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Andrew Chung
Founder & Managing Partner at 1955 Capital
Andrew Chung is a prominent figure in the venture capital and private equity sectors, currently serving as the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Math in the Mountains. He is also the Founder and Managing Partner at 1955 Capital, a venture capital firm based in Jackson, Wyoming, which he established in 2015.
Chung has over 20 years of experience as a tech investor and entrepreneur, with a strong background in various industries including energy, food, and education. His educational credentials include a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
In addition to his role at 1955 Capital, Chung is actively involved in several organizations, serving on the boards of Nature's Fynd, Teton Science Schools, and Gridtential Energy, among others. His expertise spans a wide range of skills, including leadership, strategic partnerships, and entrepreneurship.12
Highlights
I’m thrilled that Math in the Mountains returns to Jackson Hole 6/22 to 7/5! Renowned mathematicians convene to enlighten 40 gifted young learners and 20 teachers by mixing math recreations with outdoor adventures hosted by Teton Science Schools.
Many of today's top thinkers developed their creative minds and problem solving skills through learning #math. Brin, Ballmer, Immelt, Hastings, and Nooyi all studied math. However, parents, professors, and policymakers agree that the state of today’s math education is concerning, amplified by the arrival of generative AI. Will the next generation be equipped to solve humanity’s problems?
I launched MitM last year to help answer this question with Paul Zeitz, founder of the Proof School and legendary coach of the first US team to win the International Math Olympiad, and my daughter Aria as “Student 0.” We sought to reinvent how math is taught by incorporating creativity, imaginative thinking, grit, resilience, and intellectual risk-taking into learning. True #mathematicians are explorers, and we shape that mindset in our young learners by doing amazing math in an adventurous place with a stellar faculty.
Last year, 40 campers studied courses from "Geometry of Complex Numbers" to "Infinities", from "Mathematics of Fairness" to "Rational Tangles": college-level math taught in a fun and accessible way. They engaged in challenging activities, like whitewater rafting on the Snake River, a wilderness expedition in Grand Teton National Park, and summiting Rendezvous Mountain.
At the heart of MitM is our award-winning mathematicians and educators: leading-edge academics (Ken Ono, Paul Zeitz), National Coaches for the US #MathOlympiad Team (Po-Shen Loh, John Berman), founders of Canada/USA #MathCamp (Mira Bernstein), math heads at top STEM schools (Lora Saarnio, Joshua Zucker, Jason Horowitz), and the President of University of Wyoming (Edward Seidel).
Next week, we have plenary sessions open to the public, all held at TSS. Please DM me if interested in participating!
Sunday, June 23, 7:30 PM -- Ken Ono, mathematician, Team USA triathlete, and film producer (The Man Who Knew Infinity), discusses the significance of Ramanujan, a prodigy who went undiscovered in India until G.H. Hardy at Cambridge identified his talent.
Monday, June 24, 1:30 PM -- Ed Seidel, physicist & astronomer, lectures about how math plays into the study of black holes and Einsteinian physics.
Tuesday, June 25, 1:30 PM -- I talk about how math thinking affects decision making, inspires smart risk-taking, and leads to an innovative mindset for #entrepreneurs, #investors, scientists, and mountaineers.
Thursday, June 27, 7:30 PM -- Po-Shen Loh discusses "How To Thrive In the Age of AI." As AI advances at shocking speed, what is the future of humanity? How will people develop useful skills & solve unfamiliar problems in a world with automation? What is the future landscape of #education?
More info about MitM at http://mathmountains.org!
I'm thrilled to do a keynote fireside chat at today's AAAIM #VC Summit. It's an honor to be recognized for a career representing the #AAPI community as an #entrepreneurial investor building world-changing companies in #sustainability and #healthtech: starting at Bain Capital & Lightspeed two decades ago, later as a general partner at Khosla Ventures, and now as a founder of 1955 Capital. I never expected to embark on this odyssey when I imagined my future as a child of two uneducated immigrants in Chinatown New York, later in suburban Philadelphia as part of the only Chinese family in town, or when I attended Harvard University as a lucky first-generation student. I didn't really know what "venture capital" really was until well into my twenties!
In my conversation with host Meggie Ramirez and upcoming LinkedIn posts, I will reflect on a set of principles that helped me overcome the pervasive "ivory tower" bias that can discourage aspiring investors from AAPI or other underserved communities:
- Wide-eyed, youthful optimism is vital
- Be willing to take risk, pursue roads less traveled
- Diverse viewpoints lead to more shots on goal
- Have thick skin and be willing to fail
- Seek out life-changing mentors
- Passion, grit & perseverance beat natural ability & experience
- You must be in the room where it happens
Importantly, I've seen over the course of my career that these principles have resonated with pioneering investors, inventors, prima ballerinas, presidents, and pro skiers from underrepresented communities.
Given the concerning findings on AAPI #representation by Prof. Shuo Chen, DECODE and the UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET), I feel it's more important than ever to shine a light on these principles and learn from other AAPI "breakout success stories" (thank you to the authors for referencing Khosla Ventures in that way).
Some surprising observations from the study:
- Only 3.3% of VC funds are AAPI owned (2.9% of total AUM).
- AAPIs are often left out of DEI initiatives by LPs. 19% of top 100 LPs exclude AAPIs in their DEI program statements.
- The path to becoming an investing partner takes 41% longer for AAPIs.
- This happens despite 53% of AAPI-owned funds delivering top-quartile returns (vs. 24% for non-AAPI funds). 🔗 Full report here - https://bit.ly/44dx4Kz
I sincerely hope to help improve these numbers and bring some renewed (and wide-eyed) optimism to the next generation of #GPs and #LPs.
Thanks again to AAAIM, David Lam, Jim Park, Brenda Chia, Johnny Wu, Kit Canlas, Christine Tsai, Sean Park, Alyssa Lee, Citizens Private Bank™, HarbourVest Partners, Paladin Capital Group and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP for putting on this important event at the MIT Sloan School of Management this week and for asking me to share my story.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.