Elsha E. Kwee

Want to take your angel investing game to the next level? Here’s how to start your own syndicate: 1. Gather your network that may be interested in angel investing 2. Create and set up your legal entity and SPV infrastructure via a platform like AngelList 3. Prepare for your first deal - discussions with the founder, collection of deal materials, confirmation of your allocation 4.. Write your deal memo, circulate the deal, collect commitments 5. Close the deal, wire the funds, and celebrate your first syndicate deal Importantly, after wiring the funds, ask the founder if you can pass along future investor updates to LPs so they can stay up to date with how the company progresses over time.

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Some great details from the inside on what to include in your investor updates 👇 Great content, thanks for sharing this Tim Suzman! p.s. thanks Tech Philomaths for guiding towards such insightful content 🙌

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Founders: Can I interest you in lunch on us? Yes, we’re back with another ecosystem initiative from Tin Men Capital Namely: TINFLUN (There is no free lunch until now) It’ll be held in a unique format: 🔸5-6 VC funds across investment stages will be in attendance. 🔸Fundraising founders get to seat with a GP/VC investing in their stage/sector. 🔸Only 6-8 founders per table. 🔸Conversations will be had, deals could be made. The best of all? Lunch is free for founders! All thanks to our amazing sponsors. For those fundraising from Seed to Growth (Series A/B) stage, It’s a nice opportunity to meet VCs in a casual setting. Especially in the current fundraising climate where interest is tougher to find. As with any of our events typically (and even more so for this), This event on the 30th of August will likely be oversubscribed very quickly. 🥲 Bring an empty stomach and your fundraising-hat. Murli Ravi , myself and our other participating VCs Hsu Ken Ooi , Arshad Chowdhury , Tanuja Rajah , Karan Mohla look very much forward to see you there. P.S. Will leave the link in the comments - more info there. Credits to John T. for the funky name.

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Most Pioneer Fund companies send monthly updates (some quarterly), and we read every update across the portfolio of 500+ companies. I actually still personally read every update. Most startups send updates with these sections, and it works well: - High level metrics (revenue, maybe another key metric or two like GMV or MAU, growth since last month, cash in bank, burn rate, runway). Many of the most consistently-growing or fastest-growing companies also include a revenue graph. - Highlights - Lowlights - Investor asks - Maybe a couple investor shoutouts from last month - Some short commentary on what the current priorities are, what's coming next, etc. Some founders like to include a special section or two. A few of my favorites: - Photos or videos of technical progress for hardware companies - One of our founders sends a self rating on a scale of 0-10 for the month, along with detailed explanation. Pretty impressive. - A zoomed out view of how the mission/vision/strategy is specifically evolving - Some have very detailed additional sections that are specific to their business. E.g. manufacturing updates, distribution updates, regulatory updates, etc. Each investor update may only take a few minutes to read, but they are the summary of the hard work of an entire team for an entire month, often fighting uphill or sprinting downhill or exploring the idea maze. We're always grateful reading them.

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Linden Lab & Second Life continue to be stripmined by investors. What is Second Life? It is a venerable online world that always avoided being a competent game or having good tech but found a small but fervent and viable community interetsed in an open online world that wasn't really fun but is creative and expressive (if a bit janky). It is now struggling to continue to exist. Second Life was founded in 2003. Second Life has had more than 70 million unique accounts created in its lifetime. It has about 750k MAUs. It is not a web game. It is not really a game. It is like an MMO without the G. Second life has a small but dedicated fanbase. It is often associated with the first (early 2000s) wave of Web 3.0. It is a PC application (Windows & Mac). It does not allow cryptocurrency or blockchain. The Linden dollar is fixed and not speculative. It is not a scam. It is very Uncanny Valley, almost intentionally so. Second Life never went to console oro mobile. It never really grew and took off. Its always been this small, curious "also-ran". When Second Life, Sandbox, Decentraland and other tiny spaces tried to compare to Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft? They don't. They're not in the same league or the same reality. Second Life still exists. The zombie 'w3bsites? By definition of active users? They don't. Second Life survived the pandemic, barely. It didn't grow the way online games did, but then it didn't die when 'web3' did. It still exist, kind of. Linden Labs is selling off its payment processing, and is doing this just as mobile starts to open up. Brilliant. Linden Labs is always 10 years behind. That's being maintained under investor ownership. ----- Second Life: https://secondlife.com/ Wikipedia: https://lnkd.in/efHfv5rD Mar 25, 2020 "'Second Life' creator sells its ambitious social VR platform Linden Lab is offloading Sansar to narrow its focus." Engadget: https://lnkd.in/euhuK7xa Jan 06, 2021 NWN: "Second Life Officially Acquired By Holding Company, Ending Era As Aspirational Startup" NewWorldNotes: https://lnkd.in/exGCgBXg Aug 4, 2021 "Second Life to ban gacha mechanics. From August 31, selling content via gacha machines will no longer be permitted in the title" GamesIndustryBiz https://lnkd.in/e6XzbQxG Mar 10, 2023 Second Life Mobile - First Look YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eDqYn2Bp Mar 16, 2023: 20 years later, Second Life is launching on mobile The so-called proto-metaverse will leap from desktops for the first time. ArsTechnica: https://lnkd.in/ewENT5iN ---- April 24, 2024 "Second Life developer sells off payments business Tilia. The deal with Thunes will include a five-year partnership for payment processing and payouts to Linden Lab" "Linden Lab, the developer of Second Life, has sold its payments business, Tilia, to Thunes. The news comes a month after Linden announced that Second Life is in development for mobile devices." GamesIndustryBiz: https://lnkd.in/eyRvecQM #gameindustry #secondlife #lindenlabs

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Pitching to investors? Here’s what your deck should cover : Introduction- Bold statement/your personal story The Problem Your solution Your product The Market The Team Your Ask Key is to keep every slide simple, with key information. No information overload. Glad I attended the workshop on how to build your pitchdeck by Peter Thomsen The guy’s a legend. Did I miss anything?

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Key takeaways: 1. Proprietary data = moat in AI 2. Business case for 'Vertical System Integrators' - e.g. 'IT' for Finance, Insurance, etc. Seeing more of these in Southeast Asia also. I guess this is what a16z had in mind when saying "we're entering the new SaaS era, moving from Software-as-a-Service to Service-as-a-Software." https://lnkd.in/gdcJwmcH

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🔥Raise Millions For Your Startup🔥 This is arguably the most valuable startup fundraising resource I've had the privilege of stumbling upon. It's from Tam Pham from hustlefund.vc and it's good... The reason why it's particularly useful is because the intel provided is ACTIONABLE: ● Should I raise from angel investors or venture capitalists? ● What do all the fundraising stages mean? ● What do equity, SAFEs, and dilution mean? ● How do I determine my startup’s valuation? ● Why are cap tables, shares, and vesting so important? ● Where should I incorporate my company? ● When is the best time to start fundraising? ● What exactly should I include in my pitch deck? ● How should I structure my first meeting with an investor? ● What questions will early-stage VCs ask me? ● How do I build authentic relationships with investors? ● What happens if an investor says no or ghosts me? ● What should I expect after an investor verbally commits? You guys can save this doc to your local computer by enlarging the PDF below and then by clicking the "download" icon in the top right corner of your browser. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 💡Join 30,000+ Amplified Investors: https://lnkd.in/eAYGMHRN ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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posting a follow up thought on this because i think it matters: i think the undesirable outcome that Jeremy mentioned (and I agree the outcome has been undesirable) is not caused by the size of the funds or the way they have been invested in companies. I believe he is mistaking the quality of outcome for the quality of investment decisions. you can make good decisions and produce bad outcomes. the solution isn’t to go and change the decisions, but to double down in the decision making model. in the case of venture capital, the only decision making model that has worked globally is the power law. example: multiple investors invest in 100 smartest founders hoping 5 of them will become billion dollar companies and make a great return that pay off for the other 95 that didn’t. if you do that and all 100 fail, the solution isn’t to invest less, but to keep doing it again, knowing that founders become more experienced over time and knowledge transfer and network effects compound and the results improve. It is not for every LP. it is not for every fund manager. it is not for every entrepreneur or employee. But those who are in it should be comfortable the risk and reward involved. you can’t control/predict who wins, and reducing the fund sizes will just make Southeast Asia less desirable to smart talented and ambitious people. the notion that SEA has its own vibe and therefore VC laws don’t apply is exactly to say “we have given up on SEA to produce billion dollar companies, ever” and i think it’s important to at least say that explicitly. respectfully, VCs complaining about other VCs raising too much may be what LPs wanna hear in the short term but it is in effect suicidal for the startup scene. it’s not VC if it’s optimized for 2-3x return, its value investing. i don’t call that localization, i call it killing VC in SEA altogether. the craziest technological breakthrough of our lifetime is out there and the VC discourse in SEA cannot be about reducing fund sizes.

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Love this tip by Alfred Lin from Sequoia Capital: "Who is your worst reference and why?" [During the interviews] we've all asked for references but provided references tend to be cheerleader references. Fed up with these useless references, I have been asking for a person's worst reference and why since Zappos. Generally, this question puts the conversation into a more vulnerable discussion. Even so, most will come up with an example of when they were right and disagreed strongly, similar to answering that they are perfectionists to questions about their weaknesses. Rarely will someone answer the why part voluntarily. Pulling on these threads provides valuable insights into how introspective the interviewee is and how vulnerable and candid they can be with the interviewer.

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Founders, if you are having trouble selling your product, you don't need to immediately pivot your product. Instead, I recommend pivoting your goto market first. Check out the video below to find out how.

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Want to know why your search across ecommerce and product led sites sucks now? I spoke to a former alibaba and gojek lead engineer and found out why. Investment Asian investment streams are forecasting for a down market. Keeping users on site longer inflates usage numbers and vanity KPIs to potential backers Audience Forcing users to put more complex queries in searchbars as opposed to allowing a simple size/review/location filter, allows them to store, disseminate, repackage market data and sell to businesses. making you flip through dozens if not hundreds of listing's until you find something suitable Product lanes Basically this looks at previous queries and tries to force purchase of a higher priced item similar to the one you were searching for. Again disregarding filters, in this case sort by price or review Previous search Wishlists and previously searched items will continue to bombard you until you wipe your saved items and cart. Even so earlier searches insert into new searches even if completely different from what you're looking for (TEMU and Aliexpress). Dark social, tiered pricing and just frustrating experiences are on the horizon with Facebook and Amazon following many of these emerging trends. Thankfully I adopted for functional minimalism years ago.

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Many founders make mistakes when calculating their runway period. Sequoia Capital has shared a simple framework that can help founders think beyond the basic runway calculation equation. This includes: 1. Runway reality 2. What is runway and how should you calculate it? (With an example) 3. How should you think about how much runway you actually need? 4. How do you actually extend your runway if you need more? (a) Understand your startup stage (b) Layoff potential changes based on burn impact and ease of execution. (c) Set a goal (d) Execute on this goals. 👉 Check out my free newsletter for more insights: https://lnkd.in/dKZQKHg2 . #startups #funding #venturecapital #founders #fundraising #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #founder #fund #vc #vcfund #angelinvestors #investors #startuptips #fundingtips

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Good framework on SaaS valuation

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I never understand people who argue about PMF vs distribution and pick a side. While both are important, preference of one over the other majorly depends on the market for early-stage startups. For example, if a startup is in a crowded market, say beauty for example, then its positioning and market reach are more essential, even before the brand/products are launched. People today have hundreds of known options and would most likely not buy from an unknown beauty brand making distribution less relevant. Apart from market size, market sentiment is also key. For instance, beauty brands in the 70s focused a lot more on product innovation and quality, surviving the test of time till this date. In this case, the market responded better to distribution because it was backed by reliable R&D. Thus, PMF vs distribution is an entirely subjective argument so do what makes the most sense for your market and users.

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Found this old note I wrote almost 10 years ago when I first started working in e-commerce. It was an inspiration after reading the book "The Everything Store", the part where Jeff Bezos set the value for Amazon as the company. The first company I've ever worked for was ZALORA and (despite what people said about a Rocket company's culture) for the most parts of it, I genuinely felt that people were working and acting true to their values. When you were doing something really really hard, it left no rooms for mediocrity. It required you to put in your 100%. It made you become better. I keep those values with me along the way, but it also appears to be harder to keep up with them as your scope expands. Now instead of someone's company culture, it is YOUR own culture that you got to set. Things get tough. E-commerce is always hard. You lack funding and can't make great hires. Your processes suck. You don't have enough time to explain to an intern why banners need to be bigger so they can get higher click-rate 😅 It is a slippery slope. In moment like that, I'd like to go back to this old note and remind myself that excellence can be achieved as long as we don't give in. You just need a little bit more efforts (and a bit more time). #thoughts #entrepreneurship #ecommerce #amazon #theeverythingstore

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🌾🚀 Exciting News: Ahan is Going #Open #Source! 🚀🌾 We are thrilled to announce that ahan, our innovative Liquid Staking Solution designed to stake stablecoins against Agro Commodities, is now open source! GitHub link: https://lnkd.in/gZq-8WQe This marks a major milestone in our mission to revolutionize Real-World Assets (#RWA) tokenization, introducing Non-Perishable Agro Commodities as a groundbreaking asset class. 🌍 Why This Matters: #RWA tokenization represents a $16 Trillion opportunity, and by focusing on Agro Commodities, we are unlocking the immense potential to support the sustainability of smallholder farmers. This not only drives financial inclusion but also promotes sustainable agricultural practices globally. 👩‍💻 Calling All Open Source Developers: #Ahan is now a #multi #chain and #open #source initiative. We invite Open Source Developers from #concordium #ethereum #solana #avalance #polygon and major L1 #blockchain protocols to join us on this exciting journey. By contributing to Ahan, you can be part of a transformative project that has the potential to reshape the agricultural and financial landscapes. All contributions will be credited, and the most dedicated contributors will receive #AHAN DAO tokens as a token of our appreciation. 🔍 Transparency & Tokenomics: Our tokenomics are fully transparent and can be verified at https://ahan.fi. Ahan is a multichain support initiative and we are currently live in TestNet on Concordium at https://testnet.ahan.fi (Feel free to give it a try by installing #concordium wallet and requesting for test #EUROe stablecoins from the faucet) Join us, contribute, and help build a sustainable future for agriculture. Let's innovate together! 💡🌱 #OpenSource #RWATokenization #AgroCommodities #Sustainability #AHANDAO #Blockchain #Crypto From your friends at Kratos Innovation Labs and FoodLens(TM)

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At Atom11, we track organic ranks. And we get asked this question quite often "Do you track geo ranks" Here is a quick answer: ONLY WHEN REQUIRED. And those cases are really just for top 1% sellers. 1. Geo rank should be measured for 2 reasons: a. Inventory replication (i.e. to ensure that Amazon has furnished your inventory in all regions as per demand) b. Increasing sales (if you already have high sales in NYC, but low sales in San Francisco, geo ranks will help you increase sales in that region). You can only action on this using DSP OR using external marketing in the new regions. 2. Geo rank will NOT give you incremental value if: a. you are a mid-sized seller and have not even sorted basics of increasing sales (i.e PPC, inventory, content optimization etc. etc..) b. you are regional and/or seasonal. Even if you qualify for geo ranks, everyday geo ranking is not required. Have you heard of marginal utility? Stay tuned for tomorrow's post. I will share a pretty cool infographic on how big/ small is the impact of geo ranks on total sales :) #amazonads #amazonppc #atom11

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🚀 New Product Launch – Investor Connect by Iterative. I launched SEA Checks on May 31, 2023. Since then, over 500 startups have submitted their pitch decks, which have been circulated to the 12 investors in the group. It mostly worked, but we encountered a few problems: 1. Overwhelming Investor Interest – I received an overwhelming number of emails and DMs from other investors who wanted to participate. I apologize to those I didn't respond to; I simply didn't know how to proceed at the time. 2. Founders Wanted More Investors – Although SEA Checks boasts a desirable group of investors, founders expressed a desire for a platform with a broader reach and a larger set of investors. This was especially true for startups working on less mainstream projects. 3. Lack of Filter – Given the high volume of applications and our process of sending every submission to the small group of investors, I suspect that most investors didn't spend much time reviewing the submissions. There were simply too many, potentially leading them to overlook promising startups. A straightforward solution would be to significantly expand the number of participating investors, but this contradicts the original intention of maintaining a small group of investors who know each other (mainly through me). So, what should we do? I believe there’s value in a platform that’s more inclusive to a broader set of investors and, consequently, a broader set of startups. However, I think this requires a different platform than SEA Checks. In fact, it should go in the complete opposite direction. I've always admired Mercury Raise broadly and Investor Connect specifically, but they’re US-focused. I've also thought there should be something similar for Southeast Asia, so that's what we've been working on. Today, we're launching our own Investor Connect. Here’s how it works 1. Submit Your Deck – We welcome founders based in Southeast Asia to apply. Tell us about your startup and upload your pitch deck. 2. We Review – Every month, the Iterative team reviews and selects startups based on idea, team, and market. These are then shared with our investor network. 3. Connect with Investors – If an investor expresses interest, we'll connect the two of you. We hope this will be helpful to a wider group of both founders and investors. To find out more, look for the 📌 in the comments.

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