Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Being “The Gatsby of Silicon Alley”: a conversation with Andrew Yeung, of Andrew's Mixers
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Being “The Gatsby of Silicon Alley”: a conversation with Andrew Yeung, of Andrew's Mixers
Kevin Lee interviews Andrew Young, an entrepreneur whose successful tech-centric networking events have led Business Insider to dub him "The Gatsby of Silicon Alley."
Kevin and Andrew discuss the origin story behind Andrew's project, why IRL events are hot right now, and delve into Andrews' motivations for running events. What’s intriguing and a bit unusual about what Andrew is doing is that a lot of his motivation is powered by a desire to do good, not just to get ahead. As he explains, “I approached it from the perspective from a very human angle, you know, there's nothing in it for me, other than just wanting to make friends and give back to the community.”
Andrew and Kevin agree that there’s a tremendous pent-up demand for real-world networking events, and that many younger technology industry people feel awkward when it comes to networking. As he notes, “we've seen so many reports on the impact of loneliness and people just wanting to find their communities, especially in the Gen Z millennial age range, where people just graduated college at a time where it was unacceptable to leave the apartment. So people are attending for social reasons, business reasons and just craving that community aspect, which is why in New York alone, you’re seeing 10 new social clubs pop up every month.”
Beyond hosting events, Andrew is an angel investor, and they spend a bit of time chatting about his philosophy towards investments. As Andrew explains, he looks for companies with a large growth potential, a brilliant founder, and a problem that could be addressed with a venture-scale product.
Later, they debate the best approach to product development in an agile environment, with Andrew advocating for prioritizing customer feedback along with a more flexible approach to product road mapping, touch upon the impact of AI to speed up product development, and discuss Andrew’s approach to management, which focuses on empowering team members to make decisions and work on tasks they're passionate about.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
By Kevin LeeKevin Lee interviews Andrew Young, an entrepreneur whose successful tech-centric networking events have led Business Insider to dub him "The Gatsby of Silicon Alley."
Kevin and Andrew discuss the origin story behind Andrew's project, why IRL events are hot right now, and delve into Andrews' motivations for running events. What’s intriguing and a bit unusual about what Andrew is doing is that a lot of his motivation is powered by a desire to do good, not just to get ahead. As he explains, “I approached it from the perspective from a very human angle, you know, there's nothing in it for me, other than just wanting to make friends and give back to the community.”
Andrew and Kevin agree that there’s a tremendous pent-up demand for real-world networking events, and that many younger technology industry people feel awkward when it comes to networking. As he notes, “we've seen so many reports on the impact of loneliness and people just wanting to find their communities, especially in the Gen Z millennial age range, where people just graduated college at a time where it was unacceptable to leave the apartment. So people are attending for social reasons, business reasons and just craving that community aspect, which is why in New York alone, you’re seeing 10 new social clubs pop up every month.”
Beyond hosting events, Andrew is an angel investor, and they spend a bit of time chatting about his philosophy towards investments. As Andrew explains, he looks for companies with a large growth potential, a brilliant founder, and a problem that could be addressed with a venture-scale product.
Later, they debate the best approach to product development in an agile environment, with Andrew advocating for prioritizing customer feedback along with a more flexible approach to product road mapping, touch upon the impact of AI to speed up product development, and discuss Andrew’s approach to management, which focuses on empowering team members to make decisions and work on tasks they're passionate about.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices