Dave Lu, Co-founder @ Pared, Managing Partner at Hyphen Capital
Dave Lu is the Founder and Managing Partner of Hyphen Capital, a syndicate that invests in pre-seed companies founded by Asian American entrepreneurs. He is also a seasoned operator (ex Yahoo, eBay, Cisco) and a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Pared (staffing marketplace for the restaurant industry) and FanPop (bootstrapped entertainment website with 35M+ monthly visitors). Dave is a steadfast advocate of Asian American entrepreneurship and recently rallied the community around an initiative to publish an open letter in the WSJ in response to an uptick in violence against the AAPI community.
In this episode we spoke with Dave about the following:
Conflating what he thought his parents wanted for his career with what he truly wanted, and how he broke out of that thinking to start his own company
Why it’s crucial for Asian American leaders to advocate for themselves and “have more swag”
Encouraging the next generation of AAPI entrepreneurs to overcome the bamboo ceiling by building their own houses
You can listen to him below or wherever else you get to your podcasts.
On experiencing Covid in Taiwan
It’s a unique time in Taiwanese history. We have handled Covid better than almost every country in the world. People are wondering why I came here in November from San Francisco. I couldn’t take it anymore. We had the orange skies of fire, and Covid was out of control. Not to mention the crime. When I came here, much of the weight and burden I had lifted. I can walk outside, walk into a restaurant, go to a concert, and all of those things.
A bunch of my friends escaped here for safety. The communal aspect of caring for one another and respecting one another goes a long way. Everyone wore masks, complied, and generally cared for one another. There is also the unsaid aspect of shame that if you get your neighbors sick, you’ll be put on blast. I think all of those things combined have left Taiwan almost Covid free.
On the need for Asian Americans to have more swag
The one weakness that I’ve seen from the Asian culture is that we need more swag. We’re too quiet and humble. We don’t brag enough. When we pitch, we only ever tell the facts. Even after we’re successful, we don’t say much. It’s because of our culture. To lay low and stay under the radar. If we don’t brag and don’t make a big fuss, then we don’t have role models for the college kids or the high school kids to say, whoa, I want to be like that.
On why he started Hyphen Capital
I saw a lack of community between Asians in the Valley. I started to put together a dinner. There were eight of us that started. There was Eric Wu from Opendoor amongst a ton of other founders. We started to see the magic and the power of community as we got together. We were able to speak about shared experiences that others may not have had. It’s a very lonely journey as a founder, and you need people to speak to.
The humility that you saw there was incredible. There were founders who were already public who were helping people in pre-seed rounds. It was beautiful to see how everyone wanted to help each other out. I saw another opportunity to put our money where our mouth was and worked to create a syndicate to invest specifically in Asian founders. We’ve raised about $4M in capital from a whole bunch of founders. This isn’t about a bunch of rich people investing; it’s also folks just starting out. It’s your peers who can invest at our back because they want the community to grow.
The public has dubbed us the Asian Avengers. It’s kind of cool to see. It’s one thing having a cheque behind you, but it’s another thing having a force behind you - that’s another level.
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Until next time,
Jay and Angie