Hans Tung - Mastering Global Venture Capital

**Joshua Benadiva** (0:11)
Hi, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Wharton FinTech Podcast. I'm your host, Josh Benadivo. And today, I had the great pleasure of sitting down with one of the most influential figures in the venture capital industry, Hans Tung.
Hans is the managing partner of GGV Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on the global digital economy. He's also been named to the Forbes Midas list for nine consecutive years and serves as a board member for numerous trailblazing companies such as Minerva, Bowery, Modak, Globe Concept, and more.
In our conversation today, we delve deep into the mind of this remarkable investor. We'll uncover Hans' strategies for making important decisions, how he has built a successful career in the venture capital industry, and his unique approach to gathering multiple different data points from around the world that help inform his investment decisions. We'll also explore Hans' vision for the future of fintech. As someone who has a finger on the pulse of global innovation, Hans will share his thoughts on the crucial software that needs to be built in the fintech space to help propel the industry forward. So sit back, relax, and join us on this fascinating journey into the world of venture capital with none other than Hans Tung.
All right. Thank you so much, Hans, for joining us on the Wharton FinTech Podcast. It's truly a huge honor. And as I mentioned when we were talking a little bit before, it was really an honor to have you also at the Wharton FinTech annual conference in Philadelphia. So I think just to start off, it would be amazing for our listeners to hear a little bit about your background and how you got started in venture.

**Hans Tung** (1:40)
Sure. Joshua, thank you for having me. You're way too kind. I enjoy my visit to Wharton almost once a year kind of thing pre-COVID. So it's very good to resume that.
And for me, I was born in Taiwan.
I moved, immigrated to LA when I was 13 with my mother, my younger brother. And back then, my dad was still working in Taiwan. And he goes back and forth. A lot of the people in my generation kind of did that from Taiwan just to show that the parents want the kids to have better education, better opportunities.
And it was not easy on our family.
But we kind of had that first generation immigrant mentality that it would be hard working. We think that we need to work hard to justify why our parents made that kind of sacrifice.
Fortunately, I was able to go to Stanford College, I was on campus in 1993 In hindsight, that was like the perfect time to be in Silicon Valley. Because then you see the rise of browsers that came afterwards. And sort of first generation internet 1 kind of happened thereafter. So a lot of classmates or people a couple years ahead of us or below us and did something very interesting in the valley and elsewhere. So I didn't know much about venture capital until 1996, 1997 There was an article in the Times about another VC firm and the Kairatsu they were building. All the companies in the internet 1 space were all working with each other. And one is a supplier, vendor of the other and kind of evolving around AOL, evolving around Netscape.
And then AOL tried to be anti Microsoft. And so it was just kind of interesting to see the things I learned back in school about history, about military strategy, about sports, about teamwork ends up being played out in this new arena called internet. And it's such a rapid and fast fashion and that co-founding two startups across the Pacific, both here in Silicon Valley as well as in Asia. And over that four year period, working with two startups taught me a lot about how hard it is to be a founder and how much responsibility you have not to the people who just give you the money, but also the team you build and their families as well. So this is just a lot of stake at being a startup and the founders that can persevere and make it work. It is such a lonely job. So that taught me a lot about community and about not trying to be too much of a know-it-all in the boardroom and be as supportive with founders as I can to help them to realize their vision. So I didn't actually get into BC itself until 2005 when I was with Bessemer and then starting Silicon Valley with China with Bessemer. So I was one of the very first few Silicon Valley young BC that made its way to Asia at that time and then I came back to the Bay Area in 2013 and started becoming a more global BC from here, both investing in emerging markets as well as here in Silicon Valley as well as in New York. So it's got a long-winded answer covering a 20-year period where the first 10 years, you look at my career, interesting startup, went to good school, but it wasn't there anything that would make you think like, wow, this guy's going to be on a matters list in the next 10 years. But what a lot of people now, it's easier to explain is that I think myself as sort of an AI mind in the data points I collected along the way, whether it's in LA or Stanford, New York, Boston, any throughout Asia and Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong kind of helped me to see how the entire ecosystem in technology evolved from semiconductors to websites to mobile apps, from media to retail to fincer. So when you see a lot of repetition, the patterns start to emerge more regularly. And that's how I ended up becoming really interested in venture, really interested in being a VC, because the data I have had more of them than other people did. And that helped me to see the pattern sooner, faster, and get conviction to do something.