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Separating hype from reality: How a Facebook engineer is leveraging his tech expertise to drive VC investments on all things Web3
Based in Silicon Valley, former Facebook engineer Richard Chen co-founded Iterative Venture, an angel syndicate for Facebook alumni that will soon launch a new VC fund. Leveraging the technical expertise from Facebook alumni, the fund will focus on investing in solid web3 projects.
When you’re working long hours every day at a high-intensity workplace, you may start to question yourself: “What am I actually doing with my time?” For Richard Chen, a tech worker based in Silicon Valley, that was exactly what was going through his mind before he went on to co-found Iterative Venture.
With a love for data and infrastructure engineering, Chen has worked in several big companies including Accenture, Facebook, Shazam and Snap. He was working as a Senior Data Engineer at Facebook before co-founding Iterative Venture, an angel syndicate for the Facebook alumni community in December 2020. To take his venture to the next level, Chen will be launching a new fund that target web3 startups in the coming months.
“I’ve always wanted to start something of my own,” explains Chen on why he took the leap into the unknown. “I got interested in angel investing when I heard about Xooglers, a community of Google alumni who come together to help each other in the startup ecosystem. I wanted to learn more from this platform because I wanted to build what Xooglers is for Google, but for current and former Facebook employees.” Now after a year of its founding, we got the chance to catch up with Chen to discuss his progress so far and why his future plans involve a major transition into a web3-focused VC fund.
Building a syndicate community for investors and entrepreneurs
From just a simple idea of wanting to create an entrepreneurial community for Facebook alumni to actualizing it in the form of Iterative Venture, Chen said his syndicate took a lot of hard work and dedication.
“Building and fostering strong relationships within our community but also forming relationships with other similar communities is important for us,” says Chen as he shares some of the practical steps he has taken to build up this community. “Keeping members up-to-date with the latest market trends and insights is a must, so there’s a Slack channel where I frequently update them on the latest news. We host networking events to get people together and we also partner up with other syndicates such as Uber, Airbnb and DoorDash to exchange knowledge and experiences. We even help VCs source deals — it’s all part of relationship building as lots of opportunities in our industry can come from word of mouth.”
As a community-driven syndicate, Iterative Venture grew to more than 1500 members in 5 months and have now partnered with numerous VCs who have funded companies such as Google, Facebook, Netflix, Airbnb and Uber. Asked whether he had any tips on fostering an entrepreneurial community, Chen said: “Encouraging a ‘Be bold, be open’ mindset is key. Also when you connect like-minded people together, it’s important that community members are willing to share resources and give advice and feedback on each other’s products and ideas.”
Unlocking more investment opportunities with a VC fund
Web3 and crypto startups are attracting huge amounts of money now with VCs investing more than $33 billion in 2021, according to a recent report by Galaxy Digital Research. As investments continue to soar in this space, Chen wants to get in on the action early by transitioning his syndicate into a VC fund that will focus on all things web3. “With a VC fund, our team and I will be able to access better deals and open up more investment opportunities.”
He understands there are many other areas within the tech industry that he can invest in, but his fund will primarily focus on investing in web3 startups as designing and building infrastructure is what excites him the most and is an area that he is most familiar with.
When we asked him what he looks for in a startup or what he thinks about when he is sourcing deals, he said: “Some of the big questions I think about before I invest in a business are: ‘Where are all the big VCs investing - what is the market moving towards to?’, ‘What is the founder fitness like - are they resilient enough?’, ‘How scalable is their idea - how much value will they grow in 5 years or even 10 years?’, and I will always reach out to other VCs to get their feedback on potential investments.”
Actively seeking to invest in web3 startups and strengthening ties between Taiwan and Silicon Valley
It’s been two years since Chen last visited Taiwan. He came back this year to celebrate Lunar New Year with his family but although it was a short visit, he still managed to plan a packed schedule for himself to meet with several Taiwanese startups working in the web3 space. “Web3 is quite new but there is definitely a lot of potential I’m seeing in Taiwan. It’s great to see many coding studios popping up in recent years which will encourage more innovations in this space.”
Chen is actively seeking out startups in Taiwan that are working on web3 and blockchain developments so he can invest in them. Not only is he interested in capturing the growth opportunities of a sector that he is passionate about, he also wants to leverage his own experiences and network to help foster more innovations and connections. “Whether it’s investing in Taiwanese startups who want to be at the cutting edge of web3, connecting Taiwanese startups with Silicon Valley VCs, or just simply being a bridge to facilitate more communications between the entrepreneurial communities in Taiwan and Silicon Valley, I’d be more than happy to help where I can.”
For Chen, bringing entrepreneurship and communities together is really at the heart of everything he does; and with plans on visiting and spending more time in Taiwan in the next few years, we can expect to see and hear from Chen a lot more in Taiwan’s tech community — so if you ever want to grab a coffee with him and talk all things tech, be sure to catch him on his next visit.
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