012 | "How to Raise Capital - Investors Insider Tips" (Shawn at Floodgate Investors)

Aug 10

Today’s guest on the “Phil with Forbes 30” podcast is Shawn Xu – Investor at Floodgate

Forbes List: USA
Year: 2020
Category: Venture Capital

Shawn Xu is an MBA from UPenn and is an early stage investor at Floodgate. Previously, he was the managing partner of the Dorm Room Fund that was famously focused on student-run startups. Shawn made more than 20 pre-seed investments.

Before venture capital, Shawn managed the famous Square payment device and their expansion into Europe. It is now a publicly traded company with a $27 billion market cap. He also managed Vungle’s expansion into Asia, which was eventually acquired by Blackstone for 750M dollars.
He was also on the founding team of Y Combinator that built data analytics software for government agencies.
His writing on the university startup ecosystem has been featured on Forbes, TechCrunch and Startup Grind.
Shawn is another example of learning from his immigrant family through their experiences and reaching the American dream. In 2016 Shawn started thinking about geopolitics and international affairs. His ultimate goal was to help American technology companies get into Asian, European and Latin American markets.

In this episode:

The process of his MBA, the Wharton program and eventually going to North Korea with a delegation of technologists and Silicon Valley people to bring entrepreneurship mentoring to that country.
His start with YC and data infrastructure projects for government agencies and nonprofits.
How his networking led him to Dorm Room Fund and working with student startups.
Working with Village Global Fund that included Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and other industry leaders.
How AWS and lean technology started changing the technology business.
The benefits of working as a funder as well as a co-founder.
Understanding the difference of fundraising and building a company and the mistakes made by entrepreneurs not knowing the difference.
The art and science debate of getting people to like and buy your product.
Mike Maples and his framework called back casting.
The foundations of Floodgate and its history.
The concept of Anchor list and expanding into foreign countries.

I’m sure you learn valuable lessons from Shawn. And, take a look at AnchorList.com for the list of the best startup operators in the world!

“Under 30 Seconds Round”

1. What is the book you’ve gifted more often than any other book, and why?

Mike Maples on Backcasting https://medium.com/@m2jr
Andrew Chen on Growth and Product Market Fit https://andrewchen.co/
Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization Book by Parag Khanna

2. What’s one of the best investments and one of the worst investments you’ve ever made and why?

Best - What I learned in a deal - Just because everyone else says you’re wrong, doesn’t mean you are wrong.
Worst - The investment I didn’t make because I missed it.

3. What’s the most impactful thing you do in your Morning routine and most impactful thing you do in your Evening routine?

AM - I take turns helping my Dad who has Parkinson’s. It humbles me.
PM - I work out and use FutureFit App https://www.future.fit

4. Pretend you won the Peter Thiel Fellowship and you were going to get money to start a business instead of go to college, what’s the very first thing you’d do to start a new business?

I'd go and find a co-founder. I like working with co- founders who work and live like they are living in the future. I might find someone in the area of climate change.

5. What’s something you never knew you needed?