On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- Han Shen
- Craig Shapiro
- Kevin Jiang
We asked guests for the most important piece of advice that they’d share with folks early in their venture career.
The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area.
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Transcribed with AI:
0:19
Welcome back to TFR on today’s special segment, we ask guests for the most important piece of advice that they’d share with folks early in their venture career. Here’s the segment called key advice.
0:36
On today’s special segment, we have Han Shin of iFLY Han, if you could share one piece of advice with a young new investor, what would you tell them? I love
0:44
it. The piece of advice I would share is, don’t rush, right? So it’s a very natural tendency for the new entrants to talk about deal sourcing. I recognize that when I was in my first couple of years, because at the end of the day, promotion GP, position, carry access, even potentially. Building a fund requires your deal and your track record. So there’s no nothing wrong going after deal sourcing for, you know, entry point, associate or even principal. But now I would say, as much as people should work hard toward that goal, don’t let that go, obscure the path, or the visibility how someone builds his or her own path forward. Right? You sometimes have to take the patience to understand the opportunities, to understand what makes sense what doesn’t make sense. It does require time. It is a piece of kind of a variable that is very hard to take a shortcut, right? So for my associate, I tell them, Look, if you don’t source at all, you know, of course you source, you talk to people, right? But I don’t count on you to source a deal that has to be done, right. If this never happens in your first year, first two years, or even first three years, don’t stress about that. Do the right kind of a homework. Lay the right foundation of knowledge, building insights, Building Network, building your things will happen. So that’s my advice. Love it. You.
2:25
On today’s special segment, we have Craig Shapiro of collaborative fund. Craig, if you could share one piece of advice with a young, new investor, what would you tell them?
2:33
I mean, this one’s an easy one, because I, I, I see it a lot. I would the advice that I that I do give, and that I wish that I would give myself my, you know, a younger version is really find and focus on, on what makes you unique. You know, it’s like, what a blessing to have come up at a time where Fred Wilson was blogging every day. Mark’s sister has an amazing blog. Brad Feld, like these, there was an explosion of transparency from some of the greats in our industry. But I think one of the negative consequences of that was a very cookie cutter approach. You have a lot of younger, more emerging managers that like have read all the blogs, and they can, you know, articulate exactly what Paul Graham says and thinks. And I think you lose some of the individuality that like makes the opportunity for somebody to generate great returns. Because if you’re just doing the same thing that you read on a blog, it’s, I think that’s not, I think that’s, you know, I think that’s gonna challenge the again, to kind of paint outside the lines, you know, you’ve got to tap into what makes you unique. It was really a privilege
3:55
to start investing. You invest started investing much earlier than I did, but it was a privilege to start investing in 2013 and to learn the craft as these greats were still learning themselves, right, like your your perspectives and your understanding of VC is evolving in real Time. You’re adding layers. I had this amazing experience two weeks ago where I spent a day with Ho Nam at Altos, and after 10 years of doing this, like, he completely upended my understanding of VC in one day. Like, it’s just amazing how these layers just continue to add in something that on the surface seems so simple, oh, just back, great entrepreneurs, big markets,
4:41
you know, is actually done in different ways by different people with great success. I love that, for what it’s worth, that is such a great it’s so important for people to hear that. Because I think, I think that venture capital, the perception is. Is that it’s this monolith that, like we all, you know, we all kind of have the same philosophy. We you know, that there’s and the reality is, you’re, you’re absolutely right. There’s so many different ways to go about it, and lots of which have proven to be successful. So it’s finding your own kind of flavor, your own. And I think I feel the same way. I’m so grateful that I had, you know, it’s so much of this is timing, and you and I both, I think, have benefited so much from, you know, I mean, that’s such a great story from, in the same way with, with, Tom like, it’s, it’s incredible. So, yeah, I’m with you on
5:47
today’s special segment. We have Kevin Jang of Mangusta capital, Kevin, if you could share one piece of advice with a young, new investor, what would you tell them that’s good?
5:56
Oh man, that one. I’ve got a lot. I’ve got a lot that I can impart upon folks. I think one of the most important things that I found serves has served me really well, is just build great relationships with everyone. Be nice, be kind, be helpful, be thoughtful, and and those relationships that you make along the way will serve you really well wherever you go in life. I think life’s too short to be an asshole, and, you know, Karma is a bitch, so I think, you know, you’ve got to, I think you want to be a good person and and try to make great relationships with people across, you know, founders, investors, and I think those relationships will serve you really well across your entire life and your entire career. I think the other thing I will say is, I don’t think, and this is more of a broader I think career advice is, don’t plan everything out. I think when I, when I first went into the industry, I thought, you know, maybe I do banking for a longer time. Maybe I do private equity for a longer time, and, you know, maybe I’d stay at Softbank for a very long time. And you know, to be honest, my path has kind of led me. I found that when I follow where my career has kind of taken me and where opportunities have arisen organically, that’s where I found the most satisfaction and excitement about what I’m going to do next, and joining Softbank was a little bit of out of the blue kind of experience. When masa raised the vision funds, I didn’t plan to go into growth equity or venture capital, but it kind of came up, and it’s one of the most beautiful and amazing things that’s happened to me, and I’m super grateful for that. And same thing with mongusta Having the opportunity to strike out and start my own fund, has been, honestly, very opportune. And obviously you want to be prepared for the moment and prepare and work hard to achieve what you want to achieve, but oftentimes, I think planning ahead is a recipe for disaster, because life often throws you really interesting curveballs that you want to, you know, take, you know, stand up to the plate and take a swing. Love it.
8:17
That will conclude this installment of investor stories. If you’re enjoying the program and would like to see it continue, take a moment and leave a five star review in iTunes. Okay, that will wrap things up for today until next time over. Prepare, choose carefully and invest confidently. Thanks for joining me.
