UVC: Binh Tran from Ascend Vietnam Ventures on the founding story of Klout, his investment in Axie Infinity, building a culture that serve as a magnet to attract exceptional performers and the one skill to do right by your investors, customers & team

Understanding VC

This episode will answer:

• The founding story of Klout, “a Google for people”, where Binh was a co-founder
• Binh’s participation in pioneering the Vietnam startup ecosystem
• Why does Binh think that the Southeast Asia tech industry has a promising future?
• How did Binh become one of the first investors of Axie Infinity, currently the most successful blockchain game in the world?
• Being a founder, how can you employ and lead people who are smarter than yourself?
• Why does Binh attribute immense importance to culture-building and expansion? How do founders build cultures that serve as a magnet to attract exceptional performers?
• What are the differences between the story founders must present to their employees, customers, and investors in order to garner faith and interest?
• How can you hit the sweet spot when it comes to time invested in fundraising? How can you optimize operations and fundraising simultaneously?
• Why is fudging the numbers a severely mistaken technique to impress investors during fundraising? Can it bring any benefit at all?

About

Binh Tran is the co-founder and General Partner of Ascend Vietnam Ventures, a seed stage venture capital firm investing in Southeast Asia's next wave of market leading tech companies that begin their journey in Vietnam. Prior to Ascend Vietnam Ventures, he was the co-founder and General Partner of 500 Startups Vietnam, the first tech focused seed stage VC firm in Vietnam. Prior to that, Binh co-founded Klout, the Kleiner Perkins-backed social analytics company in San Francisco that was acquired for over USD$200M. Binh has completed over 50 seed investments since 2012 and currently resides in Ho Chi Minh City.