Jonathan Teo
Founder and Managing Partner at Binary Capital
Discussion
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Jonathan Teo
@jonathan_teo
Hi everyone, I'm Jonathan Teo, cofounder of Binary Capital and a big believer that we can commoditize privilege across the globe through responsible technology products. I've been in a wide variety of roles including founder, employee, technical manager and now investor and am excited to answer any of your questions from those perspectives.
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Tiffany Zhong
@tzhongg · something new! @BinaryCap @ProductHunt
What are 3 companies you passed on but wish you hadn't in hindsight?
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Jonathan Teo
@jonathan_teo
@tzhongg FusionIO back in 2009, Pinterest in 2010 (although I wrote a Quora post on it after I failed to convince my partnership then. Twice. https://www.quora.com/How-does-P...) and Dropbox in late 2010.
Harry Stebbings
@harrystebbings · Podcast Host @ The Twenty Minute VC
Awesome to see you here Jonathan and have heard a huge amount about you, my question is, obviously Tiffany is awesome and the whole community loves her but what was it about @tzhongg that made you realise how awesome she was? What was that factor or turning point? Were you concerned at how the VC community would respond to such a young hire?
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Jonathan Teo
@jonathan_teo
@harrystebbings @tzhongg This young lady here is one of the most authentic, honest and expressive individuals I've come across. She also at core has a passion for technology and new ideas, and has an intrinsic understanding that the best people in her network have yet to do their best work and is constantly in support of them getting to that point.
Kartik Chaudhari
@kartik_chaudhari · fueled by innovation, starting up
@jonathan_teo @harrystebbings @tzhongg how did you discover her as a talent? as in what was the medium of communication?
COSTAS ANDRIOPOULOS
@candriopoulos · https://medium.com/strictly-curious
Hello Jonathan, thank you for taking our questions. Where do you look for emerging trends (e.g. sources, events, websites, etc.) and how do you pick ventures in nascent industries?
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Jonathan Teo
@jonathan_teo
@candriopoulos I use a series of data pulls across public sources of data to figure out whereabouts in the service space there lack national brands in inefficient marketplaces but where latent demand exists. In the new media space I scour Twitter and other conversation rich sites to identify if any products are bringing about new content types that facilitate new ways of communicating.
COSTAS ANDRIOPOULOS
@candriopoulos · https://medium.com/strictly-curious
@jonathan_teo Dear Jonathan, thank you very much for your insightful answer. I appreciate it.
Andrew Ettinger
@andrewett · Product Marketing, Twitter (ex-PH)
Do you think our social media bandwidth is at max cap? In other words, will the next big thing have to replace something we currently use?
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Jonathan Teo
@jonathan_teo
@andrewett There's always going to be a limit as to the number of ubiquitous media products out there, just because we only have so many hours in a day. Yet we are now starting to see a real fracture in demographic specific products segmented by content and access types. More, smaller online communities will be developed.
Andrew Ettinger
@andrewett · Product Marketing, Twitter (ex-PH)
@jonathan_teo As an investor, how do you evaluate which of these "small online communities" has the most growth potential?
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
Hello Jonathan,
Thank you for giving us an opportunity to ask you questions .
What are the indicators you look for, when scanning hundreds ( if not thousands ) of startup pitches?
What is your preferred format of a startup pitch?
Thank you.
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Jonathan Teo
@jonathan_teo
@victorpolyushko Hey Victor, I'm going to attempt this with the caveat that there are always additional details to consider depending on the space the startup is innovating in. In no specific order and across different spaces, I look for
1) Clarity in understanding what user value the product is bringing to the market and the distinction between that and the founding vision (a founding vision that's greater than the product vision helps me be inspired that the founders understand the journey they are embarking on).
2) A consistency of that user value articulated by the founder and the message that users describe the service or product with.
3) A team that's self aware about why they can understand that user value best and how to keep that up (either belonging to the exact user demo, unique context, data centric product iteration process, etc.)
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Jonathan! Snapchat is an obvious big win during your time at General Catalyst. Which three emerging but lesser known social platforms are you most excited about?
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Jonathan Teo
@jonathan_teo
@rrhoover I think social is a tough space now to innovate in. Most of the relationships have been codified with existing platforms. I do think there are areas to continue innovating in (e.g. group conversations), but in general we have been focused in this space on products aggregating content and their distribution across multiple platforms as we move away from the monolithic html based content world where Google was most dominant.
Marius Chawa
@mariuschawa
For a startup with less than 1000 total users, no revenue yet that's seeking funding.. Would they typically raise a pre-seed or seed round? and how can they send you a pitch deck?
Justin Wilson
@jawhster
@mariuschawa great question. I'm looking for answer too. Thank you
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Jonathan Teo
@jonathan_teo
@mariuschawa Just send it over to me at jt@binarycap.com. I'll certainly respond.
Martina Grgic
@martigrgic · Co-founder @ SmartLumies
Hi Jonathan! What is the biggest mistake founders do while pitching to you, especially non-US founders (in case you had experience with this)? If I can be honest, my biggest fear now, as a European founder, is that I'm not as valuable as an US founder because of the cultural differences and being away of the startup epicenter. I guess it will change with time :)
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Jonathan Teo
@jonathan_teo
@martigrgic Don't be! The only mistake a founder can make when pitching is to pitch another person's point of view.
Martina Grgic
@martigrgic · Co-founder @ SmartLumies
@jonathan_teo good advice :) is there a way I can pitch you my point of view?
Kartik Chaudhari
@kartik_chaudhari · fueled by innovation, starting up
Hi Jonathan.. how would you consider the venture capital scenes in India to be.. It is the fastest growning it hub in the world and already has the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world but, without a major VC presence .. Would you invest?
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Jonathan Teo
@jonathan_teo
@kartik_chaudhari I would but given the stage we invest in, the geographical constraints of where our network and experience can be most helpful get diminished with that distance. I also don't tend to get preferential deal flow outside of the US.
Kartik Chaudhari
@kartik_chaudhari · fueled by innovation, starting up
@jonathan_teo geographical constrainsts aside, would you invest if you had presence in India?