VC Corner Q&A: Ha Nguyen of Spero Ventures
By: The Startup Grind Team
Tags: Vc Corner, VC, Startup Lessons, Venture Capital, Startup

Ha Nguyen is a Founding Partner at Spero Ventures. Spero is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in the things that make life worth living, specifically: well-being, work & purpose and human connection. In addition to investing, Ha leads the firm’s marketing/network efforts and is a thought partner to founding teams, helping them incorporate design-thinking and user empathy into product development and corporate strategy.

A former refugee from Vietnam, Ha is passionate about supporting underrepresented founders and building vibrant, diverse communities, including leadership roles at AllRaise, Product Leader Summit and Women in Product. Before joining Spero, Ha led product and growth at multiple startups, including Stella & Dot, Betfair, Keaton Row and Oodle. She was one of the early product managers during eBay’s hypergrowth years. Ha holds an MBA from Harvard and a BS in Economics & Business from The Wharton School.

— What’s your Spero Venture’s mission?

Spero Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the things that make life worth living. We partner with entrepreneurs solving problems in three areas: well-being, work & purpose and human connection. We invest in technology companies that are driven to deliver value to both shareholders and society, including: Clarity, Mati, Core, Droneseed, Gencove, Roam Robotics and Skillshare. We are high-conviction investors and we help companies scale to billions of customers. Our LP and partners are founders and early execs at eBay and Tesla.

— What was your very first investment? And what struck you about them?

My first investment at Spero Ventures was in Huckleberry. Huckleberry aims to be the source of family well-being. Their first product improves children’s sleep, considered to be the top challenge for new parents, by combining AI with human experts to determine the most personalized, effective steps for each individual family, without the price tag of an expensive consultation.

Prior to being an investor, I led product at early and mid-stage startups for 16 years. What I look for in doing any investment are teams that have founder-market fit, a deep understanding of the problem they are trying to solve, an innovative solution to solving the problem through tech, and strong product love. Huckleberry checked off all those things and more. Moreover, Jessica Toh is the type of founder we love to back at Spero: mission-aligned, intelligent, determined and humble.

— What’s one thing you’re excited about right now?

Founders who are building product-led communities where the community layer makes the existing product/service experience 10x better. We wrote about our thesis here.

— Who is one founder we should watch?

How can I pick just one? Here are two in Spero’s portfolio:

Filip Victor from Mati & Sarah McDevitt from Core.

— What are the 3 top qualities of every great leader?

Ability to inspire

Ability to lead

Ability to communicate

— What’s one question you ask yourself before investing in a company?

There’re probably a few: Is the founder solving a real pain point for their target customer? Is the solution better than anything else that is out there today? Do customers love it and are they telling their friends about it?

— What’s one thing every founder should ask themselves before walking into a meeting with a potential investor?

Is this an investor who is the right fit based on their investment criteria (sector or investment thesis, stage, geography, check size)? And would I be excited to have this VC as a partner along my journey for the next 5–10 years?

— What do you think should be in a CEO’s top 3 company priorities?

Strategy & setting goals/milestones

Hiring

Making sure the company is well-capitalized

— Favorite business book, blog or podcast?

Right now, I’m enjoying listening to the “All In” podcast with Jason Calacanis & Chamath Palihapitiya.

— Who is one leader you admire?

Meg Whitman. She has always been an exceptional leader who has built and scaled successful companies and led challenging turnarounds. She is a force of nature.

— What’s one interesting thing most people won’t know about you?

I made it to the final table of a World Poker Tour (WPT) tournament and played against Daniel Negreanu, Kid Poker.

— What’s one piece of advice you’d give every founder?

You need to believe in yourself beyond reason. I wrote a post about it here.