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Kai Yen

Venture Builder

Kai Yen
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Kai is a tenacious learner and builder with experience at small startups, large corporations, and everything in between. A serial entrepreneur, he expertly and creatively uses different technologies and platforms to pilot ideas, test hypotheses, and solve customer pains. As a Venture Builder at Mach49, Kai mentors teams through acquiring early customers and iterating prototypes as they develop self-sufficiency and sprint toward product-market fit. 

Before he jumped into the world of startups, Kai had a long career in advertising. While shifting from IT roles to leading multi-disciplinary teams on advertising projects, Kai found himself wanting more technical, product-centric work. With its knack for achieving a lot with very little, the startup world captured his attention — and when offered the chance to co-found a new venture, Kai jumped at the opportunity and never looked back. 

Prior to Mach49, Kai served as CTO and Managing Director, New York for JWT INSIDE, where he worked with clients including Comcast, Macy’s, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to create world-class recruitment and employee communications programs. He later served as Co-Founder and CTO of 3 venture-backed startups and a corporate innovation venture. He was not only a leader, but a hands-on engineer at Purple Squirrel, a two-sided marketplace for career mentorship, which pivoted to Scoutbound, an AI-based automated outreach platform for HR recruiters. Kai then co-founded Opus, a training platform that teaches English over WhatsApp, and later joined a corporate team to build Radius, a mobile app for location discovery. 

At Mach49, Kai always pushes the envelope of what’s possible. Using his expertise to direct teams toward the sweet spot between product and market, he helps new ventures navigate early customer acquisition and prototype tweaking. He is adept at using tech and platforms in fresh ways to help teams test theories, solve customer problems, and pilot ideas in the marketplace. 

In his personal life, Kai is obsessed with learning new technologies. He firmly believes that in technology, there’s no such thing as “maintaining skills” — you’re either learning and growing, or your skills are becoming rusty and outdated. He also loves running, which led him to create a virtual running rig he uses each morning to go for a virtual run in different parts of the world. Kai is also a fantastic cook, which he sees as his main creative outlet. Though he reads recipes for inspiration, it’s rare he follows them to the letter. He especially enjoys dishes that evolve to creatively use up leftovers.

Kai holds a BS in business administration from the University of California, Riverside.

Kai Yen

Venture Builder

Kai is a tenacious learner and builder with experience at small startups, large corporations, and everything in between. A serial entrepreneur, he expertly and creatively uses different technologies and platforms to pilot ideas, test hypotheses, and solve customer pains. As a Venture Builder at Mach49, Kai mentors teams through acquiring early customers and iterating prototypes as they develop self-sufficiency and sprint toward product-market fit. 

Before he jumped into the world of startups, Kai had a long career in advertising. While shifting from IT roles to leading multi-disciplinary teams on advertising projects, Kai found himself wanting more technical, product-centric work. With its knack for achieving a lot with very little, the startup world captured his attention — and when offered the chance to co-found a new venture, Kai jumped at the opportunity and never looked back. 

Prior to Mach49, Kai served as CTO and Managing Director, New York for JWT INSIDE, where he worked with clients including Comcast, Macy’s, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to create world-class recruitment and employee communications programs. He later served as Co-Founder and CTO of 3 venture-backed startups and a corporate innovation venture. He was not only a leader, but a hands-on engineer at Purple Squirrel, a two-sided marketplace for career mentorship, which pivoted to Scoutbound, an AI-based automated outreach platform for HR recruiters. Kai then co-founded Opus, a training platform that teaches English over WhatsApp, and later joined a corporate team to build Radius, a mobile app for location discovery. 

At Mach49, Kai always pushes the envelope of what’s possible. Using his expertise to direct teams toward the sweet spot between product and market, he helps new ventures navigate early customer acquisition and prototype tweaking. He is adept at using tech and platforms in fresh ways to help teams test theories, solve customer problems, and pilot ideas in the marketplace. 

In his personal life, Kai is obsessed with learning new technologies. He firmly believes that in technology, there’s no such thing as “maintaining skills” — you’re either learning and growing, or your skills are becoming rusty and outdated. He also loves running, which led him to create a virtual running rig he uses each morning to go for a virtual run in different parts of the world. Kai is also a fantastic cook, which he sees as his main creative outlet. Though he reads recipes for inspiration, it’s rare he follows them to the letter. He especially enjoys dishes that evolve to creatively use up leftovers.

Kai holds a BS in business administration from the University of California, Riverside.
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