Eddy Chan is a founding partner of ‘Indonesia-only’ independent venture capital firm Intudo Ventures.

Their portfolio companies include Xendit, Pintu, Pinhome, and more.

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👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

Our ‘Indonesia-only’ venture capital firm Intudo Ventures is the only VC firm that exclusively invests in Indonesian homegrown early-stage technology companies. 

Our team and I work closely with founders of Indonesian homegrown early-stage technology companies to deliver both hyperlocal and global insights with a focus on business development, corporate finance, and human relations, being the only firm headquartered in Indonesia with a founding partner presence in Silicon Valley. 

For our limited partners (our investors), our team and I act as the Indonesia beachhead strategy for dozens of leading institutions, funds, and family offices from the United States, Europe, and Asia and support the digital transformation strategy of dozens of Indonesian conglomerates/families.

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🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

Our ‘Indonesia-only’ venture capital firm Intudo Ventures is the only VC firm that exclusively invests in Indonesia.

Since we founded ‘Indonesia-only’ VC Intudo Ventures in 2017 we have brought on an additional eight incredible team members with zero turnover since inception. We aspire to build a firm to last multiple funds and generational transfer.

Given our hyperlocal presence being headquartered in Indonesia, prior to making an initial investment all of our companies have entered into commercial business development arrangements with our limited partners which include more than 35 of the most prolific Indonesian conglomerates/families and our partners.

Given our global presence in Silicon Valley, historically one in three of our early-stage companies was sourced in the United States on university and corporate campuses via our Pulkam S.E.A. Turtles program, and the majority of our portfolio companies are backed by our global partners, as our LPs include more than 35 of the top global funds and/or their founding partners including more than a dozen Forbes Midas List ranked investors. 

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🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

Founding ‘Indonesia-only’ VC Intudo Ventures in 2017 with Founding Partner Patrick Yip and Founding Advisor Timothy Chen, and bringing on an additional eight incredible team members since inception with zero turnover. 

We’re hopeful we are building a venture capital firm to last multiple funds and generational transfers. 

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🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

We try our best to avoid getting carried away by startup trends or favored spaces like the plague, as they often attract non-independent thinking founders, employees, and customers seeking subsidies.

We are focused on backing founders with a non-consensus worldview that are building businesses that generally (i) are operating in sectors that are out of favor or viewed as too early for their time and (ii) have enduring competitive moats, in particular, regulatory moats (hence our focus on financial services, healthcare, education, and other regulated industries), operational dependency moats (hence our focus on B2B and B2B2C businesses) and talent moats (hence our focus on more vertical focused businesses where the companies have unique access to talent, being one of one company). 

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💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry? 

• Always be humble and be ready to be humbled.
• Always be hungry but never to the detriment of others.
• Never be afraid to ask for help but always think what you can also offer to the counterparty before making that ask.

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🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours? 

The Indonesian venture capital ecosystem. 

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🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show? 

Shawshank Redemption. As our firm and our founders are willing to do “damn near anything within reason” (never to the detriment of others) to ensure the success of our startups. 

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Green tea. 

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FYI. We've edited this interview for clarity.