My guest for Ep215 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Ben Dunphy.

Ben is the Co-Founder and Partner of January Capital, a VC fund that invests in early stage high growth startups in the Asia Pacific region. They also run an $85M growth credit fund, offering scale-stage companies access to non-dilutive capital.

I first had Ben on the show back in October 2016 and nearly a decade later, we revisit the journey and dive into:

•  What’s changed and what hasn’t in early stage investing
• How January Capital is bridging the gap between equity and debt-based financing in an innovative model
• The opportunities in Southeast Asia
• And much more!

Timestamps:

• 00:01:17 Ben’s background: Australia-born, now leading January Capital in Singapore
• 00:03:16 What’s remained constant vs. what’s changed in nine years of APAC venture
• 00:05:26 Proving billion-dollar outcomes outside Silicon Valley and the AI paradigm shift
• 00:09:03 Founding January Capital: spotting gaps and launching with three partners
• 00:12:41 Why (and when) startups should diversify into credit alongside equity
• 00:19:21 Misconceptions about “one big Southeast Asia market” and the B2B focus
• 00:24:07 January’s data-driven deal-sourcing engine and composite talent scoring
• 00:27:53 Signals of exceptional founders
• 00:31:00 Advice on timing investor outreach and the benefits of month-long rapport-building
• 00:39:04 Case study: William Li’s whiteboard pitch for Akulaku and the power of clarity

Our partners:

Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show:

Scendar 

Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com

Vanta

Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.
Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.
The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount.

Links mentioned:

• The Komo Club: The world’s first human accelerator

Ben’s links:

• Ben on LinkedIn
• January Capital

People mentioned:

• Jonathan Hodson
• Jason Edwards
• William Li

Companies mentioned:

• Akulaku
• ShopBack
• TikTok
• Blue Sky Venture Capital

Feedback/connect/say hello:

• Rohit@startupplaybook.co
• @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)
• /rohbhargava (LinkedIn)
• @rohit_bhargava (Instagram)
• My Youtube Channel

Credits:

Music: Paycheck

Other channels:

Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here

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