Investment, you have to look at the jockey and the course

 The recent experience of close contact with new startups has led Arthur to draw an important conclusion, that is, "investment is investing in people", and the entrepreneurial project of each company must come from the story behind the founder. So I've learned a trick now, which I can also share with friends who want to be new startup consultants: There is only one secret, and that is to spend time listening to new startups with their stories.

When Arthur starts to hear some ideas that are illogical at first glance, I will interrupt directly and say: "Tell me your story first, since the student days, have you been a club leader or who did you work for? How to use your time when you have a day off."

Using this method allows me to understand his entrepreneurial projects in a very short period of time, and give accurate suggestions, instead of listening to him in hype, and finally giving out-of-the-box suggestions, causing both sides to complain. , feel like a waste of time.

Back to the topic, "investing is investing in people", but these are actually two things, in the words of my teacher at The University of Queensland: "You have to look at the jockey and the course." That is, the angels in Smart Capital Club will say "You have to pay attention to the players and the track at the same time." Or they have a specific term, called the unity of people and swords. Anyone who is interested can go to Google.

So we take the classic cases Arthur invested recently to illustrate what is called the unity of man and sword:

1. Let’s first look at a few good cases:

i. All about the Cooks (AC)

The founder, Claire, has 10 years of marketing experience, plus 6 years of related experience in food NGOs, and AC's investor Rimpei is the CEO of the world's largest recipe sharing platform. The team can see how reasonable it is, how can Arthur not invest?

ii. Cowboy SA

Cowboy's previous company was killed by European delivery giants Uber EATS and Deliveroo. At the same time, they raised funds while burning money. The last straw that broke them was that they did not successfully complete the next round of capital injection, which led to the collapse of Cowboy. They were also sued by the deliveryman.

As a result, the Cowboy team bravely faced setbacks and lawsuits. After solving the previous problems, they created Cowboy again. Cowboy is a key tool for electric bicycles, which is a key tool for delivery services. Therefore, Cowboy is no stranger to electric bicycles. I believe they can do this well.

Speaking of which, I am afraid of people who succeed in starting a business for the first time. Such people are prone to arrogance and feel that they are very good. To give an actual case, before my illness was not cured, I applied for a job in a restaurant on 104. New business partner, the founder said: "I want to be a high-end fast food chain!"

At that time, my illness was still not cured, and I didn't see enough cases, so I didn't hear the logical error of this sentence. If I analyze it according to my current skill, it will be disassembled into two parts, namely high-end catering and fast food. The two things are 100%, completely, and extremely conflicting. At least if you sell Wagyu burgers alone, I guarantee that you won't be a chain store.

The price of fast food in Taiwan is 150 NTD to 300 NTD. For example, the Bravo Burger around National Taiwan University is 300 and something. If you make a wagyu burger today and sell it for 999 NTD, how many stores do you think you can make in Taiwan?

The answer is definately no more than 5 because the feeling of rarity has been lost, so this guy said to do 60 stores, and the other 55 were opened in a dream, or in the Metaverse?

Entrepreneurs are like boxers. When you no longer regard yourself as a challenger, you are waiting to be defeated by the challenger. You feel that you are very good at starting a business. Has the company you run been acquired or listed? Or like Huawei or 404 Group, is there an internal equity incentive system comparable to that of listed companies? If you don't, how do you feel like you're awesome? Have you ever heard Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, or Lei Jun of Xiaomi, say he is very good?

"Investing is investing in people" shows one thing, the players and the track are very important, and I even think the player is more important for the track because many people find the right track before they are exhausted, such as: Airbnb. Hence, if the team is right, Foundersbacker is even willing to sign an conditional contracts to help you achieve your phased goals step by step, rather than just like the mainstream VCs / accelerators in Taiwan, just want to add icing on the cake. 

If you merely need money, try to get loan or raise funds with overseas VCs. These overseas VCs, at least at least have the ability to help you land in the country where the VC is located, not just to ask you to go overseas, and then you can hear from his words that he is actually unfamiliar with the market.  They hope you to teach after you are familiar with overseas markets. This kind of VC who waits for the chicken to lay eggs, I will not raise funds from them personally. If anyone wants to, you are welcome to talk on your own.