Hummingbird Ventures investment strategy

This VC firm looks for only 1 trait in founders in 2024:

Trauma

Hummingbird Ventures investment strategy is to look for founders who’ve had a traumatic experience!

Why?

→ Because every startup faces 3-4 near-death experiences

(& founders who’ve endured trauma can handle such insane stress 🤯)

Therefore, it hunts for founders who are:
Off-beat
Damaged
Have suffered from Trauma

Crazy, right?

But the philosophy works.

Hummingbird consistently provides 10x returns on a net basis & outperforms top VC firms.

2 strategies they use to achieve 10x returns:

[1] The 80% rule:

Hummingbird believes the right entrepreneur is 80% of the equation.

They demonstrated this when they invested in Peak Games.

No VC firm invested in Peak Games because the market was saturated. (Zenga & Zyga were booming)

Hummingbird assessed the founder & recognized his out of the world ambition.

They invested in him & achieved a 6000% ROI.

[2] A Radical Approach to VC Strategy:

Look for off-beat founders (the more damaged, the better) → Invest in them → And let them be

It’s that simple!

Their approach is fuelled by the belief that:

→ Greatness can arise from adversity

Not everyone with trauma will become a great founder.

It’s about those rare individuals whose experiences forge exceptional drive and resilience.

(Now Ranbir Kapoor’s pursuit of trauma in Rockstar makes sense 😅)

What is your opinion on the relationship between trauma & success?