Asia Startup Pulse

How VCs do due diligence: metrics and team with Carman Chan, Founder & Managing Partner of Click Ventures

Episode Summary

Entrepreneurs looking for funding can not escape from the due diligence from investors. In order to have more founders to understand the process of investment due diligence, we are introducing a new and special series, where we talk with investors about due diligence. Recording from Money 20/20 China in Hangzhou, Oscar Ramos talked with Carman Chan, Founder and Managing Partner of Click Ventures who successfully invested in Spotify, Meetup and many tech companies. 
 In this episode, Chan shared insights on how they evaluate traction, team, product, as well as what founders should have prepared for investors, the proper plan for companies to work on and lastly the differences in Asia versus the West regarding due diligence.

Episode Notes

Entrepreneurs looking for funding can not escape from the due diligence from investors. In order to have more founders to understand the process of investment due diligence, we are introducing a new and special series, where we talk with investors about due diligence.

Recording from Money 20/20 China in Hangzhou, Oscar Ramos talked with Carman Chan, Founder and Managing Partner of Click Ventures who successfully invested in Spotify, Meetup and many tech companies. 


In this episode, Chan shared insights on how they evaluate traction, team, product as well as what founders should have prepared for investors, the proper plan for companies to work on and lastly the differences in Asia versus the West regarding due diligence.

Show Notes:

1:32 Carman Chan’s strong background in data and mathematics

2:08 Introducing Click Ventures, investment thesis and projects

3:38 Due Diligence process

4:25 Importance of company metrics

6:36 Best tools to measure traction

8:30 Red flags Carman met in the process

10:30 Due Diligence in product

12:47 Product roadmap

13:20 Importance of the founding team

14:04 Missing team members

15:07 Team related problems in Due Diligence

15:55 Other parts Carman evaluates including advisors, founder vesting plan, etc

17:22 Relationship with co-investors in Due Diligence

18:25 Differences in Asian Companies compared to those from other countries

22:11 Contact Information and Signing Off