Thomas Wu

Experience

Elevation Partners

Private Equity Associate 2006 - 2008 (almost 3 years)

Largest 1st-time fund with $2Bn in committed capital focused on investments within media, entertainment, and consumer businesses. Targeted investments requiring $100MM-$400MM... more

Morgan Stanley

Investment Banking Analyst 2003 - 2006 (over 3 years)

Developed robust financial models including M&A, Leveraged Buyout, Dividend/Recap, Net Asset Value, PIPE investment, and OpCo/PropCo for large West Coast clients including... more

Echo AI

CFO 2024 - Present (11 months)

Echo AI turns customer conversations into critical insights using generative AI.

Our insights are used to automatically segment customers by behavior — triggering... more

Tales

Founder & CEO 2019 - 2023 (about 4 years)

Tales lets storytellers make books, comics, and games using generative AI and turn fans into co-publishers through shared royalties. Cast your family likenesses and voices... more

Employee

Morgan Stanley, Elevation Partners, Tribal Crossing, FableLabs, Tales, Echo AI

Advisor

Epic Playground, Techstars

Education

About

Achievements

I accelerate startups at three levels:

1. Finance: I’ve built investment-grade financial models at the largest 1st-time private equity fund (Elevation Partners, $2Bn), signed partnerships with literary publishers/mega influencers, and raised $9MM from institutional investors (Founder Collective, Scott Belsky, John Riccitiello, Chris Carvalho, Jake Paul, Jason Bergsman, Foxconn).

2. Operations: I have optimized and automated workflows to produce millions of assets, moderate 100,000 stories, and manage hundreds of contractors — with transparent dashboards easy for anyone to interpret.

3. Product: I’ve led cross-functional teams to create generative AI tools (50,000 creators) and top-rated consumer apps with profitable unit economics ($80 ARRPU, 1-month payback), using data-informed systems that could predict the value of customers, partners, and IP.

Describe the most impressive thing you've done.

Skills

Financial Modeling Viral Marketing Game Design Private Equity Storytelling User Experience Design Product Development Monetization Workflow Management Spreadsheet Growth Hacking Operations Management Financial Analysis Demand Generation Artificial Intelligence Data Analysis Airtable Notion Figma Wordpress Amplitude Marketing Automation Automation

Locations

Los Angeles Oakland San Francisco Bay Area

Thomas Wu

Founder of storytelling @Tales • Built story-driven games @FableLabs • Invested @Elevation Partners and @Morgan Stanley • Studied IEOR @ UC Berkeley