Jenny Lee, the investor with the «Midas touch», reveals the essential traits of successful entrepreneurs.
Considered to be one of the most respected venture capital investors in China, Singaporean native Jenny Lee shares that vision is the most important as a founder.
«As a founder, your vision, if it's the right vision, it's going to guide you for the next 3, 5, 50, or 100 years. It's the core (engine) behind what drives the platform and your company. It cannot be as simple as: I want to change the world,» Lee said at the recent Money 20/20 event in Singapore.
She goes on to elaborate her point that founders need to give clear and specific vision and mission statement, which can be dissected into specific actionable tasks that senior management and staff on the ground can work upon.
Favourite Personal Traits
When asked which personal traits she favours the most amongst positivity, resilience, and energy, she picked the second. «I would rank resilience higher than the other two. If you don't have positivity and energy, you're probably not an entrepreneur,» said Lee.
She went on to share that she has seen companies at the brink of going under, but after one or two months, these resilient entrepreneurs found the right people to move forward with, or found a right business model to pivot into.
Success As a Venture Capitalist
Lee is the only female managing partner at GGV Capital. GGV is a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders, focusing on seed-to-grow stage investments across various sectors. Founded in 2000, the firm deals with $6.2 billion (S$8.3 billion) in capital across 13 funds and has invested in 52 startups that have passed $1 billion (S$1.35 billion) in valuation.
Her ability to foresee the success of the firms she invested in has allowed her to make her way onto the «Forbes Global 100 VC Midas» list, ranking as #10 overall in 2015, the highest record for a female in 14 years.
Riding on the Wave
Some of the notable investments she had led were with Xiaomi, a Chinese manufacturer of smartphones that rose to popularity, riding on the wave of China’s mobile internet explosion.
Today, Xiaomi is one of the top five smartphone makers. More recently, she invested in LingoChamp, a language-learning app to help people speak English by engaging in Artificial Intelligence.
Asia as the Growth Frontier
Lee believes that the growth wave in Asia will continue – be it the mobile wave or the backend infrastructure upgrade that is going on. Trends that Lee is hopeful for includes the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to model or personalized large datasets, based on an interview with «EDB Singapore».
«Think of your comparative advantage, that advantage can roll up a couple of folds,» is Lee’s advice to starting entrepreneurs, especially in view of the current climate.
