We just concluded our final USC VentureLab class Thursday.
Ho Nam of
Altos Ventures and
Ross Fubini of
XYZ Venture Capital closed out our semester. A colleague texted something after the fireside: like watching Magic and Kareem, Curry and Draymond. Different styles, totally in sync. Two accomplished investors from different firms, students of the same craft, finishing each other’s thoughts in real time.
Ho's advice after 30 years, Coupang, Roblox, Toss, etc: do, do, do. In Korean, 더더더. More, more, more. Never be satisfied. Keep going. Paired with Buffett's tap dance to work reference: When the work is the reward, you never really stop.
Ross said be different. Genuinely different. His framework: go where it looks impossible. Defense, broken markets, out of favor industries. Anduril was not an obvious bet. That was the point. Find the wave before it is a wave. Pre-data. If it shows up in a dataset it is already too late.
We talked about
SG Lee, a former dentist who built
Toss. Not your typical fintech founder background on paper. But the most ambitious find a way. And the early conviction behind
Anduril Industries. Neither was obvious. They never are with the best founders.
Highlighting some of our prior guests:
Maurice Werdegar called Sean Parker when nobody else did. That became a Facebook seed check. Showing up before there is a reason to is still the best long game.
Michael Kim and
Kelli Fontaine of
Cendana Capital backed emerging managers before it was a real strategy. Not popular. Be patient. Compound quietly.
Paul Yeh of
Conductive Ventures: judgment from patterns, patterns from reps, reps from access.
Brian O'Malley of
Tactile Ventures and
Andre Charoo of
Maple VC. Andre held conviction for six years before
Clay became Clay. Brian: retention tells the truth. Fads spike. Platforms compound.
Daniel Dart of
Rock Yard Ventures asks one question about every founder he backs: who would I bet a percentage of my lifetime earnings on. After his session half the class just stayed. Circled around him. Honestly felt like a BTS concert.
To the VentureLab class. You showed up curious, asked thoughtful and honest questions. What I did not expect was how much sitting in that room with you would remind me why I do any of this. This is my tap dance to work moment. Working with the
Ho Nam's and
Ross Fubini's of the world, hearing their journeys, watching how they show up, it all points to the same thing. Find the work that is genuinely yours. Be different in a way that is authentic to you. Do it because it matters. One request. Pay it forward someday. To the next class, the next person figuring it out. You are part of the VentureLab mafia now. Grateful.
To
Dan Wadhwani,
Jack Crawford,
Benjamin King,
Megan Aved, and
Peyton Crawford.
Tekton Ventures. Thank you for building this together!
To
Ho Nam and
Ross Fubini. Thank you for Thursday. Please come back!
Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies - USC Marshall
USC Marshall School of Business