C.C. Gong
@CCgong
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investing in consumer tech & AI @MenloVentures. recovering founder, ex-@Microsoft @Meta @PIFgov @BainCapVC @NFX | @Harvard @StanfordGSB | aspiring comedian
San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2009
My boyfriend is in YC and this is what I come home to Friday night. I make sure that he’s fed, do his laundry cut his hair. I give feedback, customer intros, and encouragement. YC girlfriends should be granted sweat equity. @ycombinator 30 days until demo day 💪
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AI is the next great entertainment platform, bringing us away from doom scrolling towards meaningful engagement. I’m excited to be hosting a fireside chat with @character_ai exec Dominic Perella at Ai4 in Vegas next week to discuss how AI will shape the future of entertainment.
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In the AI era, software development is no longer about writing code, it’s orchestrating AI-powered workflows and staying fluent in a fast-evolving tool chain. Really exciting to see @Stanford and @mihail_eric offer such a timely course “The Modern Software Developer,”.
A lifelong dream of mine realized! I'm teaching a new computer science course at Stanford this fall: CS 146S The Modern Software Developer. Nearly 15 years after I fell in love with CS during undergrad, I get to go back to my alma mater to teach the next generation of computer.
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@AnthropicAI @OpenAI Read the full LLM Market report from @MenloVentures here: .@timt @deedydas @derekgxiao @mejoff
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‼️@AnthropicAI surpasses @OpenAI in the enterprise LLM market, while OpenAI's share of enterprise usage is halved. How?. 1. Code generation became AI’s first killer app, and Claude won the developers, creating a $1.9B ecosystem. 2. Training models as “agents” that can take action
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Uncle just asked me - who’s building the app for parents to swipe on arranged marriages for their kids.
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Reach out to me if you're thinking about joining a startup - happy to offer any advice. Also, if you're a designer or ML engineer looking to join a rocket ship with a founder who I think is truly one of the best people I've met, message me!!.
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Look for optional employee-friendly terms such as early exercise of stock options, QSBS benefits for tax-free gains up to $10M (ask “Does our stock qualify as QSBS?”), extended timeline for option exercise post-departure (the startup I joined gave 7 years!), lower 409A valuations.
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Never join a startup without knowing exactly what it will cost you to exercise your options. What is the strike price? When founders raise at excessively high valuations, this hurts employees. Investors get anti-dilution rights and founders take secondaries but employees can't.
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Ask about the funding history and terms. Meet the investors to understand why they invested. Who controls the board? You won't always get full details, but signaling that you care can prompt more transparency.
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Calculate the risk vs. reward. Make a spreadsheet and model out what your equity would worth in different scenarios. Be realistic about your equity's potential value. If the upside doesn't feel commensurate with the long hours and lower salary, negotiate for more cash.
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Clarify your equity and vesting terms. Understand your exact equity percentage, value, and vesting schedule. Ask about accelerated vesting and protective provisions if the company faces unconventional exits (happening more and more eg. Windsurf, Character AI, Scale AI, etc).
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Investigate who else has been hired. Are they able to hire top-tier talent? If it’s later stage, who's stayed and been promoted? Who's left and why?.
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Diligence the startup like an investor would - What is the traction and growth? What do they see as the exit/liquidity path? How do they plan on getting to $100M in annual revenue? What is their unique insight on why this could become a generational company? What are the.
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Ensure the founder(s)/CEO is a good person, which is just as important as being a good businessperson. A lot of your fate as an employee is determined by how much the founder prioritizes their employees. Do reference calls and talk to people who worked for or with them in the.
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I've been a startup founding team member, founder, and now investor, and here is what I would do before joining another startup 🧵.
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The tough thing with consumer is people pay for vices but not what’s good for them, or they pay but don’t actually implement the thing (like healthier eating, better sleep, etc) . How many people with an Oura ring are actually getting better sleep.
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