#StartupsEverywhere Profile: Maurice Ng, Co-Founder & General Partner, Tings Capital
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Building a Fund to Invest in Founders Facing the Largest Barriers
Maurice Ng is the Co-founder and General Partner of Tings Capital, a minority-owned venture capital fund based in New York City, N.Y. looking to invest in underrepresented founders, including people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, first generation immigrants, and people with disabilities. Ng took the time to share his immigrant experience, his unique mission behind the firm, and some of the barriers marginalized communities face in the startup space.
Tell us about your background. What led you to create Tings Capital?
I immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong when I was 18 years old. My family had to flee because my father was being threatened by loan collectors as he was an entrepreneur whose business crumbled during the financial crisis and, as a result, he had no way to repay his debts and my family was in grave danger. The transition was rough as my family moved here with only $300 and had to share one bunk bed amongst four of us. We were all working to make do; I took a job at McDonalds to try and contribute what I could to the family. I enrolled in Baruch College studying pre-med as I was clueless on what I wanted to study and opted for a high paying job as a doctor to make my parents proud. I then realized this was not the route I wanted to pursue—plus, I did not have the money to carry me through medical school while taking care of my aging parents at the same time—and ultimately decided to switch my focus to finance. I went on to become an investment banker at JPMorgan and, eventually, transitioned to an investing role focusing on lower middle market private equity and growth equity. I realized that I lacked operational experience, so I took a leadership role at SurveyMonkey where I was managing global business operations and strategy. I was at SurveyMonkey for about a year and a half when I decided to meet up with a couple of my would-be partners at Silicon Valley where we reflected on what we wanted to do with our lives. We decided to launch a fund together and it was from this moment that Tings Capital was born.
What is the work you are doing at Tings Capital?
The goal of Tings Capital is to invest in the marginalized communities that we come from. Our team is comprised of diverse investors including people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, first generation immigrants and people with disabilities. We are a seasoned team of underdog investors, and we are currently raising $100 million to deploy directly to businesses led by underdog founders. Through this endeavor, we dedicate our lives to make the global startup ecosystem a bit better and more inclusive.
A number of startup founders looking to build companies in this country are immigrants. As someone who has also experienced the process of immigrating to the U.S., how has that experience shaped your views? What do you think policy makers could do to better support immigrant entrepreneurs?
As an immigrant, it is difficult to acclimate yourself to an entirely new culture—both linguistically and culturally. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding when it comes to accessing resources, or even more basic things, such as understanding how to pay a phone bill, apply for apartments, or find a doctor, especially when there is a language barrier. From experience, there was a lack of resources tailored towards immigrant communities, let alone immigrant entrepreneur communities. More specifically in regards to startups, immigrant founders often lack the network when it comes to launching their own venture. As such, how do they raise capital? Who do they get advice from to scale their business? They also have the added challenge of having to adapt to social dynamics when it comes to collaboration or fundraising. Even though immigrant founders might have a differentiated value proposition and a roadmap of where they want their business to go, they often find themselves hitting a lot of these roadblocks. One of the reasons we believe Tings Capital is working is because we have that level of empathy that stems from our own backgrounds to help bypass many of those roadblocks.
As an investor in underrepresented communities, what barriers have you noticed that people in marginalized groups frequently encounter?
There are many barriers with respect to those in marginalized communities. The dominant demographic among investors are native White male, statistically around 85 percent. This leads to a bit of hesitancy in investing in companies built to address challenges they are not personally familiar with, which translates to many missed investment opportunities. For example, a business built around Asian American, African American, or Latin American culture, beauty, or fashion would be a foreign idea to investors outside these groups because they might not understand the cultural nuances behind the business, and thus may not recognize the needs for the value proposition behind it. This is a huge component behind why Tings Capital and venture groups like us are needed. We have to have the level of empathy and cultural understanding that align with founders and their businesses.
Are there any local, state, or federal startup issues that you think should receive more attention from policymakers?
There should be a higher prioritization to address the lack of funding towards underrepresented founders—the founders we call the “Underdogs.” The investing ecosystem is fairly homogeneous, and there should be more incentives from policymakers to cultivate a diverse and inclusive ecosystem in the U.S.. The government’s ability to incentivize investment through initiatives like grant funding have the ability to help with some macro issues around discrimination that exists within the ecosystem. It would also be helpful for stakeholders to place more emphasis on fund allocation and accelerator-type programs specifically targeted to underrepresented founders to help guide them through the complicated process of cultivating their businesses.
What are your goals for Ting Capital moving forward?
We are currently in the fundraising stages with the goal of raising $100 million to mainly concentrate our investments on domestic businesses in the U.S.. We plan on investing the funds in 20 to 25 disruptive, differentiated and defensible businesses, or what we call the “Tings’ 3Ds Business Model,” for the next four years. From there, we are looking to subsequently raise our next fund. The long-term goal for us is to become a multi-billion-dollar global fund, investing into hundreds of portfolio companies, empowering a global community of thousands of underdogs, and eventually turning the D&I concept obsolete. Despite the more prominent media focus on the issue here, racism and discrimination is not an issue exclusive to the U.S. startup ecosystem. I believe there needs to be more collective effort from a global perspective on those issues and we’re going to dedicate our lives to take on this challenge.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email ian@engine.is.
