The most liked and most disliked VCs in Southeast Asia are …

Do you remember a few weeks ago we launched a survey on most liked and most disliked Venture Capital in Southeast Asia?

The inspiration came from a question we ask all candidates interviewing for a position at Momentum Works. When we ask them who are the most famous VCs, the top responses are 500 Startups, Golden Gate Venture and East Ventures. 

Which makes sense because the trio are amongst the longest serving VC firms in the region. We thought –  how about the founders, co-founders and startup employees, who probably have had more real experience dealing with VCs? 

So here it is the survey we pushed out in both English and Chinese. 

We had in total 193 responses – and to be fair, it was not a random sample so please do not derive any statistical value from them. Nor does any of these represent the viewpoint of Momentum Works. We just thought some of the perspectives are interesting to share. 

Who took our survey?

Even though the survey is completely anonymous, we collected several key information about our respondents.

They are coming from startup backgrounds and most of them are founders.

Here are some information about the size (which is also correlated to the stage) of the company they are working at:

More than 70% of the respondents are from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Interestingly, we have about 17% of the respondents who are based in China but working in Southeast Asia tech or related jobs. 

Their preferences (and dislikes) 

And based on the survey, here are the VCs that they like the most:
Since the responses are anonymous, we have no idea how Social Capital, which hardly made any investment in the region, made it to the top of the ‘dislike’ list. 

Here are some of the interesting remarks from our respondents on VC they like:

• “They always come back with an answer / reason after after submitting a deck which is already more than most VC’s”
• “So far they have always been upfront, honest and very transparent over their process, their thoughts and very decisive over how to proceed.”
• “Understanding of investment vertical, Strong relationship of trust with entrepreneurs, Supporting founders and company”
• “Most thorough. Did their homework and came. Didn’t ask stupid questions. Asked great questions that made us think deeply about our business model.”
• “Founder-focused, good vibes from the team”
• “They engage founders continuously!”

Here are some reasons on why they dislike a VC:

• “Dodgy would be the word. “
• “Disrespect for entrepreneurs, arrogant”
• “Partners are unethical and condescending”
• “Made us meet them 4-5 times then ghosted us. Literally no replies not even to tell us no (leaving us hanging).”
• “Time above anything else is a founder’s most precious asset”

While we have reiterated that the results are not scientific or representative, we find the following comment from a particular respondent the most interesting: “Partying on yachts doesn’t make you a good VC.”