Jenny Lee of GGV Capital on Being a VC in China

Podcast

Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Jenny Lee, a managing partner at GGV Capital based in Shanghai. Jenny joined GGV in 2005 and was instrumental in setting up GGVโ€™s presence in China. Forbes recently ranked Jenny as the worldโ€™s 16th most powerful woman in tech.

A self-professed geek who loves new technologies and products, Jenny has been involved with consumer internet, SaaS, and frontier technology companies at GGV, and has helped many go public. Since 2011, Jenny has been recognized by the Forbes Global 100 VC Midas List of top venture capitalists, ranking as the #1 woman and #10 overall in 2015.

Jenny grew up in Singapore and was educated in the U.S., where she attended Cornell and Northwestern University. In this episode, we discussed how Jenny rose from a newcomer to one of the most respected VCs in China, how she set up the China presence of a U.S. venture capital firm, how venture deals are done in China, and how U.S. companies can better align themselves with Chinese governmentโ€™s interests.

Weโ€™d love to hear your feedback! Please send comments and suggestions to 996@ggvc.com. GGV Capital also produces a weekly email newsletter in English, also called โ€œ 996,” which has a roundup of the week’s most important happenings in tech in China. Subscribe at 996.ggvc.com.

The 996 Podcast is brought to you by GGV Capital and co-produced by the Sinica Podcast. On this show, we interview movers and shakers of China’s tech industry, as well as tech leaders who have a U.S.-China cross-border perspective.

GGV Capital is a multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Beijing. We have been partnering with leading technology entrepreneurs for the past 18 years from seed to pre-IPO. With $3.8 billion in capital under management across eight funds, GGV invests in globally minded entrepreneurs in consumer internet, e-commerce, frontier tech, and enterprise. GGV has invested in over 280 companies, with 29 IPOs and 22 unicorns. Portfolio companies include Airbnb, Alibaba, Bytedance (Toutiao), Ctrip, Didi Chuxing, DOMO, Hashicorp, Hellobike, Houzz, Keep, Slack, Square, Wish, Xiaohongshu, YY, and others. Find out more at ggvc.com.