Lean Startup Melbourne - Jon Teo

Jonathan Teo (originally from Sydney) from General Catalyst Partners, a leading VC firm in Silicon Valley. Jonathan has personally led early-stage investments in 3 of the hottest companies of recent years including Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat, so a body of great knowledge.

He went from tech work to growth strategy for tech companies, he commented that venture capital success is often just from good connections, which is interesting and does it say that location is important? Other nuggets of advice he imparted:

• There is no golden bullet or formula, strange because so many think there is and that is the line often sold, despite most honest people in the industry never say there is! 
• Quality and consistency of the engagement with apps. Engagement, retention, regular use. 
• Great advice on long term financial planning and that large amounts of initial are not always good. Play the long game, don’t go for funding if you don’t need to. Identify and understand who you need to speak to. Crowd funding is good for testing and initial funding, especillay when there is a physical product. Focus on funding source that suits you and your audience. 
• Cost and value of a startup is based on cost per of user the service. 
• Differences between the USA and Australia, confidence verses passion and energy. Australia comes together as a community more so founders can focus on ideas and not the annoying beuracracy. 
• The team is important, how you feel and trust founders as a lot is initially on trust. Most common reason to pass on funding is due to team. most common point missing is founders who are unaware of reality of running a business. Arrogance unless proven or rooted in reality. 
• Outside of the USA, if you’re building a consumer product, you should be focusing on China as it’s the only one with a large enough audience. 

​And finally his five year ideas on funding and ideas:

• Convergence between hardware and software.
• Niche audiences with less common threads.
• Alternative payment.
• Extremely connected.
• Social impact and feeling more human.
• Easy distribution.