startups in Singapore and across the world since 2004. His investments include PropertyGuru, Anacle Systems, ReferralCandy, Nugit, Tickled Media, iXiGO.com, See-Mode Technologies, SensorFlow, GuardRails, BuyMed and Augmentus.

Key Takeaways

• Difference between Angel investors and  Venture Capitalists
• Best pitch Will has heard and a deal he wishes he should’ve closed
• How VCs determine the valuation of startups
• Important clauses in a term sheet or a shareholder agreement that founders should know
• Why VCs insist founders take a low salary till their startup is profitable
• How Cocoon Capital works with startups when they invest in them
• Industry verticals Will is interested to invest in and why

🔗 Follow us:

🏠Website : https://understandingvc.com/

🤝🏻LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/understanding-vc/

🎧 Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/1q7DxW3FEyP7EhH8m0VvAD

🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/understanding-vc/id1551524895

 

💌 Connect with Rahul: 

🤝🏻 LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulthayyalamkandy/

📩 Email : [email protected]

🐣 Twitter : https://twitter.com/rahul0720

 

📍 About: 

Understanding VC is a podcast that provides founders with the knowledge and resources they need to understand venture capital. Our goal is to create the best and most comprehensive resource on venture capital on the internet, so that founders can make informed decisions about their businesses and secure the funding they need to succeed.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.uvcmedia.com