For our last episode in this special year, we bring you Hans’ perspective on 2020. To our listeners across the world, thank you for being with us. We look forward to bringing you more insights and inspirations next year! See you in 2021!
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Rita Yang
If you were to describe your 2020 in one word, what would it be and why?
Hans Tung
The word I would use is Unbelievable. It’s unbelievable that COVID-19 would happen, that the world would shut down, and it’s unbelievable that we’d have this many IPOs from our portfolio companies this year. Just a year full of surprises.
Rita Yang
Yeah, a year of strange parallels. Tell us one or two really memorable interaction you’ve had with the founders this year.
Hans Tung
My first was with Max Levchin (founder and CEO of Affirm), during our Evolving|E Summit. Right before our segment, the power in his home went out, and he disappeared. We were live. So I had to make up stuff for five minutes until he figured out his backup generator and a way to keep the conversation going. Ten minutes later, his video feed came back. It was unbelievable and could only happen during COVID-19.
The other memorable moment – the Information had a panel about the sector, specifically about Airbnb. I was one of four people on that panel, and it was very challenging and lonely to be the only guy defending Airbnb when the other three were criticising them.
I guess I did that well enough because Brian Chesky emailed later to thank me for my support. Eight months later, they went public and had a terrific debut. People realised that their model works better than hotels – even in times like these, they can still grow!
Rita Yang
What are some of the things that you think of as highly unlikely or impossible and then it became possible this year?
Hans Tung
In February, we had to consider the impact of COVID-19 on the Chinese companies in our portfolio. A month later, the US shut down for the same reason, and we had to turn our attention to the US portfolio companies.
So many of these companies have amazing teams and founders who have retooled and tweaked their business models during COVID-19. Many of them have achieved growth even faster than pre-pandemic periods.
And again, we achieved six, seven IPOs this year as a firm, which is something we never expected.
Rita Yang
How has this year changed or evolved your way of looking at the role an investor plays in this world? Especially given that, you know, you have been in the US the entire year and been through a lot.
Hans Tung
It’s been the longest break I’ve had from travelling. Instead, it’s been lots of online meetings over Zoom – over nine, sometimes up to 13 a day.
VCs have become almost like founders, figuring out how to adapt our business models and the way we work, and having our employees working remotely across all our locations.
We are practising what we preach, doing the things we are telling founders to do as well. A new role VCs like us pick up – we have become builders ourselves now.
Rita Yang
How has your work style evolved this year? What are some new habits or productivity hacks, you end up developing working from home?
Hans Tung
I’ve ended up exercising more – swimming. Our colleagues have also been using Peloton, one of our portfolio companies. I think in general, everyone got healthier physically. But mentally, it takes effort just to stay connected and not suffer from Zoom fatigue.
There’s a lot more knowledge sharing. A lot of our team are turning to Notion or Affinity to capture our meetings. One of my best hacks is to use Otter.ai.
It records every Zoom meeting we have and generates a transcript afterwards, which makes life a lot easier.
I think one of the biggest surprises is the change in attitude towards Otter.ai. If I turn on Otter.ai during a face-to-face meeting pre-COVID-19, people will question it.
During COVID-19 in Zoom calls, when you turn on Otter.ai, people find it useful and want it too, because it is so much easier, not having to take notes. Having in-person meetings versus Zoom calls, there is definitely a change in behaviour.
And we do end up taking more meetings, because of the ease of recordings.
Rita Yang
Looking back at 2020, what are the three most interesting startups that you have seen? And why?
Hans Tung
Edtech – the growth of Vedantu in India, Zuoyebang and Huohua Siwei in China, and Labster in Europe are very surprising, but understandable as people looked for alternative solutions to keep learning.
The second surprise was e-commerce. Most of our e-commerce companies actually benefitted from this period, when the world shut down and spending moved online. The most notable examples would be StockX and Poshmark. Both of them achieved positive earnings and growth.
I actually recall telling the StockX CEOs, “We may have to buckle down. Growth may slow down, and we’ve got to be very careful”.
Throughout this year, they’ve just had amazing growth and just announced closing a $275 million fundraising round at about a $2.8 billion valuation, so it’s incredible how things shifted so quickly and unexpectedly.
The third is communication, whether its Otter.ai, which helps capture meetings more effectively, and professional and social networks.
We saw in Fishbowl, Chief and Valence – these three companies in the US – that people are more actively engaging their peers online whether it’s in the form of audio or video. So many people show up for these townhall meetings in the form of hundreds. It’s incredibly touching.
We just threw our own portfolio event, where we sent bottles of tequila to our founders who were willing to join us. About 80 showed up and the stories they were trading about dealing with COVID-19 were extremely touching.
And I think it’s not just us who have done that, we see other portfolio company CEOs hosting townhalls. I remember Brian from Ibotta hosting something for the state of Colorado.
It’s impressive how the human spirit has come together to cope with things together.
Rita Yang
Yeah, it’s a kindred spirit coming together for each other. That’s really important. What are you most excited about the new year?
Hans Tung
I hope the COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed through the first two quarters of next year so most people can be vaccinated before the beginning of summer.
The second half of next year could see tremendous growth as life goes back to ‘normal’. Travel will be a sector that bounces back as people who’ve been cooped up at home want to go out and do things. That’s why companies like Airbnb are trading well because people expect that next year will be a very good year for many of these companies.
So I am excited for 2021. It was an interesting way to close a decade with what happened this year, but the next decade should be better.
Rita Yang
Thank you so much for being on the show. I look forward to seeing you.
Hans Tung
Thanks. Take care.
