UVC: Tu Ngo from Touchstone Partners on her first startup YOLA, her journey towards becoming a VC focused on macro-changes, the perks of working with early-stage startups, and the Touchstone Fellowship Program for founders
Understanding VC is a deep dive on how Venture Capitalists work. In this episode, I talk to Tu Ngo, the Founder and Chairperson of YOLA, a leading company dedicated to a hybrid English education in Vietnam. She is also the founding General Partner at Touchstone Partners, an early-stage Vietnamese VC focused on sectors including healthcare, education, manufacturing, and climate action. Tu shares with our audience her challenging journey of building YOLA at a time when the internet and ecommerce had barely taken off, and the reason behind her decision to become a VC. She also divulges her list of do’s and don'ts when it comes to finding the right co-founders and investors as a budding entrepreneur, and enumerates the benefits of working on the team of an early-stage startup. Towards the end of the episode, Tu explains the Touchstone Fellowship Program which has been especially designed to aid founders in nurturing their ideas.
The episode will answer:
- What’s the quest which commanded the trajectory of Tu’s brilliant career?
- What did Tu learn from her first internship at a VC firm?
- Tu’s working experience with VietAbroader, a student-run non-profit organization whose commitment for promoting sustainable development aligned with Tu’s personal quest since college.
- What were the challenges that Tu faced while building her first startup, YOLA? How did she manage to overcome them?
- What is Tu’s criteria to identify the right co-founders and investors?
- What are the factors which promote positive team-building in an early-stage startup?
- What are the perks of working as an early-stage startup employee?
- What is the Touchstone Fellowship Program?
- Which sectors does Touchstone focus on while investing?
- What are the ESG principles? How have they dictated Tu’s growth as an entrepreneur and an investor?
About
Tu believes everyone has an inner potential but opportunities are not equally distributed, hence as a startup founder, VC investor and community builder, she wants to build solutions to enable especially young people, entrepreneurs and women to grow their skillsets and lead their own lives. She's the co-founder and Chairwoman of YOLA, a leading online-offline English education services company in Vietnam and the founding General Partner of Touchstone Partners, an early-stage US$ 50 mil VC fund focusing on Vietnam with interests in education, healthcare, consumer tech, hardware and climate action related solutions.
Tu Ngo
General Partner at Touchstone Partners
Tu believes everyone has an inner potential but opportunities are not equally distributed, hence as a startup founder, VC investor and community builder, she wants to build solutions to enable especially young people, entrepreneurs and women to grow their skillsets and lead their own lives. She's the co-founder and Chairwoman of YOLA, a leading online-offline English education services company in Vietnam and the founding General Partner of Touchstone Partners, an early-stage US$ 50 mil VC fund focusing on Vietnam with interests in education, healthcare, consumer tech, hardware and climate action related solutions.
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