Mark Sng is the Vice President of Gentree Fund, a VC firm focused on Philippine startups and startups looking to enter the Philippine market. Before Gentree, Mark was at Go-Ventures, the Gojek-backed VC fund.

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

My job has three parts. The first part is meeting new founders to learn about areas we can support them on and staying up to date with startup news, as well as market trends.

The second part is working with our founders to understand their businesses and build our investment thesis for our investment committee. In Gentree's case, this means spending time with some of the top founders in the Philippine and Southeast Asian startup ecosystems. This is a particularly rewarding process when our startups are able to leverage the unique support our investment committee provides them and deliver on the initial investment thesis the team had.

The third and most important part of my job relates to portfolio management and spending time with the founders in our portfolio. Gentree serves on several of our portfolio boards. We support our founders closely with their next equity fundraises, assisting them with their fundraising strategy and making beneficial introductions.

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

Over COVID and the multiple lockdowns, I was able to spend a lot more time on my road bike and got into a healthy routine of riding every other day before work.

I'm big on endurance sports, and I think that translates to working in the buy-side industry as it is very much a marathon, not a sprint. As someone who's not a trained product manager or engineer (my expertise is more related to my background in corporate development), I am also constantly learning from the founders I get the chance to speak to!

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

I wouldn't say any single role in my career was more significant than the other. Each of my previous roles has helped me to grow Gentree.

At Gojek, the highlight was the Coins.ph deal. The great experience with Coins and Ron Hose gave me my initial exposure to venture in the Philippines.

While at Go-Ventures, I learned the ropes from some of the top regional fund managers in VC, who I am still lucky to count as my friends and mentors.

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

We have been spending a lot of time on sectors that demonstrate a sizable addressable market with market structures that enable rapid digitalization. Though, I'd say all sectors are interesting as I care a lot about the founder I'm backing and seeing their drive and vision.

What I'm seeing this year is that regional investors are now starting to look into verticals (not just macro plays) in the Philippines. Now, they feel like the addressable market is big enough. With specific verticals being big enough and the GDP per sector growing enough, they can go more into niches.

Some examples have included Social Commerce, the Digitalization of micro-merchants and B2B distribution.

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

To be honest, it's about being at the right place at the right time. You take advantage of the tailwinds behind you. Be patient and calculative to put yourself in the right place at the right time by finding the right opportunities to do so.

While I have a more traditional corporate finance background, working at Gojek in their corporate development team exposed me to the venture ecosystem. Choosing to join them and move to Jakarta gave me the experience of working at one of the fastest-growing startups in Southeast Asia and set me on the path I am on.

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

I also enjoy speaking about the Southeast Asia venture industry as a whole. That's what I really like talking about: the market.

Every day you're away from the market, things change. That's what gets me excited every day, the dynamic nature of VC.

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🎥  What's your favorite movie/TV show?

I have been loving the recent Wecrashed and Super Pumped TV Series. A few podcasts I listen to are Acquired, Not Boring Podcast and GGV Capital's Next Billion podcast.

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

Cookies and cream.