"So much of venture capital is about picking the right people and founders. But people change—going from zero dollars in the bank to ten million can shift their mindset. Temptations creep in, and some start playing short-term games because they don’t see a path beyond where they are now. Assessing people is tough, and it’s an ongoing process. In the U.S., it might seem like investors are backing young, unproven founders, but the reality is different. Many of those raising big rounds have done it before. Take someone who’s raised money multiple times—they’ve built a track record, so investors know exactly what they’re getting. Silicon Valley has a professional class of founders and repeat executives. These people have cycled through seven, maybe more, different startups. They’re known quantities, playing long-term games with long-term people.” - Adriel Yong, Orvel Venture Partner and Jeremy Au" - Jeremy Au
"The eventuality of all agritech players is to be some form of a mini conglomerate, and I still believe that if you can build out that flywheel across your inputs, your offtake, your financing, the fund monitoring services, and all that, you can be a very strong lock-in for a lot of the farmers, and it becomes very hard to switch out from you. And that obviously makes it attractive to certain types of investors, just that they won't come in or buy out the business at technology multiples or venture capital multiples, and they will also run a very fine-tooth comb across the business and uncover all sorts of things. So I think that's the game that people need to think more about moving forward.” - Adriel Yong, Orvel Venture Partner" - Jeremy Au
"That's where, over the past few years, so many deals started happening—once eFishery took off, everyone wanted to replicate it with an "eFishery for beef," "eFishery for whatever." The same idea kept circulating. The concept was that, despite being asset-intensive, going vertical and multi-stage would allow them to capture margins at every step, making the entire operation more efficient than the incumbent conglomerates, which were seen as too large and bloated.” - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast" - Jeremy Au
In this episode, Jeremy Au speaks on how eFishery fooled investors, informal business practices, and the agritech future.
Keywords: eFishery Fooled Investors, Informal Business Practices, Agritech Future, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, VC, Thought Leadership
