‘Risks can be opportunities’: Carman Chan founder of venture capital fund Click Ventures
Tech investor comments on industry trends, the challenges female entrepreneurs face, and the recent ‘irrelevant’ IT Goddess pageant
At age 11, investor and entrepreneur Carman Chan discovered that a friend’s family home had been renovated, which inspired her to do the same at her place.
Chan approached her father to ask if he would be willing to redecorate their home, but he said no. Undeterred, the youngster looked into the project alone.
“I went to check my bank book and the price of getting the paint and some tools. I came up with a budget and found I had enough money to buy those things,” she said. “And I told my dad I’m going to pay for this project, so he allowed me to do it.”
She followed the guidelines given by the assistant at the hardware store and carefully removed the old paint from the kitchen walls, eventually painting the whole room.
The living room proved more of a challenge and she only completed one wall, yet she credits this as a learning experience she later applied in business.
“Instead of the whole room, I picked one wall and it still turned out good. So it’s just like the start-up journey,” she said. “Nowadays we all know that Plan A doesn’t always work out. You just have to iterate and find the next plan that works.”