Reflections from our first close
1."Knowing" is our most important work.
The ups and downs of our journey toward the first close have helped crystallize what our core work truly is. Yes, our work involves fundraising, investing, and supporting our portfolio companies. But at the most fundamental level, what we prioritize above all else is knowing.
Not “knowing” in the sense of simply possessing factual knowledge about someone or something—but in a much deeper, more human way.
We pursue relational knowing through one-on-one conversations with each of our founders, investors, and mentors. In these conversations, we share with each other our pasts, our present realities, and our dreams for the future. Often, these happen around a dining table, whiteboarding together with one of our investors on her redemptive investing quests, or lingering at a local convenience store with one of our founders until midnight. These moments are authentic, mutual, and life-giving. We find joy in knowing people beyond their titles or roles.
We also pursue experiential knowing—doing things together. We’ve traveled with some of our founders, mentors, and investors to Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Korea. We’ve eaten together, hosted events, and hung out at airports. We’ve invited one another into our homes. Through these shared experiences, we get to know each other beyond professional identities. We get to know each other’s love for chocolates. We send each other vacation pictures over whatsapp, adding to each other’s bucket list of places to visit. Through these experiences, we end up inviting each other into our lives. We begin to feel belonged to a community of friends. We begin to even care for each other.
We find joy in knowing our friends this way and in cultivating an environment where they can know each other in the same way.
Dinner w/ friends at 3/25 gathering
2. Our vision doesn't rely on us.
On March 25th, we gathered our investors, founders and mentors to celebrate our first close in Singapore. A part of me hesitated in having a celebratory gathering because we fell about ~25% short of our first close fundraising target. But with encouragement from our team and friends, we decided to move forward and focus our gathering on celebrating.
To further elaborate why I hesitated, I’ll share very briefly about our work. Our fund aims to invest in ventures with a culture that seeks to bless stakeholders—starting with employees. Since culture reflects founders’ values, our work ultimately revolves around helping our founders a) crystalize their values and b) create space to incorporate them when leading teams & making business decisions.
So, our work requires that our founders will open up their hearts to us, giving us the permission to speak into them. It is a relational work. Earning their trust takes time…and the more money we raise, supposedly the more people & time we would have on our team to build the relationship.
This is why I was a bit discouraged that we didn’t achieve our target raise.
Fast forward to March 25th... I watched 40 people gather from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Korea, and the U.S. —bringing their full selves, sharing openly, encouraging one another. One of our friends shared about losing someone he loves early in life and how that has shaped his views on people, leadership, and company-building. That kind of vulnerability can only surface up in a safe and genuine community. It was also special to hear from old friends Melody Murray and Sajan George at Praxis sharing about their experiences cultivating a redemptive entrepreneurial community in the U.S.
It was as if…our very desire of blurring the boundaries among LPs, GP, founders, mentors...cultivating a community of friends all bound by the same desire to see companies whose culture chooses to love others....has already become a reality.
w/ Sam from Endowus and Jinho from the Wells Investment (our partner) @ Praxis
These glimpses of our vision I witnessed that evening were possible because of who was in the room. Each person in the room that evening demonstrated a heart of generosity. Generous with their time and attention...even their home - for others. Generosity creates a small space ..psychologically..to dream a lil. It almost gives a mental space/permission to take a step towards a vision that seems so outside of our control.
I was dead wrong in assuming that our vision relies on our team and our resources.
We definitely play a role in bringing this vision into a reality. But this vision is actually not just our vision. It’s almost as if our investors, founders, and mentors were just waiting for us to knock on their doors. Somehow, this vision was already in their hearts…even before this vision found its way to our team’s hearts. Again, the fact that we have found each other has very little to do with our team’s ability or whatever we claim to have. It's .... grace.
Upon realizing this, my scarcity mindset faded. My focus was no longer about how much we had, but what we could do with what we have. The fact that we fell short of our first close target didn't matter as much because of who we have by us.
W/ Chin-Yin and ilaria, our amazing advisors!
This celebration reminded me that I can choose to see abundance when we realize the work doesn’t rest on our shoulders. Our role is to take one faithful step at a time, believing it matters.
And, because our work is about knowing and encouraging those in our community, I also don’t think we can fail. And because we can’t fail, the work feels light. We feel that we can do something with what we have.
Group pic at 3/25 Gathering
3. It’s all about friendships.
We believe we’ve found a product-market fit as an investor. And, we’ve begun our work with our first two amazing portfolio companies - Altava led by Andy Ku and Endowus led by Samuel Rhee and Gregory Van.
While there is much work to do and we don’t have all the answers, we’re encouraged to see our investors and friends actively share ideas and volunteer their time to help us refine our approach. I just can’t believe....again....how deeply convicted they are of this mission.
To those who are working with us, we wish you would be blessed by this work as much as we have been blessed by it. And, as much as this work matters to us, we wish that this work becomes slightly less important for you than the friendships you build along the way.
Last but not least....special thanks to Wen Li Lim Edwin Lee, CFA, CAIA Pei Lee Patricia Sun Jinho Chung Phil & Gail for helping organize the 3/25 celebration gathering!
And as all of us know, without a doubt, our event could not have happened without Jinn Park our Lead Project Manager at JLIN!