From Pitch to Partnership - FinovateSpring, San Diego
ACTIVITIES 2026
5/2/2026
At FinovateSpring 2026, our Founder & Managing Partner - Huong T Tran - shared a simple but often overlooked truth:
𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁. 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆.
Most founders approach fundraising as a process of securing a check.
The better ones approach it as choosing a long-term partner.
Not all capital is created equal. The difference between passive capital, connected capital, and operator-backed capital compounds over time.
Across both the U.S. and Emerging Asia, a few patterns continue to hold:
• The best founders understand their customers with depth, not surface-level data
• Judgment, not just answers, separates seed from Series A readiness
• And while capital is increasingly commoditized, partnership is not
The takeaway is simple:
𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 - 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀.
No noise. Only signal.
with Douglas W. - SixThirty Ventures; Michael Burns - Canapi Ventures; Gabriella Brignardello - Fika Ventures 💜
