Australian venture capitalist Jessy Wu is exiting AfterWork Ventures, a venture capital firm she joined as the first employee in early 2021, to launch a strategic communications firm called Encour.
The brainchild of Alex Khor, Adrian Petersen, David Insull, Mike Forster, and Adam Smith, AfterWork Ventures first entered the Australian and New Zealand venture capital scene back in 2019 as a proof of concept "micro" fund deploying $1 million into pre-seed and seed stage startups. They went on to raise their first "professional" fund of $20 million in 2021.
In her time at AfterWork, Jessy worked as an investment principal and the head of community, performing due diligence on prospective companies and working closely with founders.
Encour is a strategic communications agency that she says will "embolden clients to command the narrative." The idea is to scale a global professional services company that is a "trusted advisor on all forms of communication": both external and internal communication, and investor communication.
"I’ve seen how communication can alter a company’s trajectory. Great communication can attract customers in droves, pique the interest of top talent, and whip investors into a frenzy. Butchered communication can sow dissent, destroy trust, and precipitate downfalls," Jessy says.
Since starting Encour in July 2024, she has worked with three clients and delivered two campaigns, including with Aussie fintech startup Slice.
Jessy says her work at AfterWork Ventures has taught her invaluable lessons - that have also shaped her new chapter as a founder. "I learned that timing is everything. 2021 created unique conditions to raise a $20 million fund as first time fund managers; 2022 and 2023 presented favourable conditions to deploy the fund into sedate market conditions," she says. "The fund’s success will be owed as much to timing as judgement and hard work."
"In working with over 30 pre-seed and seed stage startups as an investor, I learned to recognise successful strategies and common pitfalls. I learned to distinguish vanity metrics from real momentum, and I've been able to bring greater focus to the company I’m building."
So how do you know when it's time to leave a job that you love?
"I did a lot of soul searching on this. Ultimately, I realised that my life’s work isn’t as an investor. I think great VC investors need to be extremely patient, tolerant of long feedback loops, and at peace with the fact they can’t control how a company performs after they’ve made the investment," she says.
"I’m impatient and I love short feedback loops. I love experimenting and iterating. I love to ship and I can execute quickly. When I feel energised, I can produce output at the speed of knots. I thrive in chaos - I think I’m better than the average person at seeing a path through the noise. I loved working on the ‘zero-to-one’ for AfterWork - helping to build the brand, the community, the investment engine, and the platform for supporting portfolio companies."
She added that AfterWork is something she will always be proud to have been a part of, and was grateful to cross paths with the team when she did.