Chi-Hua Chien
Co-founder of Goodwater Capital
Discussion
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Chi-Hua Chien
@chchien
Hi - I'm Chi-Hua Chien, cofounder of Goodwater Capital, a venture capital firm focused 100% on early stage consumer tech ventures. I've spent the last 14 years investing in tech companies including early investments in Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, Chegg, Klout, and Path. Goodwater's recent investments include Stash, Zumper, musical.ly, and Memebox. Very excited to be here and answer any questions, plus talk about our new product Index that helps entrepreneurs figure out if it's a good time to raise money.'
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Ben Tossell
@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt
Hey! If you had to swap lives with an early tech CEO who would it be and why?
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Chi-Hua Chien
@chchien
@bentossell for early stage, i think that the Brandon Krieg and Ed Robinson @StashInvest have an incredible opportunity to reinvent the entire financial services industry. they are doing good work and i believe that company will touch 100M+ people access to financial opportunity. for later stage, it would have to be Elon Musk. he is transforming transportation, space, AI and making all of our lives better. the Tesla is the best product i've seen since the iPhone.
Adam Revetta
@arrev · Building something new 🚀
Hi @chchien ! What's the greatest early indicator to success that you've seen consistently across startups?
jerod moore
@jollymonatx · Co-Founder goKittr & Coffee hunter
What's the most common "Seed stage" mistake you see?
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Chi-Hua Chien
@chchien
@jollymonatx investing in too much marketing is the most common seed stage mistake i see. companies that haven't yet built a great product sometimes think they can skip that step by starting marketing, buying FB ads, etc to drive customer adoption. but that never works because if your product isn't great, it won't retain users and those dollars are lost. so focus on the product first, then ramp your marketing once you raise your Series A.
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Chi-Hua Chien
@chchien
@jakecrump i wake up around 7am with my two kids (ages 3 and 8) and feed them breakfast. it's a special time in the morning for me because i get to take them to school and help them get a great start to the day. my son and i have a tradition of taking a selfie every morning before he goes into pre-school. i then head into the office and either do calls or listen to podcasts during my morning commute. most mornings, my partner Eric Kim and I catch up for a few minutes, and we set aside 2 hours on Monday and Friday mornings to talk through everything related to Goodwater and our companies.
Ayrton De Craene
@ayrton · Code @ Product Hunt
What characteristics do great founders share?
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Chi-Hua Chien
@chchien
@ayrton great founders share a few things in common. 1) they have a huge vision and belief in accomplishing the impossible, 2) they can motivate others to join them on that journey, and 3) they execute relentlessly and with great detail. the best founders are also incredibly frugal and treat company resources with care, investing in the things that will create the most value.
Ben Tossell
@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt
What do you believe that few agree with you on?
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Chi-Hua Chien
@chchien
@bentossell i think few would agree with me on my perspective that PR for early stage companies is often a waste of energy. (ironic, because i'm saying this in a public forum...) but i have seen too many companies get wrapped up in PR that they forget to focus on their product. they get distracted by the press, networking events, panels, parties, etc. and invest way too much energy in those things. instead, they should be focused on their customers and product. building a great company requires staying at home and building a great product first. the accolades and public recognition will come in due time.
Harsh Pendse
@harshpendse · TCO Labs
What is your take on college students and startups ? Should they start their company at that point of time ?
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Chi-Hua Chien
@chchien
@harshpendse age doesn't matter. you should start a company when you are so passionate about solving a problem that you can't sleep until you build the solution. if that happens in college, great. if it happens when you're 60, also great. Daniel Ek of Spotify had some great perspective to share on this in his talk at Stanford. http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podc...
Theoharis Dimarhos
@theo_dimarhos · Marketing+Biz Dev at AngelouEconomics
How can a young non-technical/business person that wants to get into investing be of service to a VC firm?
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Chi-Hua Chien
@chchien
@theo_dimarhos i was lucky to get my start at Accel Partners by volunteering my time to help other portfolio companies. Peter Fenton (now at Benchmark Capital) and Arthur Patterson (the cofounder of Accel) sat on my board at Coremetrics and asked me to help a few other SaaS companies in their portfolio model out their finances and make operational improvements. i was the interim CFO at Coremetrics and we went through a pretty significant turnaround. from there, i got my shot on the investing side and went on to help the firm invest in Facebook, Trulia and others. so start early via a relationship and just volunteer your time to help companies or find new investments!
Danny Tirmizi
@danny_tirmizi · Founder : Icarus App
Hi Mr. Chien! I wanted to know how soon should a startup pitch to VC's ? Does having a good product alone help or a large user base thats convincing? www.IcarusNow.com
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Chi-Hua Chien
@chchien
@danny_tirmizi a good product helps, and a rapidly growing user base helps even more. investors love to see clear customer proof points which demonstrate that you've built a product which addresses a large market opportunity. our Goodwater Index will help you get a sense of the current fundraising environment and VC sentiment. http://www.goodwatercap.com/index