20 VC 037: How To Get a Job at a Startup, Startup Lessons and Brad Feld's 'Open Office Hours' with Tak Lo, Director @ Techstars

Tak Lo is Director at Techstars, helping entrepreneurs do more faster - on both sides of the Atlantic through Techstars London and Techstars NYC. Tak is also Founder at Travelst and Frontlyst. Prior to his road into entrepreneurship, Tak was a Consultant at Deloitte, Booz Allen Hamilton and was a specialist in the US ARMY. In today's incredible episode Tak shares his lessons from his own startup experience, the required reading for all entrepreneurs and of course when thinking TechStars, how can we not discuss the man himself, Brad Feld, and how Tak has adopted Brad's use of open office hours. Items Mentioned in Today's Show: Must Read Tech Blogs: Fred Wilson, Brad Feld Thoughts, Tomas Tunguz: Redpoint Capital, Christopher Janz: Point Nine Capital Must Read Books: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Adam Grant: Give and Take, Peter Thiel: Zero to One, Ben Horowitz: The Hard Thing About Hard Things Must Have Apps: Buffer: Save Time On Your Social Media, Feedly: The Stories You Need To Keep Ahead Networking Tools: Silicon Drinkabout, Meetup Team of Rivals Adam Grant: Give and Take Peter Thiel: Zero to One Ben Horowitz: The Hard Thing About Hard Things In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How and why Tak made the transition first from the army to a career in consulting and then what made Tak take the entrepreneurial route and start his own company? Tak is renknowned for the amazing service and contribution he brings to every startup. What services does Tak bring and what does Tak feel all entrepreneurs and advisors must add? Does Tak back singular founders, or does he prefer a founding team? Tak is a Specialist on Leadership, for founders wanting to gain or develop their leadership skills, what can founders do, read or learn to further their leadership skills? For individuals contemplating moving into the tech world, how do they know which is the right job? Are there any immediate aspects they must look for or be wary of? What are the biggest misconceptions of the tech industry? How can people find out about networking events What sector Tak believes is the next to be disrupted and why? What is the premise behind Brad Feld's 'Open Office Hours'? Why has Tak decided to adopt this tactic? What does Tak hope to gain from it? How is it going so far? We then finish today's episode with a lightning round, hearing Tak's thoughts on the greatest leader and why, the future of the asian tech market, his favourite book and why and his most recent investment and why he said yes? Follow Harry, Tak, The Twenty Minute VC

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Harry Stebbings?

  You're listening to episode 37 of the one and only 20 minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings. Today is a very special day as we welcome our second Techstars guest. Previously, we had Greg Rogers of Techstars on the show, number 27. And today, I'm delighted to welcome Tack Lowe. Tack is Director at Techstars London. And in today's episode, we discuss the lessons he learnt from his startup experience, the required reading for all entrepreneurs and startup founders, and of course, the incredible Brad Feld's Open Office Hours. It's an incredible interview filled with loads of actionable tips and tricks. I can't wait to hear what you think. So without further ado, here is Tack.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  You have now arrived at your destination.

• 0:52Harry Stebbings?

  Tack, thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm so excited to have you here.

• 0:57Speaker 02

  Great. No, happy to be here, Harry.

• 0:58Harry Stebbings?

  Let's start by hearing a little about yourself and your background and how you made your move into the venture industry.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I'm actually, you know, despite my American accent, I'm actually, I'm from Hong Kong. I spent a lot of time in Asia. I first started my career, believe it or not, in the United States Army. I was in operations and logistics for about two and a half years. And then I became a management consultant at Deloitte and Bruce Allen. I went to London Business School, which is why I came here over here to London. I did investment banking internship in the middle. But then, you know, having done all, pretty much all the professional services careers you can do without another degree, kind of ran out of options and basically said, what else am I interested in? And, you know, I really enjoyed my time in military.

• 1:50Speaker 02

  I love working small teams. I love working passionately about something, you know, really have a mission as a goal. And, and, and so I said entrepreneurship must be the thing. So I was an entrepreneur for about two and a half years before I joined Techstars in New York. And when the London office opened, I came here as well.

• 2:11Harry Stebbings?

  And when you say you're an entrepreneur, was that founding your own tech startups or working inside them?

• 2:16Speaker 02

  Totally, I I co-founded two tech startups, one in the um travel consumer app space and the other one was in the kind of um digital books publishing space.

• 2:29Harry Stebbings?

  And does that mean you learned code?

• 2:31Speaker 02

  Uh, I did learn some front end. I can't profess to be absolutely good at it, but yes, I did.

• 2:37Harry Stebbings?

  What what resources did you use?

• 2:39Speaker 02

  Uh, that was Code Academy, mostly was Code Academy.

• 2:43Harry Stebbings?

  Okay, um, and being surrounded by the London startup ecosystem, I've heard from many people how incredible your services are that you bring to startups. And I was wondering what what are they are that you bring and what do you believe all investors should bring or investors and advisors should bring to startups?

• 3:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think the one thing that we bring, right, I think that's maybe different um from everybody else is is we. I think what Techstars brings is is this kind of uh passion, tenacity um to help the founders. Um, almost all of us have been entrepreneurs before and we know how hard it is. We know uh how one more intro or a little bit of effort, how much impact that can potentially make. And so I think really deep down in all of us at Techstars, we really want to give that advantage to early stage founders. Um, I think that's that's really kind of the secret sauce of what we do. Um, and and I think

• 3:43Speaker 02

  you know, I think every I think every investor, every accelerator can bring something different to the table. I'm not saying that our what we bring to the table is probably better or worse. I think that's just our probably our secret sauce.

• 3:53Harry Stebbings?

  And what was the biggest lesson then that you learnt from your two years as an entrepreneur?

• 3:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's a couple of different things, right? So one is it is damn hard, right? It is damn hard to be an entrepreneur. Um, the literature and and uh all the stories right now, um celebrate entrepreneurship and it should and and they should. I think um there's a lot of stuff. There's a lot of interesting things by why entrepreneurs is a great career, but it is very hard. And there's a million problems uh a day. Um, so it is hard and and I still remember waking up in the middle of the night saying, is this the career for me? So um you know, that's something I still remember very, very fondly. Um.

• 4:34Harry Stebbings?

  And what helped you get over those hard times?

• 4:37Speaker 02

  It's um. I would say it's really relationships. And I really have to say, um, my wife actually helped a ton, right? So knowing that there's someone, um, it's a dual edged sword, right? So you, I know someone's depending on me, um, but on the other hand, um, there's someone that I can talk to. Um, is really, really important. So I think the way I think about it is a co-founder in life. I have a co-founder in life and that's she helped me go through it. And I think everyone needs a co-founder, both either in life or in a startup to be able to talk through some of the things, both in the business, but some of the things that are outside of the business.

• 5:15Harry Stebbings?

  And do you back singular founders just in the business sense?

• 5:18Speaker 02

  We do, we do, um, but as I mentioned, it is incredibly, incredibly tough.

• 5:23Harry Stebbings?

  Sure.

• 5:24Speaker 02

  Um, but yes, we do. I mean, there are some spectacular single founders, um, that, that, um, can do a ton, right? So for example, we backed, um, um, Listable, um, from our last class, um. They, he was a single founder, Alec Farmer from Osper was also a single founder as well. Um, but they were incredible.

• 5:46Harry Stebbings?

  Amazing people.

• 5:47Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 5:48Harry Stebbings?

  And having read your blog, one aspect you seem very focused on is leadership. And for, for those founders not born leaders, is there anything that they can do to learn leadership? Or advance their leadership skills further?

• 6:02Speaker 02

  They, there's, I think there's two things. I think definitely reading a ton helps, um, reading.

• 6:09Harry Stebbings?

  Is that a ton of anything or is it content specific?

• 6:12Speaker 02

  Fair enough, um, I think it's content specific. I think putting, putting yourself in the lives of other entrepreneurs and other leaders. And really think about the decisions they had to make, um, make one, make one a better decision maker and henceforth a better leader. Um, I think also reading content, um, and really expanding the emotional spectrum, right? So there's a lot of literature that says being a leader is really expanding one's own EQ. And one's own empathy and and it kind of ability to to to understand other people's emotional states. And so I think reading stuff where it really expands your emotional horizon, I think is really, really important. But then on the other end in the spectrum, you there's no substitute for real life leadership.

• 6:55Speaker 02

  Um. So you can read all you want, but you have to really make those decisions. So the second thing is putting yourself in the in in that position where you have to make those decisions, where you have to make tough calls. And through and you and leaders and people who are becoming leaders will inevitably mess up. And that's okay. That's part of the leadership. Uh. That's part of the training process. And so it's not being not being afraid of making those decisions and really learning from those decisions that would be let one become a a a better leader.

• 7:24Harry Stebbings?

  And on the topic of reading, are there any blogs or publications that you bookmark instantly and are a must read for you?

• 7:31Speaker 02

  Oh, totally. Um. Fred Wilson is someone that I subscribe to.

• 7:35Harry Stebbings?

  Amazing.

• 7:36Speaker 02

  Um. He's great. He's got an amazing blog. Um. Brad Feld, of course. Um. Thomas Tungus is someone that I respect um a ton. He writes a B two B blog. Um.

• 7:48Harry Stebbings?

  Thomas at Red Point?

• 7:49Speaker 02

  Yes, that's right. That's right. So absolutely fantastic blog. It's a it's a uh just an economics type of kind of general. He he uses data to really unearth, I think, and ideas um that might not be readily apparent. Kind of like um what um Steven Levitz does um with Freakonomics, something like that.

• 8:11Harry Stebbings?

  Absolutely. Um. So we've got um Brad Feld, who'll be who'll be on the show in July, I might add.

• 8:19Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 8:19Harry Stebbings?

  Um. And then we've got Fred Wilson, Thomas Tungus, who else?

• 8:25Speaker 02

  Uh, Chris Christopher Yans from um point nine capital out in Berlin, I think. Um. Awesome, really great early stage founder, understands the B two B space. But just a really good, again, very insightful um uh investor. Uh. Those are the four that I read a lot. Um. Buffer.

• 8:47Harry Stebbings?

  Do you have any apps to aggregate this and to make?

• 8:50Speaker 02

  That's Get Pocket.

• 8:52Harry Stebbings?

  Pocket.

• 8:53Speaker 02

  Love it. Yes, love it. I don't have enough time to read, so I bash all my readings, so I put everything together. And then Feedly. So I I actually wrote a blog post about this. Uh I use Feedly uh to aggregate all my news feeds and all the content, and then I save them into um Pocket for later reading.

• 9:11Harry Stebbings?

  Awesome, awesome. And on the other side of the table, on the leadership question, is the individuals who may be uh interested in moving into the startup world.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:21Harry Stebbings?

  How should they choose the right jobs? Are there aspects they should look at immediately, you know, first stop shop?

• 9:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:27Harry Stebbings?

  And then signals.

• 9:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, so so one thing I wrote about in my blog post before was, you just gotta go out and contribute. Uh I I knew you can write job specs and you can really try to fit into a startup, and you can. But you you action in in what we do, action speaks louder than words. And so get out there, hustle, right? Prove to a startup why they should hire you.

• 9:50Harry Stebbings?

  Does that mean, does that mean rock up at a company, or does that mean email them before and say, I'd love to come in and what, see you?

• 9:55Speaker 02

  I would say if you have a position that you want, um and let's say, for example, it's a community manager. And it's a community manager at this really hot startup, um definitely write a job spec, definitely email and hustle your way in. But also prove, right? So so try to do a launch page and try to get as many people signed up in over a week that you can. And if you can prove traction with a launch page, you can use that as part of your interview process and say, look, this is what I could do. Just with a annual launch page, this is what I'm prepared to do for you as well. Um so both a hustle and trying to score the interview, but also uh letting action prove why you are um

• 10:40Speaker 02

  why you should be considered. And this is especially relevant for London, right, where it's still an early stage scene, it's an early scene. A lot of people don't have the startup experience yet. But eh eh don't be discouraged because you don't have any startup experience and you can't apply to startup jobs. Just show it in a different way.

• 10:57Harry Stebbings?

  Does that mean if you do have startup experience, you're automatically an advantage, do you think?

• 11:02Speaker 02

  I think it's always, it's, it's um, it's always a plus, right? It, it adds to the, the C V. Um, but from my perspective, um, if I'm hiring somebody and I see someone who's, who's super eager, hustling, um, especially very, very creative, I think I would take that over the one, someone who actually has a lot of experience.

• 11:25Harry Stebbings?

  And then for, for people again, looking at entering into the industry, do you think there are any misconceptions about the tech industry?

• 11:32Speaker 02

  Um, I think for, you know, broad stroke wise, um, broad stroke wise, I don't think so. I think, um, maybe the one thing is it's just kind of actions speak louder than words. I think that's, that's probably one thing that I think a lot of people try, uh, don't quite understand unless you've kind of worked in, in a startup environment. Uh, how fast paced it is, how, um, how day to day, um, decisions have to be made. Um, and how kind of probably unstructured things are. But if you thrive in those, um, in that environment, thrive in, in, in that type of context, you know, it's, it's a perfect environment for you.

• 12:10Harry Stebbings?

  And we said about networking, how do people find out about the events themselves? Are there any sites or newsletters they should be reading or following?

• 12:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I just saw a, um, website for, for this. I think it's kind of, um, it was kind of like a product hunt for, for London events. I forgot the U R L, but that seems pretty interesting, um.

• 12:31Harry Stebbings?

  And the U R L will be provided in the show notes, by the way.

• 12:34Speaker 02

  Okay, fantastic, um, so I'm happy to, um, send it over to the listeners that are on. Um, trying to think, I mean, I think meetup groups are always great, Silicon drink about, I think is always great. I think a lot of it is, uh, Google campus has a lot, ton of events. I think the big part is when you're new to the space, right, new to the ecosystem, just go out, just go out, meet. If there's anything, you meet new people. Second, there'll be free beer and pizza. So, you know, you get a free dinner. But the thing is, right? It's it's also this belief, I think, in the start system of of serendipity. Right? A lot of people, when they go to these events, say, well, there's probably no, no, I can't anticipate what the value will be.

• 13:16Speaker 02

  Um, so I won't go, or or I'll go in not so positively. But the thing is, serendipity happens. And so if you go and the more you go to these events and the more you remain open, the more connections you can make. Um, so don't go in there expecting you'll meet everybody, uh, and you won't. But you will meet people and you'll keep on seeing those people and you'll start making connections. Um, so believe in serendipity when networking.

• 13:40Harry Stebbings?

  And talking about um, the tech market as a whole now, what other sectors are you interested in? Where do you think the next bit of disruption is coming from?

• 13:50Speaker 02

  Um, I I think there's, there's a couple of different things. I mean, I think one thing that I'm really interested in is um, is agritech, so agricultural technology. Um, I think um, the food supply chain is is going to fundamentally change um, the next twenty, thirty years.

• 14:07Harry Stebbings?

  And how many startups in that space you've been particularly impressed with?

• 14:11Speaker 02

  So I haven't seen that much yet in in that area. I think there's a, there's a couple coming up and so I've seen a couple where it's basically, I forgot, I think it's Freight Farm from Texas or Boston. They're trying to make kind of freight, uh, kind of freight containers into farms. Um, there's a couple of supply chain things that I'm looking at as well. Um, but no one's really done the really, I think no one's really kind of pushed the envelope yet.

• 14:39Harry Stebbings?

  Awesome. And I've heard a lot about your startup office hours. Can you tell us the premise behind them and how they're going and how people can book them?

• 14:47Speaker 02

  Oh, you you you have, you should ask Brad Feld about it, uh, because I got the inspiration from him.

• 14:52Harry Stebbings?

  I'm gonna, I'm gonna note it down now.

• 14:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, definitely. So Brad Feld started in Boulder, David Cohen started doing it as well, and pretty much I think all of the Texasers loves to do it. Um, it's just, it's just something that we do in the community. Um, we get inspired by new ideas. Techstars was created actually between David Cohen and Brad Feld's open office hours. And and you know, we we get inspired by new ideas. Hopefully it helps an entrepreneur as well, brainstorming or an intro. Um, and it just keeps things fresh, right? It's it lowers the the boundaries of meaning. Between an investor and and and and entrepreneur, which it should be, it should be totally open.

• 15:33Harry Stebbings?

  So there's no, there's no pitch, there's no BPs, there's no, it's just a chat.

• 15:38Speaker 02

  It's just a chat. It's really entrepreneur driven, um, what the entrepreneur really wants to talk about. And sometimes it comes in the form of intro, sometimes it comes in the form of kind of brainstorming, which is what I love. Um, and thinking about what, you know, the potential of an idea and where it could go. And it's really driven by the entrepreneur.

• 15:54Harry Stebbings?

  Awesome. And do you mind if we move on into a lightning round now?

• 15:59Speaker 02

  Nope, no, no problem.

• 16:01Harry Stebbings?

  Okay, greatest leader and why?

• 16:04Speaker 02

  Greatest leader and why?

• 16:05Harry Stebbings?

  Greatest.

• 16:06Speaker 02

  Oh, greatest leader and why? Um.

• 16:11Speaker 02

  Um, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. I would say, um. This is a good question, but I would say probably.

• 16:23Speaker 02

  My, one of my drill sergeants, um, funny name, Sergeant Willie.

• 16:29Speaker 02

  He was probably one of the greatest, um, sergeants, uh, great, one of the greatest leaders I've had. Um, the pleasure of serving under, um, he made me believe in myself when I didn't quite believe in myself. And he had the ability, everyone that ever served under him. Said that they would go in battle with him. That's how great it was.

• 16:49Harry Stebbings?

  Wow. And then the Asian tech market.

• 16:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think, um, it's definitely, so I think it suffers from. Two things actually, so, or three things. One, Asia isn't isolated. It's not just one kind of, okay, the multiple ones. Um, so we can talk about Seoul, Japan, um, China, Hong Kong, Singapore.

• 17:11Harry Stebbings?

  Where's the most exciting?

• 17:13Speaker 02

  Um, I think Seoul is very interesting.

• 17:15Harry Stebbings?

  Why?

• 17:16Speaker 02

  So, because Seoul is actually very, very, they've done at least one or two revolutions in the, um, ecosystem, but. No one really knows about it because they're very insular.

• 17:25Harry Stebbings?

  And do you see massively different valuations for startups depending on their geographies?

• 17:29Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 17:30Harry Stebbings?

  And then finally, your favorite book and why?

• 17:33Speaker 02

  Um, right now.

• 17:36Speaker 02

  I'm reading Team of Rivals, um, I think that's very interesting. I think, um, my favorite book that I've read recently was Adam Grant's Give and Take. Um, I like Peter Thiel's Zero to One, and I oftentimes quote, um, hard thing about hard things.

• 17:53Harry Stebbings?

  Okay, and your most recent investment and why you said yes?

• 17:58Speaker 02

  Um, our most recent investment, um, was our last class, um, so it's I'm trying to remember, um, UB Knit and, so I'll just pick on one of them, uh, Knit and, um, so essentially they've developed controllers for hardware devices that, hardware devices that knit things. Why? Because it's a very exciting, uh, space. Um, knitting, knitwear is about sixty, fifty or sixty percent of the entire apparel market, and it's an awesome team. It's a great team. They hustle a lot. Um, they took on contracts to try to survive with Will I Am. Um, it's a great team, and they, they, they, they'll keep on surviving.

• 18:39Harry Stebbings?

  Well, Tac, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been an absolute pleasure to have you.

• 18:43Speaker 02

  Okay, fantastic, and thank you very much.

• 18:45Harry Stebbings?

  Now Tac mentioned a load of really incredibly useful apps and services and books, so for all of those, please head on over to the blog at the twenty minute V C dot com, where you will find them all under episode thirty seven Tac Low. Thank you so much for listening, and we look forward to seeing you in the next episode.