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Lessons from Investing in 700+ Startups | Goodwater Capital, Eric Kim

EO17:53Added Aug 31, 2026

Today's story is about Eric Kim from Goodwater Capital. Goodwater has made over 700 investments across 50 countries. Over the span of 9 years, they have backed more than 10 companies that surpassed $1 billion in valuation and secured over $3.3 billion in capital commitments. In this video, Eric shares insights into the billion-dollar investments he made early on and discusses the lessons he learned through his investment journey.

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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Transcript format

  1. Intro

  2. 00:00I think there is no one siiz fits all
  3. 00:03for an exceptional entrepreneur one of
  4. 00:05the key characteristics though that I
  5. 00:08often see in great Founders is they have
  6. 00:11this really strong sense of always doing
  7. 00:14what's best for the company in many ways
  8. 00:16can be sa self-sacrificial that they
  9. 00:18always put the company first and the
  10. 00:20mission first if you want to be famous
  11. 00:22this is not the place for you being
  12. 00:24famous versus being paid a lot versus
  13. 00:26being having an easy lifestyle all of
  14. 00:29which is not true
  15. 00:30hi my name is Eric Kim I'm the
  16. 00:32co-founder and managing partner of
  17. 00:34goodwater capital goodwater capital is a
  18. 00:36global Venture Capital firm that we
  19. 00:37founded in 2014 we're entirely focused
  20. 00:40on consumer Tech investing so today
  21. 00:42goodwater Capital has grown to over $3.3
  22. 00:45billion in committed Capital we're in
  23. 00:47close to over 50 countries at this point
  24. 00:49through our Genesis portfolio which is
  25. 00:51over 700 seed portfolio companies and in
  26. 00:53our core portfolio companies that's for
  27. 00:55our early stage fund and our growth
  28. 00:56stage fund that's about 80 companies at
  29. 00:58this point in about 20 countries our
  30. 01:00thesis is that consumer technology is
  31. 01:02changing the world and there's an
  32. 01:04opportunity to use the internet and
  33. 01:05digital technology for good our mission
  34. 01:08is to empower exceptional entrepreneurs
  35. 01:09everywhere change the world for
  36. 01:12[Music]

  37. Chapter 1. The Story of a Korean Dream in America

  38. 01:17good I'm so thankful to my parents my
  39. 01:20mother and father lived through the
  40. 01:22Korean War they came to the United
  41. 01:24States to seek a better life uh with one
  42. 01:27suitcase uh with the little money they
  43. 01:29had uh in their pockets uh but what they
  44. 01:32did have was an education that they were
  45. 01:33both trained as medical doctors at that
  46. 01:36time the United States had a severe
  47. 01:37shortage shortage of medical doctors and
  48. 01:40they were inviting overseas doctors to
  49. 01:42come even if they didn't speak English
  50. 01:44very well I think in my school we were
  51. 01:46the only Koreans and I remember
  52. 01:48distinctly one day my father calling me
  53. 01:51in to his room to his bedroom I was 12
  54. 01:53years old old at the time that's the
  55. 01:55same age my as my oldest son at this
  56. 01:57point and my father just sat me and said
  57. 02:00hey Eric I need to have a talk with you
  58. 02:02at that time my father with these
  59. 02:05intense tears in his eyes told me Eric
  60. 02:08you're growing up now you're 12 years
  61. 02:10old you're about to become a teenager
  62. 02:13and life is going to be hard because
  63. 02:15you're an Asian American because you're
  64. 02:16Korean because of the color of your hair
  65. 02:19the color of your eyes the shape of your
  66. 02:20eyes the color of your skin life is
  67. 02:23going to be difficult you will
  68. 02:24immediately be discounted and I think
  69. 02:26part of this was my father's own
  70. 02:28experience in the workplace facing
  71. 02:30racism uh there or uh maybe some bias as
  72. 02:34well but he understood that for me as an
  73. 02:36Asian-American that it was important for
  74. 02:38me to understand that because of that
  75. 02:41discount he instilled into me that we
  76. 02:44really needed to be 12% 150% better so
  77. 02:48to speak to uh really compare with our
  78. 02:51our peers who didn't have this Asian
  79. 02:54face or this background or so and that
  80. 02:56really had a tremendous impact on my
  81. 02:58life in many ways I felt a sense of
  82. 03:01urgency that I had to perform that I had
  83. 03:03to just be better in many ways that was
  84. 03:06a really important lesson I think as
  85. 03:08I've grown up and as I've matured I
  86. 03:10realized that in many ways yes that bias
  87. 03:12exists and yes the Prejudice exists and
  88. 03:16and racism exists and yes education hard
  89. 03:19work all those elements were keys for me
  90. 03:21to be hopefully successful in life over
  91. 03:24time what I've realized as well is that
  92. 03:26I also need to embrace and not always
  93. 03:29just perform for the sake of trying to
  94. 03:31be better itself what if humility was a
  95. 03:34superpower what if as myself I could
  96. 03:37Embrace that and not be afraid of that
  97. 03:39that's something I'm really interested
  98. 03:41and excited about going forward
  99. 03:43too as an undergrad I had the
  100. 03:46opportunity when I was at Yale to also
  101. 03:48intern at McKenzie and Company during
  102. 03:50the summer so in 2002 I I graduated from
  103. 03:54undergrad and I was expected to start at
  104. 03:56McKenzie right away I eventually I went
  105. 03:58back to McKenzie and spent time there
  106. 04:00for 2 years as a business analyst and
  107. 04:02consultant I learned a lot I did a lot
  108. 04:04of global projects I spent over 6 months
  109. 04:06in China I spent time in Southeast Asia
  110. 04:09as well spent time all over Europe and
  111. 04:11so that really helped provide a Global
  112. 04:13Perspective which is something you see
  113. 04:14in goodw today as well then went to
  114. 04:16Stanford University in 2005 and that's
  115. 04:19where I met my co-founder chihua Chen
  116. 04:21who was class of 2006 so we overlapped
  117. 04:23for a year so in 2007 I had the
  118. 04:25opportunity to join Maverick Capital
  119. 04:27they were starting to build out their
  120. 04:28private investing practice and so myself
  121. 04:31and a gentleman named David singer we we
  122. 04:33work very closely together from 2007 to
  123. 04:362014 and during that time we invested
  124. 04:38all over the world and uh from early
  125. 04:40stage to late stage we were part of the
  126. 04:42YC y commentator Venture Capital
  127. 04:45Syndicate so we invested in every single
  128. 04:46y commentator company to really late
  129. 04:48stage companies as well pre-ipo
  130. 04:50companies too and that really gave me a
  131. 04:52sense of the Art and Science of
  132. 04:54investing and and really to adopt an
  133. 04:56investor mindset
  134. 04:58[Music]
  135. 05:00actually our first deal in Korea was
  136. 05:02coupon it was March of 2011 and then
  137. 05:04soon after that we invested in cacao in
  138. 05:06their series a yeah when we first
  139. 05:07invested in Kong they were the 28th
  140. 05:10social commerce company to launch in
  141. 05:12just South Korea itself we launched a
  142. 05:15survey in South Korea and we asked
  143. 05:17dozens of people asking them to compare
  144. 05:20Ticket Monster we make price coupon
  145. 05:22others your retail experience as well
  146. 05:25and over and over again for specifically
  147. 05:28women in their 20s 30s they loved coupon
  148. 05:31because of their customer service why
  149. 05:33was that so important was because it
  150. 05:35then created loyalty that if you had
  151. 05:37really really strong customer service
  152. 05:39consumers would come back to you because
  153. 05:41they knew that they would be treated
  154. 05:42well and that was a strong philosophy
  155. 05:44that kpong had from the first day was
  156. 05:47how do you wow your end your end
  157. 05:49customer if you are doing something that
  158. 05:51the market generally agrees with that is
  159. 05:53a really hard way to make a profitable
  160. 05:55investment because the the rest of the
  161. 05:57Market's already there you have to have
  162. 05:59some kind of contrarian or
  163. 06:00differentiated insight and usually
  164. 06:02that's through some kind of primary
  165. 06:04research that you've done that no one
  166. 06:06else has done itself and that was a key
  167. 06:08to making that investment back in 2011
  168. 06:11caca is a really interesting story I'm
  169. 06:13I'm very thankful to Han Kim who's a
  170. 06:16very close mentor and friend of mine
  171. 06:18that helped introduce me to the company
  172. 06:19prior to that we had an overall thesis
  173. 06:21about mobile the the power of
  174. 06:23smartphones and this whole transition
  175. 06:26away from desktop to mobile Computing
  176. 06:28and how there opportunity
  177. 06:30for gaming for Commerce for
  178. 06:32communications to happen on mobile and
  179. 06:33we were looking for that killer out what
  180. 06:35prompted me to really become interested
  181. 06:37in caca and and to seek out the company
  182. 06:40was a really close friend of mine
  183. 06:42actually was visiting from South Korea
  184. 06:44at the time that person had a Samsung
  185. 06:46smartphone and I asked her why did you
  186. 06:49buy this Samsung smartphone and she said
  187. 06:51so I could use caca it actually saved
  188. 06:53her money at the time every time you
  189. 06:55sent a text message you were charged per
  190. 06:57text and cacao made that free buying a
  191. 06:59smartphone which was very expensive that
  192. 07:01upfront cost was an investment to save
  193. 07:03money over time because it provided this
  194. 07:06core utility to everyone to be able to
  195. 07:07communicate for free and that was an
  196. 07:09Insight that it really struck me is that
  197. 07:12people were willing to buy 300 400 $500
  198. 07:15smartphones so they could just use caca
  199. 07:18because they were saving money on the
  200. 07:20other end of that that love that
  201. 07:22customer love was something we saw
  202. 07:24tremendous potential in so I remember
  203. 07:26approaching the CEO the founder the
  204. 07:28management team at k C once I got
  205. 07:30introduced I remember flying to South
  206. 07:32Korea and practicing the night before
  207. 07:35presenting in Korean and the next day
  208. 07:38actually when I I visited the the caca
  209. 07:40headquarters and there was only like 20
  210. 07:42people I remember pitching in Korean to
  211. 07:45the to the the team there they w't
  212. 07:48pitching me I made this whole
  213. 07:49presentation about our thesis and the
  214. 07:51research we had done all the consumers
  215. 07:53we had talked to it was in Korean so I'm
  216. 07:55sure it was terrible and it was uh with
  217. 07:57a lot of stuttering they were maybe were
  218. 07:59impressed by that and uh they were
  219. 08:01willing to take our Capital early on but
  220. 08:03we really saw not from the outside in
  221. 08:06but through the consumer voice the love
  222. 08:09for the product I remember at the time
  223. 08:11there's a lot of people who thought that
  224. 08:13investment in caca was crazy maybe even
  225. 08:15some of the early team members weren't
  226. 08:17quite sure about the future but when we
  227. 08:20talk to Consumers when we talk to people
  228. 08:22who actually use the product they loved
  229. 08:24it so so much often times one of the
  230. 08:26things I love to do when I go to cities
  231. 08:29whether it's London or New York I just
  232. 08:31like to hang out in the subway you can
  233. 08:33see what apps they're using just the
  234. 08:34color the icons they're using and when
  235. 08:36you go to Korea a lot more people were
  236. 08:39starting to use this yellow icon cacao
  237. 08:42and then you would talk to them why did
  238. 08:43they use it I can save money I can
  239. 08:45communicate with my friends there's a
  240. 08:47group chat that becomes my community and
  241. 08:49so that was our key Insight is that you
  242. 08:50could scale this and create a powerful
  243. 08:52Network effect that as more people got
  244. 08:55on the platform it would benefit all the
  245. 08:57pre-existing users as well that's it's a
  246. 08:59really powerful phenomenon that
  247. 09:01increases retention that as more people
  248. 09:04get onto the product the product gets
  249. 09:05better how many of those can you name
  250. 09:07there are very very few companies that
  251. 09:09do that and so once we saw that Insight
  252. 09:12we felt a very strong Comm uh conviction
  253. 09:14to invest in the company they were both
  254. 09:16very early stage deals series a for the
  255. 09:18caca and kind of series a plus for kpong
  256. 09:22the returns were massive on kind of a
  257. 09:25venture scale kind of the 100x 300X type

  258. Chapter 2. The Best Strategy for New VC

  259. 09:27scales
  260. 09:31I think most Venture Capital firms in my
  261. 09:34experience do great work but they don't
  262. 09:36necessarily have a strong sense of
  263. 09:38mission and that's what was important to
  264. 09:40us when we started goodw was to have a
  265. 09:42really clear mission statement again to
  266. 09:44empower exal MERS everywhere to change
  267. 09:47the world for good good water had a
  268. 09:49tremendous impact on the Venture Capital
  269. 09:51ecosystem because we changed the mindset
  270. 09:53to go from a Ecentric mindset where you
  271. 09:56have individual venture capitalist being
  272. 09:58celebrated for how much money they made
  273. 10:00shifting that there's nothing wrong with
  274. 10:02that but shifting it more to a mindset
  275. 10:04of how can we as a vendor Capital
  276. 10:06industry have positive impact itself if
  277. 10:09good water many many many years from now
  278. 10:13is known for that capital is a really
  279. 10:15really valuable resource that you have
  280. 10:17to Steward and that's why we're called
  281. 10:19good water we think water is similar to
  282. 10:21technology and capital water is the
  283. 10:23source of life for every living organism
  284. 10:25but the lack of water or too much water
  285. 10:27can lead to destruction it's itself and
  286. 10:29technology and capital is the exact same
  287. 10:31thing that you have to Steward it it can
  288. 10:33be the source for so much positive
  289. 10:35influence in the world but it can also
  290. 10:37be used for not so good things too that
  291. 10:39technology and capital isn't always the
  292. 10:41source of goodness in the world too so
  293. 10:43we want to be the good water in the
  294. 10:45Venture Capital ecosystem we also
  295. 10:47thought that the world didn't need
  296. 10:49another venture capital firm there are
  297. 10:51so many great Venture Capital firms out
  298. 10:53there sequoia Benchmark you know Excel
  299. 10:56Partners there there are so many great
  300. 10:58Venture Capital firms out there the
  301. 10:59world didn't need necessarily another
  302. 11:01venture capital firm but what if you
  303. 11:02could create a venture capital firm that
  304. 11:04was not only Mission oriented but
  305. 11:06focused on consumer internet consumer
  306. 11:08technology itself a lot of venture
  307. 11:10capital firms at the time and still
  308. 11:12today Diversified away from consumer
  309. 11:14Tech they went to Enterprise SAS or
  310. 11:16security or Hardware or climate Tech or
  311. 11:19biotech if you think about the best
  312. 11:21Venture Capital firms where they started
  313. 11:23was by investing in companies like
  314. 11:25Google like Amazon like eBay six out of
  315. 11:28the eight large companies in the world
  316. 11:30are all consumer tech companies like
  317. 11:32Facebook as well not only are there
  318. 11:34great Equity returns there but if you
  319. 11:37own that end cut customer relationship
  320. 11:39then you can create so much Innovation
  321. 11:41that backward integrates all the way
  322. 11:43into the Enterprise as well so we had
  323. 11:45this thesis that consumer technology
  324. 11:48consumer internet was incredibly
  325. 11:49powerful that owning those End customer
  326. 11:52relationships was very powerful that
  327. 11:54would span not just social networking
  328. 11:57not just e-commerce but that span also
  329. 12:00Financial Services Healthcare education
  330. 12:03all these big Industries would be
  331. 12:05increasingly consumerized because you
  332. 12:07could own those End customer
  333. 12:09relationships through digital technology
  334. 12:11that was our big thesis when we started
  335. 12:13the firm in 2014 at goodwi our
  336. 12:15philosophy is that investing is both an
  337. 12:17art and a science and so we leverage our
  338. 12:20technology and our software to get to
  339. 12:21the truth of the science part as quickly
  340. 12:24as possible of our 65 66 person team
  341. 12:27two-thirds of that team are actually
  342. 12:29data scientists product managers and
  343. 12:31engineers and since day one we've been
  344. 12:33building an infrastructure a software
  345. 12:35layer to enable us to look at consumer
  346. 12:38technology companies so we find so much
  347. 12:40value in looking at the data being able
  348. 12:42to have this infrastructure to see
  349. 12:44companies on a global basis we track
  350. 12:46over 10 million companies in real time
  351. 12:49so we have very very accessible reports
  352. 12:53consumer research analytics benchmarks
  353. 12:55that allow us to understand a company we
  354. 12:57think better than any other firm because
  355. 12:59we have so much data around it and we
  356. 13:01know how to apply it so when we see a
  357. 13:03new opportunity to invest in we're very
  358. 13:06quickly able to assess is this company
  359. 13:09Best in Class not only on growth but
  360. 13:11also retention customer love what's
  361. 13:13their differentiation all the hard
  362. 13:15science of investing we've really locked
  363. 13:18into a very strong process and a
  364. 13:20platform itself what's as important and
  365. 13:23it goes with it is the art part and
  366. 13:26that's really understanding the
  367. 13:27entrepreneur understanding that person's
  368. 13:29will and desire to win that person's
  369. 13:32desire to have impact Itself by taking
  370. 13:35all the science and being able to really
  371. 13:38get to truth as quickly as possible then
  372. 13:41you can spend a lot more time on
  373. 13:42spending time with the entrepreneur
  374. 13:44understanding their M motivations
  375. 13:46understanding what their long-term goal
  376. 13:47is their vision for the company so if
  377. 13:49you have seven days in the week in the
  378. 13:50old process it used to take six days in
  379. 13:52the week to do all the science and then
  380. 13:54you have one day to maybe understand the
  381. 13:56soft part or the art we've reversed that
  382. 13:58is that it takes one day to understand
  383. 14:00the science part of it the analytics all
  384. 14:03the components that you can have
  385. 14:04software and our data platform really
  386. 14:07understand very quickly and spend the
  387. 14:09other six days to really understand the
  388. 14:10entrepreneur can we partner with this
  389. 14:12person they have a similar philosophy
  390. 14:15around putting the company first are
  391. 14:17they open to feedback doing reference
  392. 14:19checks deeply those soft elements of
  393. 14:21what makes for a great entrepreneur
  394. 14:22we're able to spend the vast majority of
  395. 14:24time because of this dual approach
  396. 14:26between Art and Science and so that's
  397. 14:28been the harded soul of good water since
  398. 14:30day one and something we continue to
  399. 14:32innovate on

  400. Chapter 3. Eric's Guidance for Aspiring VCs

  401. 14:36too we interview a lot Venture Capital
  402. 14:39Associates VPS principles and partners
  403. 14:42one of our screening criteria if you
  404. 14:44want to be famous this is not the place
  405. 14:47for you the goodw approach is one that
  406. 14:49is obsessed with finding generational
  407. 14:52companies that will have tremendous
  408. 14:53impact one firm that I admire greatly is
  409. 14:55seoa capital and they had this saying
  410. 14:57that they were just one away if they
  411. 14:59just missed one great deal then that
  412. 15:01would lead them to potentially being a
  413. 15:03mediocre firm and so they had this
  414. 15:05obsession with finding great companies
  415. 15:07if that is someone's singular purpose if
  416. 15:10that is their Obsession as well which is
  417. 15:12to find great companies and to invest in
  418. 15:15them that's what we look for in young
  419. 15:16Venture capitals and I think that's what
  420. 15:18young people who are looking to get into
  421. 15:20the Venture Capital should ask
  422. 15:21themselves is this something that I'm
  423. 15:23really obsessed with that I would go the
  424. 15:25ends of the Earth to I will fly over
  425. 15:27200,000 plus miles going back and forth
  426. 15:30to countries to visit entrepreneurs it's
  427. 15:32a really hard lifestyle it's not
  428. 15:34glamorous but you do it because you love
  429. 15:36it that you are obsessed with finding
  430. 15:39that insight about a company that will
  431. 15:41lead to investment that no one else in
  432. 15:44the world might see and if that's
  433. 15:46something that young people really want
  434. 15:48to do and they're willing to put in the
  435. 15:50hard work to have the discipline it's
  436. 15:52like playing a sport you have to be like
  437. 15:54an athlete you have to be able to invest
  438. 15:56in your craft day in day out and get
  439. 15:59incrementally better every week and it's
  440. 16:01not something that will ever be handed
  441. 16:02to you maybe some venture capitalist
  442. 16:04just get lucky that's certainly possible
  443. 16:06but to sustain a franchise and to
  444. 16:08sustain a career over the long term it
  445. 16:10really takes a lot of discipline hard
  446. 16:12work and an intensity that is driven by
  447. 16:15a passion to find and invest in great
  448. 16:17companies and support them throughout
  449. 16:19the life cycle of growth I teach a class
  450. 16:21on this at various institutions but how
  451. 16:23do you have an investor mindset that is
  452. 16:25a able to see the big picture always
  453. 16:28having that big picture that home run
  454. 16:31Vision in your mind B understand what
  455. 16:33are the key components that allows that
  456. 16:35to come true what do you have to believe
  457. 16:37for that big Vision to come true C
  458. 16:40understand what are the key risks to
  459. 16:41those and being able to D then research
  460. 16:44those and underwrite those risks and
  461. 16:47ultimately e taking a leap of faith that
  462. 16:50allows you to put it all together to
  463. 16:52have conviction in your idea whether
  464. 16:54you're an investor or whether you're a
  465. 16:55Founder having those key components and
  466. 16:57being able to break it down I think
  467. 16:59having this mindset for the key
  468. 17:01decisions you need to make is something
  469. 17:02that we talk about internally we
  470. 17:05certainly teach it for our investors and
  471. 17:07also I think great CEOs also have this
  472. 17:09investor mindset too because they're
  473. 17:10doing Capital allocation and they're
  474. 17:12making decisions so how do you go
  475. 17:14through that framework and be able to
  476. 17:16follow it and then also know when not to
  477. 17:18follow it when do you know to break the
  478. 17:20rules too that's really where the Poetry
  479. 17:22comes up about that you can able to
  480. 17:24innovate and create new things when
  481. 17:26you're able to have exceptions but to do
  482. 17:28that you actually have to know the
  483. 17:29Frameworks and the rules first we preach
  484. 17:32both that the Frameworks are really
  485. 17:33helpful but also really importantly
  486. 17:36knowing when to break the rules too is
  487. 17:37really important too
  488. 17:39[Music]