Art of investment
Updated: 2007-07-24 12:00
Q: How important are the entrepreneurs in your evaluation of a project?
A: I think entrepreneurs take up at least 50 percent of my evaluation of a project. We won't invest in a project led by a bad entrepreneur, however promising the company is.
Q: So how do you identify a promising entrepreneur?
A: I'm afraid there may not be a universal standard for a good entrepreneur. Even in IDG, some entrepreneurs that our other partners are taken with may not interest me. Similarly, some people I favor may not be the ones my colleagues are looking for. That' why some people say investment is an art not a technique. Criteria vary among different partners and they rely on their backgrounds and personal preferences.
Q: What's your investment art?
A: I've been in this industry since 1992. I have made a lot of mistakes. One of the most important mistakes was the idea of relying on luck - sometimes when you find a problem in a project, you might believe it will be solved later somehow, or because of your involvement. But in fact, that will not happen in most cases. If you find one problem in a project, there could be many more unforeseen problems. So my investment art is to keep my feet on the ground and never rely on luck.
Q: Are there any problems that might put you off a project? Like honesty, for example?
A: Honesty of course is important, but that is not the most important. In fact, we've found that most entrepreneurs we deal with will inevitably have some sort of bad habit or another.
I don't like obstinate people who cling stubbornly to their opinions or entrepreneurs with too many elaborate ideas and no focus.
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