Episode 4: David Lu - Learnings from starting a venture fund

David Lu (@davidjlu (https://twitter.com/davidjlu_)) is an up & coming venture capitalist based in Sydney and Singapore, who is constantly traveling the world on the hunt for great investments. He is a Partner @256 Ventures, a global cryptocurrency VC fund, investing in a portfolio of diversified digital assets.
Previously, David founded Australia’s first student VC called, Textbook ventures. He also regularly writes academic papers around the topics of entrepreneurial ecosystems, startup roadmaps and early-stage fundraising. Forbes wrote an article about David with the title “Why Being A Young Investment Partner Isn't Always A Good Thing”.
Please follow me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/remokyburz/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/TheRemoKyburz), and my Website (http://www.leaptakers.com/), where I post new episodes, share cool stuff & interesting articles I found, blog occasionally, and provide glimpses into my life!
Show notes:
02:50 -- How David got into Venture Capital
07:32 -- Resources for getting started with learning about Venture Capital & deciding what knowledge is relevant for your portfolio companies
11:45 -- David’s story of how he got started with Australia’s first student VC fund - Textbook Ventures. + How one of his successful investments led him to crypto.
16:20 -- David’s learnings from starting a Venture business (“Think in default scenarios”)
19:25 -- How do you react to things not going well when you grow your business + How creativity and thinking about the purpose of their fund helped Textbook Ventures to pivot
25:40 -- Riskiness of startup investing and how seed & pre-seed investing is the best way to build a relationship with promising founders
28:40 -- How VC is all about the people and how you make them feel
30:10 -- David’s investment criteria
33:14 -- David’s best investment to date
35:02 -- Unusual hobbies of David
36:43 -- Favorite books
38:05 -- Personal advisory board
40:18 -- Advice to younger self & anyone
Resources mentioned:
* Venture Deals - Brad Feld (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119259754/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=remokyburz-21&creative=6742&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1119259754&linkId=f156d3fae5625913988a1a50c4370f77)
* Harry Stebbings - The Twenty Minute VC (http://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/)
* Fred Wilson Blog - USV (https://avc.com/)
* Elad Gil Blog (http://blog.eladgil.com/)
* The Lean Startup - Eric Ries (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1524762407/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=remokyburz-21&creative=6742&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1524762407&linkId=f3f66389207f24a5fbb5a4de00cd74dc)
* Finite and Infinite Games - James Carse (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1476731713/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=remokyburz-21&creative=6742&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1476731713&linkId=a0bd8306716a2057091da59af48516cc)
* 256 Ventures (https://www.256.ventures/)
* Textbook Ventures (https://textbook.ventures/)
* Virgil Capital (https://www.virgilcap.com/)
If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/ch/podcast/the-leap-takers-podcast/id1468975811?l=en) or your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: David Lu.

David Lu (@davidjlu) is an up & coming venture capitalist based in Sydney and Singapore, who is constantly traveling the world on the hunt for great investments. He is a Partner @256 Ventures, a global cryptocurrency VC fund, investing in a portfolio of diversified digital assets.

Previously, David founded Australia’s first student VC called, Textbook ventures. He also regularly writes academic papers around the topics of entrepreneurial ecosystems, startup roadmaps and early-stage fundraising. Forbes wrote an article about David with the title “Why Being A Young Investment Partner Isn't Always A Good Thing”.

Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share cool stuff & interesting articles I found, blog occasionally, and provide glimpses into my life!

Show notes:

02:50 -- How David got into Venture Capital

07:32 -- Resources for getting started with learning about Venture Capital & deciding what knowledge is relevant for your portfolio companies

11:45 -- David’s story of how he got started with Australia’s first student VC fund - Textbook Ventures. + How one of his successful investments led him to crypto.

16:20 -- David’s learnings from starting a Venture business (“Think in default scenarios”)

19:25 -- How do you react to things not going well when you grow your business + How creativity and thinking about the purpose of their fund helped Textbook Ventures to pivot

25:40 -- Riskiness of startup investing and how seed & pre-seed investing is the best way to build a relationship with promising founders

28:40 -- How VC is all about the people and how you make them feel

30:10 -- David’s investment criteria

33:14 -- David’s best investment to date

35:02 -- Unusual hobbies of David

36:43 -- Favorite books

38:05 -- Personal advisory board

40:18 -- Advice to younger self & anyone

Resources mentioned:

Venture Deals - Brad Feld
Harry Stebbings - The Twenty Minute VC
Fred Wilson Blog - USV
Elad Gil Blog
The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
Finite and Infinite Games - James Carse
256 Ventures
Textbook Ventures
Virgil Capital

If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.

Special Guest: David Lu.

Support Leap Takers