The Independent Investor: Our Story

Why The Independent Investor? What is the value proposition? What is it that you are trying to accomplish? What is the publication’s growth potential and profitability? These are some of the few questions people have asked me. All fair questions.

When we started The Independent Investor in late 2021, we knew it wouldn’t be a business model for venture capital, but we did it because we felt that the Philippine startup ecosystem needed to share its stories with the world. We believed that more stories could bring more independent entrepreneurs and investors together, benefiting the Philippine startup ecosystem as a whole. It’s as simple as that.

It was the summer of 2021 when the idea was born. Ian Paradies and I have been angel investors since 2018 and learned that many stories were left untold, only reserved for a handful of angels through word-of-mouth. For over two years, entrepreneurs had been pitching to DayOne Capital Ventures, and since we didn’t have all the money to pursue every opportunity and had to be quite selective, we had to turn most down, even the compelling ones.

Investing is all about opportunity cost, and just because an opportunity isn’t pursued doesn’t mean it’s a bad one. It just means that an investor could have a limited amount of “chips,” and each may have a different risk tolerance and profile. That said, we started to encounter many of these opportunities that weren’t shared with the public, and some were exciting stories about hardworking (and often lonely) entrepreneurs with interesting solutions. We felt that many entrepreneurs weren’t given the recognition they deserved and wondered why this information had to be shared with only a handful of angels and “sophisticated investors.” Why not share these stories with the world and have other entrepreneurs benefit from them?

We believed that one way of participating in these compelling companies is through storytelling. That’s when we started thinking of a platform where we brought independent writers to publish stories through DayOne’s network. We would have weekly huddles and discuss all the interesting stories we heard the previous week and share those with a network of ghostwriters. We did this with NO REVENUE IN MIND. We felt it was needed in the startup ecosystem and knew that if we gathered a large enough network, we would find a way to fund the platform and eventually turn it into a sustainable business. It was a big risk, but we knew that if it didn’t work, we would still be happy that we shared these stories and that they would impact the ecosystem in a positive way.

After I met with Ian, we eventually brought Pete Delantar in since he had experience in organizing events through Insignia. This proved to be right as we eventually launched The Independent Investor Open Access Series.

It was the end of 2021 when the website was finally launched by a network of scrappy freelancers and writers with the help of Nachi Ugarte. The name Independent Investor implies what the Philippines needs more of: independent investing and independent capital. For the longest time, our economy has been driven by large conglomerates and concentrated pools of capital, and this can be dangerous if it lasts too long and control remains with the hands of a few. The Philippines breeds entrepreneurs who start amazing companies, only to be sold to highly bureaucratic entities. What independent capital does is it democratizes capital and allows entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams without the shackles of conglomerate control.

We believe that if we tell stories independently, it will attract independent capital from family offices, angels, and even regional funds, which could compete with existing legacy conglomerates in the Philippines. That is not to say we are against conglomerates. We feel they play an important role in the ecosystem, but bringing them closer to an independent model means entrepreneurs can pursue their mission without biases. DayOne works well with other Corporate Venture Capital firms (CVCs) and we support what they are doing. We have noticed that most of them are starting to push towards a more independent model, which is great.

In evolution, survival favors the strong, and only those who are willing to adapt are the true survivors. A lion in the savanna is very different from a lion in the zoo. When a small company is compelled to integrate into the ecosystem of a conglomerate, it can liken to a lion being transplanted from its natural habitat to a zoo, and this can destroy the evolutionary forces that make lions strong. A similar phenomenon can occur when startups grow complacent, knowing they have the safety net of a larger company. This is why as investors, we place significant emphasis on scrutinizing cap tables.

Independent capital changes all of that. It allows the right kind of capital to flow into the right companies and allows early-stage companies to flourish, or not. If not, it allows them to pivot the way they need to. In essence, it provides the necessary flexibility for these ventures to flourish or pivot when circumstances dictate.

This relates to the story of the dog and the wolf that was shared by Nassim Taleb, author of “Black Swan” and “Antifragile,” whom I respect as one of the greatest independent thinkers of our time:

“The dog boasts to the wolf about all the contraptions of comfort and luxury he has, almost tempting the wolf to enlist. However, when the wolf asks the dog about his collar and understands its use, he becomes terrified. “I want nothing of your meals,” he says. He runs away and is still running.” – Aesop

This fable implies that freedom is never free. There are costs to freedom (no income, risk of deprivation, limited healthcare, etc.), but the trade-off is the ability to chase your dreams. Wolves are hungry and often starve, but when they kill, they eat well. This is what entrepreneurship is about. It’s about being a wolf.

We live life attending school, striving for good grades, pursuing higher education, such as an MBA, and eventually securing a job, a mortgage, a beautiful home with picket fences, and then we live happily ever after. Is that really the ideal path to happiness and success? I don’t think it’s as simple as that. This sense of stability is not free as well. The big trade-off here is that you are bound by a “master,” and that master is your employer. You end up living a stable life in exchange for having a master that tells you what to do, similar to a dog.

Why don’t more people have the option to be entrepreneurs, and why isn’t it as common as being an employee? I believe the reason for this is that entrepreneurship is a contrarian path. No successful entrepreneur ends up where they are without being somewhat contrarian, and when you are contrarian and everyone is against you, the allure of stability and social acceptance can become the easier route to follow.

Look at Edgar Sia, better known as ‘Injap” in business circles. Injap started a chicken and rice concept and ended up becoming a tycoon. Henry Sy started a shoe store that turned his family into one of the richest in Southeast Asia. At first glance, these concepts don’t seem that compelling. If Henry Sy or Injap had two paths in their early years: one to join an investment bank with high pay or start a shoe store and chicken/rice concept respectively, I would bet that their surrounding family would have pushed them towards the former.

The point here is that schools don’t teach contrarian thinking since it is a creative exercise, but by having a platform that shares emerging early-stage stories, hopefully, more Filipinos can think outside the box and use their skill sets to become the next Injap, Henry Sy, or Tony Tan.

This is what we believe to be true at The Independent Investor. We support the disruptors, the contrarians, the rule breakers, the lonely, the underdogs, and independent thinkers, those who try and fail, those who try and succeed, and everyone within this ecosystem. They are unique, and you can tell who they are when you hear statements like “they said it couldn’t happen, but we did it anyway.”

By the summer of 2022, we realized that we needed leadership, and none of us were writers nor did we have experience running a newsroom. We just loved interesting entrepreneurial stories. We started by bridging stories, and the next phase will be about bridging people.

We met Ron Castro and shared ideas about getting into events, which would allow us to bridge entrepreneurs with other like-minded entrepreneurs. We believe this will allow us to become more sustainable as a business while adding value to the ecosystem. This was when we brought Ron in to lead the newsroom and develop the Open Access Series, which he did. We are grateful for his leadership, and we look forward to the next chapter of The Independent Investor.

If you are an investor, entrepreneur, writer or creative who shares our passion, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Keenan Ugarte is the Managing Partner of DayOne Capital Ventures, an independent private holding company based in the Philippines that partners with entrepreneurs across a wide range of industries. He is the Co-Founder and Director of Independent Investor. His other ventures include Cocopan and Gulf Coast Coffee & Co.