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Frank Meehan

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24
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2015-02-20
most recent
2015-02-20
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1
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  1. “No, no, we couldn't do that. No, we weren't allowed to do that. But certainly now I could, absolutely. If I wanted to. But I think, you know, because when you've got your own firm, it's definitely a little bit more flexible. But I think at the end of the day, we're very, very focused on making sure that we get the right things into Spark Labs. And I really focus on my investments going through Spark Labs rather than doing anything personal if possible.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “I think the hardest decision is always saying no to a startup that, I mean, I think the hardest one was when I was in previous VC firm and I had to say no to a startup that I knew didn't fit with the firm but was with the firm's philosophy, but I knew was a really, really cool, I won't say what it was, but I knew that was a very, very cool startup and it became very big.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “It's the future of the Asian tech market is huge. Initially it's going to be driven around e-commerce and gaming, but already you can see Deeper tech and particularly Internet of Things smart cities.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “I think that over the years we've been very lucky to be associated with some pretty cool people. But I think look at the end of the daily cashune has been incredibly successful and stayed incredibly successful over the years consistently, which is extremely hard for anyone to do. And he just seems to be able to pick the right things and pick the right deals. One of the things you learn at Hutchison and Horizons was how to concentrate on exits and driving value, how to drive value and growth around something to focus on exit opportunities for it. And then, you know, look, I mean, you know, you can't argue, I think the other person who comes straight to mind is Mike Zuckerberg. You can't argue with what he has done and what he consistently delivers for Facebook. He just keeps blowing everybody else out of the water.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “No, I think you've got a pretty good idea of which sectors are. You've actually got to be with a flow, like which sectors are hot and which sectors have the greatest number of investors and the greatest potential exits around the startup. So in London, we tend to really only do fintech right from the very start because we picked that there would be a huge group of investors around the fintech space and a lot of great exits. So in Asia, we don't do e-commerce really anywhere except in Asia. But in Asia, e-commerce is As to what you do, I wouldn't invest in an e-commerce business in Europe because it's so saturated that it's all about just operations and how much cash you can raise. That's not interesting for me. It's just a brand play. But in Asia, it's totally different. It's very, very early.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Very encouraging, right? So you just know that a lot of people that I trust personally have also said yes to it. That's really cool.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Or other different types of authentication systems. Now, it's really cool, but also because I'm very close to Sweden and Scandinavia and all the key angels that I co-invest with, we all went into it at the same time.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Yeah, see, you know, one of our most recent ones was a very cool company up in Sweden. A couple of guys, and this is very early stage, a couple of guys have been working on a prototype for building a sandbox for developers to offer very high-grade mobile security options. So everybody's getting hacked these days. Only the very big guys, the Googles and Facebooks, et cetera, can afford to implement proper two-stage authentication, which I didn't know, but is very, very expensive, which is why the only big guys do it. So these guys were like, let's build a very cool sandbox. They're called castle.io, and let's build a very cool sandbox so that in a SaaS model, developers can just put the code in their front end and back end and have two stage or”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “But for investors where they're just, you know, for people who are only just local and for investors who are only just local in their little region, then it becomes hyper competitive. But we've set this up to make sure that we do get asked and we do get asked. And that's why we've managed to do the deals we've managed to, because it really is on inbound.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “The global expansions of startups these days. So we decided to have six partners, one San Francisco, South Korea, Singapore, Israel and London, and that gave us a global network and a presence so that we have people on the ground that can help you from business deals, extra investors, et cetera. And so everybody likes that, because from a Silicon Valley VC perspective, he's like, hey man, you should get these guys in because they've got guys on the ground in Asia. And the same thing from Asian perspective, you know, we've got guys around in the US and the same thing from Israel and Europe. We've got people on the ground in Asia and the US that can help you. And so for a founder and other investors, that's really attractive.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “But not in an early stage, not when you're trying to put that initial really core investor group together, even at a seed or even a Series A. So basically you've got to offer something different. So it's Spark Labs. It is really different. We set ourselves out to be different because we could see that companies have much more global needs than ever beforehand. Like people can find your product anywhere these days. But investors are very local and investors, especially at early stage, have not matched”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Well, I mean, that's obviously the ideal type of company that you want to go into. So where it's a hot round will close very, very quickly. And that's the ideal thing you want to go into where you've got a number of feces that are jostling to get in. No, not necessarily, I think. The founders are really sensible. They don't do that. They really don't do that. Because if they do that, they may lose their very first people who came in who were really good, who would have come into the round. So the sensible founders will not do that. Later on in a series C, in a series D, when you've got big, big players like Goldman's or something jostling around, then the price does get driven up.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Yeah, I mean, like we won't invest unless there's other very top tier investors in it, be that as private individuals or firms, because you've got to get the collective validation. I think there is, as I said, once or twice a year, there will be something come along which the other guys have missed and you think, yeah, this is either going to be amazing or not. And it's only because you've got very deep understanding of the sector that you can pick those. But otherwise, if everyone else is not going for it, it's generally a sign that you just leave it. Because the problem is that you'll end up being one of those, going back to my earlier point, you'll be one of those one or two people who are pushing the company and you're kind of pushing it uphill because not enough people behind it. Can I ask”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “It's the combinations of very smart founders, very sensible, practical founders who also work really, really well together and complement each other. And a strong idea that you know they're going to hustle their way forward. Once or twice a year that comes up where the combinations are perfect. Otherwise, I prefer a seed where someone's built a prototype and demonstrated potentially and launched and demonstrated something”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “A couple of times once or twice a year you will invest in an idea stage just because the combinations are amazing where the team is incredible. They're being very, very smart about it. They're not overdoing it, not raising too much money, which is the Achilles heel of investing in an idea stage startup. You get things like Klinkle where for some reason investors invest in it in an idea which isn't fully formed in a prototype that isn't built. And of course, it ends up being a they invest too much and ends up being a disaster.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “I do think so, yeah. When it comes to series, I think the Y combinator is very, very clear about that and I tend to very much agree with him actually. I think growth is one of the most critical things. And that can be measured in different things. So for instance, something like a deep mind or something which hadn't launched before it sold, but growth is different there where it's obviously a little bit different in terms of what are the capabilities of the product and as it's being developed and growing. But I think essentially user growth is the critical thing. Can you convert things?”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Helping it to grow. And whoever that, you know, if you've only got one or two investors, all investors are super busy. So it's very difficult to just got a much smaller network and a much smaller amount of time. So I think that would be one of the most critical things. And the second thing is exactly why Combinator says, which it's all about growth. It is literally about growth. I mean, before anything, it's about growth. You've got to show that I always like to invest in things that people use nearly every day if that's possible. And that's where it becomes almost like an essential tool, whether that's corporate or personal.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Think so Perfect series A. It's a great question. I mean, we're seed investors, so we have invested in Series A and previously in Horizons, which was much more a series B, Series C type of investor. There's also been a lot there at an amazing firm. And so when we were doing this, what you look for really is when you're investing in a seed, you're very much looking for who else is in it. What you don't want is you don't want one or two investors in it. You want quite a few if you can. And, you know, the best rounds and the hottest companies in the valley now will not have one or two investors in them. And they will have a good eight or nine or ten because it's the network effect of when you come to the Series A, the more people that are shouting for the company and pushing the company on the way between the C and the Series A is the really critical effect. It's that network effect of pushing the company.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “I think that's necessary. I think an understanding of it so that you can have an understanding of how things work and an understanding of the principles of the technology behind it is actually probably even more important so that you can have the proper discussions with your CTAs that you can make decisions, inform decisions. Otherwise, you'll find the tech team will be running rings around you. And I think that's the only thing there. But I don't think that's necessary because I think design skills and business skills are super critical as well. Just an understanding of how the world is moving. It may be more important for you as a founder to know the deep ins and outs of how blockchain technology works than actual coding.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “And that's where it gets really interesting because he taught himself because he loves Minecraft. And then after a while, he learned that to do mods in Minecraft, which he learned through YouTube, and he wanted to do this. He wanted to change Minecraft. He wanted to create his own skins and terrains in Minecraft. And I said, well, the only way you can do that is by code. And so that really inspired him. And then there's this fantastic site called Youth Digital. There's a couple others that, in fact, there's quite a lot of others now that specialize in combining that thirst for to do things in Minecraft with learning to code. And I think there has to be an incentive. When I was a kid, my parents were kind of all over the place. The house was full of books that were just everywhere. And I just wanted to categorize them. So I let it go, just categorize everything.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Not as a kid. And I'm going to hate to say this, but my little eight-year-old is already pretty well down the learning how to code Java. Which is very funny, but he taught himself”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Which was amazing. And then started 2013, decided to start my own fund and accelerate it together with five other amazing partners under the Sparklabs group, which is Spark Labs Korea, which is our accelerator, and Sparklab Club, which is our fund. And then last year, together with Brent Hoopman, who's the founder of LastMinute.com, got started on smartup, which we want to shake up the whole entrepreneurship and business learning space by helping, really just looking at how to mentor at scale, like how to mentor globally with a really right advice at the right time whenever you need it at scale. And any way you can do that is through software. And that's what we're doing.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “It was very, very hard work. It was great. And then I ended up working for the VC of Lee Ka Xing, which is Horizon Ventures. Absolutely.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Sure, Harry. Yeah, so I mean, I started coding on when I was like 11 or 12 because dad was bringing home pretty cool computers all the time. And then I ended up going to Sweden to do my last year of mechanical engineering. I grew up in Australia and Sydney and then ended up going to Sweden to do my last year of NJ. And then after that, got my first job, which was as coding actually and as a troubleshooter in Ericsson in Sweden and they sent me around the world troubleshooting equipment, which was great fun. And then I got into mobile in the early days of mobile, then headhunted by Hutchison to be part of the engineering management team at three as we built the very first 3G networks, which was great fun. And we really was a nightmare because we had to try and stand it didn't really work and we had to try and pull it all together and really make it work.”

    2015-02-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source