Power to the Storytellers
My parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan and my dad was an entrepreneur.
Running his import-export business was hard work.
Financially speaking we did well, but emotionally I know his other baby took a toll on him.
There were tough times, but also some really great ones too.
I learned a lot about the grit and hustle it takes to be a founder from watching my dad.
As a kid I was a voracious reader. I’d camp out in my bathroom so I could read late at night and not get caught. I was probably the only kid in school whose parents would ban books as a form of punishment when I got in trouble.
Me in my "rebellious" years.
I still love to read, especially magical realism books by authors like Elena Ferrante and Haruki Murakami. I’m captivated by the power of storytelling and fiction in particular. There’s something about the average underdog rising up to save the world that resonates with me. The idea that genius can be discovered anywhere and that people are only limited by circumstances, but not what they’re born into.
The ability to tell a compelling story, create a unique new world and to have people buy into that captivates me.
My intro to the tech world began when I moved up to San Francisco after school in 2012. I vividly remember the first time I took an Uber. I was working at GE Capital and lived in the Tenderloin and taxis literally wouldn’t stop in my neighborhood. It was in that moment that I saw firsthand how consumer tech is this multiplying force that can reshape the world for better. That new technology can create access and open up opportunities.
I was hooked and joined Uber as part of the finance team when there were fewer than 200 people at the company. My parents were nervous for me (they thought I was joining a taxi company), but supported me.
When I left Uber, it was no longer a small startup, the company had over 16,000 employees.
Fellow ex-Ubers in VC
I became intrigued with tech as an equalizer, how it can impact consumers at a wide scale and help the underserved.
I couldn’t stop thinking about companies that shape your foundational pillars and the way they impact how we move, manage our finances, learn, engage, play and even eat. I was mesmerized by how powerful it can be when tech can solve terrible experiences for consumers ...and banking is certainly one such category. (By the way, CRV’s early investments in companies like Jeeves and Mercury all fit that bill and have founders with similar mindsets.)
After Uber, I spent nearly two years at Cota Capital where I sourced and/or led Series A investments in companies like Current, a neo bank now valued at $2.2 billion, and TrueBill which finds subscriptions, manages bills and even cancels recurring charges all in a single click. Fintech became my first love because I could see the way financial institutions interact with people was just so broken. It made no sense to me, how cross border payments could take something like three to five days, when it should just be instantaneous and easy.
Next up I joined Javelin Venture Partners for just shy of three years. My experience there led me to tackle yet another broken experience, real estate. Our team invested in companies like Homeward, which levels the playing field for people making cash offers on homes, so they can be more competitive and buy before they sell their existing homes.
At CRV, I look forward to marrying my prior experiences along with some of my own personal interests, which include web3 and cryptocurrency. The biggest promise of crypto is pulling down walled gardens and democratizing access, so founders who are delving into that avenue will definitely pique my interest. I’m also keen to meet entrepreneurs who are solving fragmented experiences across the consumer landscape and more broadly across the fintech, e-commerce and healthcare spaces.
