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John Chen

John Chen

General Partner at Fika Ventures; Columnist at TechCrunch

johnchen
Los Angeles, California
Joined June 2025
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Network

7.3K connections
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Startup Founders & CEOs
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Early Stage Investors
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AI SaaS Builders
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VC Support
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Product Engineering Leaders
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Fika Ventures Core Team

Summary

B2B seed investor focused on enterprise SaaS and vertical software: John is a core member of Fika Ventures' leadership and leads seed/preā€‘seed investing in B2B software (vertical SaaS, fintech, marketplaces, healthcare) with a handsā€‘on, founderā€‘first approach emphasized in Fika fund announcements. fika+1
Operator-to-investor background that informs deal work: John combines operating experience (Chief of Staff / special projects at Box) with venture investing (Emergence Capital and Fika), which he leverages to help earlyā€‘stage founders with GTM, partnerships and strategic hiring. techcrunch+1
Public thinker and writer on work and culture: As a TechCrunch columnist he writes about how companies organize, hire and scale culture and the future of work, bringing an investorā€™s and operatorā€™s lens to the topics. techcrunch
LAā€‘based connector and community builder: John is part of Fikaā€™s Los Angelesā€‘based team and frequently participates in podcasts, panels and community conversations about earlyā€‘stage B2B investing in the region. fika+1

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

Columns and commentary on the future of work and culture

Regular columns for TechCrunch addressing trends in work, talent, startups and company culture, informed by prior operating and VC experience.

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Hobbies

Tennis, cycling and ping-pong enthusiast x

Notes

JSJake Sapersaid they've seen
JCJohn Chen
provide especially valuable guidance or support to early-stage startups.

Oct 3, 2025

SLS.K. Leesaid they've seen
JCJohn Chen
make investments that turned out especially well for founders.

Aug 13, 2025