On August 20, 2021, two remarkable Born Global VCs, Irving Kau and Eunse Lee joined our General Partner of Born Global Ventures, Dr. Sunny Zhang for a virtual event. Irving and Eunse shared their stories about getting into venture investing and talked through the current changes in the financial landscape, the pros and cons of emerging ecosystems, the opportunities in those emerging ecosystems, and some advice for early-stage founders and emerging fund managers.
Irving Kau has extensive work experience working in both public and private equity including venture capital. He has worked on the buy-side, sell-side, and company side. Having built up a sizable network across all growth sectors, Irving serves as the Managing Partner of both Elementz Ventures and KW Capital Partners, as he has successfully completed over $100M in companies across geographies, sectors, and stages, and taken 12+ companies public to a Nasdaq listing. Irving prides himself on quantitative approaches including economic, financial, and market penetration modelling (Bass Diffusion), and as a detail-oriented global leader focuses himself on follow-through, execution, and task completion. He deeply values character and ‘doing the right thing’ in each circumstance despite any potential short-term effects. He also served as the head of Asia at GHS (now known as Seaport Global Holdings LLC) which possessed seasoned leadership from Jeffries and DLJ. He was named Top 40 under 40 finance professionals (2012, M&A Media).
Eunse Lee is a founder-turned early-stage investor and the founder and Managing Partner at a current stealth mode VC to globally empower early-stage high-tech startups with Asian founders. Prior to this position, Eunse was the Managing Director at Techstars Korea – Techstars’ first-ever program for Korea, where he built the full cycle of investment and operations of the accelerator, and invested in high-growth companies from Korea, US, Singapore, Australia, Canada and Japan. He also co-founded two LA-based VC firms and was involved in raising two funds totaling $250mn. He started his career in strategy at a firm he founded in Korea and served Tier-1 companies in both Korea and overseas as a strategy and management consultant. He also served as an advisor to the Korean Government and many of its agencies in formulating and implementing strategies for the Creative Economy.
Special thanks to our event partners, Women in AI USA, The Cannon Community and Z LAB Global for their kind support.
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On August 13, 2021, General Partner of Born Global Ventures, Dr. Sunny Zhang was joined by two amazing academic entrepreneurs, Naama Barnea-Goraly M.D. and Christel Bastida Ph.D., to discuss the opportunities and challenges for faculty and students who want to turn research findings into tech startups that can have a greater impact in the world and benefit more people.
Dr. Barnea-Goraly and Dr. Bastida not only shared their personal journey from a researcher/scientist/physician to an entrepreneur but also touched on “taboo” topics such as mental blocks and psychological well being. One would be surprised to know that there are more similarities than differences in the two seemingly day and night worlds of academia and entrepreneurship, and there are many transferrable skills and mindsets from academia that actually help one succeed in the startup space.
Naama Barnea-Goraly is the co-founder of Girltelligence, an AI startup for empowering teen girls and young women and providing them with a supportive community and safe space to talk about anything from mental health to gender equality. She received her medical degree from the Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical School of Jerusalem, Israel and her clinical training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry as well as a postdoctoral neuroimaging research fellowship at Stanford University.
Renaissance woman Dr. Christel Bastida innovates in a variety of scientific and academic fields. Having taken part in Rice University’s Lilie Launchpad as part of the inaugural startup studio cohort and Glasgow University’s Innovation and Sustainability Fellowship, she now consults and mentors on projects related to science and innovation. She is also set to start her next endeavour as a Startup Studio Entrepreneur with FedTech, a venture builder that drives forward deep tech ventures across the DoD, NASA, DoE, universities, and federal labs.
Special thanks to our event partners, the Consulate General of Israel in Houston, Women in AI USA, The Cannon Community and Z LAB Global for their kind support.
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On July 23, 2021, Born Global Ventures General Partner Dr. Sunny Zhang hosted a networking session on “Making a Wishlist for Immigrant and International Innovators”. We discussed the many challenges faced by immigrant entrepreneurs and how to build an inclusive and supportive global innovation ecosystem for them. The session had various breakout rooms where the participants could connect with other innovators.
Thank you to all of our attendees for joining the Wishlist event and bringing such insightful discussions. Special thanks to our event partners, business angel Minority association – baMa, Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce, Kanthaka, and Z LAB Global for their kind support.
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Victor Koosh serves as Managing Director for ACT Capital Advisors and has built and sold multiple businesses over his 35-year career. As a former founder, Victor is sympathetic to the challenges business owners face and brings a creative approach to finding the best solutions. He served as CEO of Caesar Systems-PetroVR, an oil and gas software business acquired by Aucerna. He was also the co-founder & CEO of Meedio, a premier provider of digital lifestyle software acquired by Yahoo! in 2006.Victor’s expertise in the software industry for more than 20 years gives him a unique perspective on the needs and demands of these companies. He strives for simplicity and leverages teamwork to integrate multiple points of view that illuminate opportunities. He also speaks Russian, Spanish, and German.Victor, a Native American Jump Start board member, studied business administration at the University of Houston. In addition, he’s received the NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout Award, the Centurion Award, and the Silver Beaver Award.
Marc J. Sharpe is the founder and chairman of The Family Office Association (“TFOA”), an organization formed in 2007 to provide a forum for education and networking and to serve as a resource for single family offices to share ideas and best practices, pool buying power, leverage talent and conduct due diligence. Mr. Sharpe’s career in the investment and asset management industry spans more than 25 years. He has held positions in investment banking for Wasserstein Perella & Co. Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in addition to founding a venture capital incubator in the UK and working for Dell Inc. He subsequently took a position as portfolio manager and research director for Galapagos Partners LP, a full-service multi-family office serving a select group of ultra-high net worth families. After successfully growing the firm and surviving the 2008 market crash with a positive net return, Mr. Sharpe joined SigmaBleyzer Investment Group, an international private equity firm specializing in control investments with assets valued at $1 billion. He was also a managing director for a boutique investment advisory firm providing alternative asset strategies to ultra-high net worth families and registered investment advisors. Marc is currently an Operating Partner with Satori Capital, LLC, a Dallas and Fort Worth-based investment firm founded upon the principles of Conscious Capitalism. Immediately prior to Satori, Marc served as Partner & Managing Director at LCR Capital Partners, responsible for building strategic partnerships and investment opportunities throughout the world. Marc holds an M.A. from Cambridge University, a M.Sc. from Oxford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mr. Sharpe is active in the community and has served on the Board of the Holocaust Museum Houston, the HBS Angels, and on the Investment Committee for two Texas based foundations.
Rohit is an experienced entrepreneur and leader with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and software industry. He has been providing innovative Data and Analytics solutions and products to clients in Healthcare, Financial Services, Retail, Automotive, Manufacturing and other industry segments.
He is skilled in business and IT strategy, M&A, Sales; Marketing and Global Delivery. He holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering, is a Wharton School Fellow and a graduate from the Harvard Business School.
He has completed executive education programs in AI in Business and Healthcare from MIT Sloan, MIT CSAIL and Harvard School of Public Health. He is completing the Global Healthcare Leaders Program from Harvard Medical School.
Rohit is currently the Managing Partner at Bigr.io and Saviance.
Davy Wang currently works as the senior director at Oracle Cloud, responsible for top-tier customers. He was previously the founding team of AWS China and served as chief architect and solution director of Amazon AWS Greater China, the first batch of getting AWS expert certification. He has helped many of China's top Internet companies, making full use of cloud platforms and taking the advantage of technological innovation, and thus promoting the business model of innovation.
Davy was a senior technical expert at Ali Yun. He has many years of IT consulting and implementation experience. He was a Senior Architect Manager at IBM Global Services, where he was responsible for the promotion and service consulting of solutions such as SOA, enterprise systems integration, and cloud computing platforms in China and the Asia Pacific region.
Key Focused Areas:
Published two best-selling books about Cloud Computing and Application Architect (Both books have been sold for more than 100,000 copies) Rich experience in Enterprise Level Application Architecture including strategy, design, implementation, and integration
Helped MNC design and implement Digital Transformation Certified PMP for more than 15 years and expert at project management as the head of PMO
In-depth knowledge in global scalable infrastructure and helped a lot of multi-national companies design their infrastructure globally More than 20 years experience working in IT Consulting and Cloud Computing Company, including IBM, AWS, Ali Cloud, Tencent Cloud Frequent public speaker about cloud/DevOps/SaaS etc.
Mr. Stephen Read is happily married to his wife Sarah with whom he has 3 children (Nora, Isaac andMarcus). Stephen founded HIT Investments; the General Partner of the Hedge fund HIT Capital in 2011.
Mr. Stephen Read has spent the majority of his life researching, investing and learning how to compound wealth. His personal expertise lies in strategy, programming, behavioral finance, and investment analysis.
Stephen is a lifelong learner who believes the best way to learn is by doing. Since graduating from Missouri A&M with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering he has:
Worked 14 years at ConocoPhillips as a Drilling Engineer, Rig Supervisor, Development Team Lead, Exploration Project Manager, A&D Lead, Strategic Planning, Reserves Coordinator, Commercial Lead and Water Manager Played professional baseball which was capped off with a Continental League Championship Founded the investment firm HIT Investments and oversees +$10 million in AUM Manages the hedge fund HIT Capital which has +14% CAGR since its 2013 launch Saved and compounded enough $ for his family to reach financial independence by age 37 Built a website and writes a blog on personal and behavioral finance Invested in startups since 2011, which includes one unicorn (and counting) Developed and lead a Python programming program, producing more than 100 translators and coders Stephen’s investment expertise lies in the markets available to the hard-working middle class: public equities, real estate, and early-stage startups. He is passionate about helping others save, invest, and follow their calling. Stephen is a registered Investment Adviser in the state of Texas.
One of Stephen’s favorite quotes is from 2 Corinthians 9:6 “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”
Shuang Leng is an attorney licensed in Illinois and Texas. She works with both startups and establishedcompanies and assists them with their ongoing business and legal needs. Her practice mainly focuses oncorporate governance and transactions, commercial transactions, data privacy and security, and blockchain-related matters. Shuang is also a certified information privacy professional (CIPP/US/E) with experience in boththe US and European data protection laws. The CIPP is the global standard in privacy certification, developedand issued by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
Shuang is adept in contract review, analysis, and drafting, and has a deep understanding of corporatestructures and business entities. She is well-versed in corporate transaction deal structures (deal steps, equitystructures, fund flow, due diligence, and M&A taxation). She developed all essential algorithms for a taxcalculator, which compares and ranks tax liabilities and benefits resulting from all available deal structures(stock sales, assets sales, mergers, 338(h)(10) elections, etc.) for sales or acquisitions of C corporations, Scorporations, LLCs and partnerships.
Shuang works with tech companies on a regular basis. In addition to transactional work, she advisescompanies on securities regulations, capital raising activities, legal issues surrounding the Internet of Thingsand related legislative activities, and other compliance matters.
Education
J.D., University of Kansas, School of Law, USA
LL.B. Renmin University of China, Law School, China
Other Qualifications
CIPP/US (Certified Information PrivacyProfessional/US)
CIPP/E (Certified Information PrivacyProfessional/Europe)
Bar and Court Admissions
Texas
Illinois
China (Legal Professional Qualification Certificate)
Southern District Court of Texas
20+ years focus on innovation, marketing, and psychology 17+ years of business school teaching and consulting Pioneering research on e-commerce since 2000 and social networks since 2005 Published in premium journals and spoke at international conferences Tenured marketing professor at Cameron School of Business, Univ. of St. Thomas Co-founded Z LAB Global in 2017, a global innovation studio Full-spectrum integrated service provider to tech startups for the last 5 years Investor and builder of TrueLeap, myEnergyBudy, and GeoChemPro Founder of the Born Global Community for immigrant entrepreneurs and investors Program Advisor of Women in AI USA leading startup development programs Board of Advisor at George H. W. Bush Foundation of US.-China Relations Established strategic partnerships with hundreds of organizations
14 years in the largest Independent Energy Company in the world (both technical and leadership roles) 10 years developing new ventures in the energy industry Eagle Ford Shale Asset (US L48): Considered to be one of the biggest success stories for ConocoPhillips (Day zero technical team member) European Shale Ventures: Led COP's first international Shale venture Led venture projects with $1B+ in assets (Deepwater Gulf of Mexico) Managed venture portfolio's with $100M+ in yearly budgets (Deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Poland Shales) Managed major project exits (Deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Poland Shales) Co-founded Z LAB Global in 2017, a digital innovation studio Full spectrum service provider to technology startups for the last 5 years Full spectrum service provider to technology startups for the last 5 years
