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Dave Lu
Member at AAAIM
San Francisco Bay Area
Overview
Dave Lu is the Managing Partner at Hyphen Capital and the Co-founder and President of Expo. He is also known for his role as the Producer of the Emmy-winning 38 at the Garden and as a Co-founder of Stand With Asian Americans. With a background in start-ups and entrepreneurship, Dave has successfully navigated the worlds of venture capital, product management, and strategic partnerships, making significant contributions to the business landscape.
Work Experience
Founder and Managing Partner
2020 - Current
Investing in the next generation of Asian American founders. Led syndicate of 1000+ angels to invest over $30M in 90+ companies since 2020. Our portfolio includes companies including Gamma, Persona, Super.com, Nitra, Slope, Formation Bio, MiLa, Sanzo and many others. Three notable exits to date: Pry Financial acquired by Brex. Revela acquired by Oddity (NASDAQ:ODD). SafeBase acquired by Drata. Launched first institutional Hyphen Capital Fund I to invest in early stage software founders.
Co-Founder of Asian Leadership Center
2024
Partnered with CEO Michael Takagawa and the Corporate Edge team to launch the Asian Leadership Center to help connect Asian executives with certified executive coaches with expertise spanning leadership, coaching, psychology, and entrepreneurship. They provide valuable insights that blend an understanding of Asian cultural dynamics with proven Western leadership practices. Visit https://corporatedge.com/asian-leadership for more information.
Advisory Board Member, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
2022
From our establishment in 1997 as an initiative critical to the mission of the Smithsonian until today, the vision for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center has been to enrich the American Story with the voices of Asian Pacific Americans.
Member
2023
NAAIM is an association that offers events and programs on investment management strategies and financial advice.
Co-Founder
2021
Wrote a letter denouncing Asian American hate crimes and committing to raise $10M to support non-profits fighting discrimination against AAPIs that was signed by thousands of business leaders and printed in a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal. Signatories include the CEOs of Google, LinkedIn, DoorDash, Zoom, Universal McCann, Docusign, and hundreds of other companies as well as President George W. Bush, NBA players Andre Iguodala and Jeremy Lin and Hollywood director and producer JJ Abrams.
Member
2023
Gold House Ventures invests in the most promising Asian and Pacific Islander founded companies.
Co-founder & President
2015 - 2025
Building AI for restaurant operators. Expo sits on your data and can answer your operations questions instantly. Partners include Popeye’s, Burger King, CAVA, Wingstop, Whataburger and more. Backed by CRV, Uncork Capital, True Ventures, Calibrate Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Jeremy Stoppelman (Yelp), Thomas Keller, and Steve Chen (YouTube) among others.
Expo enables management and teams to enhance their performance by leveraging real-time data and insights for optimization.
Raised $28,000,000.00 from Calibrate Ventures and Alumni Ventures.
Member
2021 - 2024
Executive Producer
2021 - 2022
Co-Produced Emmy-winning sports documentary about Jeremy Lin’s sensational stretch with the New York Knicks in 2012 known famously as Linsanity. HBO acquired the film. It won the 2023 Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Documentary and was shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Education
Latest Articles
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Silencing Your Inner Critic
Talks about comparison and pressure in childhood, Tiger parenting and self-doubt
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No Longer Keeping Our Heads Down
Talks about AAPI executives, Asian American leadership and Nasdaq closing bell
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How Perception Becomes Reality
Talks about Yuta Watanabe, Japanese NBA players and mental health struggles