Andrew Sypkes

Nov 25, 2020

If you’re not an Innovator / back one! Andrew Sypkes is one of Australia’s most active family office technology investors being a founder investor in 4 amazing success stories that have become Unicorns Leigh Jasper’s Aconex  About Andrew Sypkes Andrew Sypkes began his career with McKinsey & Company and then worked with start-up technology businesses before completing an MBA at Stanford University. He now based in Hobart where he manages his family’s investment business, family office and foundation, and is a co-founder and Director of several private companies and charitable organisations.. He is also a partner at  SecondQuarter Ventures , Australia’s first venture secondaries fund. Why angel investing? Andrew realised he was not  a great entrepreneur , but was great at supporting them - and that angel investing was a great way for him to work closely with entrepreneurs — vicariously living their journey — while actually playing to his more natural analytical and investing strengths. His first 2 investments got him hooked ....  and he blames Leigh Jasper and Martin Hosking for that!! So what makes a founder and entrepreneur succeed? resilience a combination of big picture thinking a sense of detail and urgency  for the daily execution  a sustainable competitive advantage - which could be  an abnormally-sticky product,  scale economics or  network effects. A great product just gets your to the starting line but is not a durable advantage. If you do win, you want it to be big, because that’s how you make a real impact - says Andrew  It’s a great time to be in Innovation in Australia!! Why secondary investing  in the Australian venture capital ecosystem? Secondary investing is investing in already funded startups  enabling founders, early investors and long term staff to cash put and get liquidity - maybe before a listing  Andrew saw the importance of this at Aconex pre-IPO when there were numerous early investors and long-term staff who needed liquidity due to their personal circumstances. This also included the founders themselves who wanted to take a bit of money off the table to be able to confidently keep swinging for sixes in the next stage of their journey. Having secondary liquidity available is a sign of a maturing ecosystem, and there have been a few really big secondary transactions that Andrew has been involved with over the past five years. As a result  he has set up  SecondQuarter , Australia’s first venture secondaries fund. The fund had  already made half a dozen secondary investments and have committed to work alongside another cohort of top-tier ventures as an ongoing provider of liquidity for their staff and early investors. It’s potentially a great asset class - A secondary Fund  is a stepping stone for entrpreneurs of an innovative company to cash out a little without having to list! Posted by