AfterWork Ventures OG partner Jessy Wu has left VC for a new career as founder of her own media and communications agency. Encour.
The outspoken investor, who’s dealt with hundreds of founders as the $20 million early-stage VC fund went on to back 30 companies, joined AfterWork in 2021 when it launched.
“Joining the firm as its first employee was – and remains – one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Leaving was a decision I agonised over,” she said.
“But after spending years discerning whether founders were doing their life’s work, I started to doubt whether being an investor was my own.”
Having spoken to so many people in startups, Wu saw first-hand how important communications are to the success of a vision and business.
“I’ve seen how communication can alter a company’s trajectory. Great communication can attract customers in droves, pique the interest of top talent, and whip investors into a frenzy,” she said.
“Butchered communication can sow dissent, destroy trust, and precipitate downfalls.”
Encour offers advice on communications for the media and public as well as investors and internal teams. Wu launched last month and already has several clients and delivered her first campaigns, including Slice, which recently landed a $7.5 million Seed round after 6 years of bootstrapping.
Nonetheless, Wu’s already learnt some important lessons moving to the other side of the deal table in startup life.
“There are many things I intellectually appreciated as an investor, that I didn’t feel deep in my bones until I became a solo founder,” she said.
“As a founder, the highs are higher and the lows are lower. Investors have a portfolio of bets; as a founder you’re all in on one thing. Moreover, setbacks can feel crushing – not because they’re objectively detrimental, but because they feel personal and existential.
“I now believe that a founders’ mental toughness is as important as their intellectual horsepower. I think it’s more likely a founder will just give up, then get outsmarted by a problem. Unfortunately, VC’s investment processes often spend a lot of time stress-testing intellectual horsepower, but gloss over mental toughness”.
After three years as a venture investor, watching great ideas scale, Wu holds similar dreams, but she won’t be knocking on VC doors anytime soon for her strategic communications business.
“I’m very ambitious. I want to build something significant and very valuable,” she said.
“But I’m not convinced I have to raise venture capital to do so. The upside of a professional services business model is that I generate revenue straight away – and can reinvest revenue in growth”.
Jessy Wu had more to say on her move on Substack here.
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