00:00:07 · Sabrina Fathi, Wesley Aster, Yoonkee Sull
[00:00:07] S0: Welcome to the Wharton FinTech Podcast. I'm your cohost Sabrina Fathi. [00:00:11] S1: And I'm your cohost Wesley Aster. We're excited to bring another great conversation with a a great guest today. [00:00:17] S0: Today, we're gonna be joined by Yoonkee Sull, general partner Iconiq Growth. Yoonkee leads Iconiq's FinTech investments and has played a key role in backing companies like Adyen, Chime, Wealthsimple, Groww, and Ramp. With over a decade in venture investing, he has helped build Iconiq growth into a successful venture capital firm with over a 150 portfolio companies and $21,000,000,000 in capital commitments. In today's conversation, we'll explore some of the biggest FinTech trends, including how FinTech startups can successfully challenge legacy financial institutions, the current state of FinTech funding, and how founders can secure capital in a tighter market, the role of financial innovation in expanding access to underserved communities, and finally, how AI, digital assets, and frictionless commerce are shaping the future of fintech. Yoonkee, welcome to the podcast. [00:01:07] S2: Thanks so much for having me. [00:01:09] S1: So we'd love to start learning a bit more about your background and your path to venture capital and Iconiq Growth. You've built an impressive career in venture capital, help... Helping grow Iconiq Growth into an intellectual fintech investor. What first drew you to venture investing?
00:01:25 · Yoonkee Sull
[00:01:25] S2: Yeah. Sure. I'll start a little bit with my childhood. I would say it kind of goes back to some early influences from my dad in particular who grew up with an engineering background through a PhD program in electrical engineering and spent a big part of his career as an engineer, and then eventually got involved with a number of technology businesses and ventures. And so there were some early roots there for me as I was growing up. You know, this is not unique to myself, but also as a child who was growing up in the nineties, I really quite literally grew up alongside the Internet, and so that was a very tangible set of experiences in terms of just recognizing and seeing the impact that, you know, technology advances can have especially when you have these massive platform shifts. And so I would say it started really there and, know, as I got into college, I kinda pursued the intersection of finance and technology. I was an economics major in undergrad. At the same time, I was involved with a number of venture related initiatives in college as well in the community. And, you know, my first job out of in... Out of college was as an investment banking analyst in New York and covering technology, media, and telecom. And, you know, at the time, this was kinda the early twenty tens. Going into venture and growth was not a particularly popular, you know, career decision. Also, there weren't actually that many firms that hired investment banking analysts at the time. It's obviously changed quite drastically, you know, kinda call it ten to fifteen years later. And so... But at the time, you know, I was very fixated on going into and finding a venture and growth investing opportunity. I had a lot of friends who ended up deciding to pursue private equity and going into the hedge fund industry and have have obviously built great careers there. But I think my interests were always very squarely here, and so I was lucky enough to land an opportunity as one of the first associates at Iconiq Growth, then moved to the Bay Area after kind of being being in investment banking.
00:03:40 · Wesley Aster
[00:03:40] S1: It'd be great if you could tell us a bit about Iconiq Growth as well. Iconiq is differentiated in its approach, seeking to blend venture capital with deep network effects and long term partnerships. What made you drawn to Iconiq specifically, and how has the firm evolved since you started?
00:03:55 · Yoonkee Sull
[00:03:55] S2: Yeah. I think one thing I'll start with is we've we've grown tremendously. The team was probably under 10 at Iconiq growth when I first joined. It's now... We're now closer to a 100 across three different three different cities as well and so it's it's grown a lot. But I think from the very beginning, there was a very unique focus on building and cultivating an incredible network, a deep focus on building community, and this core principle around, you know, what we like to call uncommon care with with... Which was, you know, really to focus on building long term relationships and partnerships. And so I think from there, the other thing that was really important to me was, you know, my partners had this exclusive focus on working with and partnering with founders and companies who we believed, you know, could become market defining category leaders in really strategic markets with great secular tailwinds and become their most strategic and long term partner as it relates to their journey. And so I think, you know, that really resonated with me. And then ultimately, you know, just in terms of our network and unique introductions that, you know, we've been able to facilitate built on years of relationships in addition to kind of the unique group of entrepreneurs that we have who have built some of the largest market leading companies globally. We've also built a number of teams outside of the investment team to help us better serve our portfolio companies across portfolio operations, across leadership advisory, analytics and data science, technical advisory, go to market advisory, and we're certainly not done, and our ambitions are only getting larger and larger. And I think the other thing I might add just from a team perspective is we've also had the fortune to add to our partnership a number of incredible operators, and I'll I'll kinda run through a couple just because I think it's emblematic of, you know, what we mean by long term relationships and partnership. But, you know, we had Amit Agarwal join us very recently who know, was formerly the president of Datadog, which was a company that we partnered with initially in 2015. We also brought on Rob Burstein, who was the former CEO of Coupa, one of the largest procurement software businesses, another business we actually partnered initially with in 2015. I think there's a theme in...
00:06:21 · Yoonkee Sull, Wesley Aster
Theme of 2015 for some reason, but lastly, we also brought on Cameron Zaki, who was the former COO of Adyen, a large global payments business, also a business we partnered with in 2015, and these are individuals that we've worked with across the table for north of more than a decade. And, you know, they've, of course, you know, chosen to work with us on, you know, on this side. And so I think it's just the representation of, you know, that is who kind of Iconiq Growth is and stands for. And I think that's that's what, you know, made me excited to join in the beginning even though at the time it was maybe a little bit closer to a vision than actuality, and then kind of seeing it evolve, you know, over the last decade plus has been has been just incredible. [00:07:08] S1: That's incredible. I'm curious, what do you think Iconiq did really well that allowed it to foster those long term relationships perhaps better than, you know, other investors?
00:07:08 · Wesley Aster, Yoonkee Sull
[00:07:08] S1: That's incredible. I'm curious, what do you think Iconiq did really well that allowed it to foster those long term relationships perhaps better than, you know, other investors? [00:07:19] S2: Yeah. You know, I think it it goes back to goes back to its, you know, very early roots. I think, you know, we've we've really been focused on, you know, relationship building is not transactional at the end of the day. You know, we really try to show up for community. We try to show up with, you know, incredible and deep care. We try to give more than we ever take. And over time, you know, these these relationships are built overnight, and so you do right by folks who go on to do incredible things. And I think that just pays dividends in ways that... And it just compounds in ways that are just very, very powerful. And I think this speaks to all sides of our business and our ability to just drive really unique value with unique access to a really unique network that we've built over time. [00:08:10] S1: And looking back at your journey from starting as an associate to your current role as a partner, what do you think are some of the biggest lessons you've learned about spotting high potential FinTech companies?