Grace Gong's Linkedin Analytics

Thank you Paige Finn Doherty for inviting me to Behind Genius Ventures’s AGM today! Watching a great friend build such an impressive fund is truly inspiring. Your vision and execution continue to inspire me. Highlight of the day? That rock-paper-scissors tournament between presentations! Loved reconnecting with familiar faces and meeting brilliant new minds from both the VC and creator worlds. The conversations reminded me why we're all in this - to grow together and build something meaningful. Here's to more shared successes ahead! 🚀 #Agm #vc

Come with me to building your most effective board event at Microsoft. My friend Natalie and her team hosted an exclusive event yesterday, invited CEOs, founders, and senior operators to talk about what makes an effective board. The speakers were senior execs at big tech companies as well as partners from tier 1 VC firms. As a founder, having board members is something I rarely think about, yet it is so important because it really can make or break your company. My major takeaways are: find the board member that complements your company and skill set. Both VCs and operators can add a lot of value to your board, but you have to take the initiative to find what works best for you. Who is on your personal board of advisors? What are you trying to improve? #VC #startup #microsoft

I will be speaking at the 2025 iFly.vc Consumer Summit about "AI-Powered Disruption" next week. One bold prediction: what we're seeing in AI consumer applications today is just 1% of what's coming. 🚀 The rest? It's being built right now in garages and dorm rooms you've never heard of. I'll be digging into this alongside some of the sharpest minds in tech and venture: • Brent Bellm Former CEO of BigCommerce Former COO of HomeAway • Nait Jones - CEO of adtwin.ai • Conrad Shang Managing Partner at Ensemble VC We're moving beyond basic AI implementations into territory that's genuinely transformative - from hyper-personalized shopping experiences to AI companions that know you better than your closest friends. The winners of the next decade won't just use AI - they'll reimagine entire consumer experiences around it. What AI consumer app has impressed you most so far? The one that's genuinely changed your behavior, not just grabbed your attention? Special thanks to Han Shen and team iFly.vc for having me! #ConsumerSummit #AI #FutureOfCommerce #VentureWithGrace

🎙️ Week 64 – Venture with Grace (April 11–18) Fresh off the Smart AI Leadership Summit, this week we’re featuring top LPs, GPs, and founders shaping the future of AI, enterprise, health, fintech, and consumer tech: 🔹 Andrea Lo, Managing Partner at Main Character Capital Bringing the LP perspective on backing generational companies. 🔹 Arvind Ayyala, Partner at Geodesic Capital Focused on investing in transformative enterprise tech startups. 🔹 Cody Coleman, Co-founder & CEO of Coactive AI Building visual content intelligence for the enterprise. (Moved to June 11) 🔹 Kirby Winfield, Founding General Partner at Ascend Backing early-stage AI, defense tech, and data-first founders. 🔹 Anarghya Vardhana, General Partner at Maveron Investing at the intersection of healthcare, wellness, and consumer innovation. 🔹 Maitree Mervana Parekh, Principal at Acrew Capital Driving investments across health and fintech. 🎧 Replays available on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes — search "Venture with Grace." #VentureWithGrace #AIInvesting #EnterpriseTech #HealthTech #ConsumerVC #SmartAILeadershipSummit

Christine Yen is the Co-founder and CEO of honeycomb.io. Honeycomb is the observability platform for teams who manage software that matters. Before founding Honeycomb, she built analytics products at Parse/Facebook, and loved writing software to separate signal from noise. Topics: - Building a category-defining product in the observability space - The evolution of developer experience and why it matters to business outcomes - Data-driven decision making #ObservabilityLeadership #TechFounderJourney #DataDrivenDecisions #EngineeringToExecutive

Tim Shi is the Co-founder of Cresta (1.6B+ Valuation). Backed by top investors (Sequoia Capital, Greylock & Andreessen Horowitz), they are building AI agents to transform customer experiences. Tim dropped out of Stanford PhD program in 2017 to change the nature of work with AI, starting with copilots and expanded into a full platform of augmentation, automation and insights. In 2019, Cresta started deploying a GPT-2-based generative AI system in production for Fortune 500 customers. Their work is featured in the recent National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) on the impact of GPT on boosting productivity. Topics: - The Evolution of AI in Customer Experience - Measuring AI's Business Impact - The Future of Work with AI #AIInnovation #CrestaAI #CustomerExperience #GenerativeAI

Excited to speak at iFly.vc Summit next week! Doing an early-stage VC & founders dinner on May 6 with my good friend David Perez-Hernandez from Roble Ventures and our friends at Silicon Valley Bank! If you are a founder/ VC in Austin, RSVP here: https://lu.ma/wkvqgsm3 #vc #ai #startup #austin

Gaurav Bhaya is a VP & GM at Google. He is a technologist with almost 20 years of experience in building products from early stage ideas to those used by billions of people around the world. Worked in a wide variety of roles ranging from Search Products, Lead Generation, Advertising and Voice / Chat bot on Google Assistant. A keen sense of product / business understanding with the depth of engineering challenges in system design, user experience and AI/ML. Currently, he is enabling advertising to adapt to a privacy-centric future with regulatory changes (GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, etc.), platform changes (Apple ATT, Privacy Sandbox, etc.), and consumer expectations around protecting and safeguarding data — while meeting the growing advertiser demand for understanding budget allocation (MMMs), optimization (MTAs), and analytical insights. He has built engineering teams from scratch as well as managed scaled organizations of over a thousand individuals across product and engineering teams. Topics: - Building and Scaling High-Impact Product and Engineering Teams - AI and Machine Learning in Modern Marketing Analytics - The Evolving Role of Data in Marketing #AdTech #AIinMarketing #DigitalAdvertising #Google #MarketingAnalytics

Mercedes Bent is a Venture Partner at Lightspeed. Mercedes’ path to VC is a true convergence of her life experiences — a childhood surrounded by inventors, finance roles at the Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs, managing P&Ls at two consumer startups (including growing one from $2 to $100M in revenue in 4 years), founding two startups of her own, and her long-term goal of empowering communities she cares about. She joined Lightspeed in 2019 and has led a number of investments in the LATAM region and invests in early stage consumer fintech companies that are unlocking wealth creation for underserved individuals and regions. Topics: - Evolution of Consumer Fintech Investment Strategies - The Role of AI and Personalization - Investing in LATAM and Multicultural Markets #ConsumerFintech #VentureCapital #FintechInvesting #LATAMFintech

The universe has perfect timing. Feeling distracted today despite hitting major milestones. Then this happened: Coffee with my wonderful conference speaker and someone I really respect Bala Sathiamurthy (former CISO of Atlassian) turned into an unexpected run-in with security podcast legend Chris Hughes. Three lessons that resonated deeply today: 1. What if we focused on potential success instead of fear? 2. You don't need permission to pursue what matters - just start giving it to yourself. 3. "Better to run than curse the road." Sometimes the guidance you need arrives at exactly the right moment from those who've already walked the path. What permission are you waiting for that you could give yourself right now? #RSAC #PermissionToSucceed

Jasper Zhang, Ph.D. is the founder of Hyperbolic. Hyperbolic is building the leading open-access AI cloud. Access inference and compute at a fraction of the cost, and build AI applications without relying on centralized infrastructures. Topics: - Open-Access AI Cloud - Decentralization and the Future of AI Infrastructure - Building a Collaborative AI Ecosystem #AICloud #OpenAccessAI #DecentralizedCompute #Hyperbolic

10,052,301 impressions in 365 days. Thank you all for the support. So much about life is just keep going. #founder #vc #entrepreneurs

Come with me to host my first tech conference! 🤯 Back in 2020, I started a podcast in my bedroom with one mission: help people learn directly from tech's top leaders. Last week? I'm standing on stage watching that mission come to life as a room full of tech's elite gathered for our summit. We had world-class VCs and unicorn founders speaking - people who build billion-dollar companies and fund the next big innovations. I'm incredibly grateful that these industry leaders believed in what we're building and agreed to share their knowledge. What nobody sees are the late nights perfecting each episode. The hours spent researching guests to ask the right questions. The dedication behind making each conversation valuable. Huge thanks to our sponsors for believing in the mission. And to our amazing volunteers who share this vision of opening doors for others. We've already helped 1 million people make better business decisions through our content. Now we're aiming bigger: 1 BILLION people in the next 10 years. From bedroom podcast to actual conference. That thing you want to build to help others? Start now. The impact you can have is bigger than you imagine. This journey's been wild. And if you're working on something that matters - keep going. The world needs what you're building. #SmartAISummit #TechTok #1BillionImpact

🚀 Thrilled to announce I'll be speaking at iFly.vc Consumer Summit 2025! Massive thanks to Han Shen and the amazing iFly.vc team for putting this awesome summit together! Texas has truly emerged as an exciting hub for founders, and I'm honored to share the stage with incredible industry leaders: - Brent Bellm - Former CEO of BigCommerce; Former COO of HomeAway - Nait Jones - CEO of adtwin.ai - Conrad Shang - Managing Partner at Ensemble.vc The day before, I'll be hosting an intimate VC & founders dinner with my awesome friend David Perez-Hernandez from Roble Ventures. (Stay tuned for the RSVP link. :)) If you're in Austin, let's connect! This ecosystem is buzzing with innovation and I'm excited to meet fellow entrepreneurs and investors making waves in the consumer and tech space. #ConsumerTech #Entrepreneurship #VentureCapital #AustinTech #iFlyVC

Just spoke at the 2025 iFly.vc Consumer Summit with an incredible panel: •Brent Bellm (Former CEO of BigCommerce) •Nait Jones (CEO of adtwin.ai formerly Partner @ Andreessen Horowitz) •Conrad Shang (Managing Partner at Ensemble VC) My favorite trend? While we're all busy theorizing, Gen Z is quietly using "vibe coding" to build businesses without traditional programming. It's democratizing tech in ways I never imagined. Our panel had some fascinating perspectives on where AI will truly deliver—some think fintech and travel might see less impact than healthcare and education. Time will tell! "Seedstrapping" is clearly becoming the path forward in this new landscape. Many thanks to Han Shen for bringing us together. The consumer sector continues to prove itself resilient through every economic cycle. What's one way AI is actually helping YOUR business right now? I'm collecting real use cases! 👇 #ConsumerAI #iFlyVC #FutureOfTech

Just had an INCREDIBLE lunch with the legendary Ethan Evans! 🚀 Former Amazon VP who's now taking the internet by storm! His journey from corporate leadership to becoming a respected content creator is truly inspirational. What impressed me most? His RESILIENCE. 💪 Despite facing numerous challenges throughout his career and personal life, Ethan maintains an infectious positive energy and ambitious spirit. His success post-Amazon proves that when passion meets perseverance, anything is possible! Proud to say he was one of my very first guests on Smart Venture Podcast (way back in episode 2!) and continues to deliver value to our community today as a 2x guest on Venture with Grace. Who else has been inspired by Ethan's journey? Drop a comment below! #Leadership #Resilience #CareerTransition #ContentCreator

🌮🌵 Just got to Austin for the first time and this place is seriously amazing! The energy here truly lives up to all the hype. Hosted such a great founders & VCs dinner with my wonderful college friend David Perez-Hernandez from Roble Ventures and our amazing friend Mariana Gonzalez from Silicon Valley Bank. Something about this city makes conversations and ideas flow in a way they just don't elsewhere. The food was incredible too. This city's vibe is exactly what I needed right now - creative, chill, but still ambitious. You can feel the energy in the tech scene here. Speaking at the iFly.vc Consumer Summit tomorrow and I'm genuinely excited for it! What other Austin startups should I know about? #AustinTX #FoundersDinner #TechVibes #FutureBuilders #iFlyVCSummit

🚀 I Hosted My First AI Venture Summit — Here Are the 5 Trends Shaping the Future Last week, I brought together nearly 40 top VCs and tech leaders with over 100 founders and executives for an intimate AI summit. The conversations were incredibly insightful, and I'm sharing the key takeaways that emerged. 5 Major AI Trends: 1. Outcome-Based AI Is Replacing Feature-Based AI The days of selling "AI capabilities" are over. Top investors are only backing companies that sell measurable outcomes and ROI, not features. AI isn't the value — it's what the AI accomplishes that matters. 2. Economic Uncertainty = AI Opportunity Enterprise budget freezes are actually accelerating AI adoption! Companies need solutions that reduce costs and increase efficiency NOW, creating perfect timing for AI startups with clear ROI stories. 3. Velocity Beats Polish VCs are skipping slide decks and looking for teams that build and iterate fast. Showing rapid development and experiments will get you further than perfect presentations. The signal is in the speed. 4. Agents Are Evolving from Single-Task to Multi-Task The progression is clear: The winning approach is mastering one high-value workflow first, then expanding. Companies trying to build multi-agent systems immediately are struggling with complexity. 5. Distribution and Brand Are the New Moats In a market where model capabilities are increasingly commoditized, first-mover advantage in branding and distribution is becoming the strongest defensibility strategy. What surprised me most was the consensus across consumer, enterprise, and deep tech investors. The fundamentals haven't changed: solve real problems, move fast, and focus on distribution. Hosting this summit was eye-opening. The insights shared in one day would have taken months to gather otherwise. Which of these trends are you seeing in your corner of the AI world? #AITrends #VentureCapital #StartupInsights #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfAI #SmartAILeadershipSummit

Yesterday was THAT moment - when years of hustle crystallized into something extraordinary that left me speechless. In June 2020, while the world was locked down, I took the biggest risk of my life. After quitting my VC job, I set up a makeshift recording studio in my apartment and launched Smart Venture Podcast with one mission: democratize access to tech's inner circle for those without the "right" connections. Now, 454 episodes later? We're in the top 1.5% among 3.4 MILLION podcasts globally. We've featured C-suite executives from tech's most influential companies, partners from the world's premier VC firms, and founders who've built unicorns from scratch. But yesterday's Smart AI Leadership Summit showed me what we've REALLY built: a community that's reshaping how innovation happens. The energy was ELECTRIC as hand-picked leaders from across tech connected in ways that will ripple through the industry for years. Some of you flew from KOREA, Seattle, NYC, LA, Chicago, and Denver just to be here! (Still can't believe that.) To my superhuman volunteer crew who worked from 7AM to 7:30PM without complaint - HOW?! To our day-one believers: AWS, SVB, Sequoia, Nebius, Vessl AI, Rackhouse, and Wayo - you took a chance on us before we had proof. And to my Bay Area besties who mysteriously all had "important meetings" nearby yesterday (your calendar coincidences aren't fooling anyone 😏) - your support means everything. What began as a podcast has evolved into something I never could have imagined: a movement to help 1 BILLION people make better business decisions. This is just the beginning. And I couldn't trade this journey for anything in the world. #SmartAILeadershipSummit

Just spent the afternoon at Microsoft's Silicon Valley Campus getting real insights on board building that every founder needs to hear. Three takeaways worth sharing: 1️⃣ Match board members to your specific startup gaps – it's about finding the right expertise for YOUR company's journey 2️⃣ Operators and investors can both make great board members – the panel highlighted how different backgrounds bring unique value 3️⃣ Smart founders actively manage their boards – this isn't passive, it's a core leadership responsibility Appreciated hearing Rashida Hodge (CVP of Microsoft), Jennifer Li (GP @ Andreessen Horowitz), Nancy Wang (Partner @ Felicis), Lila Tretikov (Partner New Enterprise Associates (NEA)), and Mike Eberhard (Board Member & Advisor) share their experiences on what works when building boards that drive growth. Super thankful for Natalie Heard, Ayelet Steinitz and the rest of the Microsoft team for bringing together such an important conversation! Mini series coming soon! Stay tuned for more board-building insights. What's one skill or perspective you'd want in someone advising your work? 👇 #BoardStrategy #StartupLife #MicrosoftEvent #LeadershipLessons