Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist on What It Takes for Successful Investments

Eugene Zhang Courtesy of Bay Area Innovators

Our guest today is Eugene Zhang, founding partner at TSVC, a leading early-stage venture capital fund in Silicon Valley.

He has led investments in over 200 startups, including Jasper Therapeutics, Carta, and the well-known video conference company Zoom. Eugene only invests in U.S. companies—does not invest in China—with a very impressive track record.

While on average 1 out of every 10,000 startups that are funded reach ‘Unicorn’ status (defined as a startup with a value of $1 billion or more), his team’s portfolio includes 9 unicorns and 5 IPOs (initial public offerings) from the 225 firms they’ve invested in.

Eugene takes us through his early days as an engineer at Amdahl, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, and Juniper, and discusses the 3 pillars his team need to consider before investing in a startup.

I also asked him about the changes AI will bring to the landscape of Silicon Valley.