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Capital in the Twenty-First Century: Summary and Review
Talks about Capitalism, Inequality and Thomas Piketty
Joshua Lee
Founder & CEO at First Light Studios
Seattle, Washington
Overview
Joshua Lee is a Seattle-based entrepreneur and seed investor known for reviving legacy brands and advising startups. He has a strong track record in strategic planning and product management, with experience in e-commerce and retail sectors.
Highlights of his career include founding First Light Studios and serving as a principal at Keiretsu Forum, where he honed his skills in due diligence, financial modeling, and venture capital investments. Currently, Joshua focuses on seed investments in diverse sectors such as Direct-to-Consumer, Retail, and E-commerce, with a particular interest in supporting founders in the Seattle and Portland regions.
Work Experience
Founder & CEO
2021 - Current
We revitalizing legacy brands for today's digital world and deliver on ~27.3% YoY sales growth for our full-service clients.
Seed Investor
2022
Investing in companies supporting a circular economy.
Senior Account Manager
2019 - 2021
I have to give credit to Sejin S. and the WPG team for taking me under their wing. They taught me how to identify and analyze retail data well. - Led WBR/QBR's for several key clients in consumer, CE, and home improvement. Responsibilities included ASIN analysis, revenue forecasting, promotional planning, inventory management, catalog and content management, and ad hoc data analysis. WingPoint Group completed the merge with Market Performance Group after I left.
Market Performance Group is a consulting firm that specializes in sales and marketing strategies for the healthcare and food industries.
Founding Product Manager
2020 - 2021
Involved in the ideation phase for the product and ultimately developing the product roadmap, designing the key features for the initial product, and building out the v1 alongside the dev team.
SaaS platform that helps e-commerce teams make faster, better decisions on marketplaces like Amazon.
Advisor
2019 - 2020
Built out the initial business model for the business, leading to supporting Sean land Niantic Labs (creators of Pokemon Go) as our first customer. In 2024 they were selected into the A16z Gaming Accelerator Program with a $500k+ investment.
Live Aware is a pioneering technology company at the forefront of game development insights and community feedback management.
Raised $4,800,000.00 from Transcend Fund, Eden Chen, A16Z GAMES Speedrun, Todd Hooper, Luis Villegas, Seth Sivak, Michael Evans, Brendan Mulligan, Chacko Sonny and Lifelike Capital.
Founding Member
2018 - 2019
As employee #3 after the co-founders, I was directly involved in fundraising, recruiting, and simply getting stuff done. Thank you David B. for showing me the ropes. They have raised over $6.5m.
Plunk is the first AI-powered and real-time analytics platform for residential real estate.
Raised $6,500,000.00 from Fortified Ventures, Roman Smolevskiy, Bossa Invest, California Association of Realtors, Unlock Venture Partners, Plug and Play, Sony Innovation Fund, Second Century Ventures, Vectr and Second Century Ventures.
Amazon Seller
2017 - 2019
Started an office products brand on Amazon.com and had a successful exit in 2022.
Product Manager
2016 - 2017
I thought the grass was greener on the other side, so I decided to try my hand at Product Management. I learned the basics of how software is developed and how to push that to the world. Notable accomplishments: - Launched a marquee product critical to the closing of our $300m round. I led the Go-To-Market strategy and gained buy-in across teams spanning engineering, sales, marketing, customers, prospects, and third-party partners. - Working cross-functionally across time zones was really hard. I had to lead dozens of meetings every week and dealt with all sorts of personalities. My main takeaway- thorough preparation is the key to gaining trust.
Pushpay is a leading technology company that delivers digital solutions to help churches achieve their mission.
Raised $100,154,086.00 from Alliance Equities (and associated companies), Christopher & Banks Private Equity and Christopher & Banks Private Equity.
Principal
2014 - 2016
This was a great role where I learned what it really took to get funded. I built some awesome relationships with angels, local VCs, and entrepreneurs. Notable accomplishments: - Actively scouted 2000+ companies and conducted 30min screenings, ultimately leading to over $160m in investment across two years. - Led early due diligence of investment opportunities with a focus on technology, consumer, and life science businesses (typical deal size was $1-3M). - I socialized almost every day through lunches, dinners, after parties, which helped me hone my soft skills. I also credit this experience for converting me to an introvert (joking). - I happily say now there has finally been a few exits as of updating this.
Keiretsu Forum is a California-based angel group that offers early, seed, and later stage venture, and debt financing investments.
Analyst, Tactical Asset Allocation
2013 - 2013
Thank you to APFC and my manager Jeff P. for teaching me to eat when others are talking. Notable accomplishments: - Presented key findings to the Trustees of the GE $120B Pension Trust and recommended asset allocation for the equity markets (US and International). - Organized a volunteer project at a foster home where we landscaped for all 20 interns at GE that summer. - I built a few amazing friendships that summer. I was walking on crutches and a fellow intern in the accounting department drove me to work every single day (we worked in the same building). Almost 10 years later I attended his wedding. This was a summer internship for the Financial Management Program (FMP).
GE Intelligent Platforms is a global provider of software, hardware, services, and embedded computing platforms.