The Ledger
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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…”
Hans Tung: Tech will face regulation because its benefits are unprecedentedly concentrated
“You will see regulation. You will see some pushback because tech does not benefit all. It does not benefit all. It is more concentrated than almost any form of innovation we have seen before, so that needs to be dealt with.”
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: Tiger Global subsidizes private equity diligence with public fund profits
“The model to look at will end 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 private equity business, and they can afford t…”
Hans Tung: Fast-funded startups and venture funds will fail medium-term
“Medium terms, you know, some of the companies are not going to make it. Some of the funds are not even going to make it.”
Hans Tung: The best startups are always expensive in every funding round
“One of the key lessons I learned as a multi-stage investor over my career is that the best companies are always going to be expensive every single round.”
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: Emerging tech markets experience valuation busts within 3-5 years
“Anytime you look at a new market, initially it will be something that needs to be proven out. So people are cautious. And once you reach that inflection point where people think, oh, this could be the next big thing. And then short term, a lot more capital rus…”
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…”
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: Uber turned $1B–$2B investment in China into $7B Didi stake
“They put in about a billion to two in, and they have a stake that's worth seven billion.”
Tung: Western tech companies must enter China via local strategic partners
“We think that a way to go to China is not necessarily to do it yourself, but find a strategic partner in the same way that Yahoo found Alibaba, and that's the right model. So it's not an issue of market. It's an issue of entry model in China.”
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.”
Hans Tung: Andreessen Horowitz limits global expansion due to operational complexity
“They're not trying to go global. They do mostly in primarily US and they will dabble here and there, but primarily focus on the US market because it's operational heavy to scale their model.”
Hans Tung: Today's crypto movement mirrors the 1993 Netscape internet boom
“Seeing some of my classmates end up going to Yahoo, end up going to Netscape, end up going to some other internet startups, It's kind of like what you see with crypto today, and you just see, wow, anything's possible”
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.…”
Hans Tung: Venture investment outcomes take seven to nine years to determine
“And as you know about venture, you don't know exactly what will happen until year seven, year eight, year nine.”
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.”
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.”
Tung: Back multiple interconnected players forming an ecosystem around a trend
“If you're betting on the trend, you want to bet on multiple players that are somehow working together, forming ecosystem to grow together.”
Hans Tung: Andreessen Horowitz limits global expansion due to operational intensity
“And you talk to fine folks at Andreessen, they're not trying to go global. They do mostly in primarily US and they will dabble here and there, but primarily focus on the US market because it's operational heavy to scale their model.”
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,…”
Tung: Public investors evaluate future growth potential, ignoring early venture returns
“Those public investors don't care how much money this company has made for their early stage investor. They only care at the time of their own entry, how much more growth is ahead.”
Hans Tung: DoorDash scaled by targeting fast-food chains over high-end restaurants
“Tony has done extremely well since they found that working with a fast food chain restaurants made a huge difference for them and then make the address market even bigger. It's not working with the niche high end specialty restaurant, but for the mass market”
Hans Tung: Multi-stage VCs should aggressively pursue missed startups at inflection points
“If somehow miss them early, wasn't as sure if they can make it. Once they reach that inflection point, once they have developed a new nugget of truth, I should be more aggressive or encourage my partners and I to be more aggressive to go back and invest in the…”
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.”
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 …”
Tung: Gen Z and millennial consumer behaviors are converging globally
“There's a lot of similarity between a Gen Z consumer and a millennial consumer in the U.S. With China. And we're seeing similar users coming up in India, Indonesia, Brazil, Eastern Europe, Western Europe as well.”
Hans Tung: GGV Capital invested in Peloton at a $1 billion valuation
“I remember investing in Peloton at about a billion dollar valuation.”
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.…”
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 passed on early investment rounds in Chime and DoorDash
“If I look at some of the misses we had, you know, I did not invest in Chime. I did not invest in DoorDash.”
Hans Tung: Alibaba and JD.com Control Over 90% of Chinese E-Commerce
“I, fortunately we have that perspective being in China where Alibaba with Taobao and Tmall owns 80% of market share in e-commerce and JD has another over 10% market share in e-commerce.”
Hans Tung: US E-Commerce Penetration Lags China's 15% at Just 8-9%
“Amazon has about 40% market share in the US. And e-commerce penetration into offline retail as a percentage of offline retail in the US is only eight or nine percent. In China, the same ratio is about 15%.”
Hans Tung: Chinese E-Commerce Hits $1T Annually vs. $500B+ in US
“China, the online e-commerce market is roughly about one trillion dollars a year across the benchmark this year. In the U.S., it's well over half a half a trillion.”