Michael Yang
Founder and CEO, Michael Yang Capital Management
Michael is currently the Founder and CEO of Michael Yang Capital Management and MSY LLC. Most recently, he was a board director for Become Japan Holding. Previously he was the Founder & Board Director of Become.com, a global leader in ecommerce search engine, and served as its President & CEO from 2004 to 2012. Michael is the Founder & former CEO of mySimon.com, a pioneer in Internet price comparison shopping service. mySimon raised $30 million in venture capital and was acquired by CNET for $700 million in 2000. Previously, Michael held engineering, marketing and management positions at Xerox Corp., Intergraph Corporation, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Michael has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, MS degree in Computer Science from Columbia University and MBA degree from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He has served on the advisory board of the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) at Stanford University as well as on the IT Advisory Council for President George W. Bush. Michael is an advisor to several Silicon Valley startup companies and non-profit organizations. Michael holds fourth degree black belt in Taekwondo and enjoys riding motorcycles.
Content & Articles by Michael Yang
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies
In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...
Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends
Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....
Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations
In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...
2025 New York Tech Week Recap Of Mucker Sessions
Last week during New York Tech Week 2025, we joined more than 1,000 events hosted by founders, investors, and VCs. This post is a full Mucker recap of the three...
How to Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Tools with Alex Velinov
Delivering high-quality customer support can be one of the most resource-draining parts of a startup. The good news: we’re at a turning point where founders can use AI tools to...
Zero → 100: The Exact Steps We Took to Close Our First 100 Paying Customers
Going from zero customers to 100 in just four months sounds impossible—unless you’re a founder willing to roll up your sleeves and hustle relentlessly. I’m Gaurav Bhattacharya, co-founder of Jeeva.ai,...