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Dave Yen

Dave Yen

GP at Orange Collective; founder and product leader in AI

davecyen
San Francisco, California
Joined March 2024
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Network

7.9K connections

Summary

Builder‑founder with repeated early‑stage startup experience: Dave has founded and led multiple startups (Roomblocker — YC S15, Cheekies — DTC masks, and later Extract AI), running product, operations, and fundraising at each stage. techcrunch+2
Product leader who ships developer and platform work: his roles at Rigetti and Shopify focused on developer/cloud/platform products; he has written and spoken about building platform experiences and developer tooling for emerging tech such as quantum and AI. aventure+1
Operator turned investor focused on YC‑stage AI startups: as a Co‑Founder & GP at Orange Collective he pools YC alumni capital to back YC founders, authors investment posts on the firm blog, and uses AI‑native tooling in the fund's workflow. orangecollective+1
Community advisor and advocate for open ecosystem approaches: Dave advises YC founders (Startup School), has published advice for founders, and publicly argues for fair competition and open‑source approaches in AI (quoted in WIRED on open‑source AI debates). medium+1

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

Why we invested in Airweave

June 9, 2025

Investment memo / blog post on Orange Collective's site explaining why the firm invested in Airweave, covering agent/tool‑calling infra and why it's strategic for agents.

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Docs are infrastructure now

May 24, 2025

Orange Collective blog post arguing that docs are the system of record for AI agents and describing why the firm backed Promptless.

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Keep going

October 1, 2018

Personal Medium post offering advice and encouragement to YC Startup School founders, reflecting on setbacks and resilience in founding.

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Hobbies

Philanthropic fundraising and community support (ran Cheekies fundraisers and donated proceeds to StopAAPIHate, ACLU, and others). aventure+1

Notes

KTKrishang Todisaid they've seen
DYDave Yen
make really impactful early-stage investments in consumer-facing startups.

Dec 9, 2025

MVMufeed VHsaid
DYDave Yen
is one of the most helpful venture capitalists they've connected founders to.

Nov 30, 2025

KPKanishk Parasharsaid that if they were starting a startup,
DYDave Yen
would be someone they'd want as an investor or advisor.

Oct 23, 2025

MVMufeed VHsaid that if they were starting a startup,
DYDave Yen
would be someone they'd want as an investor or advisor.

Oct 23, 2025

ATAlex Teichmansaid that if they were recommending a top-notch VC partner for a founder,
DYDave Yen
would be one of their first picks.

Aug 6, 2025

ATAlex Teichmansaid they've seen
DYDave Yen
add meaningful value (beyond money) to YC alumni companies they've invested in.

Aug 6, 2025

ATAlex Teichmansaid
DYDave Yen
is known for being a supportive angel investor or family office for YC company founders.

Jul 17, 2025