Companies Started by Asian Americans
By: Dave Lu
Tags: Founders, Startup, Asian American, Business, Asian

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.