FoundersHK meets Allen Lau, Two Small Fish Ventures
FoundersHK hosted a live fireside chat with Allen Lau, Operating Partner at Two Small Fish Ventures.
Meet Allen Lau, Operating Partner at Two Small Fish Ventures and founder of Wattpad (acquired by Naver for $600M)
Allen's story and journey building Wattpad
Allen's thoughts on the latest startup and technology trends that he is excited about
What's happening with the Canadian startup ecosystem
His M&A experience - what to do or what NOT to do
Advice for founders in terms of fundraising, pitching and company building.
And more!
Speakers:
Allen Lau, Operating Partner at Two Small Fish Ventures and founder of Wattpad
Edith Yeung,- Founder of FoundersHK, Race Capital and Advisor to 500 Startups
About Allen Lau
Allen Lau is a visionary serial entrepreneur, a leader in Canada’s tech community, and a sought-after speaker and authoritative voice on entrepreneurship, the innovation economy, and the benefits of a diverse workforce.
Allen is the co-founder of Toronto-based Wattpad, the global multi-platform entertainment company for original stories and leading social storytelling platform. In his previous role as CEO, Allen led an international team with the inspiring vision to leverage groundbreaking technology to fundamentally disrupt the entertainment industry while empowering diverse voices.
After raising USD $120 million from top VCs in Silicon Valley, New York, Canada, and Asia, in 2021 Wattpad was acquired by South Korean internet conglomerate Naver, in a deal valued at more than USD $600 million.
Today, as Executive Advisor to WEBTOON and Wattpad, Allen’s strategic counsel and world-renowned expertise is shaping the future of webnovels and new fiction formats.
Under Allen’s leadership, Wattpad grew into a community of nearly 100 million people who have written more than a billion uploads on the platform. Thousands of Wattpad stories have been adapted for other platforms and gone on to become blockbuster movies and #1 Netflix hits, Emmy-nominated television series, and bestselling books around the world.
Allen is a board member of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), a cultural organization with a mission to transform the way people see the world through film. Allen also sits on the board of directors for MaRS Discovery District, North America’s largest urban innovation hub. As a board member, Allen joins MaRS in supporting high-growth startups and scale-ups to drive breakthrough discoveries, grow the economy, and make an impact by solving real problems for real people.
A leader in Canada’s technology sector and startup ecosystem, Allen is a member of the Canadian Council of Innovators, a lobby group that advances the interests of Canadian technology companies at all levels of government. He is also the co-founder of Two Small Fish Ventures, a fund that invests in early-stage internet companies with strong network effects.
Allen received his Bachelor and Master degrees from the University of Toronto’s Electrical Engineering program.
In 2020, he was inducted into the Engineering Alumni Hall of Distinction of the University of Toronto. He was twice named one of the Top 50 Most Influential People by Toronto Life.
About Edith Yeung
Edith Yeung is a General Partner at Race Capital – an early-stage Silicon Valley venture capital fund investing in all things infrastructure. Edith is the seed investor in Solana (has been dubbed one of the best venture investments of all time), Lightning Network, Agora.io, Placer.ai, RapidAPI, and 60 other amazing startups.
Prior to Race Capital, Edith was a partner at 500 Startups, the world’s most active early-stage fund and incubator which invested in Twilio, Credit Karma, Grab, and 2000 more companies.
Before 500, Edith was the general manager at Dolphin Browser, a Sequoia Capital – backed mobile browser with over 150 million installs worldwide. Edith also worked with many Fortune 500 companies such as Siebel, AMS, AT&T Wireless, and Autodesk. She frequently speaks on venture capital, women in leadership, China and Silicon Valley technology and investment landscape. She is also a frequent guest lecturer at Berkeley and Stanford and commentator on BBC, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, SCMP, Techcrunch, The Information, etc.
About FoundersHK
FoundersHK is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with the mission to build Hong Kong as the next tech hub of the world.
FoundersHK is a global community of entrepreneurs, technology leaders and investors passionate about propelling the next generation of Hong Kong founders to scale and thrive in all parts of the world. FoundersHK is an entryway for Hong Kong founders to Silicon Valley and the rest of the world. We put the right people together, to help Hong Kong founders become an integral contributor to the global community of tech innovation leadership.
FoundersHK is a community where we skip the bullshit, get right to work, and deliver results. For that is the essence of the true Hong Kong spirit.