Dear Asian Americans 140 // Dave Liu // Advisor, Author, Entrepreneur, Investor, Philanthropist // The Way of The Wall Street Warrior
Dave Liu, a 30 year Wall Street and Silicon Valley Veteran, joins Jerry on the show to share his story of overcoming early challenges to rising to the top of the investment banking world and how he has dedicated his life to now sharing his lessons and gifts with those in the next generation. Learn more about Dave and his work at Liucrative.co
Meet Dave
I started my investment banking career working for Goldman Sachs and then joined the fledgling investment bank, Jefferies, when it had fewer than 200 employees and an equity market capitalization of under $200 million. Jefferies was a scrappy, entrepreneurial California-based bank that was started by an ex-cattle rancher in a phone booth and dared to challenge the incumbent giants of Wall Street. Today, Jefferies is a multi-billion dollar diversified public company (NYSE:JEF).
Over almost 25 years at Jefferies, I progressed from the proverbial janitorial suite to Managing Director co-running all Digital Media and Internet investment banking activities. I’ve worked with hundreds of companies, including IBM, Google, Microsoft, Sony, Yahoo!, and Yelp. I’ve managed all aspects of capital markets, venture capital and advisory for high growth Internet and technology companies and completed over 100 transactions for a broad range of companies in the USA, Asia and Europe. I’ve worked on almost every conceivable type of corporate finance transaction including IPOs, follow-on offerings, convertibles, securitizations, and private company sales. I’ve seen it all.
After retiring from investment banking, I entered the world of start-ups and co-founded several companies in asset management, technology, media, and entertainment. My current and past activities include:
- CEO of Liucrative Endeavors, a merchant banking firm
- President of La Mesa Capital, an investment firm
- Vice Chairman of MobilityWare, one of the largest mobile, casual gaming companies in the world
- Chairman of Reel8, a NFT marketplace
- Board Member of Francesca's, a leading boutique retailer
- Board Member of TEG Live, a GRAMMY and Tony Awards winning live production company
- CEO Advisor to Capacity, an artificial intelligence platform
- CEO Advisor to data.world, a leading cloud-native data catalog platform
- CEO Advisor to Internet Brands/WebMD, a multi-billion dollar technology company
- CEO Advisor to ProSiebenSat.1 Media, a multi-billion dollar company and one of the largest media companies in Europe
- CEO Advisor to Vobile, a multi-billion dollar video software company
- Investor in FIGS, a multi-billion dollar medical apparel retailer
- Investor in Philz Coffee, an iconic coffee retailer based in Silicon Valley
- Investor in Stampede, a movie and TV production company
Dave is also a perspiring artist and writer who is learning how to draw and write funny. He studied creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania, Sundance Institute, and The Second City. He publishes a career advice column called “Breaking Bamboo,” and a cartoon series called “The ABC Life.”
Dave is active in philanthropy and non-profit organizations. Net proceeds from his books will go towards charities helping children born with clefts, Asian Americans, and other underrepresented groups.
Connect with and learn more about Dave at www.Liucrative.co
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveliu/
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