The Business Leadership Podcast

You are listening to the Business
Leadership Podcast with Edwin.

Paul: Hello.

Hello.

I am Paul Newton, creative producer
of the Future Narrator Miniseries.

And I'm, and I'm here, uh, uh,
with, I'm replacing the host of the

Business Leadership podcast today.

And, uh, what we're doing is recording
live at the Web Summit Vancouver 2025.

Where we're exploring how today's
leaders shape the future, not just

through strategy, but through story.

We believe that a strong point of
view is what inspires communities,

builds movements and cuts through
the noise in uncertain times.

So let's get into this conversation.

I.

Today's guest is a world-class investor
and entrepreneur whose journey spans

continents, disciplines, and industries.

Lu Jang is founder and managing partner
of Fusion Fund, a Silicon Valley-based

venture firm backing deep tech founders
at the forefront of ai, healthcare, edge

computing, and enterprise innovation.

A Stanford engineering alumna
and a serial entrepreneur.

Lou built her first medical device
company at age 21, translating academic

research into real world solutions for
type two diabetes after its acquisition.

She turned her focus to investing
launching Fusion Fund in 2015 to

support the next generation of
technical founders, a first generation

immigrant from inner Mongolia Lou.

Earned recognition from
the World Economic Forum.

Forbes 30 under 30, and Business
Insider as one of the most influential

women in early stage investing.

She's a frequent speaker on Global Tech
Summits, a board leader for high impact

initiatives, and a passionate voice for
bringing breakthrough science to market.

So welcome to the show, Lou Zang.

Welcome to the Business
Leadership Podcast Loop.

Lu: Yeah, thank you
very much for having me.

Yeah.

Paul: It was such a pleasure to
have you here and, uh, just tell me

a little bit about, uh, how things
are going and, uh, your experience

of, of Web Summit Vancouver so far.

Yeah,

Lu: yeah.

So, uh, I know it used to be a
coalition in Toronto, so I've

been coming to the web summit for
many years, publishing since 2017.

It's always a great gathering.

As I mentioned to you earlier,
that this is one of the best attack

conference impact in my opinion.

It's not only the number of
the attendee, it's really the

quality of the conversation.

Diversity of the background
of our attendee and also the

rich content of our panel.

And for this, uh, web summit in
Vancouver, I'm speaking on two panels.

Both panel are really emphasized
and focusing on talking about the

future opportunity challenge of
AI powered healthcare innovation.

And we're able to really deep dive into
the details of the, okay, this is the.

Interesting market timing was lots
of volatility and uncertainty, but

meanwhile, technology is evolving so fast.

Healthcare is very special with lots of
regulation, compliance, consideration.

But meanwhile, fundamental
tech is in a critical moment.

And also AI become a
very strong accelerator.

Be able to help us push on
the acceleration of the new

technology for commercialization.

Take it from there,
eventually achieve the goal.

For all of us, we want it for
healthcare personalization.

Early diagnostics, digital therapeutics.

So that's what is happening right now
and for us, uh, it's also exciting time.

Uh, thank you for the introduction.

So I've been doing, uh, this early
stage venture investment since 2015.

So I started Future Fund in 2015 after my
journey as a mature scientist at Stanford.

Later Entrepr.

So this year is our official
10 year anniversary.

Congratulations.

Yeah.

We just celebrate our 10 year
anniversary with our annual meeting

couple weeks ago in San Francisco
with all the people in our community.

And really, you know, 10 is a magical
number and the 10 years a magical

number make you want to reflect on
the past, like, uh, how did they.

How do we get here and what are we
being achieved in the past couple years?

Uh, so this reflection really make me
feel more rewarding of the founders we've

been backing and also the community we
build up, uh, across the, uh, across

the entrepreneur, across the industry
leader, and also, uh, across the, the

large corporate strategic partner side.

So it's a very strong
ecosystem we're building.

So we're very busy.

We did our, uh, fund four.

I did a final close in, uh, early
this year, announced it, it's

oversubscribed a $190 million fund.

Now our total fund size is already over
half a billion dollars, so we're in

active deploying mode and we're, that's
also one reason I'm here in Web Summit.

Of course, we have the fund ready.

We're in active deploying mode.

We want to meet with loss of high
quality funder to talk about potential

opportunity for us to join onboarding
early stage, support them to grow.

Paul: Thank you.

Well, it's great to have you at
such a pivotal time with Infusion

Fund and, uh, and celebrating
this, uh, this momentous occasion.

And so what, what would, um, what
kind of problem would Fusion Fund

be be solving in early stage?

Tech investment and startup innovation,
what, what problems do you see right now?

Lu: I think, you know, when I initial
started Fusion Fund in 2015, one

motivation for me was when I was an
entrepreneur, I found a not auto vc.

I talked to, had experience
as entrepreneur operator.

I have the technology
experience to understand.

What I'm building.

So I want to really build up a VC
that we went through, the journey

founder went through, so we have the
firsthand experience helping them

in this very vulnerable space of the
early stage to grow the business.

Another thing is also because we're
technology entrepreneur ourself, we

know what is the critical matters,
support the founder, the best founder,

always hate micromanagement, but
on the other side as a catalyst.

This is the nature
definition of VC capital.

We're catalyst how we really accelerating
the growth of the of the business.

So that's the thing we want to
build up here in Fusion Fund.

So on one side, if you look at a team
background, I started as a solo gp.

Later build up the team with other
partner, et cetera, across the team.

Everyone's a technologist, a
former entrepreneur operator.

Also have a diverse industry background.

So we understand both hardware,
software, ai, healthcare.

We also understand both tech innovation.

And also industry market timing.

That's one side of the
differentiation and also what we

want to create value to the market.

Another challenge we sell for
founder is early market validation.

You know, founder can, uh,
founder can be extraordinary.

Building a product can be extraordinary,
building up the team, but how to get early

validation from the market and the product
market fit and the initial contract.

That's always a major challenge
for the early stage startup.

How we as venture, uh, capitalists are
helping them and solve the problem.

So Infusion Fund will build up the
CXO network since 2018 and together

with one of my partner Shane, he's
the former CTO of hp, and we have

45 CTO now, uh, across global and
Southern company in our, uh, community.

And we're able to get together with them
every quarter and directly connect them.

The CTO of the large corporate who
have the budget and also priority to

work with the tech founder directly
with the technology owner, then the

partnership contract and the potential
collaboration would happen naturally.

Oh, wow.

Paul: Okay.

Wow.

So, um, you have a lot of experience
in, on both sides and you're, you're

bringing your, your knowledge and
expertise from, uh, from being, being a

founder, both founder in tech and, uh,
and the medical field, uh, field, but

also now from the venture venture side.

Um, what do you think is a unique point
of view that you personally bring,

like through your own experience,
how do you see things different

than, uh, than, uh, everyone else?

Lu: Yeah, so you can see first, uh, you
see my face, you know, I'm an immigrant.

So I originally from a
place called Ina Mongolian.

So I came to United States in 2010 to
start my journey in Silicon Valley.

Since then, so I think, uh,
I'm kind of the combination

of all this minority thing.

I'm a female founder.

I was an immigrant founder.

I'm also a very, uh, not
traditional background for the

fund manager to start with.

I think this, give me personally a
perspective that I'm very open-minded

and very open to support and work
with a different type of founder.

We always talk about the pattern
recommendation and profiling, but

I'm against a profiling founder.

I think, uh, it's hard to say only one
type of founder gonna be successful and

that we wanted to support our different
type of fund, give them opportunity to

work with us and also be successful.

Our bar, our criteria is
very, it's very consistent.

We're just back the top founder.

Cofounder based on their capability,
the product, the market they're

focusing on, regardless of where
they come from, regardless of their,

their, their gender, their age.

Uh, so I think that's one thing because
who I am naturally bring to the firm.

So when people ask me about the CDI
thing, I'm like, for us it's the really

waiting out DNA, because we're so
diverse in terms of the team background.

Myself is the, you know,
definition of the diversity.

And we truly believe diversity
is critical to innovation because

you want to have different
perspective coming in, be able to.

Looking at the same problem
from different angle, be able

to justify for a bigger market.

So I think that's one thing I really,
uh, myself, difference from other.

Another thing is still go back
to what I mentioned earlier on.

I'm a tech nerd, as you can tell.

And also I was an entrepreneur myself.

I also was an entrepreneur.

I was doing a medical device
company, is a deep tech company.

I was utilizing machine learning.

So I think all this firsthand
experience make me as an investor,

I probably look at a company.

Define our partnership with founder.

More from founder's perspective.

If you talk to lots of our founder,
they'll tell you that they really

love working with us on the board
level and also as an investor

level because we just know what is
the critical piece to help them.

And another thing is, uh, go back what
I mentioned earlier on, see series

A series, even series B round in the
earlier stage, it's very vulnerable.

Stage founder not only need just
a reset, resources connection,

they also need understanding.

Understand what they've been through.

Understand this is the bumpy road.

You won't just go like
rocket launching all up.

It'll be uptime and downturn.

How to go through downturn, whether you
have the right support to go through.

Downturn is critical and we
can be that type of support.

Paul: Thank you and, and just, um, you
know, the, well, diversity, I mean, it's a

big thing now, but you, you just lived it,
you know, all, all your life and through

your experience, uh, on both sides.

And so that, uh, that level of, uh,
understanding I think, uh, it's a really,

really critical thing for, for founders
at, um, at this stage in their journey.

And, um, do you think that
impacts the success of.

Of the fund and the, the companies
that you, that you work with?

Lu: Uh, so I think in general, the thing
is, it's just, let me give you some ratio.

In Silicon Valley right now, I
think 40% of local residents are

first generation immigrants like me.

If you look at the now, the latest or
unicorns in the market, more than 50%

of them at least have one co-founder or
founder, or first generation immigrant.

Not to mention other, you know,
the background, et cetera.

So I think.

What AI has enabled is enable people
with different background be able

to do innovation, but the US is the
one of the best market in the world

and the largest market for B2B.

And this is the best market to utilize
the technology and the tracking, the,

the talent across the globe come over
to Silicon Valley to make it happen.

Uh, so I think if you look at
that from the broader picture.

That the answer is very clear, that
do you want to capture the top, top

talents, not only just the top 1%
of talents in California and US, but

the top one talent across the world?

I think the answer is yes.

As an investor, why not?

You don't want to work with the
smartest people across the world,

be able to build innovation.

We wanted to, and whether you have
an infrastructure perspective,

mindset, be able to identify and work
with the right founder is critical.

So we have lots of amazing founder work
with us with different type of background.

I think be able to really have this
community, make them feel they're

supported, make them feel they understand,
and it's really important in this world.

I feel like understanding is the term.

We didn't discuss enough.

We always talk about agree and
disagree, which is not happening

for lots of conversation.

But I think the fundamental
thing is understanding.

I can see that.

Understand.

Where it came from, although
I don't agree with it.

But now the challenge is we
skip the understanding part.

We directly disagree with each other.

So yeah, so I think this understanding
of the journey, understanding

we came from is really critical.

Paul: Well, I think that's really, um, a,
a unique perspective that, uh, that you

and Fusion Fund is bringing, you know,
just, uh, to, to startups everywhere

and, uh, and offering opportunity to,
to people that are otherwise having

trouble, to having access to the same,
uh, same level of opportunities as

everyone else, even though they're
at, uh, at the highest level globally.

So that, that's really, um,
really a great thing that you're

bringing to the world here.

And so.

What, what do you think the, the future
looks like, um, in the world when, when,

uh, like you said, DEI is not an issue,
it's just, um, you know, we've got the

top 1% of talent globally everywhere.

Um, building the future, what do you see?

I.

Lu: Yeah, I know now is kind of a
interesting time to talk about the

future because the near term, there's
short term and even midterm uncertainty

and the loss of volatility in the
public market also of uncertainty

because of the geopolitical issue.

And we all know the
elephant in the room, right?

Uh, is.

It's kind of a challenging time for
people to try to predict the near

future, but I think the beauty of,
uh, our job, like doing early stage

venture is we're now backing company.

They need to go public, whatever
in the next two or three years.

We're backing the future, which means
the company we're investing right now,

where our expectation is they're gonna go
big in 5, 7, 10 years and become a major

contributor to the society, to the uh,
industry, and be able to drive positive

change, make great financial return.

And so we are more like
long term investor.

So if you ask me long term,
I've seen the future as really

extraordinary and we're looking at
all this company share with you.

Couple metrics.

One side is from the company side.

10 years ago when I was a founder,
if you want to grow a company revenue

from zero to one to $2 million,
probably take you two or three years.

Now within a year company can grow revenue
from zero to 20 million to $50 million.

Some company can grow from half a
million to a hundred million dollars.

We're seeing across our portfolio
last year, over two third of

them have 20 x revenue grow.

Many of them didn't
really raise a new round.

That's the beauty of how fast the
commercialization of new technology.

That's also a signal to indicate
how fast the industry is integrate

and accepting new technology.

So that's really the beauty.

Another thing is, how big is
this tech innovation trend?

When we talk about traditional tech
innovation, were always limited

to the definition of, uh, it tech
industry, which is about 9% of us, GDP.

But now AI is not only enabling
tech industry, it's en enabling the

whole like service industry as well.

And we talk about, uh, AI
agent, the digital labor.

Then think about it.

It's not a 9% US GDP, it might be
over 50% of us, GDP, not only tech,

industry, insurance, financial.

Logistic healthcare industry, all
be powered and salaried by ai.

That's a very, very big future.

That's truly amazing.

And, uh, I was, um, actually a couple
weeks ago in our annual meeting, we have,

uh, uh, the one and the only, uh, the
CEO and the founder of, uh, Salesforce,

mark be Benioff joining us as a speaker.

He was mentioning that I
totally agree with him.

He said.

Okay, we might be the last generation
of leader, have only human labor.

Yeah.

In the future, we'll probably have a
lot of digital labor plus human labor

and with AI empowerment, with less
people gonna do more, which is amazing

news for the productivity improvement.

And this is gonna happen
in the next five, 17 years.

So if you ask me long term, I think we're
looking at a super promising future.

But meanwhile, I think
we need to make sure.

The founder and also AFAs be
adaptive to the near term, short term

uncertainty, and, uh, be able to adapt
it to changes, adapted to challenges,

identified opportunity from the
challenges and the grow from there.

Paul: So the, in that five year span,
before you know that window, uh,

before you're seeing your companies
that you're, you're investing for,

like, how do you navigate just that?

That window where there is the uncertainty
and there's, there's always a adaptation

and always change and pivoting.

Like, just like that.

Lu: Yeah.

That's the value of the
community we're building up.

You know, when you have lots
of uncertainty, access to the

key high quality information,
knowledge is always super helpful.

So the community I mentioned, we
build up the CXO network with all this

fortune, um, 1000 large corporate CTO.

We also have a expert network with also
top tier AI leader in Silicon Valley.

We have a VC fellowship, we
have super founder network.

All this different community and
network be able to, uh, contribute

different perspective and information,
the high quality firsthand to us.

Then when we gather all this information,
we also want to share with founder.

I think one thing as a VC, we can do
better right now in this, uh, time

of uncertainty is we can serve as
a small think tank for our founder

because we are like a center hub
for all different information.

Because the nature of a VC
is we're talking to different

people every single day, right?

And, uh, gather all this information
and share our knowledge and insights

with the founder, help them be more
prepared with the near term volatility.

Paul: Well, thank you for that.

And um, just before we wrap up, do you
have any final thoughts or advice for,

for founders that are just starting
out and, um, you know, whether they're

looking for investment or, uh, what they
should be, what they should be doing,

anything that comes to mind at all?

Lu: Yes, I think the two thing I want
to emphasize, one thing is, uh, we talk

about the shelter term uncertainty.

I also understand now the fundraising
market is not ideal for founders.

So I think founder.

Should be more adaptive to the market.

Be alert to keep a close eye on their
cash flow, uh, cash flow runway.

And another thing is, uh, also looking
at different source of funding.

Of course, the VC capital is one thing.

How about other like venture
debt, venture loan and including.

Uh, NLU funding.

I know there's lots of challenges
with NLU funding now, but still

capital resources available.

So keep all different options on
the table, be able to be versatile

and meanwhile, including the exit.

I know everyone's waiting
for the IP market to open up,

but, uh, uh, we don't know.

Uh, they may not open up until 2026.

So in the meantime, if you're a founder in
the grow later stage, consider liquidity.

Also be open to much
acquisition conversation.

There are lots of much acquisition.

Uh, activity going on
right now in the market.

So that's the one piece of suggestion.

Another suggestion is specific for
founder focusing on the AI company.

I know lots of company are building
AI application vertical model, so

we have tons of discussion about
how important the AI model it is.

But on the other side of foundation for
building a low cost, high quality AG

enabled, AI native solution is really
based on the quality of the data.

So for other founder, I would suggest you
to think about what is your data strategy,

whether your solution be able to give you
good access to, uh, high quality data.

Whether you're able to build up a
data library with diverse high quality

data, which gonna support you to
fine tune your AI solution, AI model

in know a more cost efficient way.

Paul: Yeah, I really, uh, appreciate
the time you spent with us, Lou.

And, uh, as I was telling you
earlier, over the last, uh, last

year, we created this book and our.

Um, from the Collision Conference, which
you were probably at, but, um, we'll

be doing something similar with the
interviews here, and we wanted you to

have a copy of our future narrator book.

Yeah.

And, um, it, it really tells, uh, tells
people how to tell the story about their,

their business or their startup in a
way that, uh, that they can get someone

like you to understand it quickly.

Perfect.

It's such a pleasure.

And just get for a selfie with
that, uh, the book up and, uh.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

You are listening to the Business
Leadership Podcast with Edwin.