Climbing the Wrong Mountain: Why I Walked Away from Big Law and PE | Daniel Suh - E713
episode
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
42 min
1 speaker
7 chapters
transcribed 19 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
How did Daniel’s immigrant family background shape his early life and values?
The feeling was akin to climbing a mountain for ten years. Then you get to the summit.
Yeah.
And then you realize you climbed the wrong mountain the whole time. The apartment manager came in for the inspection and he just started like yelling at my mom. And then after he left, my mom just like broke down crying. And that was really the first time I felt real anger. Like I'm a chill person. So I was like, what the heck? And I was just so pissed, I was like, okay, like no more. I'm gonna have to do something about this.
Hey Daniel, so excited to have you on the show. Uh thank you for flying all the way from San Francisco to Manila to do this podcast and be at the CloudTech conference.
Yeah, super excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Yeah. So uh Danny, could you introduce yourself?
Yeah, um, I'm Daniel. I'm the general partner at Goldhouse Ventures. And Gold House is a community that builds cultural leaders um and leadership in the creative industries, entertainment sectors. And we're building uh just the largest membership of the top Asian leaders in every industry. And I specifically lead the venture capital team and investing in great companies like Clouded.
Yeah. So we've got to start all the way from the beginning because you know, I was looking at your background and everything. Uh and I kind of laughed about your educational history because you because you you studied at UCSD and then after that you studied at Northwestern twice. Yes. Uh and so uh you had described it as um I'll let you describe it uh because it's funnier coming from you, but could you share what those three experiences were?
So I guess a little bit of family background. Yeah. Uh my parents are immigrants from Korea.
What motivated Daniel to fight for his family’s security deposit and how did that experience influence his view of law?
They left behind amazing careers, amazing jobs to immigrate to the US. And they started a small business out here. So I grew up in a small business family. Um that a story for another time, a lot of turbulence, but you know, that experience gave me appreciation for entrepreneurship. Um, but my parents went through really hard time. So, like as every Asian immigrant parents, they impressed upon me, hey, you gotta be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Um it just so happened a lot of my family members, husbands and aunts, they wanted to be doctors. And so, okay, like that's what I'll do. I'm gonna go to UCS and be a doctor. Um, two quarters in, I realized very quickly I was not meant to be in the healthcare industry.
Um, but it's already a little too late, right?
Mm-hmm.
Um, and so that moment was like, Oh my gosh, like I spent my entire childhood in high school like optimizing to be a doctor, but now that I'm here, I don't wanna do this. Um, but it was around that time I started my first business in high school and I thought, wow, this is super fun. Yeah. Um and so we didn't have a business major at UCSD, so I decided just to go into um economics as my major. And that was out say my first like academic pivot. Um yeah, but I think it was all trial by error, right? Like I did not want to be a doctor. I didn't even bother checking out engineering. Um and I just eliminated those to career paths. So the only thing left is being a lawyer. Um so after UCSD, I graduated, I joined the consulting firm.
Uh, because around that time, uh both my younger brother and my mom went back to school. Well, my brother went to undergrad. And my mom did a career pivot and went to nursing school. And so while they're in school, I was in consulting, make sure they could graduate. And when they did, uh I was like, Okay, it's my turn to go back to grad school. Um, I was lucky enough to be accepted to Northwestern's J D MBA program and that's where I was like, Okay, I'm gonna make my parents proud, I'm gonna be a lawyer, gonna work at a law firm and they could brag about me.
Yeah, and I think the way you described it was UCSD, you ruled out being a doctor. Doctor. Uh and then you went to um Northwestern for law school and you described it as making your parents happy. Yes. And then you did a business school side and you said you made yourself happy.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
How did Daniel’s immigrant family background shape his early life and values?
0:00–1:36
2
What motivated Daniel to fight for his family’s security deposit and how did that experience influence his view of law?
1:36–7:14
3
Why did Daniel choose a JD‑MBA path at Northwestern instead of a traditional medical or engineering career?
7:14–11:22
4
How did five years in consulting prepare Daniel for later roles in law, private equity, and entrepreneurship?
11:22–19:39
5
What made Daniel realize he had “climbed the wrong mountain” after landing a big‑law and PE offer?
19:39–25:02
6
How did the Gold House website and mission inspire Daniel to change his career direction?
25:02–38:25
7
What is “cultural capital” and why does Daniel believe it matters more than money for founders?
38:25–42:45
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
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