Sheel Tyle - The Future of Venture Capital

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
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Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy and this is Invest Like the Best. This show is an open-ended exploration of markets, ideas, methods, stories, and of strategies that will help you better invest both your time and your money. You can learn more and stay up to date at investorfieldguide.com.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:59)
Patrick O'Shaughnessy is a principal and portfolio manager at O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Clients of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (1:21)
My guest this week is Sheel Tyle, who at just 26 years old has already had a successful career in venture capital. His most recent stint was as the co-head of the seed investing business at NEA, the largest venture capital firm in the world, where Sheel was also a partner. Now, Sheel has set off on his own, setting up his own firm called Amplo and having recently raised $100 million venture fund where he is the sole general partner. He aims to invest with young, mission-driven entrepreneurs with a global focus. As you can tell from this resume, which also includes a degree from Stanford and a law degree from Harvard, this is one ambitious guy. There are several aspects of this conversation that will really stick with me, specifically his points on networking and the smartest decision he's seen entrepreneurs make. I also loved our discussion of some of the same trends we explored last week with Chris Dixon. Topics like drones, automated cars and blockchain, where Sheel often has different takes than the consensus. Please enjoy my conversation on Africa, entrepreneurship, venture capital trends, technology and more with Sheel Tyle.
We're gonna range all over the world of venture capital, but also literally all over the world. And I thought a fun place to begin would be Africa.
So I'm gonna kind of open it up to you to talk about your thoughts on the future of specifically investment or venture investment on the continent of Africa, it's somewhere I've spent some time and I think is the most interesting and kind of magical place that I've been throughout the continent, but gets very, very little attention from investors kind of from the rest of the world. So talk a little bit about your background and experience there and where you think things are going from an investment standpoint in Africa.

**Sheel Tyle** (2:57)
Yeah, and first, thanks for having me.
I think before we start with Africa, we should probably talk about my parents.
And the reason I wanna start with them is, but for them, I wouldn't have gotten an interest in emerging markets broadly. You know, my parents are immigrants from India and they came to America for education to pursue their American dream.
They were not wealthy. They applied to schools that did not have application fees and education got them everything. And so when we were growing up, my parents would never take us to places like Europe or the Caribbean, traditional vacation spots, if you will. We went to emerging markets. We went to Nairobi in 98 and actually left the day before the embassy bombing. We went to Brazil in 1 They wanted to show us how the real world worked.
And initially my younger brother and I had no idea what they were doing. Why are they taking us to these places that are not very comfortable or as comfortable as where we are or where we could be or where our friends were going? But over time, I realized that that was special.
It was a unique experience that we were getting and I began to appreciate it more and more. And it gave me a comfort in those places. Fast forward many years later as a venture capitalist, one of my companies, Andela, has the slogan, talent is universal, but opportunity is not. There's no reason the next Mark Zuckerberg can't come from Africa. He or she doesn't have to come from Exeter or Harvard or Stanford or places that many folks traditionally think as the hotspots for entrepreneurship. They can come from anywhere. And as I was looking around the world, I realized that perhaps the biggest opportunity of our lifetime, perhaps the only untapped place left, if you think about it, is Africa. Many of the fastest growing countries in the world are in Africa.