Epic Mongolia
The unlikely story of how I came to own a horse.
When you hear about Mongolia, likely Genghis Khan will pop up on your mind. As you stand on the steppes of the Gobi Desert, stepping on grounds no man may have ever stepped on, and contemplate the vastness of its untouched lands, you wonder how he pulled it off. How and why Khan convinced these peaceful nomadic people, who to this day live there with their beloved horses, to fight their way all the way to Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
I can trace my curiosity over Central Asia back about three years when during a Japan trip I came across some literature on their history and became bugged to find out how they are now.
Despite a few mild attempts to plan, the idea of discovering Central Asia only came back to my mental spotlight this summer, when I was introduced to the Mongol Rally by my friend Kim. This stupid idea involves driving a trash car from Prague through Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Gobi Desert, Ulaanbaatar (UB for locals) and then into Russia to finally pop the bottle in Ulan-Ude (pronounced Ulaan Udè). But Mongol Rally would only bring me here next summer.
I had been daydreaming about the Rally, on and off, and was in San Francisco for Y Combinator Demo Day, to see startups from the Summer Batch finally have their 2 minutes to pitch to investors from around the world. Luckily my good friend Paul and I managed to squeeze in some beers, we hadn’t crossed paths in 2 years. We talked about Mongol Rally (recruiting efforts at full throttle), YC companies, life and our plans to do a regional fund together… At the end of the evening, I asked Paul if he could help me expand my venture capital network in Asia, as he runs a well-established fund out of Singapore. He connected the dots and mentioned this tech startup competition being organized in the Gobi Desert, the Snow Leopard Tech Challenge. Paul is in my close circle of trust, so I immediately agreed to check it out. If I got accepted, it seemed my Mongolia thing was taking shape as a business opportunity.
Flying halfway around the globe, in an area of the world I had no clue, to then embark on a three day immersion with total strangers, then driving into by far the most remote place I’d ever been — that is surely pushing out of the comfort zone — and I believe good opportunities don’t just knock on your door.
After two great workdays and rest in Seoul, as I was landing in UB, I was curious. The city isn’t exactly impressive when seen from the air, but I was about to substantially de-risk my bet. I thought the worst case I’d be cold, would have a hole on the ground as a bathroom, but at least I would be able to finish my book and soon be on my way to Hong Kong for other meetings.
Turns out I couldn’t be more wrong.
I had met only one Mongolian person in NY, and he seemed really smart and courteous, but with such a small sample, I was still really curious to see how the people would be like. As I stroll through the small, run-down Chinggis Khan airport, I wonder if someone would greet me. But there it was, a sign that said Irbis Ventures. I really hate those soliciting taxi-ish drivers, so I was really glad to meet Denar, one of Irbis execs who came personally greet arriving attendants.
We gathered for a kick-off dinner event at the Shangri-la before taking the 9-hour car ride into the middle of nowhere the next day.
Mongolians are very smart people. It’s becoming clear my anecdotal evidence was solid. They are fast at math, know history, are curious, good at abstracting thoughts and simply getting things. I was curious about this enough to do some googling and found out they are considered really smart indeed. For example, check out what this little Mongolian girl did with her father on TV. You don’t need to understand Mongolian to figure it out.
Taking a 9-hr road trip without cell reception is a good way to get to know someone. Rinch, my SUV buddy is Mongolian, speaks perfect, witty British English. He works for Lend.mn, the soon to be first Mongolian unicorn, a super-app focused on payments and micro-financing. Rinch lectures me on the Mongolian culture, the Mongolian Empire’s untold stories, tells Churchill’s jokes and throws around some interesting book and movie reviews. If I knew I’d have brought with a notebook. I easily recruited him for the Mongol Rally next summer, so our 16,000 km journey through Central Asia now has a scholarly storyteller.
The drive into the Mongolian countryside is an experience in itself. You don’t need to get too far from UB to get a glimpse of their nomadic lifestyle. Families live in traditional Mongolian tents, called Gers, which they can dismantle and move around. They herd their free-roaming animals as they seek for pasture, there are no fences. In fact, there are barely any private land ownership in Mongolia, if a local needs a piece of land all he has to do is ask the government for it. Herding livestock freely is still done the same way as it has always been done, this is the most preserved culture I have ever come across. Don’t think of these people as poor homeless — you can tell how well they do by the number of horses in their herds. It’s their way of showing off. The better off nomads send their children to private schools abroad, drive SUVs and set up big flat-screen TVs in their Gers. Still, 28% of Mongolians live bellow the poverty line. Just like any developing country, they have their issues, but what is remarkable is that the wealthy herder is there living without any modern infrastructure other than Dish TV, just because it’s what they do.
As my jet legged mind tries to tell me it’s lunchtime, I noticed there aren’t restaurants anywhere along the road. The few gas stations lack even a convenience store. The road, in average condition for my Brazilian standard, is basically ours. Where would we eat? As a guest, I mostly avoid asking anything that could suggest frustration, and I know they probably would think of something. But I didn’t expect there would be a tent, in the middle of nowhere, with a full buffet lunch being catered by local chefs, set up just for us. Later I will learn that all these logistics are the work of an expert — Gunbee, who is both an Irbis executive and an established adventure tourism operator, used to setting up full luxurious camps anywhere you can put a pushpin on Google Maps. Just make sure you book 4 months in advance because apparently the world has already found out about him.
I got to try a traditional Mongolian meal. The main staple in Mongolia is, well, meat. Mutton, Beef, Yak, Camel and even Reindeer, which live in the northern mountains. Millet is their grain staple, although I haven’t seen much of it. A typical family will herd all these animals plus few goats. There are 66 million livestock in Mongolia, and 3 million people — about 20 per capita! Just as a comparison, Uruguay has the most cattle per capita in the world, just over 3. With quasi-impossible agriculture, barely any forests and all these animals, it’s easy to imagine how your plate looks like. They do go a bit vegetarian in winter, to avoid slaughtering animals when they are weak, and keep mostly a dairy-based diet. Even the staple alcoholic drink, ayrag, is made from fermented horse milk — another reason to breed so many horses. Almost everything fresh is imported, so the farther away you are from the capital, the less likely you’ll find a salad. The meat, however, is very tasty and has a strong flavor, due to the nature of the free-ranging, naturally pastured cattle. In Mongolia, there is no need to label anything organic because everything is organic, grass-fed, non-gmo, you name it — although this is changing with so many imports.
The last 70km of the journey is on unpaved road. Well, road is an overstatement. It’s just a route commonly used that has become a kind of a path in the desert, but as all the SUV drivers of our 15+ convoy were very experienced Gobi drivers, they preferred to take their own routes. Doing 80–100 km/h through the steppes is quite an aventure, prompting a high adrenaline majestic sunset arrival to our final destination.
The Three Camel Lodge, where Irbis generously hosted us and for the Snow Leopard Tech Challenge, aka #SLTC2019, is among the most exclusive and remote in the world. Each of us had our own Ger — but unlike the traditional ones, these are very luxurious and had a second, connected Ger with a full western bathroom. There is a wood stove heater, but since there are no trees anywhere near, wood is very scarce. This is why you don’t lock your Ger at night and every morning at six a thoughtful hotel staff walks in and lights up the stove for you. This wakes you up for the spectacular sunrise, and rapidly heats up the Ger so you can have the courage to get out of bed. It’s ~4ºC outside, down from the mid-teens during these late summer days. Gers have a solar panel and are all off the grid. Desert silence is almost disturbing, I had to talk to myself to make sure I didn’t just wake up deaf.
Throughout the activities of the program, I slowly started to grasp what a great group of people was attending the event. There were other investors, mentors, founders, sponsors, local businessmen and even an Ambassador, although you could barely tell as Mongolians are very hands-on and simple. This comes from the Genghis Khan era — commanders had to do the same hard work everyone did, such as attending to the horses and clerical tasks. It’s remarkable how Mongolians respect others regardless of their societal status.
The Flaming Cliffs is an important archaeological site, it is where Roy Chapman Andrews first discovered that dinosaurs came from eggs, setting the great Mongolian dinosaur rush. The massive excavation site, in an all Mongolian style, is not fenced-out and anyone can roam around this Heritage site, where a good number of dinosaurs came to find water and feed off its once lively ecosystem. I can’t think of anywhere else in the world that you can touch a dinosaur bone still half-buried in its original discovery site. These gems are still there due to the sheer number of bones to be dug and the lack of archeological funding. It’s really quite surreal. Our guide, Anand, who also runs the Lodge, speaks knowledgeably with a serene, radio-like low toned voice about the important discoveries made here and answer random curiosity questions about the famous archeological expeditions that happened here. I learned Jurassic Park’s most famous dino, the Velociraptor, was first discovered here in the Gobi in 1922, but they weren’t Jurassic. Spielberg wanted a better name for a movie than Cretaceous.
As you stroll around the Lodge, you can’t help but wonder how they managed to get everything ready and in place for the Challenge, considering the remoteness of this place. Everything had come from Ulaanbaatar. An event like this must be really well thought out and prepared, as there is no last-minute run for anything. Don’t forget that HDMI dongle or there are no pitches!
Nomin is Irbis’ chief administrator officer and she was on top of it all. Mongolian society is matriarchal, meaning it’s usually the women who are in charge. Women have a dominating role in running government and the largest organizations. In fact, there are programs to empower the men, since they are generally less educated and have trouble competing with women in the job market. Nomin is a very good example of that, a strong woman, very assertive yet sweet and courteous. Just don’t try to be in her way and you should be fine.
Back to work at the lodge preparing my judge duty, I review the paperwork of each of the five finalist startups at the competition that were soon to pitch before us on the most unique tech startup event on this planet. All of them are solid and it will be no easy task to rate one best.
I am impressed as some of the local startups had such a fair game against the foreigners, who sometimes came from Silicon Valley-based accelerators and had had more exposure to the startup environment. Turns out the software engineering talent pool in Mongolia is very strong and widely unnoticed by the global gig economy, at least for now. Some of the local entrepreneurs may have a bit to learn yet on public speaking, but that is why Irbis brought in Georgina, a Singaporean media hostess and radio celebrity turned startup coach who is working with them in sharpening their pitch and readying them for their next round of Series A funding.
Think about that dish your grandmother used to cook for you, your favorite one. Can you cook it? Some of the world’s best culinary experiences don’t happen at restaurants, but on weekend family and friends gatherings around wooden ovens in countryside towns. Cookly uses technology to brings those experiences back and keep regional culinary traditions alive. Founded by a Canadian, Etienne, and a Frenchman, Ben, their pitch was world-class and emotional, and they showed remarkable traction for such an early venture — being already operating in multiple Southeast Asian countries and rapidly evolving westward. Winners of the competition, they got a cash prize and landed funding deals, including from the fund I run, Neptuno. Welcome to the portfolio guys! #RealFoodiesCook
Congratulations also to all finalists, Fairbanc, Erxes, iHotel.mn and Onefit.
Talking about foodies, I must mention Hervè, one of my new #SLTC2019 friends. A Cameroonian and Swiss dual citizen, he grew up in Geneve as a global nomad and speaks countless languages, married a Japanese woman and currently calls Goto island, Japan, home. Hervè has traveled extensively through Central Asia and tells jaw breaking stories about his backpack adventures in the region, hitchhiking his way through areas like the no-man’s land on the border of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, maybe the most undesirable place for a black man to be stuck at night when the border to enter is closed and you already exited the country you had a one-entry visa for. Luckily, thanks to his fluent Russian and remarkable affability, he landed a meal and a shelter on some trucker’s cabin. Witty and damn smart, this former head hunter turned VC now scouts deals in this region and in Africa. Luckily, I was able to recruit him for next year’s Mongol Rally. Now we have a real local expert, with detailed insights on where we should draw our route on the map.
The group was filled with other such interesting and diverse people. At every opportunity, someone new would engage and it would open a new window into a different world. How powerful it is when you gather so many good people in a wi-fi free environment and these magical interactions happen so seamlessly. Travel is always a good opportunity to meet interesting people, and so is attending events related to your area of interest, but these few days at the Gobi desert brought this to another level.
I had set apart an extra day and a half in UB for follow up meetings, as it is usual on my Demo trips. It usually is enough, but the agenda back in the capital was intense. I had to figure out what these guys at Irbis were really up to, so I extended my stay and killed The HK agenda.
Ulaanbaatar is quite an interesting city. Home to 60% of all Mongolians, the city’s infrastructure could easily handle about 500k people, so it feels a little crowded among the 1.4 million living there now. Traffic is by far and large among the worse I’ve experienced, even considering I grew up in São Paulo. Luckily, everything in the center is walkable and it’s a fairly safe place. In UB anyone can be a taxi, all you need to do is stop for someone waving on the sidewalk. I didn’t have a chance to try this ‘Taxi’ since everyone always offered to drive me everywhere, and they send their drivers to take you to the airport at 4 am if you mention your flight is early.
The beauty of Mongolia is not the Gobi or the city, but it is the people, as I was about to find out in this extraordinary journey into their hearts and souls.
The first thing that stands out is their generosity. A complete foreign stranger just a few days ago, no one would ever let me pay anything, from meals to drinks and SPA. Duke, one of Irbis partners, and his lovely girlfriend Uni took us out every night to show UB’s vibrant night scene, that must include at least one restaurant, one bar and one karaoke. And unlike other places in Asia, they actually sing really well. Rinch, a real dapper, was always around with his local insights and great people skills, his Barry White singing, and to make sure there were never any lines so we always got VIP treatment. Wen Loon, a true, chill Singaporean running a Crypto fund, was always a pleasure to have around — incredibly cultured and classy with his unique hat choices. Anar, one of founding fathers of UB’s startup scene and founder of a super-app (think WeChat, Rappi) bound to be Mongolia’s first unicorn, despite his very recent motorbike accident and his new titanium back, made the effort to venture out and offered dinner and drinks over a cool and funny chat — what an exceptional fellow and bold serial entrepreneur!
My extra days in UB were very productive. I was assigned a desk at Irbis office and got plenty of quality time with Irbis CEO Tsengel, who set me out in a series of meetings. Given the success of the event, the mood at the office was superb, and after some light due diligence, I got a real perspective on what they are up to do.
Unlike an Accelerator in the form I have become familiar with over the last few years when I expanded Neptuno into the VC space, Irbis goes beyond on how they help startups. They take a space somewhere between an incubator and an accelerator — although they take in founders with a viable product somewhat developed, they take in tasks in helping them build into a marketable product. Irbis has staff developers, lawyers, mentors and provides them with space and all infra-structure needed. They are tapping into an amazing talent pool and bringing a new approach to the region. They are also creating a sweet deal flow turbocharged by their incredible ability to connect and engage with people, as seen on the #SLTC2019 event. All this is only possible due to their human-centric approach, love for people and generosity that became clear during this trip. Things in Mongolia are much more human than in the US.
Irbis, in Mongolian Irvis (Cyrilic: ирвэс), means leopard — which for us means snow leopard, the only kind around here. Snow leopards are very agile and smart, but are hard to find due to their extraordinary camouflage abilities. They are kind of like Unicorns, except they actually exist. Awesome name for a Venture Capital partnership.
Irbis also hosted Bayara of the Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation, who explained about the challenges to protect their habitat and their success in creating the Tost Tosonbumba Natural Reserve. Gobi is home to 1,000 snow leopards, a big part of the small global population of only 7,000. Cookly elegantly donated a part of their prize to the foundation.
As I marched towards the end of my journey I was feeling I needed to be part of this, I could see these guys are into something special. I strongly believe that when you work hard to bring good people together, great things happen. It’s really much more about the people than anything else. I was already part of the #SLTC2019 but I wanted more, I needed to join the whole Irbis journey. I was back to the table where two days ago I signed the funding deal with Cookly, the winner, to make another deal and become part of the Irbis family.
Just about a week before I landed in this unchartered land, clueless of what I’d find, now I had friends, a promising new portfolio company and joined a business venture ready to capture all the cool things these guys will keep doing after I have to head back west. It was time to celebrate!
After the dinner with the whole team and Anar, we received a surprise visit from a local artist, Erdenebulgan, who carried a beautiful painting. Turns out it was a gift for me! They him come to greet and tell the story of this sacred place depicted on the art piece — a deep and narrow gorge in the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains of southern Mongolia, called ‘Yolyn Am’, where a thick mineralized ice field gives the impression it is made of gold. It is considered a special, spiritual place and the artist, who is from that region, has only painted it twice. The other painting was gifted to the president of Mongolia. This was a deeply emotional moment and a great honor. I like pieces of art that come with a story, and it will be hard to beat this one!
Horses are a sacred animal in Mongolia. It’s been traditionally said that ‘A Mongol without a horse is like a bird without the wings’. A newly wedded couple will be given a gift of horses by the parents. When US Vice President Joe Biden visited Mongolia, he was given a Mongol horse as a gift. Horse culture is spread everywhere and good riding skills are essential bullying protection. In summary, it’s hard to think of anything more valuable to a Mongolian than horses.
My last night, gift in hand, we are to celebrate my Irbis partnership at the Fat Cat Jazz Club, a short walk away. Hervè and Wen Loon had just left to Singapore, now it is just me and the Irbis team in town, my first time as the only foreigner among a bunch of locals. Courteously, they kept speaking mostly English among themselves. After some great jazz and some Japanese whiskey (finally they let me buy a round!) they rushed me outside to ‘show me something’. I could feel something was in the air.
I felt it had to be something positive, we’d been having great positive conversations about our future ventures and the whole atmosphere was commemorative. But I had no idea what just about to happen.
Tsengel, Gunbee, Nomin, and Rinch circle around me and started acting all mysterious. Finally, they announced they had yet another gift, and showed me this picture on their cell phone:
Ok, it is a Horse. I see that.
But wait, I figured it was some kind of joke, maybe a tokenized crypto horse? Maybe in a figurative way?
NO, A Horse. A real Horse.
Silence. Tears. Hugs. I was so honored. I understood what that means. It’s their ultimate gift, now I owned a horse in Mongolia, I am a bit more like them.
I ask again, just make sure. Yes, my horse is with the herder being taken care of. I can go and take him if I want, or just go see him, ride him, otherwise, he is there, living his happy horse life in the wild.
To be very honest, I never wanted to own a horse, because I feel bad for them, confined in these small stables we are used in the West. But my Mongolian horse is free as a bird, roaming around the steppes I had just learned to appreciate, living a happy, free horse life. Yet he was my horse. My first ever horse. I realized the satisfaction of owning such a beautiful animal in their freest form. Now I finally understand why all Mongolians like horses so much and, despite eventual difficulties, always own them.
I understand them. I can feel it. I own a horse.
I went back into the Fat Cat and started telling strangers randomly: “I own a horse!”, like a little kid on the morning of any December 25th. The night went on to be the best, with such good energy and a heart full of emotions, like I had found a new, second family in this new, odd place I had found almost by chance.
I own a Horse… I own a horse… (Still trying to grasp)
Now I need your help to name it. Although Mongolians don’t name animals, as a foreigner, I get this privilege. And it better be good, I am up against the people who named Irbis, Irbis.
Maybe Genghis Khan liked his horses so much, he decided to ride them 1/3 of the way around the globe, conquering every people along the way. It seems like he did it just because he could.