Spotlight: BMWiVentures featured team member Brian Wei

Brian Wei, Analyst

Please provide your bio.

I am originally from Brooklyn, New York and currently an Analyst at BMW i Ventures. Prior to joining BMW i Ventures, I was a strategy consultant for KPMG Strategy’s technology, media and telecommunications team, where I focused on growth, M&A and operational strategy projects for clients involved in SaaS, APIs, unified communications and so much more. 

I graduated from Harvard with a concentration in Statistics. During my senior year at college, I was an intern at Romulus Capital, where I was able to dive into early-stage venture capital investing in companies involved in B2B enterprise and the commercialization of science.

What do you focus on at BMW i Ventures?

At BMW i Ventures, I segment my time into sourcing investment opportunities, conducting due diligence for active deals, and providing fund and portfolio support. For sourcing investment opportunities, I will dedicate time during the week to learn about and speak with companies and teams pushing the forefront of disruptive innovation in Industry 4.0, mobility and sustainability. During a live deal, I will conduct analyses to understand the market, the startup’s product mix, and financial valuation. When I am not supporting a deal, I support the team with projects to understand our fund performance. 

In terms of what spaces I look at at BiV, I have dug into industrial robotics, computer vision, 3D printing, semiconductors, ML Ops, AR/VR solutions, supply chain software, carbon capture utilization and storage, and green hydrogen. 

What was your pathway into venture capital?

During my time at college, I joined Harvard Ventures, which supported entrepreneurship on campus by facilitating events with startups and venture capitalists, sharing ideas as a community, and providing resources for those who wanted to start their own project. As a senior, I was a term-time intern for Romulus Capital, a Boston-based VC fund that invests at the Seed and Series A stage. This experience provided me a direct view into the engaging world of supporting and building startups that are tackling tangible problems.

After graduation, I joined KPMG Strategy in their TMT team as a strategy consultant. There, I developed a skill set that helped me digest unstructured business problems and offer recommendations for clients that would directly impact their bottom line. Acknowledging this toolkit and assessing my time working with large corporations, I concluded that I wanted to focus solely on supporting those who are quickly pushing the boundaries of technological and business model innovation.  

What do you look for in a potential investment?

For a potential investment, I dig into a variety of variables to make a decision. First, I look at the problem a startup is solving and determine whether or not the issue offers a large or quickly growing market opportunity. Second, I look at the team and assess why this particular team, along with each individual’s particular skill sets and professional experience, is the right set of individuals to tackle the problem at hand. Third, I evaluate the market in terms of the players within the space and understand the mechanics that drive the particular industry. Fourth, I look for the competitive advantage that the product or solution brings to the market.

With these areas covered, I would be able to make the right projections surrounding a potential investment.

What is your most contrarian view on an existing or emerging technology trend?

I am skeptical about the value of carbon accounting software, which aims to automate the collection of raw emissions data and calculation of indirect emissions while connecting companies to decarbonization solutions including carbon-removal projects and clean energy. 

First, there is no universal standard and system for tracking and reporting on carbon emissions and climate impact, resulting in opaque comparisons among companies using different platforms for their reporting. Although the Greenhouse Gas Protocol has published a corporate emissions accounting standard in the early 2000s, startups can vary in the ways they interpret and incorporate the methodologies for their platforms. Second, a software platform would need to provide continuous access to energy generation data. In other words, one would need to connect to settlement-grade devices at the point of energy consumption and register each device with a digital ID to collect the relevant metadata. Some companies like ClearTrace and Origin perform this function via blockchain-based platforms. 

Despite my doubts, I do agree that we need to be able to trace emissions in an automated and standardized manner. To do so, you would need an immutable ledger to measure energy supplies at their source and cover it with the grid emissions profile. This information allows companies to generate a report that shows how the carbon free energy a customer is purchasing matches up with their net total carbon footprint. 

What advice would you impart to entrepreneurs?

One piece of advice I would give to entrepreneurs is to show how your product or solution delivers value. Having a product demo on hand and a few customer testimonials will allow investors to have a stronger grasp of both the problem and product differentiation. 

The second piece of advice I would give is to choose the right investor set for your company’s needs. In an environment of abundant capital, you as an entrepreneur should assess the investor pool to make sure how they can accelerate your business.

What’s something interesting about yourself that most people may not know?

During my free time, I often play competitive shooter video games because I enjoy improving the skills of reading opponent strategies and mechanical aiming. Currently, I enjoy playing Fortnite and Valorant. During 2019, I competed (albeit unsuccessfully) on the weekends for spots to the Fortnite World Cup.