AMA with VC Featuring David Yi and Meet up @Shibuya
Overview
If you want insights from someone who has built companies, scaled them past $20M ARR, exited twice, and raised over $300M, this quick meet-up with David Yi at Shubiya is the one you don’t want to miss.
David Yi is an 8x founder with 2 successful exits, has built three $20M+ ARR companies, secured $300M+ in venture capital, and created $10B+ in cross-border business opportunities between Asia and the United States. Today, as General Partner at Ethos Fund, he backs early-stage, globally ambitious startups in Vietnam and the US — bridging cultures, markets, and innovation.
Whether you’re refining your pitch, exploring funding strategies, or scaling your startup internationally, David will share the frameworks, lessons, and real-world experiences that have shaped his success. This is a rare opportunity to hear firsthand how a seasoned founder evaluates deals, builds companies, and navigates the global startup ecosystem.
This in-person AMA is a rare opportunity to learn how top VCs evaluate opportunities, understand what makes startups globally competitive, and get actionable insights from someone who has both built and funded high-growth companies.
Featured Speaker:
David Yi - General Partner, Ethos Fund, Partners to Third Culture Innovators | Investing in early-stage, globally ambitious startups in Vietnam & the US.
Moderator:
Erdinc Ekinci - Founder, Investment Lead of Co-capital.vc, Co-Founder, CEO of Openfor.co, Managing Director of Founder Institute Japan/Korea/Taiwan
📌 Who Should Attend
- Founders & Co-Founders looking to scale their startups globally.
- Early-stage entrepreneurs seeking insights on fundraising and growth strategies.
- Aspiring founders curious about the journey from idea to $20M+ ARR.
- Investors & startup enthusiasts who want to understand how top VCs evaluate opportunities.
- Anyone interested in cross-border business, startup ecosystems, and actionable strategies for building globally competitive companies.
📌 What You Will Learn
- How VCs like David Yi evaluate startup opportunities and decide where to invest.
- Key lessons from building $20M+ ARR companies and successfully exiting twice.
- Strategies for raising capital and attracting the right investors.
- Insights on scaling startups globally and navigating cross-border markets.
- Practical tips for pitching, growth, and building a competitive business in today’s market.
- The mindset and frameworks that help founders turn ideas into billion-dollar opportunities.
About Founder Institute:
-Founder Institute: Founder Institute, which originated in Silicon Valley, is a founder and idea stage accelerator, and with its Founder Capital, backs the best performing FI alumni as early as the angel stage. FI has over 8K+ startup portfolio (Including leading e-learning platform Udemy, IPO in Nasdaq $3,8B) across 200 cities in 100 countries around the world.) We are also the largest mentor network in the world, with over 35,000 mentors, and our alumni have already raised over $2 billion in US dollars and have recently exceeded the 10K mark of investors network as the FI-Venture-Network.
-FI’s sister program, called VC Lab, helps launch aspiring investors into launching VC firms. As an accelerator that allows both sides of the table, 70% of the activities we do are advocacy of entrepreneurship and ecosystem creation, which means we do way more activity than the accelerator to promote entrepreneurship to solve real-world problems with entrepreneurship in an economically feasible way, build a company that grows into a venture-scale.
-Openfor.co: A “Global Partnership Accelerator” originated in Silicon Valley that combined with an online platform and marketplace for learning, building, launching, monetizing, and growing partner ecosystems and a collaborative community around you for achieving effective marketing, sales, community building, GTM, fundraising, and many more.
-Co-Capital: Pre-seed & Seed stage new firm that focuses on hands-on GTM, sales, and partnership support, focusing on English-speaking Asian founders who have global ambitions from day ONE. Domiciled in the USA, with regional appearances in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Utilizes partnerships with the GTM expert network and the venture partner network across 20 major hubs and a network of 35 other VC networks who are willing to co-back our founders!
Good to know
Highlights
- 2 hours
- In person
Location
SivanS株式会社
SivanS株式会社
#8階 Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002 Japan
How do you want to get there?
Organized by
Founder Institute Japan
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