Kevin Yu

Hi. Hello. Today we are talking with... Hello, guys. I'm Kevin from Llama Ventures, and I do investments. So, Kevin, tell us a little bit about yourself. So, I'm Kevin, and I'm currently working at Llama Ventures. And at Llama Ventures, we source deals, we invest in cool AI startups from pre-seed up to Series B. And personally, I have a cross-cultural background. I grew up in China and attended college, my undergrad, at Tsinghua University, and got my master's degree in Johns Hopkins University. So, why you become an investor? And what makes you want to become an investor? That's actually a very interesting question, because at first, I didn't really expect that something, like being like an investor, it's not definitely not something I knew from day one. And it's just originated from one thought at first. Always curious about people and how people decide and why those cool opportunities appear before it becomes like a decacorn or maybe like a unicorn. So, being an investor, VC lets me understand how founders see the world before they become popular. So, from your personality, you prefer those people who are not yet famous, but you think they will be famous. Yes. So, you don't want to be the ordinary people who just admire Elon Musk. You want to find the next Elon Musk. Yes, I would say that would be my goal. Okay. So, what attracts you most? So, you have been doing venture capital for two years. And what do you think? What attracts you most? What kind of founders leave you the most impression? Okay. Definitely the founder himself or herself. I don't really care about the deck. It's more about the aura, the vibe the founder presents. So, first of all, I would say I like those founders who can teach me something. For instance, let's say because I came from a finance background and obviously, I'm not an expert in biochemical or maybe biology field. For some of the founders who I appreciate the most is they will teach me as a kindergarten kid and walk me through and explain their idea to me as if I knew nothing about their area. And that's the founder that I like the most. So, you want to see the insights from the industry. That's basically what you want. Not only the insights, but also how the founder thinks about the world, how the founder sees the future. So, for example, which one person left you the most impression? What's the idea? So, I met a founder. He was doing something cybersecurity related like a couple of months ago. And I have no idea what he was doing at because he basically created that field by himself. So, yeah, he walked me through what he was doing. And one of the things that I liked the most about that founder is he's definitely like a, how do you put it in a nice way, he's definitely like a freak or maybe like a geek. He loved what he was doing. He enjoyed what he was building. And I asked him about what are your thoughts of doing this startup? And he was like, I'm just fully locked in. And one fun fact is that to make the startup happen, he said that he wears a loop and the stress level is always like 20.0 all day because he was just like very, he was outputting himself so much that he even can't barely sleep and retain a very high strength level. Okay. So, you want to check the loop before you're investing in them. Definitely. I would say that would be a good indicator, right? Because that shows that you're putting a lot of effort, or maybe you are draining yourself a lot in what you're building. And that's like a very good signal that as an investor. Okay, then I'm done. I think my stress level already is very low. It's okay. It's okay. Because sometimes some people do forget to put on their loop. But that's not only the qualification. Okay, I wear my loop, but I don't know. I have a low stress level. Maybe the loop is wrong. Yeah, or maybe it's just like you have some good mental stability. Because sometimes people who exhaust them, there's just like pros and cons of having a high strength, right? The pros is probably that you're locked in 100%. But the cons might be you might burn out yourself too fast. So, got to find the balance. So, what if I don't have a loop? Will you invest in me? Yeah, definitely. Just because personally, I'm a huge fan of wearables and I love wear loop. So, I use it as a way to quantify how people handle with their stress. And what's this? This is also a product that I have been testing out recently. It's called VociRing produced by Gadgets Lab. So, what they do is they are a hardware company, AI hardware company. And what they essentially do is they are a ring version of Plot. They help you record things. So, this is an AI recording ring. Okay, so you have a lot of Apple Watch. Yeah, I have Apple Watch, the VociRing, and also a loop. So, definitely find me if you're doing something like AI wearables. Okay, you like that. So, what else? What else do you like? In terms of other than that, I would say anything AI related. Because AI is something that arrived, that does not even exist before AI, right? So, with Agent, there's definitely a lot of things where people can do and what people can build on top of Agent. And that's why one of the reasons that I've been chatting with Walter a lot. Because we both believe in Agent native or maybe Agent to Agent network. So, can you show us the... Let's show it again. You mean the ring? The ring, the loop, the Orby, the watch. And the watch. So, okay, you still have eight fingers to wear something. Yeah, so definitely. Some people say the AI wearables market is crowded and once you've got one product, the users won't wear the other. But I mean, you can still consider extreme cases like me. I mean, people have like 10 fingers, right? So, potentially, there's like more than 10 products. And you have ear. Yeah, we have ear. And also, you can have necklace. You can have bracelets. There's just definitely tons of more formats for AI wearables. And the market is still like impossible. Oh, so that's like the vision. There's like the Apple's vision pro, right? Yeah. Okay, so now I'm definitely like a very... How do I delegate? Wearable geek right now. Okay, I like this part. Okay, wearables. Wearables. Let's see. Okay, oof, wearables. So, what about we talk more about yourself? You were born in China and become US resident when you were 12. And you studied in Tsinghua University because where all of my... I also graduated from there. So, it's a top university in China. And the class you were in was also top of the top. And then you went to Johns Hopkins. So, what were you studying in Johns Hopkins? I studied finance in Johns Hopkins. So, definitely a very finance background because I also did study economics and finance back in Tsinghua University. And also, one fun fact is that Walter, he's also from Tsinghua. So, we are like alumni. And your family is doing investment. Yes. So, by answering one of the questions before why I would love to be an investor, there might be also a huge part on my family because my father, he also used to work in the Chinese investor ecosystem. And that's what actually stemmed my own interest. So, is there anything that's more specific, makes you want to be an investor rather than the family's influence or what you were studying? Anything more specific? Definitely more about the people because as an early-stage investor... Something very detailed. Is there a moment you're thinking about, okay, I should be an investor? That's actually a very good question. I would say there's not an aha moment. The aha moment for me is when I was doing my internship before at my previous firm and then I met a founder and the vision, the future he shaped to me is just like a complete new world to me. And I just realized that there's this bunch of people who live in San Francisco, literally just miles away and we live on the same earth, but they are thinking about something completely different than people who live on the other side of the world or maybe even just live in the next town. And I was like, I have to learn. I have to be part of the more elite, try to blend in that ecosystem where everyone has such a great vision. So it's a feeling of someone see the future. Yes. And I mean, like very hard to resist the, I mean, the lure, right? Because when you see someone's shape in the future, see how people is building the future, it's just like very hard to tell yourself back to get yourself back to those like very conventional market to do those like very conventional things because here's the thing, like everyone is talking AI as like a technological revolution in the new century. And I do believe that is the trend right now. And if you see the trend and you have the opportunity to get into the trend, why would you just sit aside and watch things from happening and don't be part of it? Okay. So it's a call from how to change the world and make future reality. That's a call in your heart bring you to the VC industry and that you want to meet more people who are ambitious, visionary, and try to connect them with other resources, people. What about people? So apart from money, you're working for a firm. What else? I feel like we have already known each other for a few months. So both of us are introverts. And