Topics
Latest
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:Wesley Chan
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Image Credits:Wesley Chan
Cloud Computing
mercantilism
Crypto
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
Fundraising
gismo
gage
Government & Policy
ironware
layoff
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
Security
Social
Space
inauguration
TikTok
shipping
Venture
More from TechCrunch
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Podcasts
video
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
His hard-working immigrant family prepped him in unconventional ways
Wesley Chanis often seen in his theme song buffalo hat ; however , he may be even more well - known for his ability to recognize unicorn .
Over the course of his career in venture majuscule , he ’s invested in over 20 unicorns , let in AngelList , Dialpad , Ring , Rocket Lawyer and Sourcegraph . Five of those went on to become decacorns : Canva , Flexport , Guild Education , Plaid and Robinhood . Chan ’s was the first check into most of those .
After work at Google in its former days as an engineer , he became an investor . His venture capital pedigree started atGoogle Venturesand continued toFelicis Ventures . Now as the co - founder and managing partner of FPV Ventures , he leads the two - twelvemonth - honest-to-god house ’s $ 450 million speculation capital stock with carbon monoxide gas - founder Pegah Ebrahimi .
And while all of this success has been well - documented over the years , his personal journeying … not so much . Chan spoke to TechCrunch about the ways his life impacts how he invests in inauguration .
His story started before he was bear , when his family transmigrate to the U.S. from Hong Kong in the 1970s .
“ They came here with no money , and in fact , growing up they did n’t have any money , ” Chan say . “ It ’s just really fascinating to watch that journeying . That they would leave a place where they did n’t address a tidings of English and — they still do n’t speak English very well — and build a new life because they felt that that was what was necessary . ”
Chan let in that he was n’t as appreciative of his parent ’ fortitude when he was unseasoned . However , grow up in a intemperately - working , immigrant family that did n’t have much money ended up teaching him how to know nuances and be someone who can adapt .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
“ I ’m in a business now where people judge you very speedily , ” Chan said . “ Among my LPs , a lot of them do n’t have the background I do . I have to pick up all these tunes of things that they were trained on and be a bit of a chameleon . Then I have to signal to them that they can entrust me . ”
How he got into MIT even with bad grades
Chan ’s parent separate up when he was a kid , and he was raised in a single - parent family by his mother . He worked three chore in high schoolhouse to help oneself support his family unit , include as a parking slew attender , a waiter and a dishwasher in a biology research laboratory at the California Institute of Technology .
One daylight , the research laboratory manager , famed gene biologistEllen Rothenberg , asked him if he would translate a college - level Good Book on biology and lab techniques . Not wanting to mislay the job , he did it .
“ I had scantily taken high-pitched school biota , ” Chan say . “ I go to a gamy school that was n’t great . It was like by crotchet or by crook that I hurt up making my manner through school . Other nipper were doing after - school sports or going to PSAT prep classes . Not only did I not have that , I was feature to make money for my family . ”
turn out , regardless of the high school experience , Rothenberg go through something in Chan . When one of the Ph.D. pupil left , Chan was promoted to the science lab bench . And for the next three years , as he move through high school , Chan was also doing inquiry .
This was in the former nineties , during the nascent day of stalk cellular phone inquiry . Rothenberg ’s team taught the teenaged Chan how to do research and he was afterwards part of a group that observe a protocol for shift bow cells into crimson blood cubicle . He also aid when the team published an donnish paper on the communications protocol .
Then one day Rothenberg , who had gone to both Harvard and MIT , ask if Chan had think about college .
“ I ’m like , oh man , I have to finish this job and make money for the parents , and she ’s severalize me I should go to school , ” he said . “ Little did I recognise that she call the entrance fee offices . When you ’re like a poor immigrant student , you do n’t understand all these thing . ”
Harvard ignored her , but MIT did n’t . And that ’s how people get into shoal with awful grade , Chan said .
“ Somebody took a fortune on me , ” he say . “ So many people bumble through aliveness , and I do n’t guess I would have had the opportunities that I did today if it was n’t for someone who said , ‘ He works firmly . He wants to do research . ’ ”
Business lessons from being lonely
That ’s how Chan said he looks at venture capital , too . He does n’t look for the person who was a penis of the good nation club . Instead , he looks for hoi polloi who have sand and understand what it means to work intemperately .
“ One of the lessons I learned , grow up that way , was that you have everything to gather and nothing to mislay , ” Chan said . “ It ’s punishing work , plus a fate of luck . Plus , understanding that there ’s citizenry help you ultimately launch the door to anything . ”
He accredit that help from Rothenberg for everything that come after .
“ If it was n’t for MIT , I would n’t have found Google . If it was n’t for Google , I would n’t have found Google Ventures . If it was n’t for Google Ventures , I would n’t have recover my squad at Felicis , ” he add . “ And if it was n’t for Felicis , I would n’t have had Canva and all these amazing caller , many of them carry by immigrant or people that have lots of grit , who grew up in very non - traditional scope like myself . ”
To serve MIT , he had to leave everything he know at rest home and move to the opposite coast . Once there , Chan also worked multiple business to ante up his way through MIT , where he beget his bachelor-at-arms ’s degree in computer skill and later graduated with a Master ’s of Engineering .
What was it like to leave his family ? In a news , hard . Due to having to plunk for himself , Chan was n’t able to take as many classes as he wanted to or be like his friends who would go on playfulness trip on breaks .
However , he depend back on that experience as another affair that set him up for lifespan as a venture capitalist .
“ When I lead the Series A in Canva , which will finally reelect 40x plus for that stock , 111 people sound out no , which made it very unfrequented to do that deal , ” Chan said . “ When you ’re the guy that ca n’t go to prom because you have to work , or you ca n’t go on the ski stumble or to the gradation company , that ’s what I ’m dealing with . ”
Being forget out like that teach him : “ Who cares if the rest of the world is laughing at us ; you get this awe-inspiring amount of grit and the power to like being lonely and be hunky-dory being lonely . ”
After graduation , Chan went back to California and make a job at HP Labs . Then the Lucy in the sky with diamonds - com crash happen , and that business fizzled out . But all was not lost . There was one company lease despite the fateful environs . And it happened to care people from MIT .
Spoiler , it was Google . Now , working for Google is not like the movie “ The Internship ” where Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson lie their way into an internship and expend fourth dimension competing with other team on various projects . It was better . . . for those who liked detent .
“ Dogs were running around and would operate into you and pick apart you over , ” Chan said . “ It was n’t like that pic . You have to get to body of work . ”
He was put on a projection develop the ad system , “ which was the most necessary at the time , so I got very lucky . ”
Building something that founders want
This kicked off a 15 - year Google life history that included seven years edifice products and five years as chief of stave to Sergey Brin , who co - founded Google with Larry Page . Chan work on projects , including the Google toolbar , which became Google Chrome .
“ When you ’re one of the few companies that made it , it was great , ” Chan said . “ Larry and Sergey were very tolerant , always saying , ‘ Hey , maybe Wesley brought us something and we should let him try out this out . ’ That would eventually become Google Analytics or Google Ventures . ”
He was even one of the people who question Sundar Pichai when he was up for a job at Google . Obviously , Pichai later became chief executive officer of Alphabet and Google .
In 2009 , Chan told Google that he wanted to do a startup . He had joined the companionship when it was less than 100 people and stayed until it was over 35,000 . He recalls them joking that when you go to a startup , you are the one bribe the toilet theme . Chan ’s reply was that he did n’t mind buying the toilet paper . or else , they suggested he go assist Bill Maris establish Google Ventures .
“ They say me to go build a product that founder want , rather than be a laminitis whose product a company wants . And we did it , ” Chan tell . “ Google Ventures is still a real firm today that people need to take money from . ”
Beyond overcoming obstacles to get where he is today , Chan continues to face some betting odds , specially as a sunny Asiatic man in technical school . When he first started in speculation capital letter , aged livid homo were running the firms , sharing deal flow on the soccer fields or during an African campaign , he said .
When you ’re someone face to work up your batch flow net but your backcloth does n’t fit the land nightspot stamp , it ’s difficult , he read . And there is not much of a living mathematical group in venture chapiter for the LGBTQ+ community .
“ That ’s the challenge of being an foreigner in this business , ” Chan said . “ You have to fight your way up or chance different style of work with founders so it does n’t look like you ’re being lazy or not making any progress . If you reckon at venture capital and the number of successful collaborator in the LGBTQ+ , you’re able to weigh on two hands . There are n’t many of them , and there ’s in all probability 6,000 speculation capitalists . Why is there such low representation ? And the number of openly out single like us is even downhearted . ”
That ’s why he and Pegah Ebrahimi pop out FPV Ventures two years ago — to cater the style of investing ground on their improper backgrounds . ( Ebrahimi cut her teeth as the youngest CIO at Morgan Stanley before doing a bunch of C - retinue roles at various technical school companies . She really work on Google ’s IPO . )
And the managing partners are doing so with the support of Polemonium van-bruntiae and foundations . A lot of the founders the business firm work with “ manage deep that they ’re make money for in effect people , ” Chan aver .
“ Our laminitis bump to be underrepresented minorities or women , and the really fascinating report that I keep hearing is that they find multitude misinterpret them , ” Chan say . “ We find founder who have the drive to succeed and have this awing combination of humility and succeeder . They also verify that all their people are taken care of . ”
