Wesley Chan’s Approach to Spotting the Next Unicorn: Key Insights for Startup Founders

Investor Wesley Chan has a keen eye for identifying startups poised for success, having backed unicorns like Plaid, Gusto, Flexport, and Canva at early stages. Known for his unconventional path to venture capital, Chan grew up in an immigrant family, initially struggling in school. However, a chance opportunity at Caltech, where he worked in a lab, helped him gain the support he needed to attend MIT. He majored in computer science and later joined Google during the early 2000s, where he contributed to projects like Google Analytics. Eventually, Chan joined Google’s venture arm, now GV, and later co-founded FPV Ventures with Pegah Ebrahimi.

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, Chan emphasized the role of timing and luck in entrepreneurial success. “Luck matters a lot,” Chan shared, “but the best founders have a sharp sense of why timing matters.” This lesson mirrors the founding of Google, which emerged just as other search engines focused on keeping users on-site for ad revenue, while Google’s model prioritized quick, accurate search results.

Chan looks for founders with strong conviction that they’re solving an urgent, unique problem, and a focus on product over growth hacking. Many startups fail by burning through cash to “buy growth,” leaving no lasting customer loyalty or product value. Chan shared, “When you spend all your funding in 18 months on marketing without a compelling product, it’s tough to retain users, let alone grow.

Interestingly, Chan finds new founders through word-of-mouth from his network, rather than through cold pitches or events. He values recommendations from other founders who recognize exceptional products they’re using themselves. “The best founders come to us through our network. They build something we notice, or our founders notice,” Chan noted. “They say, ‘You have to meet this person; their product is incredible.