The Lesson on Venture Capital and Startups that I Learned from Kung Fu Panda
Happy National Kung Fu Panda 4 day to those who celebrate (it’s me, I celebrate). Kung Fu Panda is one of my favorite movie series’. The series boasts complex villains, beautiful animation, and all the classic martial arts movie tropes bundled into a delightfully adorable and lighthearted package. So, in honor of today’s holiday, I’m going to be sharing the best work lesson I’ve learned from Kung Fu Panda, one that I think many VCs and founders need to internalize. And that’s to be realistic with promises and setting expectations.
Frankly, I believe that there are lots of great lessons about VC and startups to take away from the first Kung Fu Panda movie, not to even mention the depth of the second and third movies (I am unfortunately on the road so I will not be watching the fourth until this weekend). Some of these include to never judge someone based on their appearances, that hard work can get you anywhere, that you need to tailor training to personality types, and of course, that you are the secret ingredient.
But the best lesson around Kung Fu Panda comes from a character who is, in my opinion, the greatest animated movie villain to ever exist. Tai Lung.
Let me explain. Tai Lung’s story is not as much of a villain arc, as much as it is the story of the wronged founder or employee.
“All I ever did, I did to make you proud.”
All too often, we as investors or founders hire people. Invest in people. Promise them greatness and things that are not ours to promise. Master Shifu, Tai Lung’s mentor, promised Tai Lung everything. This led to Tai Lung overworking himself. Training until his bones cracked. All for those promises and his entire world to fall apart.
There are two similar relationships you’ll see in the tech ecosystem, namely the relationships between VCs/founders and their employees and the relationships between VC and founders themselves. The former is a precise mirror. VCs will promise great returns, carry, promotions to their associates and analysts, and then never deliver. Startups will promise that they’ll succeed to their employees or investors. I’ve seen countless friends be told one thing by their bosses and had the rugs pulled on them due to greed or frankly just original misrepresentation of reality.
Similarly, all too often VCs will set milestones for founders to get their next round led by them. Many times, founders will hit these milestones and never see that lead term sheet. Similarly, VCs often pull out of deals at the last minute and cause rounds and companies to collapse as a result. Founders are left out to dry resenting the industry because they were the victims. Yet the VCs never face repercussions for this wrongdoing.
I’m uniquely fortunate to have worked with a great set of employers over my career in VC; Will Coffield from Riot is a close mentor and a friend, but this isn’t often the case. Will was extremely supportive when I left for Builders, and he has always wanted me to find my best path instead of claiming that the best path was his. He’s aided me in my journey to become the best version of myself, but he never promised me anything he couldn’t deliver on or misled me about the stage I’m at in my career. This is very rare in the VC ecosystem.
If anything, Shifu is the villain in the Kung Fu Panda. He drove Tai Lung to villainy. He overworked him as a child and created an arrogance inside him in his need to seek external validation: the darkness that Oogway identifies. You can’t blame Tai Lung for that — he never knew better. He’s just the victim turned into a tragic villain.
The lesson for tech is that we must learn from Shifu’s mistakes. When we see greatness, we should be optimistic and supportive, but also level set around limitations and realities. Don’t make companies or employees rely on you. Don’t misguide them into thinking they’re something that they aren’t.
My greatest hope for Kung Fu Panda 4 is for Tai Lung to have a redemption arc. For him learn that he too can find the value inside himself and make amends for his wrongdoings. And that with that Tai Lung will be ready to succeed Poe as the dragon warrior. I hope the same for founders and employees that have been wronged similarly too.
