Unicorn-rich VC Wesley Chan owes his success to a Craigslist job washing lab beakers

Wesley Chan is usually seen in his signature buffalo hat; nevertheless, he could also be much more well-known for his skill to identify unicorns.

Over the course of his profession in enterprise capital, he’s invested in over 20 unicorns, together with AngelList, Dialpad, Ring, Rocket Lawyer and Sourcegraph. 5 of these went on to turn into decacorns: Canva, Flexport, Guild Schooling, Plaid and Robinhood. Chan’s was the primary examine into most of these.

After working at Google in its early days as an engineer, he grew to become an investor. His enterprise capital pedigree began at Google Ventures and continued to Felicis Ventures. Now because the co-founder and managing associate of FPV Ventures, he leads the two-year-old agency’s $450 million enterprise capital fund with co-founder Pegah Ebrahimi. 

And whereas all of this success has been well-documented over time, his private journey … not a lot. Chan spoke to TechCrunch concerning the methods his life impacts how he invests in startups.

His story began earlier than he was born, when his household migrated to the U.S. from Hong Kong within the Seventies.

“They got here right here with no cash, and actually, rising up they didn’t have any cash,” Chan stated. “It’s simply actually fascinating to observe that journey. That they would go away a spot the place they didn’t converse a phrase of English and — they nonetheless don’t converse English very properly — and construct a brand new life as a result of they felt that that was what was needed.”

Chan admits that he wasn’t as appreciative of his dad and mom’ fortitude when he was younger. Nevertheless, rising up in a hard-working, immigrant household that didn’t have a lot cash ended up educating him methods to acknowledge nuances and be somebody who can adapt.

“I’m in a enterprise now the place individuals choose you in a short time,” Chan stated. “Amongst my LPs, a whole lot of them don’t have the background I do. I’ve to select up all these tunes of issues that they had been skilled on and be a little bit of a chameleon. Then I’ve to sign to them that they will belief me.”

How he obtained into MIT even with dangerous grades 

Chan’s dad and mom cut up up when he was a child, and he was raised in a single-parent family by his mom. He labored three jobs in highschool to assist assist his household, together with as a car parking zone attendant, a waiter and a dishwasher in a biology lab on the California Institute of Expertise.

He landed the dishwashing job from an advert on Craigslist and remembers taking the No. 22 bus from his working-class Southern California city on a 42-minute journey to CalTech, the place he would go and wash beakers.

At some point, the lab supervisor, famed gene biologist Ellen Rothenberg, requested him if he would learn a college-level e-book on biology and laboratory strategies. Not desirous to lose the job, he did it.

“I had barely taken highschool biology,” Chan stated. “I went to a highschool that wasn’t nice. It was like one way or the other that I wound up making my manner by way of college. Different children had been doing after-school sports activities or going to PSAT prep courses. Not solely did I not have that, I used to be having to earn a living for my household.”

Seems, no matter the highschool expertise, Rothenberg noticed one thing in Chan. When one of many PhD college students left, Chan was promoted to the lab bench. And for the following three years, as he went by way of highschool, Chan was additionally doing analysis.

This was within the early Nineteen Nineties, in the course of the nascent days of stem cell analysis. Rothenberg’s crew taught the teenaged Chan methods to do analysis and he was later a part of a bunch that found a protocol for altering stem cells into purple blood cells. He additionally helped when the crew revealed an educational paper on the protocol.

Then at some point Rothenberg, who had gone to each Harvard and MIT, requested if Chan had considered faculty.

“I’m like, oh man, I’ve to complete this job and earn a living for the dad and mom, and she or he’s telling me I ought to go to high school,” he stated. “Little did I do know that she referred to as the admissions places of work. If you’re like a poor immigrant pupil, you don’t perceive all this stuff.”

Harvard ignored her, however MIT didn’t. And that’s how individuals get into college with horrible grades, Chan stated. 

“Someone took an opportunity on me,” he stated. “So many individuals stumble by way of life, and I don’t suppose I’d have had the alternatives that I did at this time if it wasn’t for somebody who stated, ‘He works onerous. He desires to do analysis.’”

Enterprise classes from being lonely

That’s how Chan stated he appears at enterprise capital, too. He doesn’t search for the one who was a member of the appropriate nation membership. As an alternative, he appears for individuals who have grit and perceive what it means to work onerous.

“One of many classes I discovered, rising up that manner, was that you’ve got every part to realize and nothing to lose,” Chan stated. “It’s onerous work, plus a whole lot of luck. Plus, understanding that there’s individuals serving to you finally open the door to something.”

He credit that assist from Rothenberg for every part that got here after.

“If it wasn’t for MIT, I wouldn’t have discovered Google. If it wasn’t for Google, I wouldn’t have discovered Google Ventures. If it wasn’t for Google Ventures, I wouldn’t have discovered my crew at Felicis,” he added. “And if it wasn’t for Felicis, I wouldn’t have had Canva and all these wonderful firms, lots of them run by immigrants or people who have plenty of grit, who grew up in very non-traditional backgrounds like myself.”

To attend MIT, he needed to go away every part he knew at dwelling and transfer to the alternative coast. As soon as there, Chan additionally labored a number of jobs to pay his manner by way of MIT, the place he obtained his bachelor’s diploma in pc science and later graduated with a Grasp’s of Engineering. 

What was it like to depart his household? In a phrase, onerous. Because of having to assist himself, Chan wasn’t capable of take as many courses as he needed to or be like his buddies who would go on enjoyable journeys on breaks.

Nevertheless, he appears again on that have as one other factor that set him up for all times as a enterprise capitalist.

“After I led the Sequence A in Canva, which is able to finally return 40x plus for that fund, 111 individuals stated no, which made it very lonely to do this deal,” Chan stated. “If you’re the man that may’t go to promenade as a result of it’s a must to work, or you’ll be able to’t go on the ski journey or to the commencement occasion, that’s what I’m coping with.”

Being unnoticed like that taught him: “Who cares if the remainder of the world is laughing at us; you get this wonderful quantity of grit and the power to love being lonely and be okay being lonely.” 

After commencement, Chan went again to California and obtained a job at HP Labs. Then the dot-com crash occurred, and that job fizzled out. However all was not misplaced. There was one firm hiring regardless of the disastrous setting. And it occurred to love individuals from MIT. 

Spoiler, it was Google. Now, working for Google shouldn’t be just like the film “The Internship” the place Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson lie their manner into an internship and spend time competing with different groups on varied tasks. It was higher . . . for many who preferred canines.

“Canines had been operating round and would run into you and knock you over,” Chan stated. “It wasn’t like that film. You need to get to work.”

He was placed on a undertaking growing the advert system, “which was probably the most needed on the time, so I obtained very fortunate.”

Constructing one thing that founders need

This kicked off a 15-year Google profession that included seven years constructing merchandise and 5 years as chief of workers to Sergey Brin, who co-founded Google with Larry Web page. Chan labored on tasks, together with the Google toolbar, which grew to become Google Chrome. 

“If you’re one of many few firms that made it, it was nice,” Chan stated. “Larry and Sergey had been very sort, at all times saying, ‘Hey, possibly Wesley introduced us one thing and we should always let him experiment this out.’ That will ultimately turn into Google Analytics or Google Ventures.”

He was even one of many individuals who interviewed Sundar Pichai when he was up for a job at Google. Clearly, Pichai later grew to become CEO of Alphabet and Google. 

In 2009, Chan instructed Google that he needed to do a startup. He had joined the corporate when it was lower than 100 individuals and stayed till it was over 35,000. He recollects them joking that whenever you go to a startup, you’re the one shopping for the bathroom paper. Chan’s reply was that he didn’t thoughts shopping for the bathroom paper. As an alternative, they instructed he go assist Invoice Maris construct Google Ventures.

“They instructed me to go construct a product that founders need, somewhat than be a founder whose product an organization desires. And we did it,” Chan stated. “Google Ventures remains to be an actual agency at this time that folks wish to take cash from.”

Past overcoming obstacles to get the place he’s at this time, Chan continues to face some odds, particularly as a homosexual Asian man in tech. When he first began in enterprise capital, senior white males had been operating the corporations, sharing deal stream on the soccer fields or throughout an African safari, he stated.

If you’re somebody seeking to construct your deal stream community however your background doesn’t match the nation membership mildew, it’s troublesome, he stated. And there’s not a lot of a assist group in enterprise capital for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.

“That’s the problem of being an outsider on this enterprise,” Chan stated. “You need to struggle your manner up or discover alternative ways of working with founders so it doesn’t appear to be you’re being lazy or not making any progress. When you take a look at enterprise capital and the variety of profitable companions within the LGBTQ+, you’ll be able to depend on two arms. There aren’t lots of them, and there’s in all probability 6,000 enterprise capitalists. Why is there such low illustration? And the variety of brazenly out ones like us is even decrease.”

That’s why he and Pegah Ebrahimi began FPV Ventures two years in the past — to supply the model of investing primarily based on their unconventional backgrounds. (Ebrahimi lower her tooth because the youngest CIO at Morgan Stanley earlier than doing a bunch of C-suite roles at varied tech firms. She really labored on Google’s IPO.)

And the managing companions are doing so with the assist of charities and foundations. A variety of the founders the agency works with “care deeply that they’re earning profits for good individuals,” Chan stated.

“Our founders occur to be underrepresented minorities or ladies, and the actually fascinating theme that I hold listening to is that they really feel individuals misunderstand them,” Chan stated. “We discover founders who’ve the drive to succeed and have this wonderful mixture of humility and success. Additionally they be sure that all their individuals are taken care of.”