Musings From Under The MSW Tree #1
Musings From Under The MSW Tree #1
Our inaugural edition, sharing our perspectives on the laws of motion governing our environment
Thank you for gathering here under the virtual banner of the first ever MSW Ventures Newsletter! This has been a long time in the making, since our launch on Star Wars Day (May 4th) last year.
MSW Ventures works to support Asia Fund X, a sector-agnostic, opportunity fund founded in a time marked by market consolidation and agility, as it searches for exceptional growth models and founders with the X factor within the transformative digital economy of Southeast Asia.
We’ve always wanted a platform where we could share unabashedly about our perspective on the intricacies of our business environment, as well as the trials and tribulations that shape success.
If the past years have taught us anything, it is that change comes unexpectedly - market fit is as easily lost as it is found. We continue to center on early stage tech startups driving Southeast Asia's digital economies, backed by bold, mainstream-minded business leader founders, with the vision to scale digital and data technologies to transform legacy practices.
We still actively seek out for companies, both new and those reinventing themselves, that have the capacity to continually reassess their position in the business value chain to transcend Business-as-Usual.
If you know any team or company that would be a great fit for us, do feel free to reach out to us at businessplan@mettlesaltwealth.com with a pitch deck and short introduction!
Disclaimer: All information & opinions presented on this publication is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice, and any related liabilities will not be borne by the authors.
Now that we’ve got the introductions out of the way, let’s move on to our first ever newsletter topic!
Across many of our conversations with various stakeholders, a key topic of interest is always “What sort of core characteristics excite MSW Ventures?”. Beyond the financial viability & market potential, all important topics we will cover in due course, we thought we would share one of the guiding philosophies we look out for and try to espouse ourselves!
Neither Capability, Nor Capacity Alone
Capacity and Capability. In a founder, both attributes are collectively exhaustive & critical for success.
Capability is often hyper-focused upon. Everyone wants capable, charismatic founders with extensive product knowledge, domain expertise from years in the industry, exceptional sales techniques and other attractive skill sets.
Such founders are hot commodities, and the attention is not unwarranted! You do want founders with the right technical know-how and management experience, to get the best chances of success in an unforgiving business environment. In response to this, every pitch deck today has a designated section detailing the founders and/or advisors’ credentials in granular detail.
Historical track record might be indicative of blue-chip capabilities, but that isn’t where MSW Ventures closes the chapter.
Capacity needs to come packaged together with capability in some shape and form. Of course, capacity may not be a precondition to capability or vice versa, but going beyond focusing on honed & battle tested capabilities in the present, we are also in search of indicators of capacity to grow beyond one’s current mold.
An individual’s capacity is inherently unquantifiable, and while it might be uncharacteristic to label capacity in shapes and forms, we do have some examples for our readers to illuminate what we look for.
Mental Capacity
The early days of a new company often require founders to take on a host of ‘extracurricular’ responsibilities outside of their typical scope of work and/or comfort zones.
Besides the admin/HR/finance functions, technically-minded or BD-centric founders may find themselves having to step into one another’s shoes for product development, client pitching, fundraising and marketing.
Founders need to have the mental fortitude to juggle all these concurrent matters, and the capacity to quickly add new capabilities to their repertoire as needs arise.
Capacity Building
As the company grows, it has to move from a reactionary environment to a proactive and forward looking one. That requires the founders to free up bandwidth to focus at the firm’s frontier. They need to expand their teams with capable staff that can take on existing responsibilities and contribute to the firm’s growth.
As part of the company’s first team, the quality of a company’s first few hires significantly affects the trajectory & culture of the company. Founders might be individually capable, but it is important to be able to nurture the same competencies in their colleagues. In time, this will allow for further bench building and strong human capital foundations for the company. A founder needs to have the capacity & stomach for such a delegatory role.
Capacity For Reflection and Growth
No past experience prepares a founder perfectly for the realisms and challenges of starting a company from scratch. Capacity refers to the ability to welcome objective feedback, internalise it, and leverage it for continuous improvement.
As much as a founder needs to be resilient in order to bounce back from setbacks and grow with each challenge, founders also need to be able to take a step back, acknowledge & accommodate new opportunities and realisms.
Pictured: The team enjoying a life outside work
Well that’s all easier said than done, how does one even assess capacity? Notwithstanding start-up founders who have previous entrepreneurial experiences that can be cross-referenced and evaluated, founder capacity is very much something best seen with hindsight. However, here are some of the methods & proxies that we find useful in gauging capacity.
A life outside work
The ability to juggle work with family commitments, national service commitments, a sports or training regimen or a hobby can be a proxy for capacity. It reflects a balanced lifestyle and an ability to make room for things that matter to the individual.
Vulnerability & Openness to Change
The first step is awareness. The cognizance of one’s own limitations, both through feedback and self-discovery, can be important in the process of continual improvement.
The second step is to be open-minded about it and take action. The ability to acknowledge one’s own limitations without getting defensive is a good indication of the potential to reflect and grow. Au contraire, someone who repeatedly tries to ‘fake it until it's real’ speaks volumes about their willingness to acknowledge shortcomings and accept help from others to make the change.
At the end of the day, just as capability isn't confined to paper qualifications or a binary of haves and have-nots, it’s important to recognise that capacity cannot be quantified by elusive metrics to be pinpointed to create a checklist. Assessing capacity is equally an evaluation of one's character and their approach to life and work.
Neither is it an invariant point. Everyone’s capacity waxes and wanes over the years. The key for our assessment is having the right mindset and mentality, at the right time.
This is but one of the many ways in which founder fit is assessed from a VC’s perspective, and just one of the many things MSW Ventures considers in our conversations with founders, we hope this was a useful insight!
Quality founders are hard to find, don’t miss them!
We would also like to take this opportunity to share about our current portfolio companies, each of whom are led by founders with capability & capacity that inspire conviction.
Mitohealth, an AI-powered longevity health platform and screening service operating out of Singapore. They have recently been accepted into Y Combinator and will be expanding their services to the United States simultaneously.
Kiddocare, an on-demand family care platform based in Malaysia that matches parents with certified child care providers, as well as runs programs for personalised childcare and early intervention services.
Hepmil, the largest millennial-centric digital media network in SEA spanning 6 countries. Hepmil drives digital engagement through creation and delivery of digital content, as well as runs the Hepmil Creators’ Network, a digital creator agency that connects content creators to brands for co-creation opportunities.
MADCash, which offers shariah-compliant financing to unbanked and underbanked women entrepreneurs, along with business development mentorship & networks, to improve their livelihoods.
Fefifo, a Co-Farm & Digital Contract Farming (DCF) operator in Malaysia offering IoT tech platforms that increase yield and profitability for farmers through collaborating with large offtakers & end customers.
Partipost, an affiliate marketing platform spanning 8 markets, connecting brands to over a million micro & nano influencers across APAC that fit their target audience profile and demographics, to supercharge tailored campaigns.
Homa2U, a marketplace for overstocked and new renovation and interior design materials operating in Malaysia and Singapore as well as platform for built environment industry stakeholders, aims to redefine the industry’s business environment and reduce its carbon wastage.
Pawprints Group, the parent company behind the Pawprints and Heka brands, is an Indonesia-based pet food company offering biologically ideal and allergy-friendly pet nutrition in Asia Pacific while incorporating sustainable alternative proteins, allowing it to specifically target pets with allergies and dietary sensitivities.
And that’s all for our first newsletter! We’re looking forward to bringing more opinion pieces and thoughts, as well as updates on our activities on a regular basis - so do stick around !