Last week, I joined the yearend party at one of our portfolio companies. It was a warm small party where all employees (more than 10) brought their partners.
During the party, the founder told me that the reason he accepted our investment back then (6 months ago) because I listened to their story. “Most of the people would tell us what we should do. You made us feel we’re heard” he said. I was kinda (pleasantly) surprised because I have always thought that I got this deal because I understood their business well in a short time, which impressed the founders.
When I was working on this deal, I helped them answer some questions to apply for a program. After reading my answers, one of the founders told me “ wow, you understand our business so well and even explain it better than us!”
Yes, I did talk a lot with them, ask tons of question to understand the business. It is so happy to know that it made them feel that good.
I always think that investment is not to give someone some money. For me, it is to ask someone if I can join your business by contributing some values, of which monetary value is one. Nowadays, it’s actually quite easy for founders to get $30k — $100k* to fund their business. There are many sources: their own capital, family, friends, bank loan… Actually, I see more and more founders have a wealthy background. That means they’re not too desperate to get some first checks from early investors like us.
So I am always thankful for those who agree to receive our** money, to let us be a part of their exciting journey. They realize that our value is bigger than our money.
*this is a popular first check size in Vietnam & you can do quite a lot of things with this amount of money in Vietnam
**I am working at G&H Ventures (previously known as Innovatube Capital) — a micro-fund investing in early tech startups. In most of the case, we’re the first outside investors of the team. See us more at https://www.gh-vc.co/
San 
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