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Hans Tung: Tiger Global's public-private hybrid model is the future of VC
“But I mentioned that I think back in 2013, the model to look at will ends up being something what Tiger Global is building because it's multi-stage and it is a public fund that if you do that well, The profits of that can help to subsidize growth of their priv…”
Silicon Valley-centric VCs miss the global tech interplay with China
“These are global trends and really for the first time are flattening technology markets so that the interplay between China and the U.S. Where we're focused and other markets as well is as vibrant as it's ever been, and that's where I think some of the folks W…”
Using valuation as a reason to pass on deals is a crutch
“I think it's a crutch to use valuation as a reason to walk from deals.”
Hans Tung: Globalization of consumer mobile internet is the decade's biggest trend
“Over the next 10 years, between 2013 and 20 23, globalization of mobile internet, especially for consumer companies, Will be the most important trend I will ever bet on in my career, and hence, because I have a more global view, I am still extremely bullish on…”
Tung: Startups should prioritize high volume over high profit margins
“Don't worry about high margin. Worry about high volume.”
Hans Tung: Venture scale requires replacing fundamental behavior, not just incumbents
“If you believe that is a substitution of gym membership and enlarging the pie, and you can argue for those that miss Uber or anything that drive sharing, it's a car ownership substitution, not just a substitution of taxi services, then the pie becomes a lot bi…”
Hans Tung: GGV exits post-IPO positions by selling 5-10% quarterly
“Once our company go public, instead of trying to figure out which one's likely to be the next square and next Zendesk and continue to, or Airbnb and continue to rise, we have sort of adopted approach of being willing to exit evenly, quarter by quarter, a finit…”
Tung: Multi-stage investing is superior to single-stage venture capital
“Again, this is why investing in multi-stage is much better than investing in single stage, because you get to see and choose, okay, I love this sector, I love this founder, but it's just a bit too early, or they're at a tough We should come back to it later wh…”
None of Glenn Solomon's cheap venture investments ever turned out great
“I can't think of a cheap deal I've ever done in my life that turned out great.”
Hans Tung: 75% of GGV Capital's team are women
“In our firm, 75% are women, and amongst our six GPs, we have one that's women, and most of our VPs are women.”
GGV Capital and Wellington were the only firms in both Peloton and Affirm
“And I think the only other firm that did that was Matt at Wellington. So both of us only went and invested in both companies.”
Hans Tung: Board members should limit feedback to one or two priorities
“Because you give someone 10 things they need to work on, they're not going to do most of them. You tell someone there's one or two things you've got to really think about, they remember it.”
Hans Tung: Sub-$100M startup investments can reach $100B valuations
“I invested in some of the companies at, you know, sub one hundred million valuation. When they become, you know, five, 10, 20, sometimes even a hundred billion dollar valuation, it really doesn't matter what I'm to the rest of a portfolio.”
Hans Tung: Growth-stage financial models rarely predict returns beyond 5x
“So even in the analysis that you do, it's hard to predict anything beyond three to five X in the growth stage. So you have to pick ones that has a special possibility for a lot more.”
Hans Tung: Innovating during market downturns creates stronger companies
“So having gone through a few cycles earlier in three big ones with Asia financial crisis, internet bubble, the first one, and then the financial crisis from the U S it gives you perspective on when other people are afraid and Stop investing or stop innovating.…”
Tung: GGV Invested in Square at an $800 Million Valuation
“We invested in Square at about an eight hundred million dollar valuation, and then when a company went public, the valuation for the first two years was not great, but thereafter, they really found the right market fit and found the right engine for the scale,…”
GGV offered to lead Electric.ai's Series A but lost to Bessemer
“We actually met Ryan in the Series A. We offered lead the Series A, and he Politely chose Bessemer Venture Partners.”
Hiring senior executives is the biggest struggle for first-time founders
“I think being aggressive and hiring senior executives is probably the single biggest area where I see first-time founders struggle, and I would also add to that that it's the area where we see repeat founders really excel.”
GGV Capital invested in Alibaba in 2003 at a $200M valuation
“GGB was an early investor in Alibaba Group, and back in 2003, the two hundred million dollar valuation.”
GGV turned an $8M Series B into a $75M total investment
“One of our largest investments today is a seventy-five million dollar investment. We started out with an eight million dollar investment of a hundred free in the series B. Today, that company is worth over eight and a half billion dollars, and so we've continu…”
GGV Capital tracks internal investment performance attribution every 90 days
“In our firm, we do a fairly high degree of attribution, and we track performance in a very, very detailed way. We literally go through it every 90 days, and I think at a much more detailed level than most firms.”
GGV Capital has over 50% of its investments and team in China
“Today, half our team is in China, half our, over half our investment team, over 50% of our investments have been made in the China market.”
Chinese tech sales models will eventually converge with US inside sales
“I think over time, they're going to converge. You know, I think China is going to go through the same evolution that the US did, right, 10 years ago in moving from field sales and person sales to inside sales to lightweight demand gen. I think it's as people b…”
Tung: Building products only for privileged peers limits startups to niche markets
“If you only build a service, a product for yourself or your friends, that's a relatively niche market.”
Tung: Diverse teams enable tech startups to scale globally much easier
“You want to have a team with diversity of background, opinions, thoughts, and experiences, because that would help you scale globally much easier.”
Hans Tung: Houzz's community-commerce model gives it an advantage over Amazon
“That experience where you have a community, content, and commerce is what we think is extremely differentiated from Amazon. At the same time, it is something that keeps getting users to come back over and over again. I find myself on a house almost once a day,…”
Hans Tung: Opportunity size and team quality outweigh valuation sensitivity
“I focus more on how big that opportunity can be down the road, and I focus on how well I think this team stack up against everyone else in that same space, and I don't mind to pay valuation that's a bit higher for the right team and for the right category. It …”
Electric raised a $90M funding round led by GGV Capital
“Raised ninety million, led by GGV, and you know, all of our other insiders came in and got the round done”
JOKR has raised over $170M from GGV, Balderton, SoftBank, and Kaszek
“To date, Ralph has raised over a hundred and seventy million dollars for the company, from the likes of GGV, Balderton, Soft SoftBank and Kazak, to name a few.”
GGV Capital's AUM expanded from $1B to $8B in its second decade
“And in our AUM for GGV, the first 10 years was a billion. The second 10 years is eight billion.”
Hans Tung: GGV invested in Affirm after analyzing its Peloton partnership
“In fact, we end up investing both Peloton and Affirm because of that. When we are talking to Peloton, we know of Affirm, and we were interested to see who Peloton works with in order to have that payment plan, because we know that will make it more affordable.…”
Hans Tung: GGV Capital invested in Peloton at a $1 billion valuation
“I remember investing in Peloton at about a billion dollar valuation.”
Roughly 80% to 90% of GGV-backed founders are first-timers
“About 80, probably 80% of the folks that we back are first-time founders. It may even be 90%.”