Two leading venture capitalists speaking at the Collision from Home virtual technology conference on June 23 say they are still active amid the COVID-induced economic downturn but that marginal startups now face stricter scrutiny.
“The pandemic forces the strong to be even stronger and the weak to move on,” said Wesley Chan, managing director at Felicis Ventures, at the online event hosted in Toronto. “We will see a thinning out of the herd.”
This is the third recession Chan is working through. Great companies can come out of crises, he said, pointing to Google’s public debut in 2004 after the dot com bust. Chan, who founded Google Analytics and Google Voice, said he’s on the lookout for the next Google.
Jeff Clavier, founder and managing partner of Uncork Capital, says his firm is definitely open for business and just wrapped up an investment earlier in the morning before his participation at Collision from Home.
“Good things happen to good companies in bad times,” he said, adding that awesome startups are being built during the pandemic and he wants to find them and invest in them.
“For the right opportunity, the market is very active,” Clavier said.
‘Timeless’ Ideas
Chan and Clavier emphasize that new ideas from startups should not just focus on trying to take advantage of the pandemic circumstance—instead, they should be “timeless.”
“Those are the ones that thrive and survive,” Chan said.
Companies that can make clinical trials faster at half the cost will be able to take advantage of some of the best opportunities, he said. The pandemic has given rise to plenty of innovation in clinical trials and drug development.
