Companies Started by Asian Americans
People are often surprised when they find out what incredible companies were started by Asian American founders. I’ve been told by many founders that seeing our list of Hyphen Capital LPs is inspiring because they never realized that some of these companies were founded by Asian Americans, and they are Asian themselves! One founder even told me that he forwarded the website to his parents to prove to them that you can actually be successful by starting your own company. Seeing these logos and this list of names assembled together in one place is extremely powerful.
These are just a few of the household brands that we all know and love or use every day in our homes, at our office or on our phones. These are the companies that entertain us (YouTube, Twitch, Snap), help us work (LinkedIn, Zoom), feed us (DoorDash, Caviar, Panda Express), keep us in shape (Peloton, FitBit, MyFitnessPal) and clothe us (Old Navy, Zappos, GOAT). This list does not even include all of the companies in other industries from finance to healthcare that were started by Asian Americans!
YouTube: Steve Chen
LinkedIn: Eric Thich Vi Ly
Zoom: Eric S. Yuan
DoorDash: Tony Xu, Stanley Tang, Andy Fang
Peloton: Yony Feng and Hisao Kushi
Pinterest: Ben Silbermann
Yahoo!: Jerry Yang
Fitbit: James Park
Twitch: Justin Kan and Kevin Lin
LegalZoom, The Honest Company: Brian Lee
Old Navy: Jenny Ming
Forever 21: Do Won Chang and Jin Sook Chang
Opening Ceremony: Carol Lim and Humberto Leon
Patreon: Sam Yam
GIPHY: Alex Chung
Care.com: Sheila Lirio Marcelo
Webflow: Bryant Chou
Gusto: Edward Kim
Kickstarter: Perry Chen
Snapchat: Bobby Murphy
Honey: George Ruan
Rotten Tomatoes: Patrick Lee, Stephen Wang, Senh Duong
Stitch Fix: Katrina Lake
Boxed: Chieh Huang, William Fong, Christopher Cheung
MyFitnessPal: Mike Lee and Albert Lee
Panda Express: Andrew and Peggy Cherng
Airtable: Howie Liu
Notion: Ivan Zhao
Minted: Mariam Naficy
The Honest Company, LegalZoom: Brian Lee
Nvidia: Jensen Huang
Credit Karma: Kenneth Lin
The Hundreds: Bobby Hundreds
NerdWallet: Tim Chen
Coursera: Andrew Ng
Mendocino Farms: Ellen Chen
Guitar Hero: Kai Huang and Charles Huang
GOAT: Eddy Lu and Daishin Sugano
VSCO: Greg Lutze
Phillip Lim 3.1: Wen Zhou and Phillip Lim
Tatcha: Vicky Tsai
Misfit: Sonny Vu
Noom: Saeju Jeong
Away: Jen Rubio
Vizio: William Wang
Wedding Wire: Timothy Chi
The Knot: David Liu
Poshmark: Tracy Sun
Coffee Meets Bagel: Arum, Dawoon and Soo Kang
SENREVE: Coral Chung and Wendy Wen
Opendoor: Eric Wu
NewEgg: Fred Chang
Weee!: Larry Liu
ViewSonic: James Chu
East West Bank: Chow Chan, Betty Tom Chu, Richard K. Quan, Gilbert Leong, Philip Chow
Huy Fong Foods (Sriracha sauce): David Tran
Yumi: Evelyn Rusli and Angela Sutherland
Caviar: Jason Wang, Shawn Tsao, Richard Din, Andy Zhang
Zwift: Eric Min
Lime: Brad Bao, Adam Zhang, Charlie Gao, Toby Sun
Duo Security: Dug Song
Amplitude: Curtis Liu, Jeffrey Wang, Spenser Skates
Dang Foods Company: Vincent Kitirattargarn
Nona Lim: Nona Lim
Nautica: David Chu
Pinkberry: Shelly Hwang
Cruise Automation: Dan Kan
Monster Cable: Noel Lee
Crunchyroll: Kun Gao
Linksys: Janie and Victor Tsao
Kingston Technologies: David Sun, John Tu
Starz, John Sie
Wang Laboratories: An Wang, G.Y. Chu
Computer Associates: Charles B. Wang
WebEx: Min Zhu
NetApp: James Lau
Lever: Sarah Nahm
Zuora: Tien Tzuo
M.M.Lafleur: Sarah Miyazawa LaFleur
Note: This list does not include South Asian founders who have no doubt started some of the most amazing American companies including Bose, Wayfair, Hotmail, Instacart, Workday, Robinhood, Clubhouse, Classpass and many more. During this time when East and Southeast Asians are being targeted with hate crimes and attacks, we want to change the narrative.
There are countless others and I will no doubt be happy to update this list often as more and more Asian American founders break through. The next time an Asian American high schooler googles the term “companies started by Asian Americans” they will end up here and be inspired and motivated. I am excited for many of our Hyphen Capital portfolio founders and companies to join this esteemed list someday as well.
