Sunday Times December 6, 2015

Sunday Business

[Uni]Corner Office, Page 2

Interview with Cowboy Ventures founder Aileen Lee

The venture capitalist who coined the term “Unicorn” turns out to be a better egg than you may have assumed.

1-to-5 scale:

• This-is-my-life: 3
• Inspirational: 4
• Global Awareness: 2
• Useful: 2 (unless you are preparing for a meeting with Aileen, in which case 5)

For some reason I almost always like Corner Office, despite the softball approach the Times takes. Aileen Lee comes across as extremely likable in the Q&A. She’s got a great background story — her parents immigrated from China, her father went to medical school while still learning English, she was an entrepreneurial kid, went to MIT and was initially overwhelmed — and she is a fan of riding bikes.

The best part of the interview was this quote, about what she looks for in company founders she’s considering backing:

“You have to get under the hood and spend some quality time with someone to understand what they’re really good at. If you don’t, then you’re only going to back extrovert, Type A people who are really good at selling. And it’s not clear that that’s a requirement for building a great company. You could be a creative genius or a product genius, or you might have an insight into a market that is really special but you’re not that good at explaining it.”

Here’s the whole thing. Also has a video.