My 6 Month Journey as an H2 Ventures Intern
When I saw the Facebook notice from Inside Sherpa that H2 Ventures was hiring 2 interns, I wasn’t sure if I would be the right fit. I imagined days filled with finance, spreadsheets and calculating valuations day in day out.
I wasn’t sure because, in my mind, my personality was the opposite of that. In high school I was bottom 5 in maths and I was far more interested in creative arts and writing than numbers. I never even studied finance at university. However, having watched some close friends as well as mentors I admire successfully go through the H2 Accelerator program to launch their own startups, I was curious.
I wanted to understand how the H2 team made their decisions when picking the accelerator cohort, to see what it was like being on the other side of the investment table. I was curious to see how, in a 6 month period, a team with the bare bones of an idea can go on to create a usable product, raise money or create a loyal community of customers. Additionally, how these tech companies pivot, execute and reiterate their ideas.
At the beginning of 2018, I joined the H2 team. Here’s what I’ve learnt about them during these 6 months:
The team running H2 are all superstars.
There may only be 4 people running the whole show but it proved to me that quality beats quantity. I was mesmerised watching how seamlessly efficient and effective the team worked together.
Ben and Toby Heap, the Managing Directors of H2, have a complementary blend of skills in corporate finance, entrepreneurship, tech, policy and academia. They are the backbone of H2. They are constantly in and out of the office, taking meetings, making sure everything runs smoothly. Even though they are so busy, they still manage to pay close attention to all the startups and make themselves available if anyone needs them.
Aurora Voss & Melissa Hurwitz, H2’s Program Manager and Community Manager, are bundles of endless energy and charisma. They are constantly kept on their toes — they keep tabs on all the teams in the cohort and track their progress. They juggle multiple projects such as the H2 Institute, finding mentors, creating pitch decks, organising masterclasses all while shedding gems of wisdom to the interns and the startups.
The culture of the accelerator is all about the people.
I was amazed to see that the startups at H2 weren’t just a number or valuation. At such an early stage, these numbers are impossible to guess so more often than not, the emphasis wasn’t on idea or traction.
Instead, the focus is on people. They highly valued each and every founder as well as the team dynamic. They are scrupulous in seeing how the startups dealt with problems and solved issues. They foster an environment where startups can willingly help each other and bounce ideas around, drawing on other people’s strengths whilst helping with any weaknesses.
Added to the mix is the time factor, H2’s accelerator is 6 months rather than the usual 3 months. In this way, H2 has a longer period of time to help startups through their infancy stages, upskill teams and get them in front of the right people, so they are at a stage where they can grow their customer base and/or raise funds. They are also unique in their investment thesis. Though industry agnostic, they focus only on startups in Fintech, data and AI. Not only this, startups love being around like-minded people with diverse skill sets and complementary areas of interest.
They have the right connections.
Another big part of success at H2 can be accredited to the wealth of networks and connections they can draw upon. Every week, H2 would organise mentors (founders or investors) for practice pitch sessions to listen and provide constructive feedback to the startups, as well as pit stop demo days to track their progress. These are crazy busy mentors and crazy busy investors, who carve out valuable time to attend these sessions, and dedicate entire days to see the final product at H2’s Final Demo Day (get tickets to our H2 Expo Day here!).
Even while helping Toby prepare for his big Churchill Innovation trip (he is writing a series of innovation white papers about the startup ecosystem in 8 different cities around Asia and Europe) I was floored by the number of global connections and breadth of knowledge he could casually draw upon to meet and engage with.
They have built their credibility.
Whilst the H2 team have a fantastic track record, supported by the value provided by mentors throughout the accelerator program, they have also built credibility with their research. Part of the internship with fellow intern Audrey Thehamihardja was compiling and researching for H2’s annual Fintech100 report in collaboration with KPMG. This has helped me broaden my own horizon in discovering the variety of amazing work fintech startups are achieving globally. We’ve also been a part of the process in helping scope out emerging startups that are disrupting or enabling the finance industry. (2018 Fintech100 will be released in August!)
All in all, during these 6 months, I’ve learnt so much about the startup industry from a vastly different standpoint. I’ve met, connected and become friends with many talented people, have been to plenty of insightful events and not to mention, downed a lot of free drinks. Also big shout out to Audrey for being the best intern buddy I could’ve ask for. I’ve gained invaluable skills and experiences that I wouldn’t have been able to gain anywhere else.
