Scrum Ventures and Why I Decided to Join
(Disclaimer: This post was originally published as part of a different publication in 2019, which has since been deleted)
We tend to get super excited and guilty of feeling we working for the best company in the world. I’m no different. But, I’ll refrain from using hyperboles and instead highlight just three things that made me want to join Scrum Ventures.
But before I get to that, let me tell you a little more about Scrum and its origin. Scrum Ventures is a San Francisco-based sector agnostic VC firm investing in technologies (startups) that build the ‘future of smart society’. What do I mean by smart society? Well, it’s any technology that aids in the development of cities and advances the quality of human life, or as defined by HBR:
Smart society is defined as one where technology, thoughtfully deployed by startups, agencies and governments, can improve on three broad outcomes: the well-being of citizens, the strength of the economy, and the effectiveness of institutions –– Harvard Business Review
Scrum Ventures was founded in 2013 by Tak Miyata, a Japanese serial entrepreneur, who exited two startups –– the first (Neven Vision) was acquired in 2006 by Google and the other (J-Magic) was acquired in 2009 by Mixi, a Japanese social network platform. The name ‘Scrum’ was selected out of those shortlisted for two reasons:
- Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, two Japanese technologists introduced the term scrum in the context of product development in their 1986 Harvard Business Review article, ‘The New New Product Development Game’. Takeuchi and Nonaka later argued in The Knowledge Creating Company that it is a form of ‘organizational’ knowledge creation, especially good at bringing about innovation continuously, incrementally and spirally’. This concept is at the very heart of the culture and how things work at Scrum Ventures.
- ‘Scrum’ is also a Rugby terminology that brings together people to restart play. Rugby also happens to be Tak’s favorite sport. Seemed liked a perfect match. Pun-intended.
Now that we have that little bit of introduction and context to the firm, let’s get to the part where I tell you why I joined.
1. THE STRUCTURE
At Scrum, we have two business models:
a) the investments, where we fund tech-startups
b) Corporate ‘Consulting’ model, also known as Scrum Studio.
Let me address what they both are. On the investments side, we write seed ($350–500K) and series A (upto $1M) checks to tech startups (mostly based in the US or Japan). But so do most early-stage and even some later-stage VC firms. What really makes Scrum different and motivated to join them is two things:
i) All the LPs in the fund are (large) Japanese corporations.
What this basically means is that outside of capital, Scrum is able to leverage its LP network to support biz-dev and help visualize and execute the GTM strategy for its portfolio startups. And we’ve done really well in the past as well. Read about Zippin and how Scrum was able to help them launch in Japan with Lawson, a leading convenience chain with over 14,000 stores
ii) Cross-border business expertise.
Between the 3 partners and the CFO, they have either launched/run Japanese businesses in the US or helped US businesses launch in Japan. That coupled with a strong LP network really makes Scrum unique and presents us the opportunity to work with startups who are building products for the global markets from day 1.
Now why does this appeal to me? I’m able to leverage my experience as an entrepreneur in India and knowledge of investing and bring it to both teams –– Investments and studio, here at Scrum. The structure really played well to my strengths and I strongly believed I could add solid value, while continuing to learn how cross-border investments and corporate consulting work.
(Note: This section of the blog was updated as of Feb 2020)
2. THE TEAM
I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to work with Michael Proman, Managing Director at Scrum Ventures and also my direct report. (Don’t worry, I’m not sucking up to my boss. This blog isn’t going to be shared on LinkedIn). What really stood out to me about him was that he interviewed me on Christmas eve and spent 2 hours speaking to me, getting to know me and sharing more about this role. Here was someone who was passionate about what he doing and when we met in-person the following week, his leadership style really impressed me. He was the kind of manager you wanted to be. Every person I met on the team came across the same way and that made me want to work here. (Update: It’s been over a year and half now that I’ve been here and I can’t stress this enough –– the team is what really makes me stick around and motivates me to push myself to the limits. They’re all great people coming from diverse backgrounds, who are providing me with nothing but great professional education. It’s cheaper form of an MBA!)
3. SILICON VALLEY
Growing up, my favorite book was ‘Steve Jobs iCon: The Greatest Second in the History of Business’. I probably would have read it at least 50 times! At one point I knew the first 4 pages by heart and even used it as a key source for my class X high school social science seminar speech (I came in second place!) Given that the late Steve Jobs and Apple were/are based in the Bay Area, and the fact that I’ve always wanted to work in New York, London, LA and the Valley, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity being half way there on my wishlist (moved from NYC to SF). And with time, the hype surrounding the Valley kept increasing, much like the valuations of the startups here, and I wanted be at the intersection of technology and investments, and what better place than the “birth place” of both of those.
For someone who likes new challenges and experiences, San Francisco was another opportunity to continue that tradition. Venture capital is by no means an easy profession, but I’ve always wanted to see how this business works. Someday I know I’ll be a fund manager and this experience is priceless. It is as my favorite TV-character, Michael Scott, would say –– a win-win-win situation.
Besides, the weather is a huge plus! ;)
Please leave your thoughts and comments below or share them via email (akash@scrum.vc). If you’d like to connect and talk, let’s do it. Reach me via — LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram
About: Akash Bhat is an Investor at Scrum Ventures, an SF-based generalist VC firm investing in Seed and Series A startups. He is a former entrepreneur himself having run businesses (successfully & unsuccessfully) in India and been employee #4 and #5 at two startups in the US. Akash has Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering from PES University and holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University. He is also the host of ‘The Desi VC’, a podcast series where he interviews angel investors and venture capitalists investing in tech startups in India.
