Yao Huang

Born out of the imbalance of capital access for women, Yao leads a group of investors in enabling financing to the 98% not viable for venture capital. Over the past 20 years, she has advised more than 300 companies, funded 15 early stage companies, and assisted five corporate innovation partnerships in collaboratively building companies. Yao is the founder of The Hatchery, an organization instrumental in developing the New York technology ecosystem, and the Wonder Women dinner series of exceptional women in 30 cities x 16 years, which started as many glass ceiling breaking women were alone as they advanced. Yao uplifts other women by filling them “with joy and confidence to be who they strive to be and support them along the way,” she says. “I do this by BEING there. The dinner series is a manifestation of that.”

Yao was named by Forbes as one of 11 women at the center of New York’s digital scene; by BetaBeat as one of 25 Women Driving New York’s Tech Scene; and TechWeek’s 100 most Influential People in Tech. She was also part of the U.S. State Department Global Entrepreneurship Program, bringing entrepreneurship and initiatives to strategic countries, and is a sought after public speaker in building internet companies, technology, big data, innovation, and entrepreneurship. 

She has been featured in Fortune, INC Magazine, Reuters, Daily News, Red Herring, Crains, American Venture, and TED; and serves on the board of Carbon Optimum, a carbon sequestering company removing carbon and methane from polluting cement, oil and gas plants. 

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