Rich Wong

General Partner, Accel · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorexecutiveoperatoraccel.com ↗

Rich Wong joined Accel in 2006 and focuses on early- and growth-stage venture capital investments in enterprise software, artificial intelligence, and SaaS. He has led Accel's investments in and served on boards of companies including Atlassian, UiPath, Rovio, and AdMob.

16statements → 0claims → 0claims resolved → 3.69/5average certainty → 1.94/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 20said about them ↓

3 opinions · 7 insights · 5 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. none of them is a claim the record can settle: opinions, insights and disclosures never carry an assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Rich argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: speaking style how? →

235 words/min while actually speaking · 7.8 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Rich Wong: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 24 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 3,724 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Rich Wong is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 3/10

pushed back at the host ▾ 1/10

setup questions received 55%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 8:12“How would you respond to, say, Peter Fenton on the show, who said never turn down a company based on valuation, it's a mental trap.” ▶ 9:52“How would you respond to that suggestion, probably with Excel lying in that multi-stage fund assertion?” ▶ 16:20“To what extent do you define repeatable?”

when Rich pushed back ▶ 8:23“Well, I would say I mostly agree, but not completely.”

What they said16 What others said20 Episodes1

Everything Rich Wong said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion

Investing just to 'have a play' in hot sectors is bad advice

“So whether that's cryptocurrency, or Google Glass, or whatever the hot category is of that year, of that couple of years, I think it's not good advice to quote-unquote have a play in X category. Because if you are able to pick the best, that may be the company…”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 21:02 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Insight

VCs must maintain price discipline in categories with bounded upside

“That said, I think there are other companies that the category or the nature of the competitive set, you have to have some amount of price discipline in order to achieve true good returns. And I think those are in categories that you, there's just simply not a…”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 9:15 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Insight

Non-Bay Area markets offer better deal signal-to-noise ratios

“If you actually spend your time in Salt Lake, in Austin, in Dallas, in Seattle, other markets, and then of course, internationally, whether it's Finland or Australia or other markets, there actually is less noise in those areas relative to the amount of intere…”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 14:00 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Opinion

Most Silicon Valley startups make the mistake of scaling too quickly

“In general, I think most companies, especially in a capital rich VC environment in Silicon Valley, most of companies are largely make the mistake of stepping on the gas too quickly. And I think wasting precious capital or founder dilution, depending which way …”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 15:55 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Opinion

Restricting VC investments to driveable Silicon Valley startups is outdated

“I think it's pretty obvious now, whether it's companies like Spotify or Supercell or Atlassian or other companies of that form, that that is now an outdated view.”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 4:17 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Insight

Silicon Valley has evolved from a geographic location into a mindset

“And so I think it's a true renaissance that's been happening of Silicon Valley going from being a physical place to being, in some cases, an entrepreneurial mindset that's not physically based here.”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 4:55 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Insight

VCs should spend 90% of their time pursuing high-bar distant deals

“Trying to have that high bar, that high standard is where you should spend 90% of your time, even if that company you identify as a long ways away from where you work or where you live.”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 7:33 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Insight

Startups need three to six months of repeatability before scaling growth

“Generally, I would say, you know, on median, it's a couple of quarters, three to six months of repeatability, and more important than just the time dimension is whether you can see the, you know, the atomic level of the unit economics working.”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 16:29 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

What-if

Openwave could have built Skype or Twitter by diversifying beyond telecom carriers

“If we had taken the time to think carefully about who our customer base should be, you know, we could have built technologies like Skype, like Twitter as opposed to just continuing to build technology, selling to Orange or Singular or Nextel or AT&T, the custo…”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 17:38 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Insight

VCs excel at market strategy, not day-to-day operational tactics

“You, as a venture capitalist, get to see the entire industry and all of the companies that surround your portfolio companies. You're probably better, or should be better, at understanding competitive dynamics and how the shape of the market is developing overa…”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 19:07 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Insight

Diverse board syndicates with differing viewpoints drive long-term startup success

“Having a diverse syndicate that has different points of view to the board, even if you don't a hundred percent always agree with the other members of that board, can actually make a dramatic difference in helping the company be successful long-term.”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 21:57 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Disclosure

Accel sourced Qualtrics early by building relationships in Salt Lake City

“Qualtrics, is a good example of that. Hiding in Salt Lake, you didn't think that there was going to be a multi-billion dollar company in the area of market research surveys, but we were lucky enough to find that company relatively early on and spend the time b…”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 6:40 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Disclosure

Accel offered a high-end valuation term sheet to win the Atlassian deal

“So, a company like Atlassian, I think we were not on the low end of how we put in our term sheet in terms of the valuation that we ascribed to Atlassian at the time.”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 9:06 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Disclosure

Accel invested in Qualtrics, Rovio, and Atlassian via its growth fund

“The Qualtrics, the Rovios, the Alassians are all bets out of the growth fund, as it turns out.”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 10:29 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Disclosure

Accel reserves at least 1:1 follow-on capital for Series A investments

“When you do an early stage investment, On average, we at least reserve an equal amount of capital. So if you put in an eight million dollar series A, one might reserve eight, 10, eleven million dollars, you know, for follow-on rounds to support the company as …”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 11:07 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

Disclosure

Accel's most recent publicly announced investment is Cairo-based Instabug

“The most recent publicly announced investment is a company called Instabug, which is based out of Cairo, Egypt.”

Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 23:36 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years

The other half of the tape: Rich Wong's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 18 times in 12 episodes on 20VC. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 6 Laela Sturdy 3 Jason Lemkin 3 Shabih "Shabby" Rizvi 1 Scott Farquhar 1 Mike Cannon-Brookes 1 Jules Maltz 1 Daniel Yanisse 1

Statements about Rich Wong, by other people (2)

Opinion

Yanisse: Accel's Rich Wong is exceptional at coaching first-time founders

“Rich Wong from Excel is amazing. So he is really founder friendly really good at coaching, you know, first time founders and helping without imposing any vision or strategy, just helping the founders grow and learn.”

Daniel Yanisse Jul 2, 2022 ▶ 26:47 Daniel Yanisse: Biggest Mistakes Founders Make in the Hiring Process | 20VC #903 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Assertion Supported

Rich Wong was Atlassian's first outside board member and lead investor

“Rich also sits on the boards of the likes of Checker, Osmo, Rovio, and Atlassian, where, fun fact, he was the first outside board member and lead investor.”

Harry Stebbings Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 0:50 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years