Podcast Summary: Tess Hau — The Investor with Joel Palathinkal

Episode: Tess Hau: Tess Ventures
Date: October 8, 2025
Host: Dr. Joel Palathinkal
Guest: Tess Hau, Founder of Tess Ventures

Overview

This episode of The Investor with Joel Palathinkal features Tess Hau, a venture capitalist and experienced entrepreneur, who shares her journey from her early days in Toronto to building and investing in high-impact startups in areas like fintech, cancer therapeutics, and autonomous vehicles. Tess reflects on lessons from team sports, resilience, the importance of authentic relationships, and the emerging investment and technology trends reshaping the future.

Main Themes & Discussion Points

1. Tess Hau’s Background & Early Influences

[01:19 – 06:14]

• Family & Upbringing

  • Immigrant parents from Hong Kong to Canada; raised in Toronto as the eldest of five siblings.
  • Early experience managing siblings helped develop leadership and management skills.
  • Team sports instilled a passion for teamwork over personal glory.

• Entrepreneurial Beginnings

  • Started entrepreneurial activities as a child, including work and ventures with siblings.
  • Co-founded a startup in undergrad which led to a cash cow business and later multiple acquisition offers — all bootstrapped without outside venture money due to limited exposure in Toronto compared to the US.

“Essentially, they’re my first management experience… this really allowed me to quickly hockey stick my management leadership experience thrown into the situation.” — Tess Hau [01:51]

2. Lessons from Success and Staying Hungry

[06:14 – 13:30]

• Avoiding Complacency After a Win

  • Discussion on not letting one successful exit stall personal growth.
  • Used car collection and racing as an analogy for helping founders “upgrade” through VC support.
  • Emphasized importance of letting go of an early success to pursue greater challenges, e.g., entering high tech and Silicon Valley.

• Intentional Skill-building

  • Took a sabbatical after the exit for personal growth and reflection in Bermuda.
  • Moved to Silicon Valley, spent time at Stanford, intentionally building relationships and cross-disciplinary knowledge.

“If I drive the Ferrari now, what will I be driving down the road? I won’t be hungry enough.” — Tess Hau [10:08]

3. On Resilience & Embracing Failure

[13:30 – 17:24]

• Mental Models & Fast Iteration

  • Self-awareness: Recognizing strengths, weaknesses, and complementing with the right people.
  • Advocates “fast iteration” in both work and life, using setbacks as learning opportunities.

• Personal Motivation

  • Caregiving experience for family members influences her commitment to impact (mental health, cancer).
  • Emphasizes blending work and personal life for a sense of continuous purpose.

"I put myself at a rigor of iterating every hour if possible... the faster you iterate, you’re able to take all the experiences that you have and apply that." — Tess Hau [14:50]

4. Storytelling, Team-building, and Authentic Leadership

[19:03 – 29:16]

• Effective Storytelling

  • Founders should be authentic, fact-based, and transparent—sharing both strengths and weaknesses.
  • Invest in team-building, shared goals, and emotional resonance to engage investors.

• Mentorship & Inspiring Others

  • Mentors people through authentic, reciprocal relationships.
  • Values clear KPIs, realistic goal setting, and acknowledges that building the right team takes time, experience, and sometimes failure.

"Be authentic and transparent… being transparent and sharing where you and your team are strong at and where you think you have weakness and asking for help allows an investor to immediately bond with you." — Tess Hau [19:45]

5. The Importance of Relationships & Social Capital

[25:48 – 31:57]

• Trust and Friendship in Investing

  • Tess prioritizes long-term relationships over transactional ones.
  • Social capital—helping without expectation—builds reputation and opens doors in investing.

• Network Effects

  • Drawing from the power of “tribe connectors” in blockchain and other communities.
  • Encourages connecting like-minded, trusted individuals and networks for maximum impact and deal flow.

“Build friendship, don’t build transaction... ultimately building up social capital is the best form of currency.” — Tess Hau [26:59]

6. Investment Focus & Emerging Trends

[32:05 – 41:06]

• Cancer Therapeutics

  • Early-stage investments in transformative cancer treatments, inspired by personal family experience.

• Passwordless Authentication & Data Privacy

  • Investment in companies reimagining secure, convenience-focused authentication (e.g., FIDO2 certification).

• Autonomous & Electric Vehicles

  • Interest in companies enabling retrofitting of autonomous tech for trucks—solving real-world problems like driver shortages and safety.
  • Integration of portfolio companies to drive synergistic value.

"Whoever actually owns that password gateway has that data, and it’s security and privacy... eventual identity management is where it owns everything." — Tess Hau [34:10]

7. Investor Access, Family Offices, and Deal Structure

[41:18 – 46:18]

• Family Office Involvement

  • Many pre-IPO and late-stage opportunities require large minimum investments, best suited for family offices.
  • The importance of being strategic, not only about pricing but about the relationships that provide information on when to buy/sell.

• The Value of Strategic Networks

  • Knowing the right time to sell comes from deep relationships and being in the right “circles”.

"If you had the crystal ball, if you are Elon Musk’s friend, wouldn’t we all want to know when is the best timing to sell?" — Tess Hau [44:16]

8. Crypto & Blockchain Insights

[46:45 – 52:14]

• Market Trends

  • Ethereum 2.0 and smart contracts—opportunity for participating in staking and the importance of technological advancement.
  • Bitcoin outlook (bullish, possible price milestones).

• Staying Informed

  • Emphasizes triangulating news, market data, and learning from others for crypto investment decisions.
  • Noted volatility and necessity for both long-term vision and tactical awareness.

9. Q&A: Autonomous Vehicles, Market Segmentation, and Brand Relationships

[52:50 – 58:57]

• Autonomous Trucking & Unions

  • Aligned with the trucking industry by retrofitting existing fleets, not replacing jobs outright.
  • Solution focuses on safety and solving labor shortages.

• Millennials, Gen Z, and Market Stickiness

  • Importance of capturing early generations for brand loyalty—analogies to car and financial services industries.
  • Building a brand that adapts to younger audiences creates lifetime customers.

"It’s about the relationship, the relationship with your brand, the relationship with that sales executive... It’s about building friendship." — Tess Hau [57:22]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Mentorship and Relationships
  “Success is really based on the lives that you’ve touched in your lifetime... when you make somebody feel a certain way, I feel that’s something that is irreplaceable.” — Joel Palathinkal [29:38]; quoting Maya Angelou

• On Social Capital
  “Sometimes one is paying fees for... the relationship in an investment opportunity... it’s about the relationship, the long-term friendship...” — Tess Hau [43:28]

• On Building for Impact
  “Start off with helping one person at a time... I now am very lucky to be at a new stage where if I help... the platinum connector of a group... combining tribes together accelerates that process.” — Tess Hau [30:27]

Episode Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:19–06:14 | Tess's upbringing, family, early entrepreneurship | | 06:14–13:30 | Handling success, hunger for growth, transition to Silicon Valley | | 13:30–17:24 | Resilience, failure, motivation, work-life integration | | 19:03–22:35 | Storytelling for founders, building authentic pitches | | 25:48–31:57 | Trust, friendships, mentorship, social capital | | 32:05–36:54 | Investment sectors: cancer therapy, authentication, EV/autonomous tech | | 41:18–46:18 | Family offices, SPVs, the power of investor networks | | 46:45–52:14 | Blockchain/crypto trends, Ethereum 2.0, investment frameworks | | 52:50–58:57 | Q&A: autonomous trucking, brand, generational market loyalty |

Episode Takeaways

• Success in investing and entrepreneurship is a journey—constant learning, resilience, and personal growth are vital.
• Authentic relationships and social capital create opportunities, unlock information advantages, and lead to greater impact.
• Emerging trends in biotech, privacy, and autonomous technologies offer ample opportunity for those building with purpose and collaboration.
• Building for the long term—whether teams, partnerships, or investments—requires trust, transparency, and the courage to embrace failure and keep growing.

Closing Principle:

"Build friendships, don’t build transactions, and everything will work out." — Tess Hau [58:51]