Another venture capitalist is leaving their home for a new challenge. Kyle Lui left DCM after nearly eight years to become the second general partner at Bling Capital.
DCM has a long history. It is one of the first Sand Hill Road venture funds to establish a major presence in Asia. Since 1996, it has grown to over $4 billion under management and invested in more than 400 technology companies.
Lui was involved in several U.S. investments, including DocSend, Wrike and Lime, as well as companies that are now public, like Hims and Hers.
Lui is the latest high-profile fund manager to make a move. They are leaving older firms to start their own firms or join newer firms. The last person we saw start her own fund was Katie Haun. She raised over a billion dollars for two funds. The partner at Felicis left to start a fund with a former Morgan Stanley technology banker.
He pointed out that there were less-tenured partners leaving established firms for more senior roles. Sarah Cannon left Index to join Coatue, as well as General Catalyst for a16z's Katherine Boyle and Coatue's Arielle Zuckerberg.
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Lui will be able to work with Ben Ling at a three-and-a-half-year-old firm, giving him more of an ability.
Lui and Ling have known each other for more than a decade, since Ling invested in Lui's company ChoicePass. ChoicePass became part of Work.com.
Lui said it was an ability to work with founders at the earliest stages. It is important for firms like his to stand out and show what makes it special. I saw that with Bling Capital's portfolio, which was a strong operation focused fund that forced companies to find product market fit.
According to Ling, he wasn't initially looking for another general partner. He made the choice to be a solo GP because he wanted to be able to make quicker investment decisions.
The solo route has worked out well for Bling, which now boasts 18 unicorns in its portfolio of investments.
Ling told his limited partners that he was going to stay solo, but as he raised the second and third funds, they began asking him if he was going to bring someone in. If he could find the right partner, Ling would reply that he already had three principals. He says he did with Lui.
Ling said it was a good opportunity to bring him on because they complement each other in skill set and network. Our portfolio companies are connected to companies within the network coverage. It gives us more time for him to focus on some investments and I to focus on others, which will give us the ability to scale.
Ling said that it was a nice combo of networks, Lui, DCM, and HBS.
Ling confirmed that the fund focus was not changing and that it would still be looking at consumer, marketing, fintech, SaaS and consumer health.
The 100 people on the Product Council are all invested, and the portfolio CEO has access to them.
Lui said that two general partners with a background in product and operations is rare. The reputation of working hard for founders and pushing them to succeed was combined with that.
Both Lui and Ling have been great partners to the company of which Moawia Eldeeb is the CEO. Ling participated in subsequent rounds as part of the opportunities fund after he led the seed round in Tempo. Ling introduced Lui to Eldeeb, which led to DCM leading the Series A round.
It will be interesting to have them working together. Kyle knew everything about the company and the industry. Kyle is different from investors who just sit at a 100 foot high level and want to give advice. It is quite the process for Ben to build up first-time founders to be CEO. He helped me through the process and was helpful in raising money. It is going to be the hardest-working firm with both of them in it.
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