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― Tess Ventures
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Tess has known Tony for years through Stanford. Tony is an authentic and passionate leader with a tireless work ethic. Tess Ventures is proud to back Tony and the Ignite Tournaments team.
Tess met Tony Chen, founder of Ignite Tournaments, through mutual friends, and they have been friends for many years. Tess has been advising and mentoring Tony on his company PrimeVax, which is developing a multi-mechanism treatment for cancer. Tony has been grateful for Tess' support and insights on PrimeVax. Even though Tess is not trained in the biological sciences or medicine, Tony appreciates all of the value that Tess has provided in helping PrimeVax through the challenges of a growing a startup.
Tony is excited to have Tess on board as an advisor and investor in Ignite Tournaments. Ignite is the world’s first play-to-earn mobile esports tournament organization and streaming platform with payouts in crypto and NFTs. With Tess' knowledge in and experience of crypto and gaming, Tony knew that she would be able to provide invaluable support to Ignite in this emerging and growing market.
Tess is genuine and intelligent and understands that life is about relationships and giving first. She holds friendships to being the core of life & celebrating growth together. She likes to be generous & give first. When you do that in life, your blessings, opportunities, and investments multiply. And I totally resonate with this aspect of how she builds empires with others.
When I met her, we had similar backgrounds being investors in some of the top tier unicorn companies in fintech, ai, blockchain, & deeptech. She immediately showed value by introducing me to a really great cybersecurity startup. After spending more time with her and the team, I was impressed with the traction that the business had and invested as an angel in their seed round. I have in the past heard her refer to herself as providing a lamborghini like experience when she provides dealflow and selects the right founders to back. When she is messaging or texting you, it will behoove you to pickup because there’s something exciting she has to share.
From a technical and financial sophistication standpoint, she is the most premier person to speak to and she articulates a vision that can often see further than others. She can model out and predict what will happen in the following investment rounds and also integrates insights from how external factors can impact outcomes of specific opportunities and founding teams. She has a strong connected network on both coasts and specifically, on the west coast, she has strong ties with Stanford, Innovation, Angel, Family Office, HNWI, and Private Equity Communities.
I have observed her ability to be a founder friendly advisor to entrepreneurs. She is able to empathize with founders because she is an experienced serial entrepreneur. She has the full stack of skills that are needed to not only be an investor, but also roll up her sleeves and help the founders get to predictable monthly revenue, scale, raise the next round of funding, and grow by multiples in valuation.
Another great attribute that she possesses is a strong work ethic, organization, preparation, and the ability to connect people from different skillsets to form a powerful team. She is a true connector with the special skill of identifying skills in talented individuals and helping people harness their true gifts to be successful while being part of a community. When it comes to community, she has greatly supported mine. She has been a guest on my web show, and has also given back to the community. Part of my community consists of people who aspire to be successful entrepreneurs and investors like her. Many of the attendees of her guest speaker events mentioned that she was very inspiring and grew a knowledge that they didn’t have before about investing and private equity / VC.
When it comes to emotional intelligence, she is always thoughtful of making sure that she provides background to both parties before making an intro to ensure that connections are most fruitful. She is also focused on providing value first vs. asking for help. Another important trait that she has is honesty and authenticity. Part of her caring nature which I truly love probably also comes from her being an awesome mom of a son. She is able to maintain a true balance of work life harmony. I am glad to have a kind, authentic, and generous person in my life, and I am a better person because of it.