Coffee and Capital With David Luk (Safeguard Scientifics) @ Quorum (February 11, 2016)

Assalamu'alaikum dan selamat membaca,

Sementara menunggu Penceramah sampai, saya buat kerja guna laptop yang baru dibeli di AS,  HP 17 inci, harganya USD280 (termasuk cukai), Hard Disk 500GB, quad-core processor, beli di BestBuy sahaja melalui talian langsung. Semenjak dari tahun 1993/1994, saya dah guna jenama NEC, Compaq. Toshiba, HP, Sony, Dell. Nak beli komputer riba, kena lihat bajet, spesifikasi, kegunaan, keperluan kerja, juga 'tahap kesihatan'. Akhirnya saya beli HP....he3..Mula-mula ingat nak beli jenama Apple, mampu pun beli jenama Apple yang baru, banyak juga 'racun' suruh beli Apple, tetapi bila ukur dengan kriteria di atas, saya beli HP 17 inci. Mengapa 17 inci? Sebab dah berusia ni, mata pun dah kurang jelas, bila skrin besar, sedap sikit menaip dan memandang. Mengapa BestBuy? Sebab bila dibanding dengan harga di eBay, Amazon, Walmart dan 1/2 tempat lagi, ini harga paling murah dengan kualiti, jenis dan jenama produk yang sama!

Program ini ditaja oleh sebuah syarikat guaman

Saya datang atas 'tiket Wharton'. Yang lainnya merupakan usahawan, ada sedikit tenaga akademik seperti saya

Orang Putih yang bertanya ini dari Ben Franklin Technology Partner, salah sebuah Pemodal Teroka terkenal di Philadelphia...

OK, back to some points taken by me during the session. David Luk has 3 years working experience with Safeguard Scientifics. The company invested in entrepreneur, electronic product, mostly in Philadelphia. Further, the company focus on healthcare technology  and software development, up to USD25 million funding. Currently, they have 30 companies in  portfolio, half in healthcare tech and half in software.

About criteria/tips/advice/potential investment from Safeguard Scientifics. 

• At early stage, it is very much about the people (founder/entrepreneur)
• Later stage, we are looking about the product and the team
• Advice to company--> Done their homework, what does it means to raise for VC?
• Why are you talking to VC?
• Why am I be a right partner?
• Safeguard Scientifics met a many-many  companies per year
• We have 1-10 deals per year
• Coming with a appropriate approach (how to meet VC)
• The company is structured in the right way
• The company has the Board of Advisor
• Sometimes, you need to have a right Mentor
• Being able to be honest what the things you are going to do
• Have to be a profitable investment
• We want to have a strong relationship with our companies we invested
• Product is appropriate to fit in the market
• What is the actual size of the market?
• VC needs to be an expert in your market
• We want to be more than 'sign a cheque'
• We typically don't sign NDA (Non-disclosure document)
• We are not in the business competing with the company that coming to us
• It got to be some trust there (company and VC)
• We don't have life cycle fund (5-10 years)
• We do syndicate (bring partners and investors)
• If we have opportunity to exit, we will.
• Do not hire advisor who charge on you based on percentage
• Company --> Talk to everybody
• We are looking those companies that are majority owned by entrepreneurs
• We are not looking those companies 10% owned by entrepreneurs, 90% controlled by investors (employee-employer relationship)
• Crowdfunding is great. 
• Most VCs have 100-200 investors
• Don't use a broker to get more money
• UPenn, Drexel and Temple create their own funds...Wow!!!
• Find a customer who is so enthuasiastic about your product