Chris Kong
General Partner at PaperJet Ventures
Chris Kong
General Partner at PaperJet Ventures
San Francisco Bay Area
Overview
Work Experience
Investor
2022 - Current
I leverage my deep finance & tech experience to invest in founders with bold ideas. From rockets & airplanes to AI/ML. Read about PaperJet Ventures here - https://chriskong.substack.com/p/introducing-paperjet Here is our Investment Thesis 1.0 - https://chriskong.substack.com/p/paperjet-ventures-investment-thesis I enjoy investing in early-stage startups, where I can add value, such as helping founders with fundraising, product/design advisory, and connecting them to the right people! Consider applying to the syndicate group if you invest in tech startups - https://angellist.com/s/paperjet/RrIdg
Advisor & Angel Investor
2020
Advise/mentor and Invest in technology companies from pre-seed to Series A within Deep Tech & AI. Looking to connect with founders, operators, and investors. My current investment portfolio includes the following: H3X (YC W21) - developing the lightest propulsion system for the electric aviation industry. HeyCharge (YC S21) - provides charging infrastructure, payment systems, and EV installation. Sitenna (YC S21) - provides software that helps telecom co. find new locations to put up towers & antennae. Polymath Robotics (YC S22) - general autonomy for industrial vehicles. Kyber (YC W23) - automating the insurance industry with LLMs Synthesis School - online enrichment program with a mission to nurture future innovators. Karma Crypto - Aggregate & organize Web3 contributor data on-chain. Talyn Air (YC W21) - developing long-range eVTOL with staged vehicles. Walnut - payments infrastructure for healthcare. Databento - institutional-quality, live, historical, market, and alternative data platform. Skyryse - air mobility company. Alba Orbital (YC W21) - developing and launching satellites to image the planet every 15 mins. Runway - a modern tool to understand and manage financials.
Angel Squad Member
2021
Investing with Hustle Fund at https://www.hustlefund.vc/angelsquad
Writer
2021
As a new angel investor, I'm eager to share my first-hand experience as I go through the journey. I started Ante Up Newsletter to share my experience as well as the lessons I learn from founding/working in startups. I also plan to share all the investing lessons I gained from years of experience to hopefully inspire someone else to have the same passion for investing. Please sign up at https://chriskong.substack.com/
Product Manager
2018 - 2020
Product manager for a contract management SaaS responsible for the development of all customer-facing features, key partnership deals through API integrations and customer & user engagement analytics.
Founder, Product Manager & Developer
2015 - 2018
- Owned every aspect of the app design & development process - Defined product requirements, established strategy, and roadmap, prioritized backlogs and manages 3 major product releases - Established marketing campaigns on WeChat platform to target Chinese mobile users that resulted in 100% growth in sessions and 33% growth in daily active users - Launched TravelersPin, a streamlined way for travelers to share photo and travel tips using geolocation
Market Content Manager
2014 - 2014
- Developed and launched online contents including 4 options and education newsletters as well as weekly and monthly coaching, trading and market videos to 15,000 paid subscribers - Produced business plan for product including competitive analysis, price, and cost analysis - Leveraged the social media platforms in China such as WeChat and Weibo for marketing
Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer & Product Manager
2011 - 2013
- Co-founder of Fog, an affordable and easy-to-use cloud-based Inventory Management System for multichannel retailers - Designed product and pricing strategies as well as roadmap planning. - Supervised the development of MVPs including POS System and cloud-based inventory system - Analyzed and improved data integration process from different sources into Fog’s enterprise data warehouse - Partnered with dealers, e-commerce partners, and end users to define, document and implement new product requirements - Recruited and managed a small team of 4 developers and 2 designers to launch Fog beta. - Led on-site usability testing with users - Managed fundraising process including setting and preparing for meetings with VC firms
Co-founder, Managing Member & Portfolio Manager
2008 - 2010
- Co-founded a long/short equity hedge fund with a strategic approach to seek long-term investment opportunities - Managed portfolios concentrating in US small capitalization and emerging markets companies - Prepared and presented marketing and legal documentation for new fund launch and sales initiatives to investors
Investment Banker, Leveraged Finance, Media & Communications & M&A Groups
2000 - 2008
- Closed US$15+ billion of deal transactions that covered a broad range of different industries (media, telecommunications, natural resources, transportation, and utilities) - Trained new bankers on deal structures, and due diligence - Prepared and presented documentation to multiple teams for new deal launches initiatives - Served as liaison between corporate and private equity clients, internal teams and institutional investors during deal launches - Developed standardized templates financial models, pitch decks to increase efficiencies