1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Semyon Dukach of One Way Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What else can you tell us? Besides founder-related traits, what else can you tell us about that’s interesting about your fund?

Semyon Dukach: It’s a unique fund in that we are specifically targeting immigrants. The value add that’s differentiated is, we’re building a network between these people who have a shared identity. We’re encouraging our immigrant founders to expand their notion of who they are and get away from this binary choice of their ethnic background or their new country.

Instead, give them the power to consider themselves immigrants in general. For instance, a Bulgarian founder in Boston can feel some kinship with an Indian founder in Boston and join the Indian mafia to the extent that it exists.

Sramana Mitra: To be fair, a very large majority of the founders are immigrant founders in Silicon Valley.

Semyon Dukach: That is not true for the large majority of the VC-backed startups. 25% of the VC deals in Silicon Valley have immigrant founders, yet 50% of the unicorns have immigrant founders. Silicon Valley is friendly towards immigrants. There is at least one other fund in Silicon Valley that has a similar focus.

With a fund like ours that only includes immigrant founders in their portfolio, if we succeed in expanding the identity of our founders, then the network between our portfolio founders will be much stronger. Just having the same VCs investing in a company doesn’t make you best friends with somebody.

However, if every one in your portfolio not only has this identity in common but has it at a time where there is a real dislike in the country as a whole towards immigrants. People who dislike immigrants don’t care what specific country you’re from. You’re an outsider. It’s a really wonderful time for us to unite people together from different backgrounds and to convince our Indian founders, Russian founders, and  Israeli founders to think of themselves more broadly and to identify themselves with other immigrants instead of with America or their home country.

Over time, the network allows us to win stronger and stronger deals not only because of our personal reputation but ultimately by having a stronger network of portfolio founders who have something in common.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s double-click down into your immigrant deal flow. Are there particular trends in different immigrant communities? Because of what we do, our community is full of foreigners. We’re not even limited to American companies. We have a tremendous international network. Nowadays, we even see entrepreneurs coming in from Africa.

We have our own version of perspective, but we’re not only looking at venture style companies. We also work with a lot of bootstrapped entrepreneurs. In the portfolio of companies or in the deal flow that is seeking venture capital, are there trends you’re seeing in various different immigrant communities?

Semyon Dukach: I would say that the Israeli and the Indian immigrants are unique in that those are the only two that have some semblance of a critical mass. You might actually argue that it is to a founder’s advantage to be from India.

Sramana Mitra: Very much so, especially in Silicon Valley.

Semyon Dukach: Especially in Silicon Valley. Other immigrant communities do not have such a critical mass. By encouraging our founders to expand their identity, we essentially enable them to create the most powerful group in the world.

This segment is part 2 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Semyon Dukach of One Way Ventures
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