At ICONIQ Growth, our guiding principle is both straightforward and transformative: go “all-in” on the people who shape the future. This means being relentless in championing founders, from their early stages to achieving market leadership. It also means striving to foster a culture where our own team members can thrive, learn, and lead. Few embody this ethos more fully than my partner, Tengbo Li, whose boundless energy, profound insights, and unwavering generosity as a mentor and partner have made him not only a cornerstone of our culture but also a trusted ally to the founders with whom we partner.

 Notably, Tengbo’s journey with ICONIQ Growth began in 2015 when we were competitors for a deal. That experience gave him a firsthand look at the power of our approach—and soon after, he joined us to help elevate our platform into what it has become today. Since then, Tengbo has been an integral force behind more than a dozen successful partnerships with transformative companies like AcuityMD, Articulate, Aurora Solar, Calendly, CaptivateIQ, FreeWill, Glean, Netskope, QGenda (acquired by Hearst), ServiceTitan (public: TTAN), Shopmonkey, Snowflake (public, SNOW), and Turbonomic (acquired by IBM).

While at ICONIQ Growth, Tengbo has been instrumental in driving over $1.7 billion in investments, and he has proven himself to be both an impressive partner and an invaluable leader. He is dexterous as a partner across sectors and stages, but his impact has been especially pronounced in application software, vertical SaaS and more recently AI. Time and again, Tengbo has identified opportunities in industries that others might have overlooked, helping bring technology to sectors ripe for transformation.

Tengbo’s authentic passion to help extraordinary founders scale their businesses shines through unwavering commitment to be an exceptional partner. Whether he’s identifying promising market opportunities or rolling up his sleeves to support a company’s growth journey, Tengbo is a valuable inspiration and role model for our team’s emerging leaders.

As Tengbo steps into his new role as General Partner, we spoke about the experiences and philosophies that drive his success—in both work and life.

1. What led you to pursue a career in venture and growth investing? What aspects of investing energize and challenge you the most?

In many ways, I fell serendipitously into venture capital. Growing up in Michigan, far from Silicon Valley, I was immersed in technology through the auto industry where my parents worked. This early exposure fostered a deep appreciation for the impact of forward-thinking entrepreneurs, a passion that was further fueled during my time as a staffer in local congressional offices. And working at McKinsey brought me closer to the rhythms of investment firms and software companies. This early random walk in my career solidified my belief in the powerful synergy between entrepreneurship, technology, and capital—a combination that has captivated me ever since.

At ICONIQ Growth, we've strived to be at the forefront of multiple major paradigm shifts, embracing the cloud, mobile, and now AI. Additionally, I believe our team has helped drive the digitization of specific industries such as healthcare and home services through our partnerships. What I find perpetually rewarding in this role is the opportunity to back exceptional platforms that serve as catalysts for growth and progress across various verticals, particularly when the beneficiaries reside outside traditional technology hubs.

I'm equally energized by the mutual growth that stems from our partnerships with entrepreneurs. ICONIQ Growth has been fortunate to work with what we believe are many of the most consequential software companies of the past decade. I’ve learned as much, if not more, from working alongside entrepreneurs to overcome the challenges that inevitably occur on the journey to sustained success. I love the ‘aha!’ moments that occur for entrepreneurs along the way and, in parallel, the personal growth that results from our close partnerships.

2. What is the most important lesson from your career thus far?

Put simply: extraordinary individuals achieve extraordinary outcomes far beyond the bounds of what data and even well-informed experience might suggest is possible. For me, this overarching lesson is composed of two key components.

Never bet against an exceptional founder: These individuals possess the innate ability to execute against even the narrowest-seeming opportunities, transforming them into something remarkable. Metrics, market size, product differentiation, and all the other factors surrounding a partnership are critical, but I believe that nothing is more important than the insights, capabilities, and values of the leadership team. Exceptional founders not only drive their companies forward but also attract and cultivate talent, creating a virtuous cycle where talent begets more talent.

Intuition plays a pivotal role as an investor: Studying historical data is valuable but doing so too carefully can ground you in an unimaginative conclusion about an opportunity. It is easy to come to the perspective, for instance, that a market is less compelling by pointing to modest preceding outcomes in that market. As someone who has missed some incredible opportunities as a result of this line of thinking, I’ve come to realize how exceptional entrepreneurs executing relentlessly against amazing ambitions can alter the contours of their market completely and build companies of an impressive scale despite what a spreadsheet might say about the odds.

3. What are the core principles you focus on when you are evaluating opportunities, regardless of stage?

At ICONIQ Growth, our strategy is to build on long-term partnerships with our portfolio companies. We frequently follow-on in subsequent rounds, continuing our support for these thriving partnerships over the years.

A cornerstone of our approach to growing our partnerships is identifying market leaders with durable growth potential—which I view as one of the most critical traits and something I evaluate when considering new partnerships. To me, durable growth means being able to extend a company's success and leadership for many years without appreciable deceleration, a magical phenomenon that can lead to generational outcomes

Achieving durable growth starts with customer love for the core product, the kind that customers can’t do without. It extends to occupying what one of my partners calls “strategic high ground.” In other words, owning an important capability or workflow that commands pricing power and upon which other processes and systems are dependent. Occupying strategic high ground helps a market leader earn the opportunity to develop adjacent functionalities and potentially advance into entirely new markets that provide space for further growth.

At the later stages, it is often easier to detect the potential for durable growth, but that still requires discernment. Finding the life spark of durable growth at earlier stages willed into existence by a visionary founder is often what makes being an investor unpredictable and exciting!

4. What trends or themes are you excited to see over the next several years?

As someone who has partnered with a diverse range of businesses and numerous industry-specific applications, I am especially excited about the intersection of AI and vertical apps in finance, legal, healthcare and other industries. Many vertical SaaS companies have proven historical assessments of market size constraints to be overly conservative, and I believe that vertical AI will expand the market opportunity for industry-specific applications by 10x compared to what would have been previously possible.

5. Why do you think a founder should work with ICONIQ Growth?

Our portfolio founders are inherently supported by the platform and ecosystem that ICONIQ Growth represents, as well as the incredible individuals whom I am fortunate to call my colleagues who have a passion for technology, humility, intellectual curiosity, authentic care, and a desire for excellence. Our team strives to be “all-in” in aligning ourselves with the missions of our portfolio companies through commercial introductions, data science, technical advisory efforts, and other vectors.

I firmly believe that the combination of the team and ethos we’ve cultivated, pattern recognition that results from working with many of what I believe to be the best technology companies globally, and one of the strongest networks offers the potential to consistently unlock uncommon outcomes for founders who aspire to build enduring companies. We believe most exceptional entrepreneurs benefit from true partners and sounding boards, not from overbearing intervention or, conversely, passive involvement. We observe this tenet religiously, working alongside founders to bring their vision to life by offering a tailored set of assets—this is all delivered through a carefully architected team that is steeped in the market leaders we back and genuinely cares about maximizing their potential.

6. What does being “all-in” mean to you?

To me, being “all-in” means singular and uncompromising commitment. It can be manifested in different ways. It means finding mutual alignment in mission, values, and operating philosophies at the outset of a partnership. It means being keenly aware of the dynamics of a business at any point in the lifecycle, and working to provide guidance at the right time that is stage-appropriate. It means being a vigilant partner, looking consistently around corners for competitive threats or new commercial opportunities. It means being a sparring partner on ideas, never yielding just to be nice but also being willing to recognize the limitations of my views when encountering a strategy or new product conceived with deep conviction. It means inspecting my own shortcomings if I ever fall short of these principles and committing to doing better every time thereafter. It means treating each entrepreneur not just as a business partner but as a whole human.