Two Bit VC
Founder, Managing Partner
Syndicator of seed investments for new ventures — maker ⊕ builder of great things that people want.
John F.C. Cheong
Maker ⊕ Builder from Silicon Valley. Managing Partner of Two Bit VC — 20+ years of venture building experiences in Fintech, Edtech, and GPS car navigation. Coach Mathcounts and The American Rocketry Challenge, and advise startup founders over coffee.
Maker ⊕ Builder from Silicon Valley. Managing Partner of Two Bit VC — 20+ years of venture building experiences in Fintech, Edtech, and GPS car navigation. Coach Mathcounts and The American Rocketry Challenge, and advise startup founders over coffee.
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Experience
Makeshift Lab
Advisor
Space Machine
Founder, CEO and Chief Scientist
[2013-2017] Researching quant strategies for automated trading. Assembled an open-source algorithmic trading platform for forex trading driven by real-time analytics. Redirected... more efforts from automotive GPS towards creating a business in automated trading of financial securities such as currencies in the spot market.
[1999-2012] Built global footprint for GPS car navigation spanning N. America, Europe, China, and Japan from automotive OEM/aftermarket to consumer retail distribution.
[1999-2012] Built global footprint for GPS car navigation spanning N. America, Europe, China, and Japan from automotive OEM/aftermarket to consumer retail distribution.
KidSpring Studio
Founder, CEO
Launched as a business unit to explore new market opportunities. Created and published 11 children's educational apps on iPads targeting pre-school to upper elementary levels.
University of California-Berkeley
Computer Scientist
Created the world's first web-based end-to-end aerial image delivery system over the Internet using SQLServer, which later became a key technology for Microsoft TerraServer... more that launched in 1998. Run the Berkeley Digital Library Project and organized seminars.
Exit
Adknowledge
Founder, Founding Investor
Built world’s first Java datastore; secured Series B from
Kleiner Perkins Java fund; exited $200M within 4 years.
Kleiner Perkins Java fund; exited $200M within 4 years.
EIT
Sr. Software Engineer
R&D with Stanford CIS researchers on joint DARPA/SBIR
funded projects in distributed object storage systems.
funded projects in distributed object storage systems.
Founder
Employee
Advisor
Projects
A universal mechanical inhaler device for the masses
Maker ⊕ Builder, 3D Printing · The world's first inhaled therapeutic for COVID-19. A simple “ACE2 decoy” strategy to defuse the spiky crown of the… · More coronavirus right outside the gate — before they enter epithelial cells of the human lungs. A makeshift inhaler — custom-built for biologics — can spray ACE2 into the lungs.
Mechanism of action that underlies "inhalable ACE2" for COVID-19 patients to breathe easier. Explained decoy strategy to collaborators.
Mechanism of action that underlies "inhalable ACE2" for COVID-19 patients to breathe easier. Explained decoy strategy to collaborators.
Created and published 11 children's educational apps.
Co-Founder and Product Planner · KidSpring produces interactive learning apps on iPad and Android tablets for early childhood education. KidSpring apps… · More foster the learning process and nurture a child's development by harnessing today's technology to create new learning experiences for children. KidSpring apps focus on specific educational concepts for a particular stage in a child's perceptual, motor, social and intellectual development.
I contributed entire seed capital for the new venture, and direct product planning for a 5-person team.
I contributed entire seed capital for the new venture, and direct product planning for a 5-person team.
Education
About
Achievements
(1) Coach Mathcounts for middle school 5th to 8th grade students for 2020 contest.
(2) Guided a rising 8th grader to win the AIAA 2016 most innovative CanSat award on the first high-power rocket launch (all pre-flight tests conducted with only balloons).
(3) Advised a team of middle school students to compete in the Team America Rocketry Challenge, the world's largest student rocket contest; had to learn model rocketry and figure things out along the way.
(4) Taught a 6th grader how to solve Rubik's cube, and then figured out a way to learn (and teach) the blindfold method efficiently.
(5) Devised a method for teaching a preschooler how to ride a bike in just four weekend sessions (and with no training wheels). Pedagogy trumps technology.
(6) Created the world's first web-based end-to-end aerial image delivery system over the Internet using SQLServer, which later became a key technology for Microsoft TerraServer that launched in 1998.
(7) Assembled the founding team and contributed run
Skills
What I'm Looking For
Idea incubation opportunities: participate in turning crazy ideas into real businesses.
Advisory role in promising startups in the FinTech space, especially Blockchain 2.0.
Seed investment in the FinTech space with strong technical founders.
Locations
Q&A
What's the most useful business-related book you've ever read?
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers — by Ben Horowitz (2014)
What's your favorite non-business book?
How Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking — by Jordan Ellenberg (2014)
If money were not an issue, what would you be doing right now?
Building a Quant Fund to run on a self-sovereign island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean — generate universal basic income for makers, builders, and creators of this world, and giving scholarships to top high school graduates to attend college.
What words of advice would you give your younger self?
Skip Topology (you'll only get a 'B'), take Tensor Calculus instead — you might actually understand Einstein's general relativity when you grow up. Just as important: drop IBM but stick with AAPL and GOOG!
What's the most creative thing you've ever done?
Advised a rising 8th grader on how to win the AIAA Most Innovative CanSat Award by flying balloons instead of high-powered rockets — greatly speeding up the build-fly-modify cycle.
Which founders or startups do you most admire?
Steve Jobs at Apple Computer, Inc — "1982 Man of the Year" on TIME magazine — under whose cover I came to America and landed in Austin, Texas.
What's your super power?
An expert debunker of myths and an unrelenting prosecutor of false beliefs when performing due diligence on startups — from deep tech to quant funds to how kids learn.
What's the best way for people to get in touch with you?
Email: [email protected]
What words of wisdom do you live by?
Take it from me: “Don’t live by someone else’s words, it’s your life after all.” And always think for yourself. Don’t know how? Let me help.
What aspects of your work are you most passionate about?
It’s easier said than done — the implausible aspect of my work is what makes solving the puzzle worthwhile in the first place. Got a puzzle for me?
What was the most impactful class you took in school?
“Model Thinking” by Scott Page. Same school, but I’d already long graduated by the time I took that class.
What's something you wish you had done years earlier?
AAPL, GOOG, AMZN, plus bitcoins. You?
What's an obstacle you've overcome?
I graduated UT Austin after Michael Dell dropped out — I went the extra mile. See where that got me?
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