Think and act like a visionary venture capital investor

By Tosin 'Badeniyi, PhD
- January 31, 2021

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In 1903, Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham was advised not to buy stock in Ford. “The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad” he was told by the president of the Michigan Savings Bank. The visionary lawyer bought $5,000 worth of stock and sold it in 1919 for $12.5 million. After reading this recently, I asked myself how can one choose and purchase a small market cap company (e.g $2billion or $10 billion) that will end up becoming a $100 billion or $500 billion company in 15 years? How do you become an early investor of a company that will be among the world’s 10 or 20 biggest tech giants? You will agree with me that these are not easy questions. However, I sincerely believe that how you think and what you do definitely matter. For example, thinking and acting like a visionary venture capital investor can be helpful. Michael Joordan, a South African based visionary venture capitalist is one person I have learned from. Michael once said “Take (calculated) risks, Make (fast) mistakes. Laugh (at yourself).” Another visionary venture capital investor that I admire is Tim Draper. Tim’s prominent investments include Baidu, Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, DocuSign, Coinbase, Robinhood, Cruise Automation and Focus Media. In 2018, the New SEC Chief, Gary Gensler asked Tim whether he had any concern about his favorite investment failing? He said never! Instead, he always asked “How high is up? Can we transform the world through this?” What a mindset. That is the type of mindset we need. Apart from thinking and acting like a visionary venture capital investor, reading financial information is also important. I find the Motley Fool (whose motto is making the world smarter, happier and richer) and the Distillery, a weekly debrief on Real Vison analysis, loaded with smart and money wise ideas.

“When I look back in my life, the best investments were to just buy the leader, always, and then sit back and do nothing.” Brett Messing, Skybridge COO

Sat down with Mrs Ife Olanrewaju to talk about women and entrepreneurship in Africa and much more. We also talked about her book, Bars with no locks; Navigating the twists of business partnership and why she left IT to start a travel company. Ife is the founder of Foshizi Tours and Living Radiance Consults Ltd (into training, coaching and leadership development).

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Tosin 'Badeniyi, PhD

Tosin ‘Badeniyi, a Professor at the Department of Biotechnology and Food Science at Durban University of Technology, South Africa, holds a doctoral degree in Food Science from University of Pretoria South Africa. Since 2001, he has conducted research and lectured internationally in the area of food quality and safety. He is the editor of Food Science and Technology: Trends and Future Prospects and has published numerous scientific publications as well as four inspirational books.